sage tv v4 issues

[aoehlke]

Hi, I have just installed version 4 and now that the software is so mature, I want to configure my pc to run sage properly, once and for all.

I am using a 6600gt, output to a regular tv.

I guess I have several questions... one being, what is the best nvidia driver configuration for this? dual view with the 2nd head at 640x480, or clone mode with both heads at my desktop res1024x768.

also, when I use FSE, and have th esage on the 2nd display, my mouse becomes choppy on my desktop... is that normal?

and lastly, i heard that overlay may not be so resource hungry... but i cannot get transparency to work with overlay. any ideas why?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by aoehlke

also, when I use FSE, and have th esage on the 2nd display, my mouse becomes choppy on my desktop... is that normal?

3D Acceleration (DirectX) always works best on the primary monitor. If your second display is still set to be a secondary display, DirectX will be pretty slow on it, since it has to use a lot more cpu power to try to emulate things.

and lastly, i heard that overlay may not be so resource hungry... but i cannot get transparency to work with overlay. any ideas why?

I can't remember whether you have to have 3D Acceleration off for pseudo-transparency w/overlay (I think it should be off), but try toggling the Overlay Color Keying setting for this.

- Andy

[aoehlke]

transparent overlay looks like crap compared to vmr9 transparency... i guess the sage UI is rendered to texture memory and then blended via directX?
whereas the overlay transparency looks more like a stipple.

anyway, i set the 6600gt to clone mode instead of dualview... so now my tv is running a 1024x768... i am wondering what happens when sage is run full screen during this mode... I dont think my monitor resolution is changing, but would it be beneficial, if beofre going fullscreen, i drop to a lower res... even 640x480 perhaps, to closely match ntsc res?

also, would FSE be beneficial to try/use?

[Wheemer]

I use dualview with my tv set to primary, using VMR9 FSE with the latest Nvidia decoder and graphics card driver.

I notice no problems with this at all... I am able to use my monitor and computer as usual without interfering with Sage. I have setup the nvidia driver to reposition windows to my monitor, rather than the default of primary.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by aoehlke

transparent overlay looks like crap compared to vmr9 transparency... i guess the sage UI is rendered to texture memory and then blended via directX?
whereas the overlay transparency looks more like a stipple.

Exactly VMR9 uses alpha blending where Overlay relies on simulated tranparency.

[aoehlke]

thanks wheemer, I'll have to try your settings with my setup and see how it looks.

what resolution do you set the tv set display at in dual view? or do you leave it the same as your desktop?

If I set my tv to primary, will I be able to game on the monitor? (secondary)... probably not eh? will likely have to toggle back and forth depending on sage use vs gaming.

[Wheemer]

I have the TV set to 1024x768... I've tried other resolutions, but I've never noticed any differences. My Monitor is set to 1280x1024, so they can be set differently.

And yes, you'd have to switch the monitor back to primary to play a game on it.

[aoehlke]

do u use nvidia post processor or just nvidia decoder?
I wonder what the difference is?

[Wheemer]

Well since your 6600 gt does the same as the post processor, except your card does it in hardware, there is no need to use anything but the regular nvidia decoder or default.

I use the regular simply because my systems not powerfully enough to use the post processor... Although I'm very happy with the PQ like it is.

[aoehlke]

agreed, looks good here now...
dualview, 640x480 for the tv, set to primary just like you wheemer.
(although lower res).
I was thinking that lower res is less work for the GPU, as less scaling is required?

dont know tho... just kinda wild guess.

havent tried FSE yet... well I have, just not with this configuration... will report back in a few days.

but bad news... wife is now telling me she finds it hard to read sage font!!! shit!
it was hard enuf to get her to adopt sage, now this!

[Wheemer]

I don't think you'll have to worry about reducing the work your video card is doing. You should probably try running in 1024x768... You may not even need to bother with FSE either. If you were playing back HD I would suggest it, but you really don't need to use it unless you are currently experiencing playback issues without it.

