Do you use Fullscreen Exclusive Mode?

[stanger89]

Just looking to get a read, how many of you are using Fullscreen Exclusive mode?

[sleonard]

I am unable to use FSE. I can go from full screen to windowed but from windowed to full screen locks up the entire computer and requires a hard boot.

[RedR]

Heya,

My problem is I have yet to move over to the 4.x version from 2.6RC2. My main PVR is just too important to the family to deal with the issues I've read about in 4.x. I am running VMR9 now that I move my 6600GT over to the PVR and am very happy with the results.

[Polypro]

Yes. Tearing in HD if I don't. It didn't work for me either, for a while. I still get the occasional crash/shutdown when awaking from the tray...but it's rare enough. There is a property that stays set to "True" even when FSE is activated through the UI...something along the lines of disable_dx9_fullscreenexclusive=True. I set it to false...don't know if that helped...don't know what that property is for.

Java 1.50.06
Forceware 83.10
Gigabyte 6600GT Passive 128MB

P

[WellThen]

I've just turned it off tonight. I often (but not always) get a narrow vertical bar along the right side of the screen of weird blocks (mostly black and white rectangles) that looks like it's about 60 or 70 pixels wide (this is at 1366x768). As soon as I turn off FSE, the blocks go away. The blocks seem to change position every time I arrow up or down to a different menu option, or go to a different screen. (I had the same problem with MCE2005, so this is not a Sage issue.) I just upgraded to the latest Nvidia drivers (81.98) to try to get rid of this issue, but it didn't help. Maybe a video card (6600GT) issue?

Of course, I haven't watched any HD content since I turned it off. If I start noticing tearing as someone mentioned above, I'll probably go running back...

[lotusvball]

I've never been able to get VMR9 to work. To much Stuttering for me.

[nielm]

I like the idea of VMR9 and nice alpha blending, and menu fade transition, theoretically better scaling...
I also regularly try it, but keep on going back to overlay because:

• Full screen toggle in FSE mode crashes Sage
• video tearing in non-FSE mode...
• difference in brightness levels means either video is correct and pictures are over-contrasted, or pictures are correct and video is under-contrasted (I am trying to work around this with FFDSHOW 'level adjust' as a video post-processing filter)

So I keep on going back to overlay, with 3d acelleration off I get an OK semi-transparent OSD...

(another poll option needed: no but I would like to)

[Hector]

Originally Posted by nielm

[*]Full screen toggle in FSE mode crashes Sage

Originally Posted by sleonard

I am unable to use FSE. I can go from full screen to windowed but from windowed to full screen locks up the entire computer and requires a hard boot.

I had the exact same problem. I was curious as to if the problem was simply with Sage transitioning into FSE a 2nd time (after going from FSE to windowed) and this seems to be the case (thanks to kltye for finding the parameter and proving this worked for him as well).

What you wish you could do: Watch in FSE, minimize to windowed, go back to FSE (doesn't work)

Do this instead: Watch in FSE, minimize to windowed, quit sage UI, restart with -startup parameter so it starts up in FSE.

Actually the parameter forces Sage to start at its windows default setting so be sure this is full screen and that you have FSE enabled of course.

In short the problem is as you say going from windowed to FSE and this circumvents that. It's almost like magic, I can even watch other FSE enabled applications and still come back to Sage without problems.

For me this works 100% of the time. Slight inconvenience but FSE is WELL worth the trouble esp on anything with any real movement (like sports). Night and day, night and day.

peace . . .

[Jesse]

Interesting.

When I set up my new client I configured sage to use VMR9/FSE and zoom to use VMR9/Renderless. NO GO! Sage worked just fine, but zoom would not work. I would get an error message saying that the VMR9 renderer could not be built. I tried zoom in every renderer mode it lists and no go. I killed FSE in sage and no go. I completely closed sage and zoom would then work with any renderer I selected.

If I set sage for VMR9 (no FSE) and zoom for VMR9 windowed then all is good.

Now that I finally have my OTA antenna set up and my VBOX HD tuner working (sort of, I have issues here that I need to duplicate before posting) we are finally able to watch some HD on our new plasma. WOW !!!! I did notice some very slight stutters in playback. They were a little tough to pick up at first, but eventually both the wife and I noticed them. Nothing too bad, but we could see them. I am wondering in FSE would help with this?

