Blu Ray Stutter on Windows 8

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When watching Blu-Ray films, every few minutes there will be a short stutter lasting about a second wherein the picture freezes before resynchronising with the audio. Sometimes this will happen every 2-3 minutes, sometimes it'll only happen once in a 30-minute period.

If it was regular (every 40 seconds) I'd suspect a frame-rate issue; if it was repeatable I'd suspect some kind of buffering issue; if it was down to some hardware contention I'd expect it to happen only when the machine was busy. I'm currently wondering if it's a hardware fault, or some background process intermittently spiking load (although surely this would be regular?).

I'm running Windows 8 and have experienced the same issue with PowerDVD 12 and TMT. I've experienced the issue when the machine has been essentially idle otherwise, and also when Windows 8 Media Center is recording HD video from a DVB-S tuner.

My hardware is as follows:

  • Intel Core i5 3570K s1155
  • Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI, Intel H77
  • 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3
  • 1TB Western Digital WD10EZRX Caviar
  • LiteOn IHOS104-06 4xBlu-ray, 8x DVD
  • 60GB Corsair Force Series GT, 2.5"

Update

Further to comments below: has happened with two Blu-Ray discs bought from shops. Windows Update is up-to-date, although I'm not sure if it's likely that there'll be lag between vendors releasing drivers and them becoming available via Windows Update?

EngineerBetter_DJ

Posted 2013-01-15T10:39:38.027

Reputation: 223

1Are the video/audio and chipset drivers all up to date? Is the Blu-Ray a shop bought disk or one you've created yourself (I assume the first, but best to ask) and does it happen with all BluRay disks (does the issue persist with non Blu ray?) – Dave – 2013-01-15T11:30:08.323

The more important question does this problem happen on any disk used? I assume PowerDVD 12 and TMT are the current releases. – Ramhound – 2013-01-15T12:13:16.780

How does your CPU load varies during playback? Is it near 0, or it consumes a lot of CPU? – Petr Abdulin – 2013-01-18T10:46:50.773

1Does this happen if you turn off your computer's wireless adapter before playing ? – harrymc – 2013-01-18T17:10:57.747

Update your drivers directly from the manufacturer (either the PC vendor, or Intel/nvidia/etc.). Windows Update is only to be used as a last resort for drivers. – Bigbio2002 – 2013-01-18T17:18:14.863

This the Gigabyte drivers download page.

– harrymc – 2013-01-18T17:54:04.653

This could very well be an unrelated driver. Try checking system latency: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

– Shinrai – 2013-01-22T16:50:47.857

If the HDD led is on during the pauses, it might be related to the drive the player is on, or the controller. I have a similar issue listed. – j riv – 2013-01-24T15:26:45.983

Answers

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A firmware update on the Blu-Ray drive seemed to do the trick.

EngineerBetter_DJ

Posted 2013-01-15T10:39:38.027

Reputation: 223

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Usually this type of issue occurs when hardware is interrupting calls and demanding a lot of resources. Sometimes this can be resolved by updating drivers. Other times it takes replacing the hardware itself.

If you have other devices connected via USB, Bluetooth, or any other means, disconnect those devices and see if the issue persists. If not, then it will have nothing to do with the other hardware or the drivers associated with it.

If the issue goes away, then it is a matter of re-attaching devices until the issue pops up then determining if it is driver vs actual hardware.

Chris E. Avis

Posted 2013-01-15T10:39:38.027

Reputation: 1 637

Asked: 2013-01-15T10:39:38.027

Viewed: 684 times

Active: 2013-10-03T09:03:19.667