Client playback issues.

[FidgetyRat]

Hi guys. I need a bit of advice on this one.

I have an 833 Mhz system, 256Mb ram and fast ethernet. This system is running a very very clean and watered down win2k and is ONLY being used as a client.

My video play back skips every 2 seconds, uses 100% CPU, and any mouse or keyboard presses take @12 seconds to register.

If i stream a DivX file it runs perfectly fine around 50% CPU.


Anyone know what I can do to get this working? 833 is morer then enough to watch video. Especially if DivX files are streaming perfectly fine at 1/2 the cpu drain.?

[Wheemer]

Mpeg2 is a lot harder to decode and playback then xvid. What decoder are you using and what video card?

[FidgetyRat]

Hmm didnt know that.

Using default sageTV decoder on an onboard video. I know a better video card would help but its a very tiny system and it cant be replaced.

Would a different mpeg decoder help? If so any suggestions as to which?


I do have some DVD programs that may have different decoders.

Thanks again. I'm mainly looking for ways to squeeze better performance out of the system I already have which met all of sageTVs requirements.

[Wheemer]

well I know some decoders may work with certain video hardware better than others... Give the Nvidia Purevideo decorder a whirl, there's a 30 day trial.

[stevech]

My Client has those same symptoms - lots of dropped frames in batches every few seconds and 10 second lag in responding to key-presses. This PC has a very crude video card (mobo video) so I guess I blame it on an overtaxed CPU decoding MPEG and reformatting for this video display. I haven't tried a $50 class PCI bus video card yet.

Clent: AMD 1800 with 512M ram, XP Pro
Server: AMD 2400 with 1G ram

[FidgetyRat]

I moved all of the decoder options to "Default" and the CPU runs at about 84% now so I am guessing the problem was with the sageTV decoders.

I actually have no idea what my "default" decoder actually is. I tried to install a new encoder that is supposedly easier on the cpus "Elecard MPEG-2" however I don't have the option to use it in sage? Do i need to add lines to config files?

So far at least I can play the files. Menus activate in about 1 second now instead of 12 so thats improvement.

Im going to try 800x600, hopefully ease up on the frame buffer a bit.

[ben_95sl1]

I'm using a p3-600 with an ati rage pro 8mb pci card on winxp, and runs just dandy; people have less and still worked. it played skip free with windvd, powerdvd and sage decoders (and I think the sage one probably doesn't have option for hwmc, or dxva support from the video card). Mind you, its not a rocket, but playback is fine. I've found that dxva/video card accel isn't defaulted when using the decoders(need a reg setting); and even your onboard video might have some mpeg2 accel (so find out if it does and enable it in the decoder)

[FidgetyRat]

Thanks. Things are running much better with "default" decoders instead of the sageTV decoders

You mentioned that I may be able to "enable it in the decoder". How do you go about doing something like this.

Also, how tell sageTV where to find new decoders. I downloaded a different software decoder that is supposed to be much better on a cpu but sage only allows me to select "default" or "sage decoder"


Also, i do have winDVD and powerDVD but they are not installed. would they benefit the system with better codecs if installed?

[ben_95sl1]

you're pvr250 cards should have come with intervideo non-css decoders on the install disk - which I believe are windvd decoders but don't work on CSS encrypted mpeg2s (DVD). I use those and they work great with dxva/hwmc enabled (which may or not make a difference with your onboard video). there's a thread stickied at the top of the hardware section for how to enable. Windvd is simlar, don't knwo about powerdvd.

[FidgetyRat]

Thanks alot. I have a bunch of different DVD software and the hauppauge disks. Ill give some of them a shot..

Will sageTV display these different codecs in the setup?-

[ben_95sl1]

here's the thread I meant...apparently its not where i thought it was...

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...video+cpu+dxva