Need help with laptop - processor speed keeps decreasing

[Majinvegeta]

Hey,

So I am trying to watch 1080p movies on my laptop, but every couple of seconds the video freezes or skips. What I noticed is that when I run CPU-z, every couple of seconds it shows the cpu drop to 1050mhz and then back up to 2100mhz. When its at 2100mhz, there is no lag.

I checked the Power settings - it is set to performance mode and I made sure that the minimum speed is 100% in advanced settings. Still, while running a 1080p movie, the speed still drops every couple of seconds causing the movie to skip.

Do you guys know why this is happening and how I can prevent this??

Thanks
Bye

[CodecX81]

When you turn your PC on, at the first screen there should be an option to go into "setup" or.. BIOS.

Go into it.. Look for an option called SpeedStep, SmartProcessing or something of that nature.

Disable it.. Your PC is choosing to throttle down the PC's processor to save power.

You can also try another player.. VLC just came out with their 1.0.. Its very good and easy on processing power. Worth a shot.

[Kwirky]

What CPU & graphics adapter does your laptop have? Is the speed dropping back to ~1GHz while the movie is choppy?

[Kasakato]

Try to disable it in BIOS.

[Majinvegeta]

I did check the bios, there is no such option...its weird. Looks like the bios options have been taken away or something because hardly any options are available.

I tried VLC player, its a little better but it still stutters.

CPU: AMD Athlon-X2 64bit

Video Card: Ati Radeon HD3200

I would think that such a set up should be more than capable of running 1080p videos. Considering it also comes with a HDMI port and they brag about it being capable of running HD movies. so wtf?

With VLC the speed doesn't seem to be dropping...at least not now but even then it stutters. Any way to stop the stuttering? it keeps freezing every couple of seconds.

[chinesedevil]

do you happen to be watching 1080p MKV files? If thats the case, I prefer MPCHC over VLC. Also with the 3200 you should be able to use hardware acceleration using MPCHC. I can play 1080p movies on my laptop w/ P8600 force down to to 1.6ghz and use like 9% CPU smoothly. Oh my GPU on the laptop is x4500HD

[Kwirky]

do you happen to be watching 1080p MKV files? If thats the case, I prefer MPCHC over VLC. Also with the 3200 you should be able to use hardware acceleration using MPCHC. I can play 1080p movies on my laptop w/ P8600 force down to to 1.6ghz and use like 9% CPU smoothly.

There's a tutorial on how to do what you've suggested here: http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/

[chinesedevil]

There's a tutorial on how to do what you've suggested here: http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/

That might just be what the OP is looking for. BTW thats practically what i did exactly to get GPU acceleration.

[mmdc]

It may be that your processor is throttling itself to a slower speed to prevent itself from cooking.

SpeedFan is one application that you can use to monitor your processor temperature.

[Majinvegeta]

thanks a lot guys.

That did take care of the problem with video stuttering, its all working smoothly now. BUT!!!! now the audio doesn't stay synced :( it cuts out and is all over the place :(

Any solution to that?

[chinesedevil]

thanks a lot guys.

That did take care of the problem with video stuttering, its all working smoothly now. BUT!!!! now the audio doesn't stay synced :( it cuts out and is all over the place :(

Any solution to that?

this with vlc or media player classic? also have you tried other videos? are they all doing it?

btw, if your using MPCHC, are you using K-Lite codec pack with all the codecs and filters? i.e FFDshow, Haali Media Splitter, etc?

[Majinvegeta]

this with vlc or media player classic? also have you tried other videos? are they all doing it?

btw, if your using MPCHC, are you using K-Lite codec pack with all the codecs and filters? i.e FFDshow, Haali Media Splitter, etc?

I tried both VLC and Media Player Classic. MPCHC seems to be doing a better job.

I think whats happening is that the video is still too slow to catch up to the audio. Thats why the audio stops until the video has caught up and then resumes again.

I do have KLite codec pack installed.

So I guess the video is STILL a problem.

The videos that I have are H264 MKV files.

**Another thing I want to point out...there are some (few) 1080p videos that seem to work without a problem. They are MKV as well and H264 as well. Same resolution, same fps...so why is it that some work fine and others dont? :S

*update* - ok I found out something interesting...video files larger than 10.9GB seem to be the ones that lag! 1080p movies 10.9gb and less seem to work just fine. Again, same FPS,resolution MKV and H264. The only thing I can differentiate between the ones that work and don't work is the file sizes..

Why would this play a role?? :S

[Kwirky]

*update* - ok I found out something interesting...video files larger than 10.9GB seem to be the ones that lag! 1080p movies 10.9gb and less seem to work just fine. Again, same FPS,resolution MKV and H264. The only thing I can differentiate between the ones that work and don't work is the file sizes..

Why would this play a role?? :S

It may be due to raw bitrate, or the audio codec used. Are the ones with delayed audio using the same audio codec?

