OGM playback is slow and choppy

[Wiseguy10k]

The title says it all. The playback is slow. I'm thinking it's the K6-2 500MHz cpu, and it probably is. But I have been able to play divx files with little or no slowdowns. Is there a player that would work best with the type of cpu that I got? I've already tried BSplayer, and it is the least slowest player that I got.

[Prospero424]

First of all, we need to make sure that it's an issue with the OGM container and not the codec. Does this happen with just one OGM or do you have others that exhibit the same problem when played?

If all OGMs do this, download Gspot and load the OGM file you have into it, note what video and audio codecs were used. Usually, OGM files are made using XviD and Ogg audio, but not always.

Then try to locate an AVI that uses the same codecs and if possible a similar video bitrate and see if it slows down as well.

I have found that OGM files use the same, or even less, CPU time than AVIs using the same bitrate/codecs, so I think you are having another issue.

If the analogous AVI slows down in the same way, as I suspect it will, try reinstalling the relevant codec or try using ffdshow to decode these files instead.


Hope this helps,

Prospero

[Wiseguy10k]

Yes it did help some. I ran GSpot on the ogm files and everything checked out except the audio codec. It said that it couldn't find the ogg codec but that directshow could find a codec to decompress the audio and that it "should" work fine.

I did find a codec that does work better, and I had to remove ReClock as well. The stuttering is lessened,but it still pauses regularly. But what you said about the video codec sounds about right. The files use Divx5 and i've had problems with it in avi videos. I've had to reencode those files to XViD and they worked far better. I've been thinking of doing that to the files, but would like to have them work as they are now.

Speaking of encoding I downloaded VirtualDubMod and once I start encoding I get an error that says "Error decompressing video frame 0". Why this happens I'm not sure.

[Prospero424]

Well, what you really need to do, rather than reencode your files, is to use a different decoder that can handle the DivX 5 codec. That ffdshow prgram I mentioned earlier hsould do the trick. The DivX 5 decoder is notorious for the amount of postprocessing it does, which greatly increases the CPU load on your computer. ffdshow does not do the postprocessing that the DivX decoder will do by default.

You have two options. First, go to your DivX entry on your Start Menu and look for "Decoder Configuration", this may only be available with the Pro version, I'm not sure. Go to the Postprocessing options tab of the configuration menu and turn everything down, I promise you won't notice much of a difference at all. This should greatly lessen the strain on your CPU.

Second, and this is what I recommend, download and install ffdshow, as I said above, and open up its configuration menu through the start menu. Click on "Codecs" in the left pane, then look for "DivX 5" under "Format" and change the decoder from "disabled" to either "XviD" or "libavcodec", which is the ffdshow decoder. What this does is override the normal DirectShow settings and force another decoder to handle DivX 5 files.

Either one of these should fix you up, without having to reencode anything.


Let me know how it goes,

Prospero

[Wiseguy10k]

ffdshow was the first thing I tried. And that didn't work. Strangely enough whenever I set Divx5 to use Xvid the player crashes. Also setting the Postprocessing settings low is one of the first things I do before I start playing divx.

Just one question, is there a way to get the video file to be processed by the video card or does that already happen?

[Wiseguy10k]

How many players support hardware acceleration?

[Prospero424]

Well, many cards now support hardware acceleration of MPEG2 decoding, but as far as I know, the only FULL, standalone video cards that support acceleration of MPEG4 is the newest generation of ATi cards, and then it has to be implemented in the software player as well. The only player I know that does this for sure is the DivX player included in the DivX codec package. And again, all this is hardware ACCELERATION, which is a long way from hardware PROCESSING such as that done by many MPEG2 encoder/decoder cards like the Hauppage products.

Alternately, Sigma Designs offers some standalone decoder cards that support MPEG4. These would help you out greatly, but I would still worroy about your CPU keeping up. Also, these cards use an analog overlay, not digital, which entails a pass-through cable from your regular video card to this decoder. This degrades everyday video quality.

Being that these new ATi cards cost up to 500 bux and the lack of certainty of the benefit of one of these dedicated decoder cards (not to mention the cost, I don't know what it is) I think your best bet is to buy a new mobo/CPU/RAM config before investing in a new video card, especially when you consider that the likeleyhood of one of these new cards working properly on a K6 board (believe me, I've played with this, I still run an old K6-III 450 server) are very, very slim.

Just my 2 cents, good luck


Prospero

[Wiseguy10k]

Thanks anyways. I'm going to try to reencode the file to a XviD avi file. It's using the Divx5 codec and I am fairly certain that is my problem. Fortunately XviD works better so I'll try that. If is works then great. And of not then I'll just encode it to Mpeg2 then to XviD.

[Prospero424]

You're quite welcome. Just keep in mind that, at least in my experience, even with older processors and platforms, that there's no reason it should take more CPU power to render a DivX 5 file than an XviD file, ceteris perabus. But your solution may be more convenient for you, it's all a matter of cirumstance and preference.



Cheers,

Prospero