HTPC performance issues, need opinions

[Velfi]

I recently replaced a DLP tv on the fritz with a Vizio D58u-D3 (https://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-D58u-D3-Class-Full-Array-Smart/dp/B017HEQZSW) and decided to hook my old PC up to it via HDMI to use as a home theater PC. The PC itself has an i5-3450 and initially had a GT 520 video card. When I tried watching movies with VLC through the TV, I would notice some screen tearing as well as some stutter issues where the picture would noticeably slow down for a second or two and then speed up briefly to catch up. This happened with both 720p and 1080p videos, but much more noticeably on the 1080p ones.

I suspected that the GT 520 couldn't drive the image, so I replaced it with a GTX 750 Ti. However, even with the 750 I notice the stuttering even in 720p videos. Leading to my thinking now:

Is my media PC being held back by the video card (still), or the processor, or both? I've done some searching and seen conflicting opinions about the 750 for this use, I saw a number of suggestions that something like a 960 might be the minimum needed. Is the 3450 and/or 750 just not beefy enough to do what I'm asking of it?

edit: The HDMI cable I'm using is a high speed, high quality cable to the best of my knowledge.

[Wesley]

The GTX 750 ti is a really bottom of the line card, but it shouldn't matter for straight video transmission. More likely it's a software issue, but it could also be something like a wiring or port issue. Here are the steps I'd try to see if it corrects the problem:

0. Make sure your graphics drivers are up to date. If you just let Windows install them, that's probably your problem. Download them straight from Nvidia.
1. If your TV has a second HDMI Input, try that one instead.
2. If you have a spare HDMI cable, try that one instead.
3. Try using Media Player Classic Home Cinema instead of VLC.
4. Watch your CPU and Ram usage while videos are playing (don't necessarily have to be hooked to the TV for this part). If you're bumping into max anywhere, which you shouldn't unless you've only got a gig or two of system ram in there, then that could be an issue.

Edit to add:

Ehhh, 5. If your Motherboard has a second PCI-e slot with which to plug your video card into, try that instead. This shouldn't be the issue, because usually when a PCI-e slot dies, it straight dies and won't be usable at all, but, you know. It's a step to try if the first 5 fail.

[Velfi]

A bit more possibly pertinent information: The videos play fine when using a much smaller monitor using DVI, these issues only come out with the TV and HDMI. Also, it's an old Windows 7 installation that could definitely use a good bit of repair/refresh etc. I'm just hoping to utilize what I've got instead of having to buy basically a whole new setup for this.

Right now the PC is hooked up to HDMI 5 on the TV (with a 60hz refresh rate), which is the best port on the TV going up to 4K @ 60hz, where the other 4 HDMI inputs only go to 30hz based on the manual (see image below).

http://i.imgur.com/L07mhs3.png

[Wesley]

That is indeed pertinent. One more thing I can suggest that's a good idea in any event - Baseline your computer's actual video and quality settings if you're only going to be using it to stream to the TV. If you're not comfortable with it, but feel like downloading Teamviewer, I can do it for ya.

[Velfi]

The GTX 750 ti is a really bottom of the line card, but it shouldn't matter for straight video transmission. More likely it's a software issue, but it could also be something like a wiring or port issue. Here are the steps I'd try to see if it corrects the problem:

0. Make sure your graphics drivers are up to date. If you just let Windows install them, that's probably your problem. Download them straight from Nvidia.
1. If your TV has a second HDMI Input, try that one instead.
2. If you have a spare HDMI cable, try that one instead.
3. Try using Media Player Classic Home Cinema instead of VLC.
4. Watch your CPU and Ram usage while videos are playing (don't necessarily have to be hooked to the TV for this part). If you're bumping into max anywhere, which you shouldn't unless you've only got a gig or two of system ram in there, then that could be an issue.

Edit to add:

Ehhh, 5. If your Motherboard has a second PCI-e slot with which to plug your video card into, try that instead. This shouldn't be the issue, because usually when a PCI-e slot dies, it straight dies and won't be usable at all, but, you know. It's a step to try if the first 5 fail.

I should have tested different ports and cables before posting, but will check that to be sure, and I'll try MPC for the videos as well to compare. The PC has 12gb RAM so I don't think that's the holdup, but it is a basically pre-built Dell junker for the most part aside from the GPU so that probably doesn't help.


That is indeed pertinent. One more thing I can suggest that's a good idea in any event - Baseline your computer's actual video and quality settings if you're only going to be using it to stream to the TV. If you're not comfortable with it, but feel like downloading Teamviewer, I can do it for ya.

