Weird stuttering conversion problem

[rodpike]

Hi, I have just finished a video in AVCHD format and converted it to WMV format for a youtube video for my client. Here are the facts and the problem:
1.The video plays perfectly direct from Youtube on XP and Windows7 pcs.
2. The video plays perfectly from my own website, streaming from youtube (Windows 7 PC and XP pc)
3. The video plays perfectly from the client's windows 7 pcs, both direct from youtube and within their own website, streaming from youtube.
4. Now the problem: when viewing it from within their website, both on their XP system and mine there is a massive loss of sync and dropped frames all over the place.(although it is fine on W7 pcs.)

Initially it would appear that there is something wrong with the way their site is handling the youtube stream.(but it plays perfectly on their windows 7 pcs) I have tried Anton,s methods via TMPgenc and have tried wmv files in both SD and HD. Before I make a complete prat of myself when talking to their webmaster, has anyone any thoughts on this?

I have never experienced this before, the only thing unique about this video is that I didn,t convert my AVCHD timeline to Canopus HQ avi before creating the WMV file. Could this be the problem? But then why would it play happily on XP pcs both om my own site and direct from youtube on all mcs? ANy help on this please?

[antonsvideo]

maybe they have a bad internet connection in XP or firewall interfering? or antivirus program scanning?

[rodpike]

Hi Anton, Yes that might be the case. It still doesn't explain why it is fine on their W7 machines but not on their XP pcs.
However, can I clear as a cause the fact that I left the timeline as AVCHD before exporting to WMV? I assumed that once converted to another format it would "become" the new format.

I have read that AVCHD can be tricky but I have had no problems until now. Do you know if there are any peculiar formatting or compression issues carried over when converting from AVCHD? I would love to eliminate this as the cause- I know I could convert to HQ AVI and then to WMV but I am reluctant to ask them to load up yet another version of this video.

[antonsvideo]

is the XP sharing the same firewall and antivirus as Win7? I doubt it

is their temp folder totally full with 1000s of files? is the graphics card suitable for smooth video playback? do all other youtube videos look smooth on that XP?

also, it is not your conversion that is the problem, because YouTube perform the conversion on your supplied file

[rodpike]

Thanks Anton, the AVCHD timeline export direct to WMV was the only thing I have carried out differently on all the youtube videos I have done, and I was beginning to think it was causing the problem.

I think it is time to speak with their web master and get them to run some other youtube videos. I will report back on this., thanks for your help as always.

[GrassValley_BH]

Definitely sounds like something in the way their website is embedding the stream is making it funky on XP. Could be an IE version incompatibility/bug, perhaps just "too much going on" on the site (frames?), not sure.

Also keep in mind that XP clients often...

• have an older version of Flash
• have an older graphics driver (or even XP RTM driver = UNaccelerated)
• have older graphics hardware that Flash can't use (or use properly) for acceleration
• have an older version of IE (IIRC XP comes with IE6 or IE7, depending on release - XP machines with automatic updates will get IE8 pushed to them)
• have slower CPUs
• have little RAM (typical XP with less than 2 GB is dog slow, even going from 1.5 GB to 2 GB can make a HUGE difference)

[rodpike]

Thanks everone for the help and advice. I have passed your comments and the problem to their IT department who have so far been unable to repeat the problem, so it would seem that there are some XP machines that are either light on Ram or don't have the latest drivers.

Update: I refreshed my flash player (although I appeared to have the latest version anyway) and the video now plays on my old XP machine from their site, so it is looking like a driver issue, or corruption somewhere. Will get back if anything further learned from my customer.