Video card recommendation to eliminate frame rate bug

[Mikko]

My system is suffering from the frame rate bug (in my case, frame rate is fluctuating 29/14 - Thanks Comcast!) and when talking with Ceton folks about this, it sounds like some video cards handle the frame rate bug better, i.e. eliminate the caused flicker/strobe effect. So I would like to get rid of this extremely annoying 'feature'.

Current system specs are (Lenovo M91p):
CPU: i7-2600 @ 3.4Ghz (Sandy Bridge)
RAM: 12GB (3 x 4GB DDR3 SDRAM PC3-10600 666.7MHz)
Primary HD: 240GB SanDisk SSD SDSSDX250GG25
GPU: onboard Intel HD Graphics. Windows Experience Index give me Graphics Index of 5.2 and Gaming Graphics Index of 5.9.
OS: Win8 (64-bit) with WMC
TV Tuner: Ceton InfinityTV PCIe \ HDHomeRun Dual Tuner

This machine is purely used for HTPC and DVR. No gaming whatsoever - just used for recording and watching HD TV. Since I only care about HD TV (live TV, DVR), the card probably doesn't need to be anything spectacular/super high end - just eliminate the freaking flicker!

What cards are you using that can eliminate/fix the frame rate bug?

The system has 1 PCI Express x16 graphics card slot but since it is next to the Ceton card, the system can only fit a card that occupies a single slot. Also since the system sits underneath the TV, the quieter the better.

I would like to keep/improve the performance (current Windows Experience Index give me Graphics Index of 5.2 and Gaming Graphics Index of 5.9) and would prefer not spending much more than $100, if possible.

Thanks for all the guidance.

[foxwood]

Try disabling "adaptive contrast enhancement" in the Intel Graphics control panel.

[Mike88]

There is a list of cards suggested near the end of this article.
http://experts.windows.com/w/experts_wiki/71.aspx

I bought an MSI HD6450 from Newegg on sale & after rebate it was $15. It takes up only a single slot. It does have a small fan but I'm not sure if I hear it or the PSU fan. The HTPC is hidden in a corner so I have to walk up to it to hear any noise.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127584

Disabling "adaptive contrast enhancement" seems to help the flicker problem from what I've read. But I was getting a stutter on some older SD programs when the frame rate briefly changed. It was like frames were being skipped. So for me the HD6450 resolved the issue.

[Mikko]

Try disabling "adaptive contrast enhancement" in the Intel Graphics control panel.

The Intel CP applet or tray icon isn't enabled/installed on my machines so it took me a while to find how to get to the advanced settings, but that did the trick. The flicker is now gone.

Thanks foxwood.

[Mikko]

There is a list of cards suggested near the end of this article.
http://experts.windows.com/w/experts_wiki/71.aspx

Thanks Mike88 for the article & info. I am also having some additional display/video quality issues so I'll see if those are gone with the adjustment as well but I may pickup a cheap card to try as well.

[foxwood]

Excellent!

And you didn't even have to pay for delivery!

[richard1980]

(in my case, frame rate is fluctuating 29/14 - Thanks Comcast!)

I've heard of fluctuating between 29.97 and 59.9401, but I've never heard of any 14 Hz fluctuations. What's the exact number you are seeing? Is it 14.985?

[Mike88]

There is a list of cards suggested near the end of this article.
http://experts.windows.com/w/experts_wiki/71.aspx

Thanks Mike88 for the article & info. I am also having some additional display/video quality issues so I'll see if those are gone with the adjustment as well but I may pickup a cheap card to try as well.

Sometimes I get curious about things & therefore played around with MPC-HC to watch some OTA recordings. The HD OTA frame rates were usually constantly varying around what they should be. Not a big deviation but always moving around. And the graphic readout was not nice & even.

However after installing the HD6450 everything became nice & steady. So even though I never noticed a problem with HD OTA programs the video card improved the frame rate data.

I should also mention that the OTA SD 59/29 bug stuttering was only visible when using WMC7. WMPlayer and MPC-HC did not exhibit the stuttering, even though MPC-HC’s data did indicate a frame rate fluctuation.

Before the card my Graphics Index was 5.0 and Gaming Graphics Index was 5.8.
After the card the Graphics Index was 4.7 and the Gaming Graphics Index was 6.2.
I don't know why the Graphics Index dropped. Maybe an updated driver would improve this. Everything is working just fine so I'm reluctant to change drivers.

[Mikko]

(in my case, frame rate is fluctuating 29/14 - Thanks Comcast!)

