HEVC stuttering on x86 PC - is it hardware or settings?

  • Hi all

    Please excuse, I am a LE newbie:

    The problem I am having is HEVC 1080p films stuttering.

    Installed is

    Libreelec 10.0.0 with Kodi 19.1

    Hardware:

    an old Dell Optiplex 745

    Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz cpu,

    4Gb RAM

    Geforce GT 730 2gb vid card.

    on a 1080p screen

    It's used for watching 1080p and 720p films, some x264, some x265/HEVC - some 10bit. All 264 films work fine, but some 1080p HEVC are a bit stuttery.

    Are there any tweaks or settings to adjust? I know it's old hardware, but I use another PC which is almost like-for-like with a Core 2 Quad and same generation Geforce vid card running Linux Mint with VLC - and it is able to play HEVC 1080p films without issue.

    I believe that Geforce GT-7** cards have hardware decoding for 10bit HEVC.

    According to the system settings on LE, under 'video', it gives this info:

    Open GL version 4.6.0 NVIDIA 460.67

    - so I am assuming that the Nvidia video driver is installed, not the open source driver.

    Thanks in advance for looking at this.

  • Are there any tweaks or settings to adjust?

    Nope, only some proper hardware upgrade like a better video card or a much beefier CPU replacement.

    Either way, the cost of either wouldn't be worth it IMO. A cheaper Raspberry Pi 4 runs circles around your PC when doing HEVC videos.

    The problem is that a RPi4 is currently hard to come by. Chip shortages and supply & demand make it a problem.

    I believe that Geforce GT-7** cards have hardware decoding for 10bit HEVC.

    Nope, proper HEVC support started with the Nvidia GTX950/960 series.

    Open GL version 4.6.0 NVIDIA 460.67

    The video driver is fine, but the GT730 does not have onboard HEVC decoding capabilities.