[aoehlke]

why do u think i should run the tv at 1024x768?

and yes, playback looks great without FSE, i guess i wont bother.

sadly, i think iw ill get rid of my xcard... i was too keen reading the xcard plugin thread and am disappointed with its performance.

i am glad too that sage now supports the 6600 vivo and the hauppauge blaster natively.

i use a usb uirt for control with my harmony remote, and the blaster the change channels ... (my pc is behind my seating position so i cant use the usb uirt for both. I am thinking my sage setup is now complete and ready for regular use. in the past, i only used it about 50% of the time i watched tv. i will now try to get my media mvp working with sage to the upstairs tv

[CanadianEh]

... when you say Sage supports the 6600 VIVO natively now, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean as in the video output on a PVR-350 bypassing codecs, etc?

[Wheemer]

aoehlke; well the only reason I suggested that was because I am running it and it looks perfect, no video upscaling issues at all.

You should at least be running a resolution that is the same or slightly bigger than your recordings though... NTSC is normally 720 x 480, so if you are running 640x480 res, then you're not using all of the info you have in your recordings.

[aoehlke]

canadianEh:
i dont use the 6600 vivo for capture for sage... i use a hauppage 150... but i saw that the 6600 inputs are now listed as capture devices in sage... don tknow how they work... never tried.

I capture via svideo, so the coax on my 150 is not used anyway.

maybe i should give the 6600 vivo a try... but then again, if it aint broke dont fix it... I am oging to get rid of my xcard though... that was an impulse buy that I am not overly happy with

[jphhughes]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

I use dualview with my tv set to primary, using VMR9 FSE with the latest Nvidia decoder and graphics card driver.

I notice no problems with this at all... I am able to use my monitor and computer as usual without interfering with Sage. I have setup the nvidia driver to reposition windows to my monitor, rather than the default of primary.

I use the exact same settings with my nvidia 6600 card. However not all windows reposition to my monitor. For instance if I click start menu, My Computer, right click my computer then click Manage it opens on the primary monitor(TV) Do you know of some setting that would get all windows to open on the monitor? Thanks

[omega]

Originally Posted by jphhughes

I use the exact same settings with my nvidia 6600 card. However not all windows reposition to my monitor. For instance if I click start menu, My Computer, right click my computer then click Manage it opens on the primary monitor(TV) Do you know of some setting that would get all windows to open on the monitor? Thanks

[RANT]Unfortunately this is one of the many deficiencies of Windows. It doesn't truly understand the concept of multiple monitors, even though it pretends to. NVidia and others have done a good job of extending the Windows API (i.e. DualView and nView), but they can't fully overcome the fact that Windows is just a dumb, poorly-written operating system. [/RANT]

Basically, anything that registers a standard Window class or subclass should be able to be repositioned by nView, but programs that use their own custom window-drawing code will likely not be controllable by nView. Winamp and MMC (aka the Computer Management tool you referred to) are just a couple of examples that don't seem to obey nView's policies. Splash screens for many applications also seem to center themselves on display #1 no matter what you set in nView (even if the application itself then opens on the correct monitor) .

In order to force all windows and dialog boxes to only open on the secondary monitor, you would have to switch to a real operating system like Linux, and configure two separate X displays, one on each monitor. Too bad we non-OEMs can't get our hands on the new Linux version of SageTV yet... This is actually one of only 2 or 3 Windows-only programs that are still holding me back from completely switching to Linux and finally ditching Microsoft forever .

-Dave

[deliverer]

I have a FX5500. Do the same rules apply for me? Is the post processing done on the card itself? Should I just select the decoder option?

Thanks,

Deliverer

[Wheemer]

I use a FX5500 aswell, my best results are with 1024x768 svideo with FSE running Nvidia Decoder in pixel adaptive deinterlacing... Looks really good I'd say.

[deliverer]

Where do you set the pixel adaptive interlacing option?