I've heard of fluctuating between 29.97 and 59.9401, but I've never heard of any 14 Hz fluctuations. What's the exact number you are seeing? Is it 14.985?

Yes, I'm seeing the frame rate fluctuating between 29.97 & 14.985.

This is Comcast service here in Seattle 98125.

Any idea what's going on here?

[Mikko]

There is a list of cards suggested near the end of this article.
http://experts.windows.com/w/experts_wiki/71.aspx

Thanks Mike88 for the article & info. I am also having some additional display/video quality issues so I'll see if those are gone with the adjustment as well but I may pickup a cheap card to try as well.

Sometimes I get curious about things & therefore played around with MPC-HC to watch some OTA recordings. The HD OTA frame rates were usually constantly varying around what they should be. Not a big deviation but always moving around. And the graphic readout was not nice & even.

However after installing the HD6450 everything became nice & steady. So even though I never noticed a problem with HD OTA programs the video card improved the frame rate data.

I should also mention that the OTA SD 59/29 bug stuttering was only visible when using WMC7. WMPlayer and MPC-HC did not exhibit the stuttering, even though MPC-HC’s data did indicate a frame rate fluctuation.

Before the card my Graphics Index was 5.0 and Gaming Graphics Index was 5.8.
After the card the Graphics Index was 4.7 and the Gaming Graphics Index was 6.2.
I don't know why the Graphics Index dropped. Maybe an updated driver would improve this. Everything is working just fine so I'm reluctant to change drivers.

I hear you.

I will probably pull the trigger on cheap card next time I see one. While the flickering/strobe effect is now gone, it seems like the picture quality still isn't the best. I'm getting this 'wash out/gradient effect' on areas that are showing the same color, such was painted walls on the background. I have to play bit more with the advanced graphics settings to see if I can improve that as well.

[richard1980]

(in my case, frame rate is fluctuating 29/14 - Thanks Comcast!)

I've heard of fluctuating between 29.97 and 59.9401, but I've never heard of any 14 Hz fluctuations. What's the exact number you are seeing? Is it 14.985?

Yes, I'm seeing the frame rate fluctuating between 29.97 & 14.985.

This is Comcast service here in Seattle 98125.

Any idea what's going on here?

Well 14.985 is half of 29.97, so it looks like this may be the 29/59 issue, just at half the frame/field rate.

[jerky33]

I've encountered this issue with every graphics processor I've used (the flicker/frame rate bug) including Intel, AMD(ATI) and NVIDIA, when connecting my HTPC to my Panasonic Plasma TV (TH-42PZ80U), perhaps it's exacerbated by how my TV handles this issue, but it renders certain channels unwatchable, most disappointingly HBO.
After digging around the settings myself and trying solutions people have posted online, I believe I have identified a workaround for the three major graphics chip providers.
Below I've detailed the settings that have worked for me for all three chip makers that seem to be acceptable workarounds for this bug.

Intel (Verified on HD Graphics 3000, embedded in Core i3 2105 processor, current drivers as of August 2013)
1. Open the Intel Graphics Control Panel in Advanced Mode (Basic Mode does not display the setting that needs to be changed to address this issue)
2. Select 'Media' (on the left), and choose the sub category of 'Image Enhancement'
3. Uncheck the setting called 'Adaptive Contrast Enhancement'
4. Click 'Apply' and close the control panel

AMD (Verified on Radeon HD 5450, current drivers as of August 2013)
1. Open Catalyst Control Center
2. Select 'Video' (on the left), and choose the sub category of 'Quality' (this will automatically select the next sub category of 'Video Quality', if not then choose 'Video Quality'
3. Uncheck the box next to 'Enable dynamic contrast'
4. Click 'Apply' and close the Catalyst Control Center

NVIDIA (Verified on GTX 570 HD, current drivers as of August 2013)
1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel
2. Under 'Display' category on the left select the 'Adjust desktop color settings' subcategory
3. Ensure that the radio button next to 'Use NVIDIA settings' is selected
4. Then in the lower portion fo the screen change the 'Digital color format' from 'RGB' to 'YVbCr444'
5. Click 'Apply' and close the NVIDIA Control Panel

I can't guarantee that these settings will resolve the flickering for everybody experiencing this issue, but I can definitively say that these were the specific settings that I was able to use a s a reliable workaround for the WMC frame rate bug.

I hope this helps someone.

[Mike88]

I never had a flicker, I had a stutter a few times per minute which was noticeable depending on picture content. It looked like a frame or two was spliced out of a movie film.

