Windows media center and intel 4600 graphics live tv stutter

[MKlei8]

I am using a Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H mother board with the Intel I5 4430 LGA1150 Processor Built in 4600 GPU.

This was a New build with Windows 7 32bit as a HTPC.

During Live tv some channels like HBO or AMC seem to stutter pause, audio becomes out of sync and generally jumpy and un watchable. There was a Flashing that occurred with the stutter but turning off the automatic contrast seems to have solved that problem.

Despite the fact that the ticket i opened 8000886838 was answered by Warner that such functionality doesn't exist with Intel. I was finally able to locate it within the HD Graphics Control program.

I have done a lot of research on the issue and some call it a 29/59 frame rate issue. Most people though are able to alleviate the problem simply by turning off the adaptive contrast control. Others have given up and simply buy an additional graphics card.

I would rather be able to fix the issue and use the on board graphics.

Is there any steps I can take that would help the issue. Older drivers maybe. Settings I am unaware of. Reg Key's that might help?

Speaking of the drivers, included with the graphics driver is the Audio driver to take the audio over the HDMI cable. When the system goes to sleep however that driver seems to crash during wakeup and a reboot is needed to get audio back on the HDMI cable.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Thanks for coming back to our community.

I am sorry to hear that have had issues with graphics quality during live TV.

At this stage, I would like to report this issue to our engineering department; however, I will need additional details.

Please provide graphics report generated within graphics control panel.

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-009476.htm http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-009476.htm

Also, DirectX diagnostic report at: click Start, click Run, type dxdiag in the Open box, and then click OK.

I need the graphics report once you loaded the latest video driver version 3496:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3720&DwnldID=23713&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Laptop+graphics+drivers&ProductProduct=4th+Generation+Intel%C2%AE+Core%E2%84%A2+Processors+with+Intel%C2%AE+HD+Graphics+4600&DownloadType=Drivers&lang=eng https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3720&DwnldID=23713&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Laptop+graphics+drivers&ProductProduct=4th+Generation+Intel%C2%AE+Core%E2%84%A2+Processors+with+Intel%C2%AE+HD+Graphics+4600&DownloadType=Drivers&lang=eng

Please install the driver above when it finishes downloading, to verify that your system will accept it.

Allan.

[MKlei8]

Allan thanks for your support

I have both the reports you asked for but can't attach to this web forum and when i try to reply to the email i got it just simply fails. Should i just past the text?

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Thanks for coming back to the community.

If you would like to attach some files, please hit reply to this thread, you will see on the up right hand side "Use advanced editor" there you can attach files to your post.

Allan.

[MKlei8]

Ok thanks would have seen it if i replied from my desktop PC instead of HTPC since the attachment button is at the bottom not with all the other buttons.

who would have thought to scroll down, LOL

In any event attached are the files you requested. Thanks

[MMISS38]

I am also having a similar stuttering problem. I am running the onboard intel graphics with a Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H MB. The stuttering occurred some time back and I was able to fix the problem with the mentioned disabling of the auto contrast. Unfortunately, now that is disabled and the stuttering has returned while watching video/shows in windows media center.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

@Mikesterr and jbears3

I am currently researching on this issue. As soon as I can, I will send you a message with my findings. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Allan.

[MEdmu]

Here is my investigation into this in the past couple weeks since I've gotten my new machine in the mail:

I own a brand new Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p (10AB-000KUS) with an i5-4570T (HD 4600 graphics), 4GB of RAM, and Sharkbay motherboard (Haswell, Q87),

Live TV in Windows Media Center on most HD channel produces a lot of corrupt frames, but then some don't.

The problem I'm having isn't the 29.97/59.94 frame rate switching issue that has plagued people in the past -- all of the channels in my case are at 59.94.

The problem I'm having isn't the dynamic contrast setting in the HD Graphics Control Panel -- I have that turned off.

The problem isn't only on 1080i channels -- it also occurs on 720p channels.

I have the latest Intel drivers installed. (3496)

I have the latest BIOS update from Lenovo installed (as of March 27th, I believe). FYI, this DID fix the problem of the yellow triangle issue on HDMI audio after turning my screen off and back on, but obviously, it did not fix the frame corruption.

A very important point that I think is CRITICAL to further investigate is that the problem seems to only affect HD channels that contain MORE than two audio channels in the signal, i.e. all 6 channel audio stations stutter for me to some extent. For me, NBC with 6 channels only gets corrupt frames every few minutes, but ABC and CBS do so constantly, so it varies in severity. On Ion television, in contrast, with only 2 audio channels, it doesn't show the problem.

I know that this audio channel issue that I noticed might just be a coincidence, but I think it's something for Intel to investigate, to hopefully hone in on the issue.

Elsewhere on the Web, over the years, people have referred to similar problems to this in Windows Media Center where Live TV will display: checkerboard artifacts, block artifacts, glitches, stuttering, corrupt frames, etc. I've read that AMD graphics drivers have also at times caused such problems. However, what people are currently experiencing might or might not be the same thing. Some people that I've read in the past have had a similar problem that traced back to a Vista SP1 update that Microsoft made regarding msmpeg2vdec.dll, but I don't think that applies in this current case, as I've tested alternative video decoders and have seen the same problem.

Steps to reproduce:

Obviously, just watch HD channels, particularly ones with 6 channel audio.

For explicit evidence of the frame corruption, type 411 while in Live TV in Windows Media Center, then hit Ctrl-D, and use the arrow keys all the way over to the right where the "corrupt frame count" and "frame corruption rate" are listed (make sure not to move your mouse over the Windows Media Center screen, or the debug pages will disappear).

Once on the frame corruption section, you can then arrow left and right quickly to have it update the info. You will see the frame corruption count increase whenever the glitching occurs in the picture.

