jerky picture .... never noticed until now ....

[squidgy]

I'm using PowerDVD version 2.50 on windows 98 on a compy with 500MHz processor, that's the only DVD player I've got at the moment, it's software decoding. I'm also a customer of http://www.in-movies.com and I buy the odd region 2 DVD now and then from Play247 or HMV or second hand or ex rental shops, usually after having rented it first - it's unusual for me to buy a DVD that I haven't rented and liked.

Now, today, for the first time, I managed to rip a music video from a DVD (Natalie Imbruglia "Identify" from Stigmata, that's also where my current avatar is from), and convert it to a 40MB MPEG file. I noticed that the picture was obviously more blurred than the original .vob file, but what I didn't notice until after I'd played this mpeg repeatedly is that when I play the original, it's much blockier and jerkier than the mpeg I converted it to!

I can only think of one reason why low bitrate media might play better than high bitrate media. And that is, high bitrate media is CPU intensive, and my processor isn't really cut out to do it.

So does anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve its performance, preferably without shelling out on a faster processor or hardware decoder? Thanks.

[setarip]

Were you playing your MPEG file from your hard drive (not a fair comparison), or from a burned VCD on your DVD drive (a more reasonable comparison)?

[squidgy]

From the hard drive on secondary IDE. Haven't managed to get cd burner to work reliably yet. DVD ROM drive is also on secondary IDE, and Windows is on hard drive on primary IDE.

But I don't think it's the DVD ROM drive itself. The picture is just a bit jerky when playing either from the original DVD or the ripped VOB file on the hard drive. The converted MPEG is much smoother. So I think that comparison is about as fair as I'm going to get it for now.

Thanks so far.

[squidgy]

More info, now. I've tried closing as many other programs as possible, and using PowerDVD for playback, and using Microsoft Windows 95 Kernel Toys "WinTop" to monitor how much CPU time PowerDVD is gobbling up. Here's how it compares.

Playing DVD, window or full screen .... 98-99%

Playing ripped VOB file on hard disk, window or full screen .... 85-89%

Playing MPEG on hard disk, window .... 34-36%

Playing MPEG on hard disk, full screen .... 26-28%

Clearly, playing high bitrate media is placing a strain on the CPU. I can't think that messing about with system configuration is likely to improve things, so it really looks like I'll have to get either a faster processor or a hardware decoder, if I want DVD playback to be better, unless anyone knows different.

[squidgy]

I've had a thought. I believe that it's sometimes possible to make a processor run faster than it's supposed to be able to, and that this is called "overclocking". Anyone know anything about this, and do you think it might help here? Thanks.

[squidgy]

The other possibility, I suppose, is that hard disk virtual memory is not at its best. This is something that's a bit beyond me right now as well, but I do know that it's been about a month since I last had a defrag, so I'll do another one now. My main hard disk is 4GB, of which .....

OMG! I've just checked and found that only 661MB is free! I'll have to sort that out I think. I have a bigger hard disk which I use mainly to store all my MP3's and MPEGs. After transferring them over, then I'll have a defrag, then see if it's better. Maybe that's why I've only just noticed .... because there was never a problem before, don't know yet though. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

[SlimerUK]

Stumped!

I have much the same problem, I feel I have tried everything!


AMD 500 k6
512 Ram
16m Voodoo3 2000
LG 16X DVD DRD-8160B
NEC CDRW
Beaten up Keyboard
Non intel M/B
PowerDVD 3

I have changed the HD DVD and CDRW through every variation I can imagine, I have set all drives alternately from Masters to Slaves

DMA will not only enable on one particular configuration (The correct one I assume)

The sound is fine, the picture is awful! It seems to be running at 3 fps or so!!!

I was lent a VCD (which I played in my CDRW) which looked exactly the same (even when I copied it to my hard drive). although on my fathers computer (P133, 32 Ram, 8m Graphics card) it ran fine.

I have searched the internet and read all the manuals (twice!) and so far have only found squidgy to have the same sort of problem, although mine seems fine.

I have enabled Hardware support, forced weave and defragged etc etc. I guess my bus speed must be low, but surely this can't be. I don't have a fast computer, but it is well above minimum spec for DVD playback.

Any help gratefully received.


Dave (slimer)

[setarip]

To Squidgy

"Haven't managed to get cd burner to work reliably yet."

In what I believe was an earlier post of yours (in the "Juniors/Newbies" area, if I remember correctly), you professed not to know what a CD burner is?

