hardware acceleration not working?

lsone

Newbie Joined: Apr 16, 2013 10:25 Messages: 7 Offline

Solved by

Apr 16, 2013 10:28

There is a problem with hardware acceleration being available and used by applications in Windows 8 64-bit with the latest catalyst drivers. An example can be seen with PowerDVD 12. When the catalyst drivers are installed and the KB2795944 critical update from windows update for windows 8 is installed it replaces the radeon drivers (at least partially, read below) and re-installing the catalyst drivers does not fix the problem.

This can be observed by installing cyberlink's free BD advisor that tests your system to see if it can support blu-ray/3d blu-ray playback. When KB2795944 is installed with catalyst drivers the advisor will show many failures and say you don't meet the system requirements and show the graphics card as "Microsoft Basic Render Driver". Uninstalling KB2795944 allows the advisor to pass all tests correctly and shows "AMD Radeon 6450" as the driver with hardware acceleration available.

However, playback within PowerDVD still does not utilize hardware acceleration and CPU usage often goes above 95% even though the advisor passed all tests. The CPU usage by PowerDVD is identical with the Asus 6450 taken out of the machine completely and using on-board Intel HD 3000 graphics to playback the same content and same scenes from a blu-ray disc or 3d blu-ray. So no offloading to the GPU is occuring.

These problems occur with the latest stable and beta catalyst drivers and might be limited to Windows 8 machines.

Anyone else experienced this?

stevek

Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline

Apr 18, 2013 08:20

What problems/issues are you experiencing with playback of blu ray or 3D discs? .
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lsone

Newbie Joined: Apr 16, 2013 10:25 Messages: 7 Offline

Apr 20, 2013 08:35

Judder and frames skipping/stalling when the CPU usage by PowerDVD gets up in the 90% range since no offloading is occuring to the GPU.

stevek

Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline

Apr 20, 2013 08:51

Quote: Judder and frames skipping/stalling when the CPU usage by PowerDVD gets up in the 90% range since no offloading is occuring to the GPU.

Sounds like more of a video card/chip issue that we have seen before or an issue with having too many programs running while you are watching a DVD. Did you have the problem before the update to W8 and that driver?

What video card/chip do you have and what driver ID? When you installed the latest catalyst driver, did you remove the one you had - clean install?

What else is running while you are watching the DVD? Other programs? Do you have your antivirus set to ignore what is going on with your computer during playback? .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

lsone

Newbie Joined: Apr 16, 2013 10:25 Messages: 7 Offline

Apr 20, 2013 08:58

Never had the problem with Windows 7. Asus AMD Radeon 6450 1GB with the latest 13.1 catalyst drivers but the problem still exists with 13.3 beta ones. I tried older ones such as 11.8 and 11.12 which some people suggested but in those cases PowerDVD will start it's executable process but the program itself doesn't load and show up on the display.

All drivers were installed after clean installs. No other programs running other than Norton AV but it's set to not run any scheduled scans. Only manually.

stevek

Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline

Apr 20, 2013 11:17

Since you didn't have a problem with W7 but do now in W8, I'm going to bow out. I only have W7. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

lsone

Newbie Joined: Apr 16, 2013 10:25 Messages: 7 Offline

Jun 25, 2013 10:51

Hi again. I decided to install windows 7 again and now have noticed the problem exists with windows 7 as well now... Under information i keep setting DxVA not working or not enabled?

stevek

Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline

Jun 25, 2013 10:56

Quote: Hi again. I decided to install windows 7 again and now have noticed the problem exists with windows 7 as well now... Under information i keep setting DxVA not working or not enabled?

I haven't used AMD video cards for several years. I just got a new laptop with an NVidia card. I had to go into the GPU control panel and go through all the options until I found one that allowed me to set the video card as the default for PowerDVD 13. The computer had defaulted to the i7 built in GPU. Perhaps if you do the same with your AMD set up, you might find a similar option. Are you using a computer monitor or some other display device? .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

lsone

Newbie Joined: Apr 16, 2013 10:25 Messages: 7 Offline

Jun 25, 2013 19:16

thanks for the prompt reply! I an unable to find any such options within the latest AMD Catalyst Control Center...I have it hooked up to an HDTV.

lsone

Newbie Joined: Apr 16, 2013 10:25 Messages: 7 Offline

Jun 25, 2013 19:23

Wow. I figured it out based on a post from AVS forums...it turns out that disabling "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" in the Catalyst Control Center actually allows PowerDVD to use hardware acceleration...of all the things one would think should definitely be checked it turns out that unchecking it is the solution! CPU usage is now well below 20% even for 3D Blu-Ray playback. Thanks for your help!

stevek

Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline

Jun 25, 2013 20:17

We learn somethign new every day !

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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Korrigan

Senior Member Joined: Oct 06, 2010 04:57 Messages: 221 Offline

Jun 27, 2013 06:32

Quote: Wow. I figured it out based on a post from AVS forums...it turns out that disabling "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" in the Catalyst Control Center actually allows PowerDVD to use hardware acceleration...of all the things one would think should definitely be checked it turns out that unchecking it is the solution! CPU usage is now well below 20% even for 3D Blu-Ray playback. Thanks for your help!

Not sure that's the real reason... because I have "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" turned on (HD6870 card) and PDVD works flawlessly.

But I'm glad it worked for you

EDIT:
I've done some research about what that setting really does, and it appears that it turns off some features on lower end cards when the software "thinks" the card is not powerful enough to apply those features and keep smooth playback. So what most likely happened is that on your 6450, which is (no offense meant) a "low end" card, the setting turned off some features necessary for hardware accelerated blu-ray playback.
No need to say that I now unchecked this on my computer too, since I have a relatively high end card anyway and I don't want software to turn off things without me knowing it.

So I have to thank you - you helped me learn more about some obscure setting with is better left turned off

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jun 27. 2013 06:39

My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

lsone

Newbie Joined: Apr 16, 2013 10:25 Messages: 7 Offline

Jun 27, 2013 11:12

It's the only thing that fixed it for me... Might be only on the 6450? I'm planning on reporting this to AMD... see what happens.

Korrigan

Senior Member Joined: Oct 06, 2010 04:57 Messages: 221 Offline

Jun 27, 2013 12:08

Quote: It's the only thing that fixed it for me... Might be only on the 6450? I'm planning on reporting this to AMD... see what happens.

I'm not sure it's a bug. It seems to be a sort of "AI" mechanic to turn of features to ensure maximal performance on less powerful hardware. If anything, AMD should document it better in the help of the catalyst control center. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

Trentgibbo

Newbie Joined: Feb 26, 2012 01:53 Messages: 1 Offline

Jul 07, 2013 06:51

lsone - thank you very much for your solution. I have spent hours trying to figure out why my 5850 was not using hardware acceleration. Unchecked the smooth playback box and it now works flawlessly.

Your a lifesaver!