minor playback annoyances

[chilledinsanity]

I don't know if this is related to Xvid or not, but I noticing on most of my movies that at some point the clip will speed up for a second or two then go back to normal every now and then. It's a minor thing, but considering how it keeps happening I want to see if I can't fix it. Initially I thought it was from DVD-R playback, but I watched a movie off my hard drive and it happened twice, with no noticeable choking of the drive (I checked the HDD LED when it did happen). Here are all the relevant specs I can think of:

Movie: In the Line of Fire
Resolution 720x384
Audio: 3_2 AC3 copied over
Size: ~2.3 gigs
OS: Windows XP
Player: Zoomplayer
CPU: Athlon Thunderbird 1.33ghz
RAM: 512 Megs 2100 DDR
Audio muxed with Avimux default settings

Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

[Acaila]

Size: ~2.3 gigsThat's likely to be your problem. Cut your movie into pieces less than 2 GB and it should play perfectly.

[MoonWalker]

I was going to post the same thing a while ago..I have made 2 encodes (650MB,AC3,BFRAMES,VHQ4 and 1.3MB,AC3,NO BFRAMES,NO VHQ) and had the same problem..The movie speeds up a little and then comes back causing a minor desynch for a little(5-10sec)..I saw the movie again and those speeds-up where not a the same place(Can you confirm this chilledinsanity??)...


Using ffdshow-20030103 and XviD-17022003-1

MoonWalker

[Manao]

Would not AC3 be your problem ? Does your encode playback normally without sound ?

[chilledinsanity]

The movie speeds up a little and then comes back causing a minor desynch for a little(5-10sec)..I saw the movie again and those speeds-up where not a the same place(Can you confirm this chilledinsanity??)...

Yeah, it never seems to do it in the same spot, but is likely to do it when I watch a movie. It doesn't desync 5-10 seconds though, it's more like 2-3 at most, it's no major deal, just a little annoying at times.

Would not AC3 be your problem ? Does your encode playback normally without sound ?

I suppose it's possible, but would fix that? I don't know if the whole movie plays back normally without sound, I haven't had the patience to watch an entire movie without sound. For reference 99% of the movie plays FINE, sometimes there is no problem.

That's likely to be your problem. Cut your movie into pieces less than 2 GB and it should play perfectly.
That'd be more of an annoyance to be honest, why would that matter, I'm not using any legacy stuff and it's not like it caches 2+ gigs before it plays it.

[Acaila]

why would that matterBecause AVI's don't always work correctly when they're over 2 GB in size (so putting AVI's on DVD-R can be a pain). A lot of users have reported audio sync problems with sizes over 2 GB, that's why I suspect it's your problem as well. But it doesn't have to be. Won't know until you try cutting them though.

[cult]

It happens to me2,but when I am encoding in the background(vd at idle of cource)

[TheXung]

I have this problem too and it has nothing to do with the 2 GB limit; all my rips are under 800 megs. It happens with AC3 and vorbis sound. It also happens with ffdshow and the xvid dshow filter. It's not an issue with divx bvob compatibility either. I have a WD 120 JB clear of any files other than the movie so it's not a hard drive reading speed either.

The desynches are never in the same spot so I don't think it's an issue with the stream being invalid. Originally I thought it was a problem with my overclocked processor not being stable but since others are having this problem too.... My next guess is that it's some timing bug in the ogm parser, if everyone else is using ogm.

Perhaps it's could be due to a processor being too fast. Mine is an Athlon running at 2.2 Ghz. I don't believe I had this problem with my 1.4 Ghz. What's everyone elses?

[TheXung]

OK, now I realize I see everyone elses system specs. and it's not system related.

Well I'll say this, I've only noticed this recently after I've had a system upgrade, the introduction of VHQ, and a return to using xvid. So it could be any one of those.

I only do VHQ mode 4. Has anyone checked memory usage while decoding a VHQ mode 4 file? perhaps one of the MB encoding modes has a leaky decoding counterpart.


If no developer has this problem, then it'll be awhile before it goes away.

[Koepi]

It's happening during "short time system overload", i.e. background services of your win2k/xp are initiated or something like that. Network access can cause this, too.

