HD videos are out of sync

[unknownsoldierX]

I have always had HD video performance issues on my Vista PC. All players I tried (VLC, MPC, ZoomPlayer, BSplayer) would constantly drop frames. Yet, all games always run flawlessly.

I just reinstalled Vista, and somehow I have avoided installing what ever it was that caused my problems. But now I have a different problem.

HD videos no longer drop a single frame. But now the audio is way out of sync. According to MPC, and average of 300-500ms. It is this way with AVC and WMV files, 1080p and 720p movies are equally out of sync.

I have tried ffdshow and CoreAVC Pro. And various versions of Haali Media Splitter.

[Kado]

2.8GHz Pentium 4? Have you checked the CPU load during playback? If it's at 100% then the fault is on your CPU.
My 4GHz Pentium D goes to near full load (both cores) with some clips I have here using CoreAVC. All depends on the bitrate of the videos.

[unknownsoldierX]

CPU load is always 60-70% for both 720p and 1080p. Also, I forgot to mention that VLC still drops frames even though other players don't. And all videos play fine on XP.

[ACrowley]

CPU is to slow :) Very simple...

[kutjong]

I have a P4 3.2E GHz cpu and the only way to get smooth HD playback is to use these:
MPC
CoreAVC
Haali video renderer

In the renderer it's important to set up a buffer, I have a 256 MB graphics card, so I've set my buffer to 128 MB and frames to 120.
In CoreAVC I sometimes have to disable deblocking, depending on the file, otherwise playback will not be smooth.

Also, what audio decoder do you use? I use nvidia audio decoder... Mostly because of dolby headphone support. :)

[unknownsoldierX]

I set CoreAVC to disable deblcoking when safe, and changed the buffer in Haali from 8192 to 131072 (8mb to 128mb.) MPC still shows sync offset as bad as 850ms.

Most of the files have AC3 audio. I use AC3filter.

A few more discoveries:

Zoom Player plays the files perfectly. MPC and BSplayer will play the files perfectly if I switch from Aero to the Windows Classic theme. VLC, which is my prefered player, always has a huge problem rendering the videos.

I often get a "Invalid Floating Point Operation" error from ZoomPlayer and the movie locks up. It does this many video formats. I've had this problem for a long time, with 5.x and 6.x versions.

So, for now my only option is to switch to the windows classic theme and use MPC to watch them.

[saint-francis]

So, for now my only option is to switch to the windows classic theme and use MPC to watch them.

Only option? I too suspect that you have inadequate hardware to play these files. Could you upload a sample that causes this problem for you so others with modern hardware can test it?

[unknownsoldierX]

Only option? I too suspect that you have inadequate hardware to play these files. Could you upload a sample that causes this problem for you so others with modern hardware can test it?

All the files run great on XP on the same hardware. Downgrading back to XP is not an option. Performance-wise, everything is better on Vista anyway, except for playing HD video.

[Kado]

Please provide a sample and tell us what gpu do you have and some other hardware.

[saint-francis]

All the files run great on XP on the same hardware. Downgrading back to XP is not an option. Performance-wise, everything is better on Vista anyway, except for playing HD video.

I thought that it was generally accepted that everything runs slower on Vista. Any way, Vista certainly uses more of every resource your hardware has. So if your hardware is right on the edge playing those files in XP, it will surely have problems in Vista.

[Reimar]

I thought that it was generally accepted that everything runs slower on Vista.

Certainly not everything, but I can say that as soon as VSync is enabled I get an additional 10 % "sys" (the red part in the task manager) CPU load which does not happen on XP (and not even disabling Aero helps, both NVidia and ATI were affected). I have not yet heard a confirmation of this by anyone else but if this is the case for others, too, this is a serious performance problem (at least I consider even games unplayable without vsync).

[bur]

Isn't there an option whether to drop video frames if lagging or not to drop which than causes out-of-sync problems? So to me it seems your CPU really isn't able to decode fast enough and in your earlier installation if it was lagging frames were dropped to keep fps right and now for some reason the frames aren't dropped which causes the syncing problem.

