Kodi 14 on Pipo X7 - skipped/dropped frames

[Finless]

In the BIOS there are also thermal settings. Maybe your are not set right?
If you need what mine are set to, let me know.

I have not yet tried all this to see what temps I am getting but one thing I do not like is how this is heat sunk! These thick thermal pads to thin metal just do not cut it!

Improving that I am a little worried about. This is because this CPU has no case on it! When you pull the pad your looking at the raw silicon! So using something like Arctic Silver to attach a heat sink might kill the damn thing. Maybe some non-conductive thermal epoxy will work.

Bob

[noggin]

Forgive me if I don't understand the issues but if it is not a heat dissipation problem is this likely to mean that I would have problems streaming HD content from SVTPlay on this box?

I suspect SVT Play will be fine. It's 720/25p (not 50p) and low bitrate. (around 3Mbs)

I watch a lot of SVT (I speak bad Swedish...) so I'll give it a check.

[noggin]

In the BIOS there are also thermal settings. Maybe your are not set right?
If you need what mine are set to, let me know.

I have not yet tried all this to see what temps I am getting but one thing I do not like is how this is heat sunk! These thick thermal pads to thin metal just do not cut it!

Improving that I am a little worried about. This is because this CPU has no case on it! When you pull the pad your looking at the raw silicon! So using something like Arctic Silver to attach a heat sink might kill the damn thing. Maybe some non-conductive thermal epoxy will work.

Bob

From the review I read the heat pad isn't even dissipating to metal, it's to a plastic mounting frame (that is metallised?) However the pictures from that review show a metal lid on the die - not a bare silicon (would anyone do that? How would you avoid the fine connecting wires being disturbed?)

When I get a chance to open the box up (tonight I hope) I will let people know.

[no_spam_for_me]

From the review I read the heat pad isn't even dissipating to metal, it's to a plastic mounting frame (that is metallised?) However the pictures from that review show a metal lid on the die - not a bare silicon (would anyone do that? How would you avoid the fine connecting wires being disturbed?)

When I get a chance to open the box up (tonight I hope) I will let people know.

Have a look at

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?22178-I-have-to-say!-I-freakin-love-this-box!&p=273425&viewfull=1#post273425

In the BIOS there are also thermal settings. Maybe your are not set right?
:

I don't think so, have a look at

Here's a short csv file containing a log of me starting with the Pipo X7 not doing very much, running MPC-HC to play a 720/50p DVB recording of SVT HD (Swedish broadcaster) using MPC-HC with Intel Quicksync decoding enabled (Not hugely different to DXVA decoding in performance) and then stopping when I started to get frame drops.

You can see temps quickly rise to 85+C and CPU throttling kicks in.
http://1drv.ms/1yINqrC

it gets really fast really hot...

[robmich]

Have a look at

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?22178-I-have-to-say!-I-freakin-love-this-box!&p=273425&viewfull=1#post273425

I don't think so, have a look at

it gets really fast really hot...

So far, mine has kept really cool with what I am using it for. Now with that said, the pics of the interior do not show what i would think is the best layout for great cooling. I think a solution would be a small fan mounted on some standoffs to pressurize the interior to force airflow from the bottom and out through the side vents. Right now, that is a passive process that relies on thermal properties.

I have another X7 coming and as soon as I receive it, I'm gonna try this out. There is what looks like an unused solder pad for possible another USB?? Ill measure the voltage of the pads and see if there is enough to support a micro fan.

Rob

[Bigman1]

Have you tried something like VLC to play the stream instead? Also the cccp codec package might also help

shame if it can't do blu Ray films

j

[noggin]

Will try CCCP just to double check - but I'm not sure that it is hugely more efficient than the LAV filters and decoders used in MCP-HC which are widely regarded.

Will try VLC as well - but VLC usually performs slightly worse than other solutions on low power platforms even with H264 decoding in hardware.