Perhaps, I've had a bit too much time available lately (and have actually read most of the posts, including yours, at this group of forums), but would I be wrong in believing that your merely trying to "play head games" with some of the posters?

[squidgy]

setarip> Whoa, that was below the belt! Still, I'll let you off.

would I be wrong in believing that your merely trying to "play head games" with some of the posters?

Yeah I think you would be wrong in believing that, but I'd like to know why you might. PM me with more details, if you like. Thanks.

I know I haven't replied very quickly, but it still kinda looks like getting it much better would involve splashing out more money, which, right now, I'm not keen to do, but no doubt this forum will come in handy to make sure I don't get ripped off as a consumer.

Not a million miles away from what slimerUK says, when I run the PowerDVD diagnostic program, it complains about DMA not being enabled, but it is.

I only noticed that one because I ripped it, I guess. But I'm still not noticing it with other DVD's I play. Take the opening scenes of Fight Club, for example, where they have single frame shots of people, if I watch it at normal speed and don't blink, these can be clearly seen every time. Clearly, if the "jerky picture" problem was as bad as I thought, then I wouldn't be able to see them, right? There's four of them, aren't there? Near the beginning? But it doesn't do it all the way through the film? I've only got Fight Club on rental at the moment.

In fact, that would be really really useful. Does someone know exactly how many single frame inserts there are in Fight Club? If I know, then I'll be able to watch it, see if I spot them all. Thanks.

I'm also beginning to suspect that it might be something to do with differing levels of compression or copy protection on different DVD's, so maybe compy finds some of them easier to play than others. But having another look at Fight Club might be a good starting place, I think, before I have to return it. Thanks.

[setarip]

Thanks for your response.

It's gratifying to hear that you're apparently not playing "headgames"

I thought I stated rather clearly, why I thought you might be playing "headgames" in my previous post, to wit:

"'Haven't managed to get cd burner to work reliably yet.'

In what I believe was an earlier post of yours (in the "Juniors/Newbies" area, if I remember correctly), you professed not to know what a CD burner is?"

There's nothing in my frank question that's "below the belt", as I'm still curious to understand how, at almost the same time you both do and don't know what a CD burner is...

[squidgy]

Fair enough. What's techie jargon, and what's ordinary language? When I said I couldn't get CD burner to work, it was on the assumption that a CD "burner" is any piece of software, or hardware, or combination thereof, used in the process of printing data on a CD.

To draw an analogy, if your washing machine fills up with water and drains but doesn't spin or agitate, you might say that you can't get the motor to work, but that doesn't mean to say that if you open it up, you'll be able to identify the motor from the other components of the washing machine. It doesn't necessarily mean that the motor is faulty either, for example, it could merely be a loose connection.

Going back now, if you were to say blank CDROM, or CDR/RW drive, or CDR/RW drive firmware, or Nero software, or Adaptec software, or Windows, or ASPI layer, or IDE lead, I'd know exactly what you're talking about. I was just looking for synonyms, or for you to say the same thing again using different words so that I could check that I understood it properly, that's all. I don't see that as mind games.

Any chance we could get this thread back on topic? I'd like to know if there's a reliable way of testing playback performance, without just assuming it's ok when it could be better, hence questions about Fight Club movie. But maybe you have better ideas, if you do, I'd like to know. Thanks.

[SlimerUK]

Translation?

I have run the below test.

Not being much of a analyst, I am not sure if any of these figures point to my problem. I have played a Mpeg from CD and it comes out jerky with a low fps rate, so I am wondering if it is my new drive or a slow board.

I sorted my DMA problem in the BIOS, the auto detect was giving a PIO 4 mode, taking it off auto and changing the 4 to 0 let DMA be enabled on any drive I wanted.

If any techies can translate the below, I would be grateful.

Nero DVD Speed - Chicken Run

13 January 2002 - 15:10:31

Drive information
Vendor LG
Product DVD-ROM DRD8160B
Firmware Version 1.01

Disc information
Type DVD-ROM
Length 7.51 GB

Test results

Transfer rate
Average 2.05 X
Start 2.06 X
End 2.05 X
Reading type P-CAV

Seek Times
Random Seek 105 ms
1/3 Seek 123 ms
Full Seek 182 ms

CPU usage
1X 21 %
Max Speed 19 %

Interface
Burst Rate 1.11 MB/s

Spin Up/Down Time
Spin Up Time 3.37 sec
Spin Down Time 2.82 sec

Disc Eject Time 1.46 sec
Disc Load Time 12.80 sec
Disc Recognition Time 0.00 sec