Any other tips for really smoothing out HD would also be appreciated. I am going to kill the antivirus and maybe the HT feature on my Intel P4 3.0e. Soon I will have DVD Lobby set up on an older Fujitsu tablet, so I will be able to kill that too. That will leave girder and MainLobby server. I am also wondering if more memory would be beneficial. I currently have one gig installed.

Jesse

[samgreco]

I've never been able to get VMR9 to work. To much Stuttering for me.

Same issue here. I have finally given up for now.

And this is after buying a new A64 3500+ board and CPU AND a BFG 6600-GTOC.

Seems like it should work, doesn't it...

[Jesse]

Hello Hector,

You said:

Do this instead: Watch in FSE, minimize to windowed, quit sage UI, restart with -startup parameter so it starts up in FSE.

Just so I can be clear on this:

1. Watch in FSE (ok)
2. minimize to windowed (do you mean switch from full screen mode to windowed mode ie:Ctrl+Shift+F )
3. quit sage UI (do you mean minimize to taskbar or sleep to system tray?)
4. restart with -startup parameter so it starts up in FSE (ok, so depending on the answer to #3 I am either maximizing or waking sage. Please tell me where to find the start-up parameter.)

I am hoping this will let me keep sage in FSE and not have to completely close it to use Zoom in VMR9/Renderless.

Thanks very much.

Jesse

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by sleonard

I am unable to use FSE. I can go from full screen to windowed but from windowed to full screen locks up the entire computer and requires a hard boot.

I think that switching from windowed mode to FSE is a known issue. FSE works great for me, except that I am always interested in checking a web site or reading this forum with the same computer that runs sage. In windowed mode with FSE turned on I dont get any UI or video on the screen. Also I can't quit the UI. It sort of just sits there, I can hear the audio from the playing recording but just get a locked up little black window. When going back to FSE mode or resuming from the tray, I get lockups or sage will just shut down. Then it won't always restart until after a reboot.

And to think I was all excited to use FSE after moving Sage to a different mother board and processor. I though, "great no more tearing" Then I had the problems mentioned above and realized that I wasn't getting any tearing anyway with out FSE on this newer hardware. So I turned it off today. No apparent loss for me. I will probably play with it more when I stop finding other things to distract me from actually just watching tv. But that would be boring.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by Jesse

3. quit sage UI (do you mean minimize to taskbar or sleep to system tray?)

If you run the SageTV service, you can quit the user interface and still have the service running in the back ground recording your programing etc. This way you can quit the UI and not loose anything core related. I think that is what Hector was refering to.

I don't run the service at the moment but am interested in the start up parameter question. I think Hector may be refering to a command line argument. I.e. what you would type in the "Run..." dialog from the start menu.

[Hector]

Quit Sage as in exit the program is what is relevant to you I think although I am not sure it would address your issue mostly because I am not sure what zoom means in this context. By zoom do you mean Zoomplayer the software? I'll go with that assumption . . .

If so then you probably need to quit the Sage UI to go back to FSE mode. I run Sage as a service so quitting the UI has no effect of course on whether the service records your programs etc. So as long as you are running Sage as a service if you quit the UI to use Zoomplayer there is no 'cost' to you as Sage merrily goes on about its business of recording as usual.

So I am not saying you have to minimize, but rather that the bug is a result of minimizing OR quitting Sage once it has already been in FSE mode. In this case for me and at least some others previous to this workaround you would have to reboot your machine anytime you want to close down the UI after using Sage in FSE mode. If this sounds confusing LMK and I'll give it another go. I could probably do a better job of explaining if I hadn't just came back from 8 hours of excruciating furniture shopping.

In any case -startup is a command line parameter. The easiest way to pass the command is through the shortcut you probably have on your desktop.

