R2 Video Tearing

Hi. I recently purchased an R2 (the i5 model). After finally getting it tweaked so that I can run my games acceptably, I have hit another wall. I am getting bad video "tearing" when playing any videos in VLC, Media Player Classic, and Boxee. To be clear, the "tearing" I am referring to is a horizontal "line" that appears about halfway down the screen - it is not actually a line, but more like a separation in the video.

The tearing appears in any video I play, which includes some xvid, AVCHD, etc. Beside my m11x I have an Asus notebook that does not exhibit any tearing when playing the same video files, using the same programs to play them.

Anyone encounter this, and if so, is there a remedy? So far all I've tried is playing with the V-Sync options in the media players I'm using, but so far no fix (or in the couple times I eliminated the tearing, the video playback chugged horribly).

Any help would be appreciated, as I'm on the edge of returning the m11x for a refund - I'm doing everything I can to make it work for me, as I love the design of the thing and the battery life compared to the Asus.

 

That's strange... did you update the Intel and nVidia drivers?

 

Yes. I am running the newest intel driver from their website, and I am running the new beta drivers for the 335M that were posted on this forum yesterday. 266.something. Those drivers actually resolved some issues I was having with a few games. I did a complete reinstall yesterday, my own copy of windows 7 with all the newest drivers. The tearing was present with the factory installation as well.

 

well... try forcing the media players (or set the global default) to the Intel GPU. I never tried the nVidia GPU for media purposes, since the Intel GPU is actually more full featured vs the nVidia one for this purpose (DTS HD and DolbyHD bitstreaming - which the 335m doesn't support in any configuration).

 

Thanks. I will try this later tonight. Pretty sure I have it set to default to the 335m right now.

 

Unfortunately forcing the computer to use integrated graphics for these apps has not resolved the issue. I also went into the display properties for the intel integrated graphics, and I found a setting under 3D for V-Sync. I enabled it, but it did not fix the issue, but it made it somewhat less bad (still not acceptable). What I am experiencing is exactly what you see when playing a game with V-Sync turned off, only it's happening when I watch any video.

Anyone have any other ideas?

 

Just a quick update - in my searching I came across a post in another forum where someone with an Optimus notebook noticed that switching to a standard desktop theme (non-aero) caused the tearing. Indeed I have been using a standard theme. I switched to Aero, and oddly enough it seems to have resolved the tearing issue with Boxee. I have not checked VLC or Media Player classic yet.

Why would using aero or not affect tearing?

 

Cause the DWM would be active, and the Aero effects will be, too. Perhaps that's what MS used for their own vsync setting? Sound silly, though it might make sense for older systems that cannot run aero...

 

Aero has VSync on the whole screen.