Video Playback Stutter

[Aleatoire]

I have recently set up my new HTPC but have noticed that during DVD and Blu-ray playback the video stutters just a little bit every few seconds. It's not horrible stuttering but it's just enough that it's getting annoying, like it's dropping a few FPS. It happens with both ripped movies and disks. I know that the on-board video and audio aren't hugely powerful but surely they would be OK for video playback? Any idea why this is might be happening?

Set-up:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H
CPU: AMD Athlon II x2 255
Memory: 4GB DDR3
Hard Drive: WD 2TB Green
Drive: LG Blu-ray DVD-RW Combo
Graphics: On-board HD4250
Audio: On-board optical-out (5.1 to amplifier)
Monitor: Samsung 40" LCD TV (1920 x 1080)
Software: PowerDVD 11
Windows 7 Home Premium

Also another unrelated question: Windows doesn't want to fill up the entire screen. There is a black edging around the outside about an inch wide that I can't get rid of.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Supernova1138]

Try updating your video drivers. Some driver revisions can occasionally have video playback issues, and can cause unstable framerates. To solve the black edging issues go into the AMD Vison control centre and go to the My Digital Flat Panels tab, check the box that says enable GPU scaling and select the option scale the image to full panel size. Also go to the scaling tab and make sure your Underscan/overscan slider is set at 0%, that should get Windows to fill the whole screen.

 

[Pyree]

Also make sure you have AMD media codec package installed correctly.

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx#3

and choose a video player that supports DXVA playback.

 

[Archean]

I think Media Player Home Cinema is worth a try, it is available in x86 as well x64 versions.

 

[Aleatoire]

All right, thanks for the replies. I'll give it a go and report back if the problems persist.

 

[Aleatoire]

Sorted the full screen problem, thanks for the help. However after updating the video drivers and installing the media codec the stutter hasn't gone away.

 

[Pyree]

Did you set the refresh rate to the same as the native screen refresh rate?

 

[Aleatoire]

Yep, refresh rate is OK. Checked if it is a cable or TV problem by hooking the TV up to the old Blu-ray player and it plays just fine.

 

[Pyree]

Did you use dxva for media play back?

After you install CCCP media player classic. Enable DXVA by going:

View>options>internal filters and select everything with (DXVA) and apply

Then, on playback>output, select

evr custom pres, directx9 and directx9 for directshow video, realmedia video and quicktime video

Ok and restart MPC and play video.

 

[Aleatoire]

Installed CCCP Media Player Classic and did all of the things you said and still no luck. The stuttering continues.
I have noticed that it's not as bad when playing DVD's as it is when playing Blu-ray's. Maybe it's lack of graphics power?

 

[Pyree]

Your HD 4250 should handle bluray fine.

 

[diellur]

With the Bluray, it might be the 23.976 fps issue. If the GPU is playing back at 24 fps, then you get an extra frame periodically.