DSM-330 DivX HD 720p stuttering video
I've had my DSM-330 for almost 2 years now and have had no problems playing DivX and Xvid files on my SD CRT TV. However, I have just bought an Optoma HD700x 720p projector and, keen to see how HD movies look via the DSM-330 I have obtained some DivX HD 720p movie files. The problem is, when I play these back, the video freezes for a few seconds every 15-20 seconds. The files in question play fine on my PC, so I'm confident it isn't a codec problem. The files also play fine when played through an Xbox 360.
I'd be grateful for any advice on how to resolve this problem.
I had exactly the same problem (DivX Plus H264 video stopping every few seconds) on my old 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 machine: the CPU was constantly at 100% whenever we tried to play MKV files via DivX Connected, but was fine for every other format, including non-H264 720p video (.AVI or .DIVX files).
Short of converting your videos to regular DivX format, my best suggestion for reducing CPU load would be to switch off things like deblocking in the H264 Decoder Config settings, which you can find in the DivX Plus DirectShow Filters folder on your Start Menu.
To playback MKV files, Connected actually converts them to an AVI file on the fly on your computer and then sends them to the 330. It's a workaround to get MKV support (and works pretty well most of the time). However, as with any video processing, this is a CPU intensive task. Having said that, I haven't come across many having an issue with it.
Not sure what the minimum CPU requirements are mind you - what sort of CPU do you have and is it a single, dual or quad core?
Try running Connected in XP or Vista compatibility mode to see if that makes any improvement.
Lastly, have you tried uninstalling, rebooting and reinstalling Connected? I'm assuming you're not using Kamiwa's hack here by the way.
I've tried uninstalling, rebooting and reinstalling Connected, but this has had no effect. I've also tried running it in compatibility mode and this also makes no difference.
My CPU is a few years old and is a Pentium 4 3.2GHz - single core I would think. Could this be the cause of my problem?
I converted one of the mkv files to Divx HD using DivX Converter and it worked flawlessly. However, I would prefer not to have to convert all of my mkv files as it is a pretty lengthy process.
I've also pasted in Kamiwa's config files, but this did not make any difference either.
Any further advice would be appreciated. I'm generally pretty content with my DSM-330 and Connected and would like to find a solution and avoid having to search for an alternative media player.
i can stream 1080 fine but when i stream 720 it stutters and only sometimes, really annoying, suppose ill try it wired.
Whats the minimum spec for wired 720 on a device?
Thanks for your quick response as always, dsalmonsen. I tried wiring my laptop into my router and the files played fine. Not a hassle to do this when playing these files and the difference in quality makes it worthwhile.Thanks again.
Whilst playing DivX HD files is not a problem now that I have my DSM330 wired to my network, I am having problems with stuttering playback when I play x264 MKV files. Every 10 seconds or so, the video will freeze for a couple of seconds. I am running the latest connected software under Windows 7 and DivX 7.
Any suggestions as to how I might resolve this would be appreciated.
The freezing problem usually relates to a buffering issue or since it is an MKV, possibly the transcoding of the MKV. Since you are wired, it shouldn't be related to buffering since you've got sufficient bandwidth. Though make sure your PC is also wired to the network.
Try playing an MKV on the 330 and check out your CPU activity (eg task manager) to see if something may be happening here that is causing a problem.
Lastly, do you have the same problem is you try to play back the file wirelessly?
Thanks for the response fkm. As you suggested, I checked CPU activity when playing an mkv file and it shot up to 98% - with the Connected software the guilty party. In comparison, when I play a 720p avi file, it fluctuates between 5-10%. Is this simply because Connected is having to work harder to play the mkv or could there be another problem?
720p will play well on a wireless G network with good bandwidth as long as the device or the PC running the server is wired. If both the PC and the device are operating wirelessly, the bandwidth required is doubled and the wireless connection then needs to be close to perfect without any interference.
Hey Stevie,
Converting files is not the ideal solution alright. At this stage,guessing the problem is most likely be due to the single core Pentium - perhaps others reading this might comment if they are having any issues with similar specs to your own...
Transcoding is a CPU intensive task and the simple fact your CPU seems to be maxing out does suggest this is the obvious bottleneck. Go into task manager --> resource manager and check out if there are any other applications that may be CPU hungry.
Ran a few MKV's of my own on my dual core 2.6 Ghz and it runs at between 40-90% capacity. Tried 1080 vs 720 files and 720 was less CPU intensive eg lower file size may also have an influence.