Oops, that's a typo, it's an FX5200.

_________________
Grant

This is an almost identical problem to what I'm experiencing (http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=17005&highlight=osd+stutter), although my problems are not in HD. I'm running a 1.8 GHz P4 with 768 MB of RDRAM and also with a PCI GeForce FX 5200.

I get a lot of stuttering whenever anything comes up on the OSD -- volume, channel info, captions, etc.

My roommate agreed that the problem might be with using the PCI version of the video card -- there's a low cost Chaintech AGP FX5200 on Newegg that I might pick up to test it out.

I can't speak for your 2.4GHz P4, but my 1.8 GHz has a measly cache and FSB, and I have to wonder if that might have anything to do with it.

If I get the AGP and it works, I'll be sure to let you know. And likewise, if you have a solution to your problem, let me know!

- Anthony

_________________
- Anthony
- P4/1.8GHz, 768MB RAM, PVR-150, GeForce FX 5200

Yup. If you watch CPU usage, it probably goes to 100% while
the OSD is up. On my box, it's XVMC that causes the problem:
with XVMC enabled, both SD and HD play fine, but the OSD uses
HUGE amounts of CPU time. With SD, CPU usage jumps from 20% up
to 90+% (occasionally hitting 100% with slight stuttering).
With HD, it jumps from 60-70% to 100% and stutters badly

Disabling XVMC makes SD work fine (OSD doesn't use more than
1-2% additional CPU time), but HD won't play smoothly even
without the OSD.

I suspect PCI bandwidth is part of the problem: 66MHz PCI is
the same as either AGP 1x or 2x (I can't ever remember).

Mine is an ATI chipset that was known for being a bit on the slow
side -- especially the SDRAM controller. That's probably part
of the problem as well.

There seem to be plenty of people using AGP FX5200 boards with
no problem, but it's moot since My board doesn't have an AGP slot.

Well, I have a solution in the works, but it's a tad expensive
compard to an AGP FX5200 card:
http://www.mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=17037

_________________
Grant

The AGP FX5200 should be in by 11/28, if the tracking info is correct. I'm assuming I just need to plug it in and reboot.

I'll let you know if that works any better.

FYI: I saw somewhere (maybe in another thread) that someone recommended installing the 100.14.19 drivers -- just wanted to point out how much of a mistake that is. Apparently they are in an unstable package (I'm still learning the lingo, so please bear with me), and I got a boatload of errors which eventually lead to OpenGL not working and, therefore, the menus not appearing. Trying to upgrade to the 100.14.19 nvidia-glx package just snowballed the errors even more ... not worth the hassle, from what I can tell! Just wanted to point this out.

_________________
- Anthony
- P4/1.8GHz, 768MB RAM, PVR-150, GeForce FX 5200

It works!

Not only does the picture look better (brighter and crisper) but no cracklies on the OSD, captions, menus while watching, anything.

I'm a little shocked, but hey, I'll take it!

EDIT: Transcoded videos play well, too! Huzzah!

_________________
- Anthony
- P4/1.8GHz, 768MB RAM, PVR-150, GeForce FX 5200