DVD navigation

[bobrap]

Just getting Sage setup and am very impressed. Currently, my only problem is when I watch a dvd, there is no underline/highlight of the dvd menu. I must have something incorrectly turned on/off? Any help is appreciated. Using Nvidia decoder.

[Polypro]

I've noticed this with random versions of Sage. I'm using the 4.1.9 Beta and it's hit or miss if the onscreen cursor works with 3D Accel/VMR9. The main screens ususlly are fine, but when I navigate to a sub-menu, the cursor won't move onscreen, but the option will activate (stealth navigation)Switching to Overlay works fine. I've submitted a bug report and debug logs on this.

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[bobrap]

Great, thanks for the reply. Think I'll just rip movie only then.

[bobrap]

Hate to bring this up again. But I guess it erks me that I can't use a full dvd rip. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

[Stilgar7744]

I was/am having the exact same problem and they only way I was able to fix it was to switch to overlay vice VMR9 in the DVD setup section in the detailed setup menu. I also stopped using Nvidia and started using cyberlink as a decoder. I don't know which one actually fixed it, but all works great now. If there is supposed to be a quality difference I don't see it, of course I am watching on a regular tube tv...

[KarylFStein]

Does anyone have any solutions for this? I can't navigate all DVD menus because the highlight disappears.

I am using nVidia PureVideo and VMR9. If I switch to Overlay, the DVD menus work fine, but my movies show up in a 4:3 window on my widescreen TV. If I use VMR9, the DVD menus don't always work, but they show up in full widescreen.

I have Sage set up to use the source size for the output size. If I force 16x9 mode when in Overlay, then it just stretches the picture. It is grainy and still has the black bars on the top and bottom.

Is Sage at fault? nVidia? My configuration? Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is a pretty annoying problem!

[salsbst]

This is annoying me, too, as I try to calibrate a new display. Obviously, DVE and AVIA are menu-intensive DVDs.

I'm using nVidia video decoder w/VMR9, on and off on FSE due to FSE problems, but it doesn't really seem to matter. It's clear that navigation itself works ok, but for some reason the display doesn't update when you traverse a DVD-based menu.

This (and aspect ratio issues with anamorphic DVDs) is why I keep coming back to Zoomplayer for DVD.

SageTV guys, consider this a vote for more attention to existing and longstanding problems and a little less attention to Placeshifter and the next great feature.

[KarylFStein]

I filed a bug report about this and have been getting some good support. There's something interesting that I noticed while helping debug this. When the background music on the DVD menu ends and then restarts, the highlight will move. Of course, you have to wait until the loop finishes and restarts to move the highlight again. On my sample DVDs, this behavior is consistant. For example:

* On Chicken Little, the main menu works fine even though there is music playing in the background, but if you go to a sub-menu (e.g. Scene Selection), then the highlight only changes after the background music loop ends and restarts.

* On Peter Pan (latest live action version from Universal), the main menu (and all sub-menus) don't change the highlight until after the background music loop ends and restarts.

The music loops on these DVD are probably 20 - 30 seconds in length, so navigating a menu could take a long time if you wait for the highlight to change.

I'm using the AC'97 audio built-in to my motherboard (AOpen AX4SPE MAX II) with AC3Filter to decode the DVD audio. Previously, I used the nVidia audio pack that you could purchase with the PureVideo decoders and had the same issue. However, the nVidia decoders were not installed during my last OS reinstall, so this setup has only used AC3Filter.

Do others see similar behavior? Does this help explain anything?

[stanger89]

From what I've seen, it seems to have something to do with the way the DVDs are authored. It works on probably 95% of my DVD (rips), but I've got a couple that give me trouble.

Originally Posted by salsbst

This (and aspect ratio issues with anamorphic DVDs) is why I keep coming back to Zoomplayer for DVD.

What aspect ratio issues?

[KarylFStein]

Sage support has sort of dropped off regarding this. I've seen some other posts in the forum about this problem, but no real solutions.

I installed a PowerDVD trial, but the decoders did not show up as a selection in the SageTV configuration menu. So, I uninstalled the nVidia decoders in order to force the ones that came with PowerDVD to be used as the default decoders. When I did that, the DVD navigation started to work. However, the picture was not fluid. When there was movement, the top maybe 1/16th of the screen seemed to "stick" briefly throughout the movement causing an annoying flicker. Maybe I can get rid of that by tweaking the PowerDVD settings. However, I'd rather not purchase yet another program after already sinking money into the (highly recommended) nVidia ones.

I don't have any odd hardware or software on this machine. It's dedicated to SageTV and recently rebuilt from scratch. Is anyone else successfully using the AC'97 audio with nVidia decoders (not audio pack) and AC3filter for DVD viewing?

[newmedia42]

I'm using the latest PureVideo, and I have the same problem in Sage as well... It works fine using Windows Media Player, but with Sage I can't see what's highlighted. I tried switching codecs, but for me nothing got it working (and the audio loop causing it to update didn't appear to work for me either) - so for now I just shut down Sage and playback using WMP - pretty clunky way to do things, and I loose the ability to use my remote, but hopefully this will be addressed at some point.

[mlbdude]

Originally Posted by newmedia42

I'm using the latest PureVideo, and I have the same problem in Sage as well... It works fine using Windows Media Player, but with Sage I can't see what's highlighted. I tried switching codecs, but for me nothing got it working (and the audio loop causing it to update didn't appear to work for me either) - so for now I just shut down Sage and playback using WMP - pretty clunky way to do things, and I loose the ability to use my remote, but hopefully this will be addressed at some point.

Since WMP uses Overlay, just use that for DVD playback in Sage. Overlay seems to fix it for the other users here.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by mlbdude

Since WMP uses Overlay, just use that for DVD playback in Sage. Overlay seems to fix it for the other users here.

If I put it in Overlay the navigation works, but the video is shown in a 4:3 window on my 16:9 screen. If I then change the aspect ratio configuration setting from source to 16:9, then the image is just blown up, so it is grainy and still has the black bars on the top and bottom. I'd use Overlay if I could figure out how to keep the widescreen aspect ratio working correctly...

[stanger89]

FYI, for those of you having trouble with DVD menu subpictures (missing, black menues, etc), give this YUVMixing change a try:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\SageTV\DirectX9\YUVMixing=0

[KarylFStein]

Gee, that was easy. Fixed it for me!