Audio dropouts and skipping/juddering frames

[Albo]

Are others experiencing audio cuts and dropped frames on 720p and 1080p mkv files?

Every film I watch has at least 10-12 points at which I lose audio and the frame skips forward and back repeatedly for a couple seconds. It's hilarious to watch, but kinda takes you out of the movie.
I'm wondering if the app settings or perhaps my Mac can be tweaked or if it's just a limitation of the Mini or the stage at which this software is at.

For a 0.1 release, it's an AMAZING piece of software however and a VERY welcome addition to the Mac Home Theater community. Thank you.

My system specs:
Mac Mini, 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM, Firewire 400 Media Drive

[elan]

I've generally be able to watch movies straight through without glitches, mostly MKVs, some 720p, some 1080p. I connect over wireless gigabit. Log in with another computer, run top, and see what you see with respect to CPU usage. It can be as simple as spotlight crunching away that can make things glitch, especially if you aren't running with a lot of CPU headroom. Also, hit 'i' to see if frames are dropping.

[Albo]

While watching No Country for Old Men (720p) last night the frame skipping happened in about 6 places, completely at random it seemed. This time there was no audio dropout, only a quick burst of high speed frames, almost like fast forwarding.

The info window tells me I am dropping frames, but why I wonder? The mkv files sit on a FW400 drive, a much faster connection than your wireless, so it can't be that.

Does the app rely on any QuickTime AVC decoders? - I have some non-standard components for H.264 decoding, but I'm pretty sure XBMC is using its own method to handle this codec. Right?

I'm not that savvy on monitoring from another cpu. How would I go about this?

[elan]

A "a quick burst of high speed frames" is a dead giveaway of dropped frames. I access over Gigabit WIRED Ethernet, not wireless. Move the movie to the local drive to eliminate that variable. Otherwise, enable remote access, and ssh to the box (the System Preferences pane will tell you what to type, e.g. "ssh albo@192.168.1.100") and then type "top". On the second line, see what percentage of your CPU is idle, and see what percentage of the CPU XBMC is using. I suspect either CPU overload or network issues.

[Albo]

Originally Posted by elan

A "a quick burst of high speed frames" is a dead giveaway of dead frames.

Meaning dropped frames?

I access over Gigabit WIRED Ethernet, not wireless.

You said wireless in your first post, I thought that was odd. My FW400 connection should at least be equal to an ethernet one, but I will try playing a file from the local drive.

Otherwise, enable remote access, and ssh to the box

Excellent, thanks for the info on how to do this.

I suspect either CPU overload or network issues.

Ok. Let me see what I can find out.

[elan]

Originally Posted by Albo

Meaning dropped frames?

Yep. Early, can't type

Originally Posted by Albo

You said wireless in your first post, I thought that was odd.

Not enough coffee, sleep...

-elan

[Evol]

I have some small audio dropouts when I play movies no matter what filetype it is! I dont have high speed frames or any dropped frames just occasional audio dropouts.

I am playing all my files over a gigabit network and I am using a 2Ghz Mac Mini with 2Gb of RAM!

[elan]

Originally Posted by Evol

I have some small audio dropouts when I play movies no matter what filetype it is! I dont have high speed frames or any dropped frames just occasional audio dropouts.

I am playing all my files over a gigabit network and I am using a 2Ghz Mac Mini with 2Gb of RAM!

Without logs, I'm a mindreader. And I can't read minds

[Evol]

Originally Posted by elan

Without logs, I'm a mindreader. And I can't read minds

I shall send you my logfile as soon as I quit work!

[Evol]

Here is my logfile taken just after a audio dropout when playing an ISO DVD.

Hope this will help you to read minds!

http://pastebin.com/m7ecebf09

Thanks