[Majinvegeta]

It may be due to raw bitrate, or the audio codec used. Are the ones with delayed audio using the same audio codec?

yea i guess that makes more sense than file size...

Theres AC3 and DTS, but doesn't matter which is being used. I checked with some of my videos, some of the ones that work are dts or ac3 and some that don't are also dts or ac3. All of them are surround sound.

I even tried downloading CoreAVC as it brags to be the fastest decoder for h264 movies but that didn't help either :(.

I just don't get it...is there any way to decrease the quality? or maybe force it to run the video as a 720p? would that help at all?? by the way, the CPU usage is still around 70-80%..I didn't see any significant drop in cpu usage.

** bit rate doesn't seem to the be the problem either. I compared the bit rate between the two and both have similar bit rates. The two things that are different are the FPS and sync offset.

The movies that lag run at about 18/19 fps..with sync offset of -514ms or so...while movies that don't lag run at their fps of 29 with sync offset of -8/-9

so still, only difference I can find that is causing this decrease in fps and sync offset is the file size. When you go over 10.9gb file, it lags. Whether it be a h264 or x264 file, I tried both.

[chinesedevil]

Hey OP, did you look at the site that Kwirky posted? You HAVE to do this with K-Lite (personal experience)

http://ltokvw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1puvebvRNPqITd-nJiEh4SX-QcKrNF7-YE_DYf4pFjHA1KAuM0TDBqyopmTyek58HIf3oa-j015lNqwdbIwuwhRw/step6%283%29.png

Go into external filters, add ffdshow video decoder, and CoreAVC video decoder from the Add Filter button (if you have Core AVC as well that is, if not just do ffdshow) and tick off BLOCK for BOTH. Now reopen your video, and it should only be the Haali Media Splitter doing the rendering.

http://ltokvw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p1Wo1YevtW8lXAYCAPEvPjQ_EDvIOJtY6I1iXmTtprRPgXkD qDZHSLjwNa4bbHIE9vWo5BAEHZ3ZwbxP55p_rdQ/19April_step4.png

Also, make sure you set it to the EVR Custom. Pres if you got vista/win 7, cuz i dont think it'll work if you dont set it to custom. Try this and see if it works?

Just make sure you close all your MPCHC windows that are open after setting the options, and replay the video. Report back with results.

[Majinvegeta]

Hey OP, did you look at the site that Kwirky posted? You HAVE to do this with K-Lite (personal experience)

http://ltokvw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1puvebvRNPqITd-nJiEh4SX-QcKrNF7-YE_DYf4pFjHA1KAuM0TDBqyopmTyek58HIf3oa-j015lNqwdbIwuwhRw/step6%283%29.png

Go into external filters, add ffdshow video decoder, and CoreAVC video decoder from the Add Filter button (if you have Core AVC as well that is, if not just do ffdshow) and tick off BLOCK for BOTH. Now reopen your video, and it should only be the Haali Media Splitter doing the rendering.

http://ltokvw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p1Wo1YevtW8lXAYCAPEvPjQ_EDvIOJtY6I1iXmTtprRPgXkD qDZHSLjwNa4bbHIE9vWo5BAEHZ3ZwbxP55p_rdQ/19April_step4.png

Also, make sure you set it to the EVR Custom. Pres if you got vista/win 7, cuz i dont think it'll work if you dont set it to custom. Try this and see if it works?

Just make sure you close all your MPCHC windows that are open after setting the options, and replay the video. Report back with results.

Yup, I already followed those instructions.

They made the difference for the files less than 10.9gb. CPU usage went down to 20% or so - but files over 11gb show cpu usage of 80-90% still. Maybe there is something else causing it but so far the only difference I can find between those files is the file size.

Bit rate, Audio type (DTS/AC3 etc.), Video Type (h264,x264 etc), video resolution are all the same. I have tried h264 video's that are below 10.9gb and above it, the ones below the size work fine and ones above lag.

I just don't understand why the file size is causing an issue.

Also on that website it indicates that the nvidia cards are much more capable than ATI...on my main pc (GTX 260) - cpu usage on files even at 15gb show cpu usage of only 9-20%. So do you guys think its the ATI video card causing the problem? I did load the latest drivers from ati's website..

[chinesedevil]

Hmm, i dont know whats wrong then, i usually just watch 720p and the 1080p's i have are less than 10gig, maybe haali media splitter cant handle above 10gigs?

hopefully someone else can help you.

[Majinvegeta]

Hmm, i dont know whats wrong then, i usually just watch 720p and the 1080p's i have are less than 10gig, maybe haali media splitter cant handle above 10gigs?

hopefully someone else can help you.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

I don't see why it can't handle it because my main pc seems to be able to play all of those videos with cpu usage at 15-20% - so if this video card can play those exact same videos with dxva then I don't see why the laptop shouldn't be able to as well...maybe the ATI card is incapable of certain things that the nvidia card I have is capable of. Besides the GTX260 is obviously at another level than that cheap hd3200 lol.