Edit the shortcut properties, select the shortcut tab and add -startup to the target outside the quote marks. It will read similar to

"C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\SageTV.exe" -startup

This forces Sage to start up using the parameters set for a reboot/system startup so be sure you have that set to full screen (detailed setup-->advanced-->Load at Windows startup) and of course FSE enabled BEFORE you restart.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hello Hector,

You said:


Just so I can be clear on this:

1. Watch in FSE (ok)
2. minimize to windowed (do you mean switch from full screen mode to windowed mode ie:Ctrl+Shift+F )
3. quit sage UI (do you mean minimize to taskbar or sleep to system tray?)
4. restart with -startup parameter so it starts up in FSE (ok, so depending on the answer to #3 I am either maximizing or waking sage. Please tell me where to find the start-up parameter.)

I am hoping this will let me keep sage in FSE and not have to completely close it to use Zoom in VMR9/Renderless.

Thanks very much.

Jesse

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by samgreco

And this is after buying a new A64 3500+ board and CPU AND a BFG 6600-GTOC.

Do you have a Via chipset or an nForce? I had to update the chipset drivers on my old via based mother board before I could get my 6600GT to work at all with 3D acceleration, or vmr9/FSE. DirectX disabled hardware acceleration so the options just weren't there in Sage. An update from the via arena web site fixed my issues.

I just switched Mother Boards to an nForce3 150 board with an older Athlon64 3200+ in a 754 socket style. I updated all the chip drivers and have not had any problems yet. Keep an eye on your mother board manufacturer's web site. If it is a new board they usually have updates every couple of months.

The Forceware Drivers from nVidia get updated regularly also.

[Hector]

This is similar to my experience. If you use FSE you can't restart and use it again because as you say switching from windowed is a known issue. Try it with the -startup parameter (see previous ramblings) and I'll bet you're good to go.

peace . . .

EDIT: The important point here is instead of minimizing Sage you just quit the UI each time you want to browse etc and when you restart do so with the -startup parameter which bypasses windowed mode altogether. Or at least you have to quit/restart each time you want to go BACK to FSE mode.

Originally Posted by Humanzee

I think that switching from windowed mode to FSE is a known issue. FSE works great for me, except that I am always interested in checking a web site or reading this forum with the same computer that runs sage. In windowed mode with FSE turned on I dont get any UI or video on the screen. Also I can't quit the UI. It sort of just sits there, I can hear the audio from the playing recording but just get a locked up little black window. When going back to FSE mode or resuming from the tray, I get lockups or sage will just shut down. Then it won't always restart until after a reboot.

And to think I was all excited to use FSE after moving Sage to a different mother board and processor. I though, "great no more tearing" Then I had the problems mentioned above and realized that I wasn't getting any tearing anyway with out FSE on this newer hardware. So I turned it off today. No apparent loss for me. I will probably play with it more when I stop finding other things to distract me from actually just watching tv. But that would be boring.

[Lucas]

It just dawned on me that, while I had stuttering with VMR9 with version 2.x of SageTV and I ended up using Overlay out of frustration for a good year or so, as of recent(a month) I enabled VMR9 but without FSE and I have no problems whatsoever.

Looks like I have my (now aging ) ATI9600XT to thank for that.

[Polypro]

The way it works for me is:

I start Sage manually from the shortcut in my quicklaunch bar. It starts up fullscreen with FSE enabled. When I want to surf, etc... I use the Standby menu item or hit a button on my remote mapped to "Power On/Off", which puts Sage to sleep. I then hit the "Power On/Off" again to wake Sage to fullscreen again.

P

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

realized that I wasn't getting any tearing anyway with out FSE on this newer hardware. So I turned it off today.

Scratch that, HD programing just works better with FSE enabled for me. No tearing but too much stuttering. I configured the -startup parameter and now try to avoid the windowed mode option.

Is there a way to remove the windowed mode icon from the sage menus? I thought I saw something about "mouse icons"

Is there a way to disable sleep and instead have it exit the ui instead? I saw a stvi to add an exit menu item, but I was thinking of an icon.

[pcuoco]

I was using VMR9 FSE without any issues until I added HD recording. I just couldn't get smooth HD playback without reverting to overlay, so I'm back to overlay.

My specs are 2.6 Ghz proc, 512MB RAM with 128mb nvidia 6200 AGP (non TC) running via DVI to HDMI.