TMT 5 Stuttering Blu-Ray playback

[jrandeck]

I got mad at Cyberlink for forcing me to buy a new version of their software if I want to keep playing Blu-Rays, so I went out and got TMT 5.

The problem is, TMT 5 won’t play Blu-Ray disks smoothly on my system for some reason.  I’m hoping someone here can help.  The playback stutters about once per second making for very jerky motion that gets rather annoying to watch.

My HTPC uses the onboard graphics from a Core i3 2100T on an Intel DH67GD motherboard.  I made sure hardware acceleration is selected in TMT and I have the latest Intel video drivers.  I send HTML out through my Onkyo receiver to a Panasonic plasma TV.  I’ve checked and the CPU usage is < 20% while playing a Blu-Ray.

The strange part is, that PowerDVD 9 used to play back Blu-Rays perfectly (until it decided it wouldn’t play any without an upgrade) and those same discs give me jerky playback in TMT 5.

Does anyone have any suggestions that might help?

 

[Aaron Ledger]

Do you know if TMT5 is automatically switching to 24p? This is a fairly new feature for TMT5 and some versions were switching the refresh rate to 24Hz (24.000 Hz) instead of 23Hz (23.976 Hz) which will cause a dropped frame to occur around the interval you suggest. If that’s not enough, Intel boards also require a BIOS update to correctly use the 23Hz setting with UAC enabled (and some boards needed the update to occur via the recovery method).

[jrandeck]

How would I know if it’s switching to 24p (and whether my TV can even accept that…)?

 

[Aaron Ledger]

You could check your display manual to see what formats are supported. You could also check your display properties on your HTPC to see if the 23Hz and 24Hz options are available. They generally are not if the display doesn’t support those formats.

I haven’t played with the most recent iteration of TMT5, but there may be a configuration value that tells you whether the 24p capability is enabled. Your display may also tell you what input format it is receiving. You could also try checking the current display properties while content is playing back to see what the PC is configured for.

[jrandeck]

Well, the BIOS update didn’t help, and I found the specs for my TV online and it doesn’t support 24p anyway (it only supports it via 2:3 mode which is not supporting it in my book..)  The stuttering is a little better when I set the refresh rate to 60 instead of 59 in the video driver (the only choices it gives me), but it’s still there.

I checked Arcsoft’s forums and saw several suggestions to people to turn off HA to fix stuttering, and that seems to help a lot for me, I guess I’ll just have to watch what I’m running in the background when I’m watching Blu-Rays.

[Chasseur]

I’ve had some conflicts between my TV video processings and my PC video processings, like they were both trying to perform some kind of motion correction or whatever, which introduced some stuttering.

If you have a “game mode” on you tv, try this. It will disable all the video processing done by the tv.

[Aaron Ledger]

It doesn’t matter if it only supports 24p by applying 2:3 pulldown because if it accepts it, it can be vulnerable to the frame repeat issue. If you are confident that TMT5 is not outputting at 24Hz rate, you should use 59Hz and not 60Hz. You probably won’t be able to perceive frame repeats at 60Hz since the difference is small, but they are there and it is not correct for video sources.

Pull up the Windows resource monitor and look for anything suspicious while watching.

[SJMaye]

I bought TMT5 and had similar issues.  Read their forums.  Their newest release fixed me. 

Beware-  It appeared on their site they were going to charge me to download the latest release for TMT5 even though I had just bought it.  It was not the case.  Read their forums about the most recent release.  It will spell it out for you.

 

[jrandeck]

My TV is a low end model and doesn’t have any sort of video processing.  When I bought it I figured it was mostly a monitor for the HTPC so I didn’t need all the extra bells and whistles.

 

[jrandeck]

Interesting. Apparently the reason I can’t find the setting for 24p is that the version of TMT 5 I have doesn’t support it.

I’m working with Arcsoft customer service to try to get an activation key for the latest version.  Their website is telling me that I’m not eligible for an upgrade.

[SJMaye]

Website told me that too.  Forums said disregard the website.  Mine worked fine.

[Chasseur]

Did you check for sure that your tv doesn’t have a game mode? If your TV is a Panasonic, chances it has a gaming mode… You should try it

[jrandeck]

I guess I’m confused. How can I get the key from the website if the website won’t give me a key?

[jrandeck]

Chasseur:  My TV does have a game mode, but it didn’t help.

 

What did help was upgrading to the latest TMT once I got the activation code issue worked out.

 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

[Aaron Ledger]

I’m glad you got it sorted out. Thanks for reporting the solution.

[Author]

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