To determine the number of audio channels, you can find this info on one of the other 411 debug pages.

Just for reference, some of the things that I've tried to resolve the issue, with no luck:

I've tried practically all the Shark007 codecs possibilities, and none of them fix the problem.

I've used the MCDU utility to manually switch to different video and audio codecs, but this also doesn't fix the problem.

I've tried setting my speakers setting in WMC to 5.1 and had Windows set to 2.0, which has actually helped people in the past, but that doesn't help here, either.

I've tried amplifying my cable signal, and this doesn't help (which doesn't surprise me, as my tuner does just fine when connected to a computer with a different graphics card).

I've tried playing around with all of the Media Center buffer settings in the registry, but none have helped.

I've tried swapping in an older msmpeg2vdec.dll in System32 from 7/13/2009, registering it (regsvr32 msmpeg2vdec.dll), and then rebooting, and it also doesn't help.

Though I haven't tried doing the same with msmpeg2adec.dll, this decoder hasn't been updated since 2009, so I don't think it has any bearing on the issue.

Based on all of the above, I don't think this is necessarily a Microsoft problem here, unless there's something intrinsic to how Media Center is programmed, going back to 2009, making it perform crappy with relatively lower end chips like the HD 4600. The HD 4600 really can't be that bad, can it?

Anyway, the HD 4600 can do just fine on some HD channels, so I just don't think it's an issue of it not being powerful enough.

[MKlei8]

Allan,

I'm curious if there has been any updates? I have been able to temporarily work around the issue by installing an AMD 6450 GPU card, but having an additional card in the HTPC set up is not ideal for air flow. I am hoping to get back to using the on board graphics ASAP.

Thanks

[Allan_J_Intel1]

@Mikesterr

I'm checking with my expert contact for any input on this matter, I'll let you know what I find out.

Allan.

[MEdmu]

Hi Allan,

I'm also curious if there have been any updates. I'm not sure if you read through my in-depth post above or not. but please pass it along to whomever is the expert contact who needs to debug the issue.

FYI, my situation, unlike Mikesterr's, does not allow for a discrete graphics card upgrade, as my system is a mini desktop, so I am, unfortunately stuck with this bug only allowing me to watch a very small number of HD channels on this brand new system without stutter, until this gets fixed.

Thanks!

[MEdmu]

I just tried the latest beta driver (10.18.10.3574) to cover all bases. It didn't help. I didn't really expect it to, but I thought I'd try it, to at least give it a shot.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Thanks for the information, I have just checked with engineering department and they are currently working trying to replicate this matter. As soon as I get feedback on this I will let you know.

Allan.

[MEdmu]

FYI, I'm using an Avertv Hybrid Volar Max USB TV Tuner (the Kit for Windows, for Windows Media Center) if you need a specific model of tuner to test. Based on this thread, it would be too interesting of a coincidence if we were all using the same tuner. I doubt the cause is the tuner, as I can use this tuner on these problem channels without issue on other machines.

Currently, btw, I'm watching an NBC HD stream, which has 6 channels of audio, and am not dropping frames with it, so the issue may NOT have to do directly with having more than 2 audio channels on a particular stream, but, instead, something more nuanced. Other HD channels are, of course, still experiencing major stutter. The cause might have something to do with the overall bitrate coming in, but so far I've seen no particular pattern to support this idea, based on the 411 debug info

Please let me know if I can help your team reproduce the issue further.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Thanks for the information. I am passing this information to engineering. As soon as I get feedback on this I will let you know.

Allan.

[EBrei]

Hello, I have almost the same issue but only the flickering issue within WMC. Should I start my own thread?

Flickering does not occur in other programs that display live tv on known problem channels on the same pc.

Flickering also does not occur in wmc on a non integrated graphics cpu on known problem channels which have the 14/29 flicker issue.

Thanks I hope this gets resolved soon!

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Thanks for sharing your experience. We will look into your reports and get back to you.

Allan.

[EBrei]

Hello, had anyone from intel looked into this yet? I know there is a new driver out and I have tried it, but the frame rate/flicker issue persists. I built my home theater pc for playing back media, and functioning as a dvr, so an Intel cpu with integrated video was a no brainer. Sadly the flickering makes certain channels very annoying to watch. Specs of my build: Core i5-4570 3.2 ghz/Intel HD Graphics 4600 and 8 gb ram. Motherboard is an MSI B85M-G43. Computer is running Win 8.1 64 and Windows Media Center. It seems that the adaptive contrast function is what causes this flicker, but there is no way to disable it in the Intel control panel. Can anyone please help? Thanks.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Thanks for the update. This information has been forwarded to our engineering department and they are working on it. As soon as I get any updates, I will come back and update this post.

Allan.

[EBrei]

Ok I believe I found the menu! Tested on known flickering channels, but nothing visible despite the wmc debug menu showing an alternating frame rate.

I found the setting here: Intel HD Graphics Control Panel > Video > Image Enhancement (Hidden drop down menu, not the Select Profile drop down) > Advanced > Select Disable under Contrast Enhancement, then apply. This seems to have resolved the issue. I will report back if the flickering persists. Thank you.

[MEdmu]

There are at least two different issues being discussed here. I'd read about the issue Prez808 is describing elsewhere. My understanding is that that can be fixed by disabling Contrast Enhancement or some sort of auto luma setting. That's not what I'm running into. Here's a screen capture of the issue I'm seeing (along with the corrupt frames reported in the debug menu):

I get that black corruption appear from the bottom every second or two, along with other MPEG-2 pixelation artifacts and audio stuttering. Like I've said before, this only happens on certain channels. To be sure, when plugging in the same tuner and testing the same channels on a different computer, I don't have this problem. I just tested this same channel when the tuner is plugged into my laptop, and it displays without any issue.