Gigabyte Z97P-D3 onboard graphics

Ayrton

Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel LGA1150
INTEL Core i5 4430 3.0Ghz
8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 Crucial Ballistix Sport
SanDisk SD8SN8U-128G-1122 X400 128 GB M.2 2280 6 GB/s Solid State Drive
Hotch potch of spinning drives for data
Windows 10

I'm only using it as an HTPC, it should have plenty of power for that, but I do experience some stuttering on 1080p playback. Do I need a discrete graphics card, or should the on board be enough?

What else might be giving me a problem?

EndlessWaves

What format are the videos encoded in and does the playback software you're using support/use quicksync?

Ayrton

Mostly Bluray rips x264. I have an HP Proliant micro server connected to the HTPC with Homeplugs delviering the content. I used to use Kodi but I have found VLC to have less of a problem so I use that more now; still see it occasionally though. I don't even know what quicksync is so maybe that is a problem.

It happens quite often and I've almost let myself get used to it, so when you asked, I wasn't able to go straight to a file and look up what file type it was. In nature, the problem is a stuttering, always quite distinct when you get the idents at the front of a film; and particularly noticeable in panning shots, that really do stop and start.

I hadn't really considered that the rips and/or player might be the problem, I guess I thought they'd "just work". Any tips on optimising would be great. Or if I need to buy a discrete graphics card, that's not going to be a biggy, I can't need much, something sub-£20 on ebay? But I need to do something

EndlessWaves

I'd assumed it was lack of power. The latest formats can be very demanding and it's normal for them to be played by dedicated circuitry alongside the GPU (Intel's version is branded quicksync), but this does require player software support. If you were having issues there you'd see approaching 100% CPU use.

With the fuller description though it sounds like it's more likely to be a frame rate issue. Are the videos you're playing have a different frame rate to the refresh rate you're outputting?

The issue is that the frame rate of the content can't be nicely fitted into the output frame rate and the skipped or unevenly spaced frames caused the juddering described. It's particularly noticable in panning shots.

The solution there would depend on what and how you're watching. If everything you're watching is the same frame rate or everything is full screen then you should be able to set the output refresh rate to match the content rate - provided your screen and graphics support it.

If you're watching stuff in a window or don't have access to the correct refresh rate then you'd need to play around with the de-judder settings.

Also bear in mind that if you're watching very low frame rate content (24-25fps) it can have lots of native judder when displayed in high quality. So if you are watching this sort of thing you may want to enable some of the motion processing functions on your player/TV.

Ayrton

Much obliged, you've given me something to work with, thanks. I think I'll be a bit more careful about the quality of, erm, my rips - and see where that gets me. I am Quicksync enabled, both on the processor and in VLC so it has to be frame rate.

Thanks again for your help.

ChuckMountain

Have you set the option in Kodi to change the frame rate to the correct one for the media that is playing.  If that is the fault then that sound resolve it.