I don't remember where you could set that option but I'm quite sure it's possible. So you should try setting it to "drop frames" or "keep audio/video in sync" and see what this does. If frames start to drop but video/audio keep in sync this means it really is your CPU.

If I was you I'd buy a new motherboard and CPU, preferably an X2 5200. You'll get good value for little money, about 55€.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

If frames are dropped to keep the A/V sync on a "slow" system, you will get jerky motion (stuttering) instead of async playback...

[bur]

Yes, that's what I said. Dropping is there to prevent async because the video stream would play to slow in regard to the audio otherwise. So I figured if the CPU can't render enough video frames to keep up with the audio and isn't allowed to skip some, it will get out of sync with the audio. So that would explain why he had dropped frames OR async audio/video. He just wrote 300-500ms, the audio should be ahead if it's really the slow CPU. At least if my explanation is right.

[Leak]

So I figured if the CPU can't render enough video frames to keep up with the audio and isn't allowed to skip some, it will get out of sync with the audio.
Well, usually the audio will pause at that point to let the video catch up...

DirectShow itself tries to keep audio and video synchronized according to their timestamps, and will speed up/slow down video and pause/skip audio to get them back in sync.

If you really wanted video and audio to drift apart you'd have to actually adjust their timestamps...

np: Benni Hemm Hemm - Beethoven Í Kaupmannahöfn (Murta St. Calunga)

[unknownsoldierX]

Well, I can't upload any of the problematic videos I have, I did find some online.

I can play this video perfectly fine (with ZP and MPC, but not VLC) . No dropped frames and the A/V are in sync, not even off by a hair.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/4/5/245bfb85-5394-4361-ba8c-c5b9906734cc/The_Rules_of_Attraction_1080.exe

[mark0077]

Hi,

I have always had out of sync issues also. I would expect a very high def video that my machine cannot handle, to at least be in sync, but at a lower frames rate.

Instead the sound continues perfectly, the video lagging seconds, minutes behind.

Most of my hd files are in mkv. I can do more testing if anyone wants more info.

This has been the case using EVR / EVR Custom Pres, vista 32bit, nvidia 7600gt, 2.6ghz amd athlon, 2gb ddr 400mhz memory. 1280 x 1024 screen.

[setarip_old]

@unknownsoldierX

Hi!HD videos no longer drop a single frame. But now the audio is way out of sync. According to MPC, and average of 300-500ms. It is this way with AVC and WMV files, 1080p and 720p movies are equally out of syncDo the original HD-DVDs or BluRay discs exhibit the same behavior when you play them on the same system?

[unknownsoldierX]

Yes. BluRays and HD-DVDs play the same.

[setarip_old]

Have you tried playing your original HD-DVDs and BluRay discs with Power DVD? If so, were the results the same?

[unknownsoldierX]

Yes. I tried PowerDVD and WinDVD.

[Lincoln Burrows]

HD video on P4? Forget it. I am using P4 3.0 GHz, 1 GB/RAM, 256MB/card, Windows XP, and I can't even play a single 720P straight. It happens all the time, they are all very slow. And all 1080P videos are 99,9999999% of the time unwatchable. That's why I bought/am about to receive a brand new Q9450.

[unknownsoldierX]

HD video on P4? Forget it. I am using P4 3.0 GHz, 1 GB/RAM, 256MB/card, Windows XP, and I can't even play a single 720P straight. It happens all the time, they are all very slow. And all 1080P videos are 99,9999999% of the time unwatchable. That's why I bought/am about to receive a brand new Q9450.

720p and 1080p play flawlessly on XP with my system, even when I was using 1GB of RAM. Never saw a single dropped frame, and audio was always perfect. Honestly.

[Kado]

It depends on the cpu speed and video bitrate, just because it's a P4 does not mean that it won't play the videos.