Video lag

[Sep]

Hey guys, I've been having video lag when trying to watch shows with MPC lately, it happens during some OP's and ED's or in places with heavy typesetting. I have a AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad-Core Processor and 8 GB ram, so I don't think that's the problem. I never go above 50% CPU usage even with bit torrent running. I think it could be my graphics card, I have a ATI Radeon HD 3650, but I wanted to ask before I bought a new one. Would reformatting do anything to help? I'm not very computer savvy so any information/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[sneaker]

Typesettings can put lots of strain on the CPU and because filters like vsfilter aren't properly Multi-Threaded you can't just look at the CPU usage over all cores to be sure it's not your CPU maxing out.

You could try to use a different subtitle renderer, or tweak the one you're using at the moment: i.e.: reduce resolution, enable/disable animation, enable/disable buffering etc.

[Sep]

Originally Posted by sneaker

Typesettings can put lots of strain on the CPU and because filters like vsfilter aren't properly Multi-Threaded you can't just look at the CPU usage over all cores to be sure it's not your CPU maxing out.

You could try to use a different subtitle renderer, or tweak the one you're using at the moment: i.e.: reduce resolution, enable/disable animation, enable/disable buffering etc.

I'm currently using CCCP MPC-HC with Core AVC, from what I've read the consensus seems to be that it's the best. Is there something you would recommend for playback?

[sneaker]

I'm not really familiar with CCCP, but does it use the internal or external renderer? I.e. do you get the "green arrow" tray icon when playing a file or not? Try to go into its setting and see if you can try enabling or disabling the buffer. If you don't have the tray icon you're using the internal renderer (in MPC-HC options: "playback" -> "Auto-load subtitles"), which can also be tweaked (from within MPC-HC). Results differ for different systems and versions.

If the sub is too demanding no matter the setting, you can try completely different renderers:
1.) ffdshow's internal subtitle renderer (doesn't have all the features, but basic ASS support is there)
2.) VLC (people will hate me for suggesting it, but its subtitle engine is way faster than vsfilter - VLC does have other problems, though)

[Sep]

Originally Posted by sneaker

I'm not really familiar with CCCP, but does it use the internal or external renderer? I.e. do you get the "green arrow" tray icon when playing a file or not? Try to go into its setting and see if you can try enabling or disabling the buffer. If you don't have the tray icon you're using the internal renderer (in MPC-HC options: "playback" -> "Auto-load subtitles"), which can also be tweaked (from within MPC-HC). Results differ for different systems and versions.

If the sub is too demanding no matter the setting, you can try completely different renderers:
1.) ffdshow's internal subtitle renderer (doesn't have all the features, but basic ASS support is there)
2.) VLC (people will hate me for suggesting it, but its subtitle engine is way faster than vsfilter - VLC does have other problems, though)

Thanks for the help, I enabled the buffer and it completely eliminated the lag, but the subtitles don't show up in some places now. I guess this was a problem with my processor?

[sneaker]

Originally Posted by Sep

Thanks for the help, I enabled the buffer and it completely eliminated the lag, but the subtitles don't show up in some places now. I guess this was a problem with my processor?

Yes, vsfilter simply requires too much cpu power, more cores don't help because it's not really multi-threaded. Animations won't work anymore, that's the downside.

It's really not the fault of your PC - it's just that some groups go overboard with the subtitle effects and vsfilter is awfully designed.

[Sep]

Originally Posted by sneaker

Yes, vsfilter simply requires too much cpu power, more cores don't help because it's not really multi-threaded. Animations won't work anymore, that's the downside.

It's really not the fault of your PC - it's just that some groups go overboard with the subtitle effects and vsfilter is awfully designed.

That sucks, I thought I had a pretty good processor. Thanks for your help, I appreciate it a lot.

[SeijiSensei]

You could give smplayer a try; it uses its own codecs (the ffmpeg ones).

[j0x]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

You could give smplayer a try; it uses its own codecs (the ffmpeg ones).

SMPlayer but replace its mplayer with this mplayer -> http://www.mplayer2.org/ good fast rendering of subs too as its libass and mplayer2 automates multi-threading decoding so very good for your multi-core CPU

another alternative since you got a good CPU is to re-encode your videos to hardsub as hardsubbing means the subs is thoroughly part of the video and does not need any subtitle rendering software like vsfilter

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by jix

SMPlayer but replace its mplayer with this mplayer -> http://www.mplayer2.org/ good fast rendering of subs too as its libass and mplayer2 automates multi-threading decoding so very good for your multi-core CPU

+1 for mplayer2. It's what I run on Linux (built from source). I'd forgotten there are Windows and OS X builds available.

[Sep]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try those

[PositronCannon]

Originally Posted by Sep

That sucks, I thought I had a pretty good processor. Thanks for your help, I appreciate it a lot.

It is pretty damn good, it's just vsfilter doesn't take advantage from multiple cores, as mentioned above. So as far as rendering subtitles with it goes, my dual core i3 370M may be about the same as your quad core. :V

If only certain typesetters out there realized that just because it runs fine on their monster of a CPU it doesn't mean it'll run on a mid-range CPU... and I wouldn't even call the X4 9750 "mid-range", either.

[Sep]

Hey guys, I downloaded mplayer and it works great. I have a problem with the seek function though. Whenever I try to skip to a certain time in the show, it always goes to what seems to be chapters. Is there a way to fix this? Like I can try to jump to 11:31 in a video and it goes to 5:52.

EDIT: Never mind, seems like this can't be changed. Thanks again for all the help

[SeijiSensei]

MPlayer has a variety of navigation options: MPlayer Documentation

[npal]

Originally Posted by Sep

Hey guys, I've been having video lag when trying to watch shows with MPC lately, it happens during some OP's and ED's or in places with heavy typesetting. I have a AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad-Core Processor and 8 GB ram, so I don't think that's the problem. I never go above 50% CPU usage even with bit torrent running. I think it could be my graphics card, I have a ATI Radeon HD 3650, but I wanted to ask before I bought a new one. Would reformatting do anything to help? I'm not very computer savvy so any information/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Just for the record since you have an ATI card. Did this problem start recently, after you had updated to 11.4 or 11.5 drivers? If that's the case, you might try disabling Morphological Antialiasing (MLAA for short).