Will give 1080p Blu-ray .m2ts streams a go as well - I wouldn't be surprised if they were better as they are only 24p (though the bitrate is higher and the pixel rate is roughly similar - 1280x720x50 is very similar to 1920x1080x24)

[no_spam_for_me]

Yes, that would be nice to see how the system reacts at 1080p@24 with >= 30 Mbit/s ...

BTW:
About which MPC-HC (Media Player Classic Home Cinema) version do you talk? MPC-HC + LAV Filters + madVR ?
Why CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) instead of e.g. K-Lite Codec Pack ?

[noggin]

MPC-HC + LAV Filters but I'm not using madVR as my renderer. I had bad experiences with codec packs in the past - so try to avoid them.

[noggin]

So - update.

Installed VLC - behaved very similarly. Throttled CPU very quickly on replay.

Installed CCCP codecs (though these installed LAV Filters I already had so not sure that significant, though possibly a LAV vs Haali splitter difference?)

HOWEVER - playing back 720/50p in Windows Media Player rather than MPC-HC got me to high CPU temperatures (85C) but CPU throttling didn't appear to kick in that quickly - so better - and far fewer dropped frames. I wonder if there's a renderer issue?

Just playing a 1080p Casino Royale Blu-ray H264/AVC stream from the original EU release. Seems to play OK initially - but in WMP the audio quickly goes out of sync (audio leads quite quickly) - so far from perfect. Temperatures sitting at 78C after 5 minutes. So 1080/23.976p seems easier to decode than 720/50p?

Playing the same 1080p Casino Royale in MPC-HC I get far more dropped frames. Will check renderers. Temp at 81C.

[Troz]

So - update.

Installed VLC - behaved very similarly. Throttled CPU very quickly on replay.

Installed CCCP codecs (though these installed LAV Filters I already had so not sure that significant, though possibly a LAV vs Haali splitter difference?)

HOWEVER - playing back 720/50p in Windows Media Player rather than MPC-HC got me to high CPU temperatures (85C) but CPU throttling didn't appear to kick in that quickly - so better - and far fewer dropped frames. I wonder if there's a renderer issue?

Just playing a 1080p Casino Royale Blu-ray stream from the original EU release. Seems to play OK initially - but in WMP the audio quickly goes out of sync (audio leads quite quickly) - so far from perfect.

I know Codec packs are pretty much a no no but give klite Mega pack a shot to test it out and see how it goes. Just make sure that during the installation you select hardware decoding.

[noggin]

Do the codec packs really deliver different hardware decoding implementations? There are only so many ways of driving the Intel decoders.

My gut feeling is that my box is very marginal - so I need to find the lightest renderer possible...

[noggin]

Just tried switching MPC-HC to Extended Video Renderer instead of Extended Video Renderer (custom presenter) - and whilst the temperatures got to 81C, I didn't get dropped frames in 10 mins of 720/50p viewing.

Switching to the EVR (custom presenter) i get dropped frames and temps go up to 82C within seconds.

(The heatsink pad hit 60C)

So my gut feeling about the renderer in MPC-HC being an issue seems right.

Question is whether cooling the CPU will help things or whether it just doesn't quite have the horse power? My gut feeling is cooling...

[Bigman1]

Thanks for taking a look.

shame I was hoping to use it as a blu Ray player / to streamer but if it's struggling to do blu Rays *sad panda*

any chance you have tried using a vpn and / or virtual box.


one way to try cooling is taking lid off and putting a large desk fan blowing into it. If this helps, you knows it's a cooling thing. If it doesn't help its not and no need to go further

j

[noggin]

Thanks for taking a look.

shame I was hoping to use it as a blu Ray player / to streamer but if it's struggling to do blu Rays *sad panda*

any chance you have tried using a vpn and / or virtual box.


one way to try cooling is taking lid off and putting a large desk fan blowing into it. If this helps, you knows it's a cooling thing. If it doesn't help its not and no need to go further

j

I live in the UK. Desk fans aren't something we need that often! I'll see what I can find - possibly a hair dryer on cold.

Haven't tried a VPN or Virtual Box yet. My next job is to try Ubuntu and see what Kodi does under that.