[mythtv-users] MacOSX frontend & 1080i

[Jesse Ward-Karet]

I just joined the list so I may be late to the discussion here, so
excuse me if you've already been over this...

On my Mac Mini 1.66 Ghz w/ 1 GB RAM, 1080i playback is also jerky *if*
I have 'scale video as necessary' enabled.  If I uncheck the box, the
content will play smoothly and it looks great on my 1080p display.
The difference I notice is that WindowServer sits at 30% CPU when
scaling is enabled and it's around 3% when it's not enabled.  Of
course, no scaling should be necessary at all given my display
resolution.

Unchecking scaling it's not really a good solution since it makes 480
or 720 content look like a postage stamp in the center of my screen,
but maybe it will help track down the problem.

-Jesse

On 3/12/07, Todd Ignasiak <ignasiak at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3/12/07, Andrew Gallatin <gallatin at cs.duke.edu> wrote:
> > Todd Ignasiak [ignasiak at gmail.com] wrote:
> > > On 3/12/07, Andrew Gallatin <gallatin at cs.duke.edu> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Is anybody able to play smooth, 1080i video using the MacOSX frontend?
> > >
> > > 1080i works well for me, on my 1.66GHz Core Duo Mac Mini + 720P DLP Display.
> >
> > Cool!  What output resulution do you run at?
>
> 1280x720 @ 60FPS.  My audio is AC3 passthrough via the digital audio output.
>
> > I've always 1080i problems on my Linux box as well, and was thinking
> > about purchasing a Mini to use as a frontend, which is why I was
> > playing around on MacOSX.
> >
> > > > After upgrading my Linux combined front/backend to 0.20-fixes, I
> > > > decided to try the MacOSX frontend on my 2.16GHz Core2 Duo iMac with a
> > > > Radeon x1600 (1680x1050 lcd).  I'm running the MacOSX binary from
> > > > http://www.goof.com/~mmead/MythFrontend-MacOSXUniversal-0.20-fixes-20061001.dmg.bz2.
> >
> > Do you run this same binary, or did you build it yourself..?
>
> No, I built mine, with the osx-packager.pl script.
>
> > > > Standard def, and 720p content works flawlessly, but 1080i has
> > > > annoying jerkiness. The same 1080i files play flawlessly with vlc.  I
> > > > have tried the hints in the Wiki, and have tried libmpeg2, etc, but to
> > > > no avail.  The machine is 65-75% idle when playing 1080i, so I don't
> > > > *think* CPU is the issue.
> > > >
> > > > One thing I've fixated on is the messages I find in the log when
> > > > I enable verbose playback.  This is printed roughly 4 times per
> > > > second:
> > > >
> > > > 2007-03-12 09:52:05.459 NVP: Video is 3.57936 frames ahead of audio,
> > > >                         doubling video frame interval to slow down.
> > >
> > > Have you tried changing the video playback settings?  I have "Use
> > > video as timebase" disabled in my configuration.     Maybe also try
> > > different de-interlacing settings to see the effect.
> >
> > I've tried enabling and disabling the "video as timebase", as well
> > as totally disabling de-interlacing.  No matter what I do, I still
> > see the "NVP: Video is 3.x frames ahead of audio" several times
> > per second, corresponding to surging, or jerkiness in the video.
> >
> > Can you do me a favor, and play a 1080i video with verbose audio and
> > playback enabled
> > (/Applications/MythFrontend.app/Contents/MacOS/mythfrontend -v
> > audio,playback > log ) and check your log for these messages?  And
> > maybe see what the audio format of the recording is and what your
> > audio device gets set to?  That might put my mind at ease as to
> > whether this audio thing is what is killing me.
>
> The vast majority of the logs are of the general type:
>
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.286 NVP: interlaced frame seen after 1 progressive frames
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.294 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.320 NVP: progressive frame seen after 1 interlaced  frames
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.326 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.358 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.370 NVP: interlaced frame seen after 1 progressive frames
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.390 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.403 NVP: progressive frame seen after 1 interlaced  frames
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.422 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:16:17.453 NVP: interlaced frame seen after 1 progressive frames
>
>
> I did see some messages like yours after I have the video paused then
> restart it.   But, after a second or so those messages go away.  And,
> I don't notice any problems on the video:
>
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.034 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.058 NVP: Video is 11.5747 frames ahead of audio,
>                         doubling video frame interval to slow down.
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.058 NVP: interlaced frame seen after 1 progressive frames
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.066 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.098 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.125 NVP: Video is 10.8614 frames ahead of audio,
>                         doubling video frame interval to slow down.
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.125 NVP: progressive frame seen after 1 interlaced  frames
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.130 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.162 AO: Broadcasting free space avail
> 2007-03-12 17:20:19.192 NVP: Video is 10.2065 frames ahead of audio,
>                         doubling video frame interval to slow down.
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