[richard1980]

Jerky33, I guess you weren't aware of this, but the solution to the flickering has been known for several years. There are actually three commonly reported symptoms of the 29/59 issue:

1. Stuttering - Occurs when the GPU is unable to transition between interlaced frames and progressive frames quickly enough. When a frame arrives that causes a transition, and the transition is not completed before one or more subsequent frames arrive, the subsequent frame(s) are dropped. Once the transition is complete, frame processing resumes normally. The solution to this is to change GPUs to one that is able to complete the transition without dropping frames. Additionally, some GPU driver versions have resulted in stuttering on GPUs that are known to have the capability to perform the transition without dropping frames, so on those GPUs, changing the driver version will resolve the stuttering.
2. Screen blanking - This is where the screen goes completely black during the transition. AFAIK, this symptom only occurs on NVIDA GPUs. The solution to this is to set the content type to full-screen video.
3. Flickering - This is where the on-screen image changes brightness/contrast during the transition and is caused by the output RGB range being temporarily reset during the transition. The solution is to disable the dynamic contrast feature of the GPU and set the RGB output range via the registry.

There is a fourth symptom that is not commonly reported. When frames are incorrectly marked, they end up being processed incorrectly...so they don't get interlaced/deinterlaced properly before output. While not commonly reported, this symptom always exists for mis-marked frames (it just isn't noticed by many people), and the only solution is to mark the frames correctly in the first place.

[mattiedread]

I have this flickering issue only on certain channels. I've done a ton of research over the past two months, seen some decent posts, but nothing works for me. I recorded a movie on HBO HD the other night and it is unwatchable because of the flickering described above.

I just uninstalled my onboard GPU drivers and went through the whole intel 'find the right drivers', installed the HD 4600 (CPU=3570k). I don't have the graphics options listed above, but, prior to the uninstall/re-install I had tinkered with all my graphic settings which seemed applicable... I'm now back to default, problem is consistent.

I've never seen this before:
The solution is to disable the dynamic contrast feature of the GPU and set the RGB output range via the registry.

How do I do this, there is no dynamic contrast feature and how do I set the RGB output via the registry (and, to what) ... but, regedit....?

I would really like to resolve this issue. I was having issues with my Sandy i5, couldn't figure it out so swapped out MOBO and CPU, fixed those issues, but, now this, very frustrating (MOBO is ASUS H87M - Plus) Old set up is in my profile.

[richard1980]

To disable dynamic contrast, open the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel and go to the Video section. At the top of the HD Graphics control panel, you'll see the word "Video", and immediately to the right of it is an arrow that points down. Click that arrow to expose a drop-down menu, and click Image Enhancements. Near the top you'll see two links, one of which says Advanced. Click it. Now go down to Contrast Enhancement and click Off. Save your settings.

[mattiedread]

Thanks Richard, this appears to have worked (only did a 10 min test against that HBO movie I referenced above, didn't see any). Can't believe I missed that before, but, I must have.

I had found a post on AVS which recommended trying several things, this was not one (but I thought I had tried toggling pretty much every option, never hit that one).

[richard1980]

I forgot to answer the part about the registry. You'll want to change [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Debug\ehPresenter.dll] (create keys as necessary if they don't exist).

To force RGB range 16-235:
"NominalRange"=dword:2

To force RGB range 0-255:
"NominalRange"=dword:1

[iamevan]

Try disabling "adaptive contrast enhancement" in the Intel Graphics control panel.

The Intel CP applet or tray icon isn't enabled/installed on my machines so it took me a while to find how to get to the advanced settings, but that did the trick. The flicker is now gone.

Thanks foxwood.

What Intel graphic drivers version were you using at the time when you disabled "adaptive contrast enhancement" ?

I'm running a Haswell i3 4130T with the latest Intel drivers (15.31.17.3257); disabling the contrast settings/features only slightly reduces the flickering issue.

[natlight]

NVIDIA (Verified on GTX 570 HD, current drivers as of August 2013)
1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel
2. Under 'Display' category on the left select the 'Adjust desktop color settings' subcategory
3. Ensure that the radio button next to 'Use NVIDIA settings' is selected
4. Then in the lower portion fo the screen change the 'Digital color format' from 'RGB' to 'YVbCr444'
5. Click 'Apply' and close the NVIDIA Control Panel

I can confirm that this works for NVIDIA 610 on the latest driver release (as of 10/1/2013).

Thanks Jerky!