Thank you but I will pass on the Teamviewer, but would you mind elaborating on this? Initially I thought you were asking for a benchmark when I read this but I don't know which performance settings you might mean.

All of this is with the display resolution set to 1980x1020. I noticed when I set the display to its native resolution of 3Ksomething x whatever the videos were struggling much harder.

Thank you for the suggestions.

[Wesley]

I should have tested different ports and cables before posting, but will check that to be sure, and I'll try MPC for the videos as well to compare. The PC has 12gb RAM so I don't think that's the holdup, but it is a basically pre-built Dell junker for the most part aside from the GPU so that probably doesn't help.



Thank you but I will pass on the Teamviewer, but would you mind elaborating on this? Initially I thought you were asking for a benchmark when I read this but I don't know which performance settings you might mean.

All of this is with the display resolution set to 1980x1020. I noticed when I set the display to its native resolution of 3Ksomething x whatever the videos were struggling much harder.

No no. Just to minimize system resources you aren't using since it's an older system. 750ti isn't a great card, for gaming or 3d modeling, but for video it's WAY more than enough, so that's almost definitely not your issue. If you're bumping into a system issue, it's probably in RAM. Lemme go through the checklist. They should be easy enough to handle on a windows 7 system:

1. Right click desktop, personalize. Select Windows 7 Basic as the theme
2. Right click the taskbar, select properties. Bottom of the window on the tab that opens, uncheck "Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop"
3. Go into control panels, select Performance Information and Tools. Top left of the window, select "Adjust Visual Effects". In the new window that opens, select Adjust for best performance.

Beyond that, you can disable services you aren't using and stop programs from starting on startup, but that's a little more in depth and probably not needed. But try those first few things and you might see a performance increase if you're bumping into a system resource limit elsewhere.

[Nephelem]

Nothing about 1080p video should remotely tax that processor or graphics card. Even on the fly transcoding with something like Plex should be fine up to several streams of 1080p video. Definitely try connecting to other HDMI ports on the TV to make sure the tearing is universal. Your TV probably has presets for Movie/Monitor/Gaming etc, try using the monitor or gaming settings if you aren't already. You could also try limiting the frame rate in the Nvidia control panel to a fixed 30fps or enabling/disabling V-sync.

Those 30 and 60 Hz ratings on your TV are for UHD (4k) content. Any input that can handle 4k at 30 FPS can handle 1080 of any type including 3D so it shouldn't matter what input you choose unless you need the HDCP compliance.

[chalion]

What is the format of the video files you are trying to run and what if any codecs do you have installed ?
Actually, I didnt look it up myself, but does that TV have any smoothing or anything like that? does the audio skip around when it does this? It doesnt try to do that fake 120hz where it adds frames does it ?
The more I think of this the more i think its a setting on the TV trying to manipulate the video image its receiving.

[Wesley]

That's definitely possible too Chalion. So is the video format thing, which is a good point. If for example you're using MKV's, they're always going to have some tearing. You can't pack a 2 hour movie into a 750 meg 1080p file without some errors, but codecs can definitely help. I use the k-lite pack personally, but I've found there aren't too many tearing issues without it either on most file formats.

[Velfi]

So far I've been testing with the same cable on a different input. I applied the performance changes that Wesley suggested as well as a different picture mode suggested by Nephelem that Vizio helpfully labeled "Computer" vs the Standard I was using and it seems to have basically resolved almost all of the issues I was seeing. The tearing wasn't actually as much of an issue (aside from fast-paced, hectic/bright shots) as the lag and delay where it seemed to be bogging down.

The videos themselves are generally H264 codec videos in MKV format, but they're much larger in size than 750mb, generally 6-8gb+.

One thing I noticed when I would change inputs to the PC (on the old input) I would notice a bunch of weird visual artifacts/glitches (see below). Normally I connect to the PC with VNC to do most stuff and so I don't notice these errors but they were showing up using the actual TV input. I noticed this a couple times and just unplugged/replugged and they seemed to go away. I took this one as I switched to the old input for testing and they were back:

http://i.imgur.com/QLWzI1J.jpg

I'm not seeing them so far on HDMI 4 yet, what are those glitches possibly indicative of?

Thank you everyone for the valuable assistance.

Oh also I did consider the TV doing some funny business, but digging around through the menus I couldn't easily tell which setting controlled the phantom framerate, or even if it was on or not. I'm hoping this computer mode might take that into account.

[Androidpk]

Get a raspberry pi