HD-200 infrequent microstutter

[derringer]

Hi all.. I have a question that I'm hoping someone here has an idea about. Do we know the limits of the HD-200 in terms of bitrate and h264 compression? The reason I mention this is I have archived some of my Blu-Ray disks using h264 compression at high bitrates. A standard few hour BD is around 26GB or so, as opposed to the originals around 41GB, if it helps you see the picture I'm painting here.

Anyway, I think I am hitting the limits on the HD-200s capabilities, but just barely. Playing back BDs from a straight BD folder rip works perfectly, but when I compress them with h264 at high bitrates, I see very infrequent microstutters. It is almost imperceivable, but my eye catches the motion stopping for the briefest of periods before continuing. For some reason it really annoys me, although others say they can't see it.. I can.

So, let me ask you all this... have you gotten your HD-200 to slightly or more noticeably choke on any content? I am using a matroska container in this instance, but I don't think its the container.

I mean, there has to be a limit of what the HD-200 can actually do in terms of smooth motion with no chokes... does anyone have an idea what that limit is? Before I spend the hours it takes to re-rip things, I'd love to hear some opinions on what I should set the bitrate at to avoid this, assuming I've nailed the problem to be the processing power of the HD-200 with regard to 264 compression?

[paulbeers]

I rip blu-ray movies just as they are at full bit-rate with no issues. I was just watching the blu-ray Rip of Avatar the other day (although had to stop after about 15 minutes or so due to the caption issue that has since been fixed) with no issues. It might not be your rip though, it could be your network?

[derringer]

I appreciate the response... Did you rip them using h264 or just straight Bluray folder structure rip?

Mine work fine with the straight folder structure, its only when I encode/compress them with h264 at high bitrates (20+mbps).

I am probably not on to the problem yet, so any ideas (including your idea about the network which is my next troubleshooting point, thank you for that) will be most helpful.

[Suntan]

What encoder options are you using? I have not looked to see what the limitations are, but if you are encoding with wonky settings for GOP size, etc. that may be your problem.

-Suntan

[derringer]

I am not at that machine at the moment, but when I get back I will take a look. I do have a debug file here I did on the HD-200, but I've no idea if there is anything wrong with it, so I wondered if anyone who knew could look at this and tell me if this looks normal?

Jan  1 00:16:04 m: HDMI 1 (change 0) 
Jan  1 00:16:04 m: v045 a097 stc 195527 a 195527 v 196029 (195529)
Jan  1 00:16:05 m: v058 a097 stc 195959 a 195959 v 196488 (195946)
Jan  1 00:16:05 m: v070 a099 stc 196403 a 196403 v 196947 (196405)
Jan  1 00:16:05 m: v068 a096 stc 196836 a 196836 v 197406 (196822)
Jan  1 00:16:06 m: v063 a098 stc 197078 a 197078 v 197572 (197072)
Jan  1 00:16:06 m: v052 a097 stc 197504 a 197504 v 198073 (197489)
Jan  1 00:16:06 m: v045 a098 stc 197732 a 197732 v 198281 (197739)
Jan  1 00:16:07 m: HDMI 1 (change 0) 
Jan  1 00:16:07 m: v036 a097 stc 198152 a 198152 v 198657 (198156)
Jan  1 00:16:07 m: v030 a098 stc 198391 a 198391 v 198907 (198365)
Jan  1 00:16:07 m: v030 a096 stc 198822 a 198822 v 199324 (198824)
Jan  1 00:16:08 m: v030 a099 stc 199068 a 199068 v 199574 (199074)
Jan  1 00:16:08 m: v026 a096 stc 199490 a 199490 v 199991 (199491)
Jan  1 00:16:08 m: v023 a097 stc 199727 a 199727 v 200283 (199700)
Jan  1 00:16:09 m: v021 a098 stc 199973 a 199973 v 200534 (199950)
Jan  1 00:16:09 m: v024 a098 stc 200417 a 200417 v 200951 (200409)
Jan  1 00:16:09 m: v027 a099 stc 200656 a 200656 v 201159 (200659)
Jan  1 00:16:09 m: HDMI 1 (change 0) 
Jan  1 00:16:10 m: v030 a095 stc 201086 a 201086 v 201660 (201076)
Jan  1 00:16:10 m: v030 a099 stc 201332 a 201332 v 201910 (201326)
Jan  1 00:16:10 m: v031 a099 stc 201574 a 201574 v 202077 (201576)
Jan  1 00:16:11 m: v029 a099 stc 201995 a 201995 v 202494 (201993)
Jan  1 00:16:11 m: v028 a095 stc 202230 a 202230 v 202744 (202244)
Jan  1 00:16:11 m: v031 a096 stc 202656 a 202656 v 203161 (202661)
Jan  1 00:16:12 m: v029 a098 stc 202927 a 202927 v 203495 (202911)
Jan  1 00:16:12 m: v029 a098 stc 203161 a 203161 v 203662 (203161)
Jan  1 00:16:12 m: HDMI 1 (change 0) 
Jan  1 00:16:12 m: v028 a096 stc 203578 a 203578 v 204121 (203578)
Jan  1 00:16:12 m: v028 a098 stc 203812 a 203812 v 204371 (203787)
Jan  1 00:16:13 m: v027 a096 stc 204223 a 204223 v 204746 (204204)
Jan  1 00:16:13 m: v028 a098 stc 204459 a 204459 v 204996 (204454)
Jan  1 00:16:13 m: v029 a098 stc 204695 a 204695 v 205247 (204705)
Jan  1 00:16:14 m: v029 a098 stc 205147 a 205147 v 205664 (205163)
Jan  1 00:16:14 m: v026 a098 stc 205374 a 205374 v 205872 (205372)
Jan  1 00:16:14 m: ProcessFrames took 249248
Jan  1 00:16:15 m: v052 a099 stc 205978 a 205978 v 206498 (205956)
Jan  1 00:16:15 m: HDMI 1 (change 0) 
Jan  1 00:16:15 m: ProcessFrames took 205404
Jan  1 00:16:15 m: ProcessFrames took 250190
Jan  1 00:16:15 m: v081 a098 stc 206656 a 206656 v 207165 (206665)
Jan  1 00:16:16 m: ProcessFrames took 265520
Jan  1 00:16:16 m: ProcessFrames took 244787
Jan  1 00:16:16 m: v069 a099 stc 207355 a 207355 v 207874 (207332)
Jan  1 00:16:16 m: ProcessFrames took 302585
Jan  1 00:16:17 m: ProcessFrames took 224502
Jan  1 00:16:17 m: v066 a099 stc 208060 a 208060 v 208583 (208041)
Jan  1 00:16:17 m: ProcessFrames took 249718
Jan  1 00:16:17 m: HDMI 1 (change 0) 
Jan  1 00:16:17 m: v065 a097 stc 208678 a 208678 v 209251 (208667)

[derringer]

I wanted to update this thread with the discovery that the video is uneffected, and it is actually a sound problem. The one thing that is common, so far, is that this is a DTS-HD stream. I have pretty much narrowed it to an issue with either the HD-200 or my Receiver. I am trying to figure out how I determine which it is, but has anyone else had any issue with how the HD-200 pulls out the DTS core and plays it? I'm starting to think that that could be the problem? I basically get an audio microstutter on occasion through the playback.. it is not often, maybe one to three stutters every 4 or 5 minutes, but it is there..