It's not directly xvid related.

Happens with other codecs here as well, if i.e. someone is accessing my network share.

Koepi

[chilledinsanity]

It's happening during "short time system overload", i.e. background services of your win2k/xp are initiated or something like that. Network access can cause this, too.

I could believe it's an XP/2K deal, but what would set it off? I did a clean format of my drive last saturday and haven't loaded much, just some games and the general Gordian Knot package + Xvid. I haven't been encoding in the background while I'm watching the movies and as far as network activity I just got internet today (recently moved), I posted this message at the library. Under "processes" the only stuff under the admin name that isn't windows default is point32.exe (software so my 4th and 5th mouse buttons work) and Refreshlock (used to maintain monitor refresh rates since XP has a glaring flaw there). Neither of these are high taxing.

Another thing I noticed was that when I pause a movie (on hard drive or DVD-R) it seems to happen about 10 seconds afterwards once I start playing again. That's probably some caching issue, but wouldn't it be related?

Oh and for reference I'm using the non-Koepi Xvid codec. I don't remember the name. I wouldn't have even thought of it if you hadn't posted, but I'll switch codecs and see if it does it on yours as well for the next time I watch a movie.

[Koepi]

Hm, i thought my answer was indicating it:

Background services can be found in your system control (dunno how it's called on english 2k/xp systems), where you have "computer control" and "services".
I.e. the indexing service does a proper job - during watching a movie, it updates the access timestamps - this could introduce a small "lag".

Other services are running as well (mostly useless on "home systems", more important for corporate network use).

All those services are starting their task at some times, and then the system will "short time overload", thus introducing a playback stutter. (Happens here very regular. Usually it's not too bad, and not at all introduces a A/V desynch. That only happens if the system is under general heavy load.)

Did you check if DMA access is activated for your drives? The effect on pause with CD / DVD is usual, the drive needs to spin up and send the datastream which takes some seconds, but your harddisk should be able toi do that lag-free.
It sounds like your setup is a bit fishy (i.e., do you use S:M:A:R:T: HDD monitoring? [in your BIOS, that is]).

If you know someone who is good in tuning computers (like win2k/services and stuff), let that person have a look at your system. Sounds to me that the problem lies there.

Regards
Koepi

[cult]

I am pretty sure that has to do with background tasks and memory.With my low spec pc(celeron@1ghz 256mb ram w2k),I dont have any of these problems when I am not encoding in the background.Oh and I always copy the movie to hd and play it from there.

[BlackMetal]

I had this problem, too. That the movie speeds up a little now and then, and then goes back to normal (only with movies with ac3-sound).
My solution was to install BSPlayer, and in the audio-tab in Preferences, I changed the Output device from 'Default DirectSound Device' to my sound card, in my case 'SB Live! Audio [B400]'.
So my guess is, it's a sound card related problem with ac3 and Direct Sound.
Hope this helps, good luck!:)

[MoonWalker]

EDIT I was wrong. These speedups happen even if you don't have vobsub. It's due to AC3 sound.. This is weird cause I didn't have these problems..:confused:


MoonWalker

[MoonWalker]

I also tested AC3Filter using SPDIF and I have the same problems. I doubt it's due to system loadup because cpu usage is always <50%. Any ideas?

MoonWalker

[Acaila]

No ideas here.

This sounds like the same problem I've had for well over a year now (sad to say I've gotten used to it by now..). Tried all I can think of, but haven't been able to find a solution yet. Happens on old movies and freshly downloaded movies as well, so it's definately system related, nothing to do with XviD.

- Happens with MP3/Vorbis/AC3 audio so it's not related with a specific audio codec.
- Happens with DivX 3/DivX 5/XviD so it's not video codec related either.
- Happens with WMP/TCMP so it's not player related either.
- Happens with DirectSound/WaveOut/Default Output Device.

Which means I'm out of ideas.

[kilg0r3]

sounds like a timing thing, probabely related to some pci settings in the bios, specific hardware, drivers or combinations there of. It could even be a chipset bug.

So, why not compare all these things? Just post away.

[CruNcher]

did someone tried ogo's reclock for that matter allready, maybe it helps ?