Extremely jumpy playback

[littlerm]

Before I started using MCE2005, SageTV 2.0 worked great for me with smooth playback and not a single problem. Now after I am fed up with MCE's unreliable PVR capabilities, I am back to Sage and I now have a bad problem with jumpy playback. Not just a slight stutter every few seconds, but really jumpy playback like 1/3 framerate for a while then it will stabilize for a little bit, then revert back to jumpy playback. I have tried Cyberlink, Intervideo, and Nvidia decoders, and they all have the same problem using overlay, vmr9, etc. I have switched to the older quartz.dll and it made no difference. I have even reinstalled the OS, tried different drivers from Nvidia, and nothing seems to help. The strange thing is that HD (using Stealth's HDNE) plays back perfectly! Also, when I play back SD recorded material through Media Player it works fine, so the problem must lie in Sage's playback. What is going on?

Here is my hardware:

AMD Athlon XP3200+
Asus NForce2 motherboard
1 Gig PC3200
Nvidia 6800GT
Hauppauge PVR-250
ATI HDTV Wonder
250GB 7200 rpm drive
MCE2005 with DirectX 9.0c, all latest updates installed, MCE services disabled
SageTV 2.2.8

[littlerm]

So is everyone else's playback ok and I'm the only one with this problem? Surely not... The problem is with Sage somewhere along the line since the same files play correctly using ZoomPlayer, Media Player, and MediaPortal.

[littlerm]

I swapped out my Nvidia 6800 with a Radeon 9800 and it works fine. I then put the 6800 back in and it starts stuttering again, so it seems to be a problem with Nvidia cards. I have tried numerous drivers and nothing helps. I still can't believe that I am the only person with this problem. Man, I wish MCE2005 didn't have that one show-stopper PVR bug, I am tired of messing with Sage to get simple playback working correctly.

[mc2wheels]

I responded to the audio sync problem post. I am going to try uninstalling java and reinstalling sage. I too have a nVidia, but a 6600GT. If this doesn't work, I may go back to 2.6. I won't know until I get to try tonight.

[silkshadow]

Playback issues are, in my experience, the result of either high CPU usage or a problem with the MPEG-2 decoder. Check the threads on how to fix skipping playback. There are several with a lot of different fixes you could try.

[aperry]

I don't know if you've got this installed, but SGraphRecorder has been giving me problems, jumping up to 95-100% CPU usage for no apparent reason, giving me extremely jumpy playback and almost non-existent response on the menus. The only way to stop it is to exit SGraphRecorder and restart (although I'm getting less and less interested in the whole restart thing).

[littlerm]

CPU usage is hovering around 20%, so that's not the problem. I have tried the latest decoders from Cyberlink, Intervideo, Nvidia, and Dscaler. The best one is the Intervideo decoder, but it still skips occasionally. Like I said earlier, it only skips on the NVidia hardware and not on the ATI hardware, and only in Sage. The same files play great through Theatertek and WMP10. This is all on a clean install on Windows Media Center 2005 (all MCE processes have been killed). Since I don't know what SGraphRecorder is, I am pretty sure it's not installed.

[gplasky]

And the nVidia drivers you're using are the ones for MCE 2005 (71.84) and not the regular Windows XP drivers. (71.89 I believe) from the nVidia site? I have a 6600GT with the 71.84 drivers and I'm not seeing this issue.

Gerry

[littlerm]

Yes, I am currently using 7184 drivers. I have tried 7189, 6703, and 75XX, and they all exhibited the same problem. I am beginning to wonder if something is wrong with my card? I don't think so because I don't see the problem with WMP10 or MCE2005, and games work fine. The problem is not a microstutter, many frames are being dropped, not just one here and there. The problem comes and goes at ~30 sec. interval. Here is an example of what I am seeing:

---------------X-X-X-X-X-X----------------X-X-X-X-X-X------

X represents stutter, or dropped frames

[littlerm]

After trying to get my HTPC PVR (SD & HD) going for 2 weeks for the 2nd time I am going back to my HDTivo, it just works. The PC will be relegated to DVD/Media/Gaming since Theatertek/Mediaportal still work great. Every PC PVR app that I have tried has a fault (the closest one being Myth). Maybe Sage 3.0 will change this.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by littlerm

Yes, I am currently using 7184 drivers. I have tried 7189, 6703, and 75XX, and they all exhibited the same problem. I am beginning to wonder if something is wrong with my card? I don't think so because I don't see the problem with WMP10 or MCE2005, and games work fine. The problem is not a microstutter, many frames are being dropped, not just one here and there. The problem comes and goes at ~30 sec. interval. Here is an example of what I am seeing:

---------------X-X-X-X-X-X----------------X-X-X-X-X-X------

X represents stutter, or dropped frames

Just as a quick check...

Check your IDE/ATAPI controller settings. I'm not sure why, but I used to have issues with my controller setting my drive to PIO mode as opposed to DMA....

The playback of your files sounds exactly what I was experiencing...

-Jason

[mc2wheels]

I uninstalled the latest java and reinstalled the one that ships with Sage 2.2.8. Now the jumpy playback is gone.