pg258q 240Hz video playback microstutter problem

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knypol
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pg258q 240Hz video playback microstutter problem

Post by knypol » 28 Oct 2017, 09:29

I have two displays connected to my PC with gtx 1070: PG258q and Benq projector . Recently i have noticed that when im watching Netflix (in app from windows store or in browser) or Youtube movies everything is very choppy. I was trying to figure out what was causing that problem. I reinstalled Nvidia drivers, even reinstalled windows 10, unplugged projector - only monitor was connected, disabled gsync. Problem wasnt solved. Then i decided to change refresh rate of my pg258q from 240 to 200 and then magically all problems are gone. Setting anything below 240Hz makes all videos very smooth. I dont believe that 1070 cant handle 240Hz. Especially that all games are perfectly smooth on 240Hz. Even movies played with Home Media Player are super smooth. Any1 got idea why is it happening? Tried to make custom resolution (in cru) 235Hz but i always get out of sync.

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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 28 Oct 2017, 11:36

knypol wrote:I have two displays connected to my PC with gtx 1070: PG258q and Benq projector . Recently i have noticed that when im watching Netflix (in app from windows store or in browser) or Youtube movies everything is very choppy. I was trying to figure out what was causing that problem. I reinstalled Nvidia drivers, even reinstalled windows 10, unplugged projector - only monitor was connected, disabled gsync. Problem wasnt solved. Then i decided to change refresh rate of my pg258q from 240 to 200 and then magically all problems are gone. Setting anything below 240Hz makes all videos very smooth. I dont believe that 1070 cant handle 240Hz. Especially that all games are perfectly smooth on 240Hz. Even movies played with Home Media Player are super smooth. Any1 got idea why is it happening? Tried to make custom resolution (in cru) 235Hz but i always get out of sync.
Two possible known problems causes this:

1. Simultaneously different refresh rates due to multimonitor
-- Try making the 240Hz a primary.
-- Try temporarily disabling the projector and see if frameskipping disappears.
-- If this solves the problem, but you need multimonitor profiles, you can use software such as DisplayFusion to have one-hotkey profiles to switch multimonitor configs (or even two separate single-monitor profiles; turning the other monitor off).

2. or 240Hz Refresh Cycle Skipping found in several 240Hz monitors.
We've had reports of frame skipping (lost refresh cycles) occasionally happening on several brands of 240Hz monitors, mainly the earlier firmwares of Viewsonic 240Hz and AOC 240Hz. Fortunately, all of them have been fixable.

To help troubleshoot, could you go to http://www.testufo.com/frameskipping and take a picture with your smartphone (or other camera) -- adjust the brightness of your display downwards a lot, to force the camera to take a long exposure, preferably capturing at least 50 or more squares (the frame skip ratio tended to be almost exactly 1 in 36 squares or 1 in 40 squares). Make sure you close all windows and browser tabs; sometimes browsers have difficulty with 240fps@240Hz.

Many manufacturers did not even notice, but we (at BlurBusters) did, and ViewSonic very quickly fixed their firmwares thanks to our reports (kudos for that).

However, new firmware is optional. Users can just fix their existing ViewSonic/AOC FreeSync 240Hz monitors via using ToastyX CRU. Vertical Total of 1160 or 1159 (aka VT1160 or VT1159). Some variations can be experimented, VT1149, VT1150, VT1151 (or even going up to VT1160) in Custom Resolution Utility. Basically, VT1140 created frame skipping but VT1150 made frame skipping disappear on the Viewsonic XG2530 -- see Viewsonic VT1150 instructions here -- the XG2530 works best with VT1150 but subsequently we found the AOC AG251FZ (FreeSync version) VT1149 works best to avoid frame skipping (stutters at 240Hz).

This might not be your monitor's issue, but it only occured when running in non-VRR mode (GSYNC turned off or FreeSync turned off). As soon as VRR was enabled, 240Hz had no frame skipping.
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knypol
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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by knypol » 28 Oct 2017, 12:38

1. PG258Q is always primary. As i wrote i did disconnect my projector - monitor was alone. Doesnt matter if projector is connected or not only 200Hz and less makes everything smooth. With 240Hz its really bad. But the games and Home Media Player works perfectly fine at 240.

2. I took some photos on frameskipping page - see attachment. Everything looks ok.
20171028_192654.jpg
20171028_192654.jpg (232.41 KiB) Viewed 7480 times

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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 28 Oct 2017, 13:03

Thanks!

However, the frameskipping reported on other monitors is very subtle -- for this, this photograph is too few squares for detecting 1-in-40 frameskips. This is barely over a dozen squares -- can you photograph at least 50 squares minimum?

To do so, dim your monitor's brightness by at least 75% before taking another photo -- that will quadruple the length of your smartphone exposure -- and consequently, quadruple the number of squares automatically photographed by a smartphone at its default settings.
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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by knypol » 28 Oct 2017, 13:49

PART_1509216401482.jpeg
PART_1509216401482.jpeg (55.9 KiB) Viewed 7475 times
best i could take.

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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 28 Oct 2017, 17:11

Hmmmm -- no frame skipping at all!

Stutters only happens in web videos?

PAL browser video playback choppiness at 240Hz
Is your video playback stutter ONLY in YouTube?
If so, are you in a PAL (Europe) region where you play 25fps / 50fps videos?
That will cause videos to play smoother at 200Hz than at 240Hz, since 200 is evenly divisible by 50 or 25.

NTSC browser video playback choppiness at 240Hz
If you're in an NTSC region where videos are 24fps / 60fps, but they're choppy, try a different browser (FireFox versus Edge versus Chrome) as some browsers suddenly start becoming less precise (frame rounding-off to wrong refresh cycles) when refresh cycles become shorter than the browser's synchronization precision. I've run into this problem during 480Hz tests and I had to use this solution on FireFox to get FireFox to run TestUFO in a stutter-free way. Web browsers are still having difficulty synchronizing smoothly at 240Hz, and even more so at 480Hx.

Stutters in offline videos?
If your offline video files are choppy, try a VRR-compatible video player such as SMPlayer to play your video files with full G-SYNC / FreeSync smoothness, even for strange framerate videos (48fps videos, etc).
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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by knypol » 28 Oct 2017, 19:51

Stutters only in web videos (netflix and youtube). In Home Media Player everything looks ok. Ive just tested Netflix app for PC on windows store which has an option for offline watching. I downloaded movie and still very choppy. Movies even lose synchronisation between picture and sound. Overall it isnt that much of a problem because i can use windows desktop in 120Hz and launching games in 240Hz but..im just curious what is the reason.

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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 29 Oct 2017, 12:49

Try Chrome versus Edge versus FireFox.

You might have fewer video stutters in a different web browser.
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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by knypol » 29 Oct 2017, 13:40

Already tried IE11, Edge and Chrome. Chrome is by far the worst.

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Re: pg258q 240Hz problem

Post by RealNC » 29 Oct 2017, 15:50

You can use 120Hz. 240Hz isn't really for the desktop and probably prevents power management from working correctly, making your GPU run at max voltage 100% of the time.
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