MPC-HC random stuttering

[Grizz111]

Hi, I've been using this player for a few year now, and so far it worked perfectly. I mostly use it to play .MKV with AC3 or DTS. The computer is connected to TV with HDMI. TV refresh rate is set to 24 Hz. I passthrough audio through SPDIF to external receiver.

Few months ago, I did complete reinstall of windows. Hardware is same and the only change since then are the latest versions of drivers and mpc-hc. Although i set up mpc-hc to the same settings as before reinstall, i have some problems with frame dropping (i guess thats whats it called) which is completely random.

- cpu usage is never above 20%
- gpu usage is never over 40%
- it can happen couple of times in 10 sec, but it can also happen 1 time in 60 sec
- while running Fraps, it shows occasional drops and rises in framerate from 24 to 22 or to 25. Howewer, sometimes during a stuttering it doesnt show change in FPS.
- ENABLING D3D Fullscreen FIXES THIS. The movies play flawlessly.

I use only internal filters and codecs. I use DXVA.

So far I tried extenal filters, but there was no change at all:
-ac3Filter
-coreAVC
-reinstalls of mpc hc both x32 and x64

PC Config: 8800gt, e4500 @ 3.0 , 3GB ram. MPC-hc 1.6.0 x64, win 7 ult, x64

Settings:

http://i44.tinypic.com/synztl.png
http://i41.tinypic.com/vqo8b7.png

If you need any more info or some testing for me to do feel free to say.
Thanks :)

[JanWillem32]

This sounds like the typical stutters caused by the frame time schedulers. Scheduling for the exclusive mode is much easier than for the four windowed modes. I've had my share of issues with the various schedulers before, and I'm still working on them in my development builds. I'll happily discuss this and related items in the thread I started: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=161047 . Note that my builds do work a little bit differently, and you might have to reset your settings. (You can make a backup of your settings, using the "Export" button in the Misc. tab, before using the "Reset" button.)

[Grizz111]

But I don't understand what changed now. Same version of mpc, same settings, same hardware... And how come the 3D3 solves problem?
Anyway is this the one I should try: http://www.mediafire.com/?7or7rddp8btuam0 ?

[JanWillem32]

The D3D full screen exclusive mode is the simplest in terms of presenting:
-A full screen is locked by one application, so no other applications can display items on screen.
-That application can present frames directly to an display output controller, and also controls the timing of those.

Windowed modes force the applications to present to a buffer, which is then taken over by the Windows desktop in GDI or DirectX 9Ex (Aero) drawing mode, which then presents to the display output controller. The presentations by the application are delayed because of the transfer.

Controlling frame present times for each video frame is called scheduling. I've been trying to get more accurate statistics for frame timing information, and calculate ideal frame present cycles using those. These methods are used in the alternative scheduler and constant frame interpolators that I've added as renderer options.

The link you posted points to mpc-hc64 tester dfr4075. As long as you're fine with using an x64 version, that version is perfectly okay to try.

[Grizz111]

Thanks for the info, it helped me to understand a bit more. Anyway, I tried your version, and it works alot better. Stuttering still happens occasionally, but not nearly as often as with official version, so I'll stick with it :D

[dukey]

Normal Aero rendering has an extra copy to the back buffer. In exclusive mode the back buffer is presented directly, so it's just slightly more efficient. Your issue of stuttering is probably frame rate/tv refresh rate related. If in doubt just set to the max supported refresh rate, instead of 24.

[CruNcher]

bad drivers (background applications) can also cause DPC spikes check if everything is stable http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml also to low latency timers running in the background can have bad impact on the system tough on NT 6 this should be not such a big problem anymore then on NT 5, on a stable system these days you can even pool every 50 ms without problems and lower. Though to be sure check if you have a app running in the background that pools to often or maybe a Mainboard Manufacture supplied Sensor tools (mostly they are crappy coded and do harm the systems overall stability)