Please? Help a moron?

[Vince Maskeeper]

I'll try to keep this brief:

I bought a fusion hdtv5 usb tuner card. I installed Fusion's application, while running in DXVA mode it says "overlay not available" at all times. I've gone 12 rounds with their tech support who seem to be out of ideas (have run 3 versions of the software, 4 versions of Nvidia drivers, etc).

I asked around for alternate tuner applications that work with the fusion tuner (hoping to find something before giving up and returning it). Someone suggested SAGETV, which was actually how I discovered the Fusion tuner in the first place. I planned to eventually buy Sage anyway- so I downloaded the trial and gave it a shot.


First time through the application loaded and showed "no signal" on all channels. There doesn't seem to be a signal strength indicator on the main osd, so I'm not sure what that means. The channels I tried are 85-95% strength on the tuner in the next room, and the Fusion application (when not running in DXVA) has no trouble with these channels, also showing a 80-90% reception strength. Bottomline is, I think Sage was fibbing and that the video settings are the issue.

Anyway, now when i launch- the app hangs, I get the OSD, then a spinning sage tv logo in the middle of the screen and then a microsoft crash notice. The error report says:

AppName: sagetv.exe AppVer: 2.0.0.1 ModName: nvvpp.ax
ModVer: 4020.203.0.0 Offset: 0001136d

However windows doesn't actually end the app, it stays there with a black screen that sometimes has the sage tv logo spinning in the middle like it's doing something.

The system is a Win XP pro machine, patched and up to date. The videocard is a Nvidia 6600GT card with the most recent Nvidia drivers (84.21). Anyone have any ideas things I could try to even see if I can get basic functionality out of sage?

\\V

[Narflex]

It's crashing in the NVidia post processing filter. Go to Detailed Setup->Audio/Video and select the SageTV decoders for your Audio & Video decoders.

[Vince Maskeeper]

Jeffrey,

First off, thanks for replying! The software interface looks great, and I'm eager to get it working...

I made the switch to the Sage decoders, and I do get a picture instead of crashing (YAY!). However the image ends up being about 5-10 frames per second, studders and jumps repeatedly and breaks up. The audio pops loundly. At first I thought maybe it was just crap signal strength-- but all the channels I'm able to get do the exact same thing, and it is not changed at all by moving the antennna position.

Is there a way to display signal strength for the channels? Shouldn't the Nvidia post processing work with the 6600GT card (or since it's on the card it's not needed as a filter)? I'd like to use as much hardware accel as I can (The reason I came to sage in the first place is the fusion software's inability to use DXVA).

I'm eager to get playing with Sage and some of the nifty network stuff you guys offer- I'm just trying to find the video settings I should be using to actually yield solid playback, pref in the hardware realm. Should I just go ahead and buy the app and then go through the official tech support channel?

System is Win Xp Pro
Asus P4P800 Mobo
Intel P4 2.41g
256 ram Crucial
865PE chipset
GeForce 6600GT AGP
FusionHDTV5 USB tuner


\\V

[blade]

You shouldn't be using the Nvidia Post Processing (software decoding) anyway. You do want to use the Nvidia Decoder (hardware assisted decoding).

It appears you have a problem somewhere. The Sage decoder plays fine with my 6600GT, but the quaility isn't that good. Nvidia Post Processing works as well and is a little better and of course using the Nvidia Decoder plays and looks the best.

[Vince Maskeeper]

The Sage decoder plays fine with my 6600GT, but the quaility isn't that good. Nvidia Post Processing works as well and is a little better and of course using the Nvidia Decoder plays and looks the best.

Blade,

Would it be possible to trouble you for all the video settings you're using with your 6600? I'm assuming you're able to get hardware acceleration using sage? What tuner card do you use?

\\V

[DFA]

HDTV is going to consume some horsepower.

If stuttering, first thing is check CPU usage through Task Manager. Are you recording to a dedicated drive formatted at 64K? Anti-Virus software running?

If using nVidia decoder, dropped frames can be monitored if it is your "Default" decoder (from OS perspective) and "Default" decoder is selected in Sage so that nVidia applet icon shows in tray. Sometimes it is needed to add a registry line to get the nVidia decoder applet to show the "Diagnostics" tab.

These are helpful tools to assist with trouble shooting,

DFA

[Vince Maskeeper]

HDTV is going to consume some horsepower.

Yes, this I understand, and since my machine is only a 2.3g machine, I had hoped to take some of the stress off the processor by enabling DXVA to do the majoity of the rendering. HOWEVER, despite the fact that [supposedly] both Fusion's HDTV app AND SageTV support this, it seems neither can use DXVA on my system with this USB tuner, and I can't seem to get an answer from either tech support as to WHY.

If SAGE could get a configuration that would use DXVA to do the processing for HD content, I would buy the software this moment. So far I've had zero luck.

If stuttering, first thing is check CPU usage through Task Manager. Are you recording to a dedicated drive formatted at 64K? Anti-Virus software running?

CPU usage is pegged at 100%, again, because I can't seem to get it to use any video hardware processing-- so the machine maxes out and the signal just craps and falls apart.

I'm not recording anything, just trying "live tv" feeds...

NO antivirus, no nothing- I just don't think 2.3g is enough to keep up with the render, so I have to find the set of video settings that will give me DXVA.

If using nVidia decoder, dropped frames can be monitored if it is your "Default" decoder (from OS perspective) and "Default" decoder is selected in Sage so that nVidia applet icon shows in tray. Sometimes it is needed to add a registry line to get the nVidia decoder applet to show the "Diagnostics" tab.

I have tried using sage set to "default" decoder, except I have no clue where in the OS it determines the default decoder. Any help?

I do get the Nvidia decoder in the sys tray when using my DVD software (Theatertek, which uses the Nvidia decoders for DVD playback)-- but I'm unsuare how to choose these as the defaults-- and, as you saw above, when I select the nvidia decoders manually, sage crashes.

All I want is to use this HD tuner and use DXVA on my 6600 to handle the majoirty of the processing. So far I can't find any software that does this.

\\V

[blade]

Originally Posted by Vince Maskeeper

If SAGE could get a configuration that would use DXVA to do the processing for HD content, I would buy the software this moment. So far I've had zero luck.

There are many people using hardware acceleration with a HD setup. Something just isn't right with your setup. The fact that you had trouble using the Fusion software also points to a problem with your setup. Even with hardware acceleration I would think a 2.3ghz cpu is going to have a really hard time keeping up with HD.

I'm not recording anything, just trying "live tv" feeds...

If you're watching "live tv" in Sage you're recording.

I have tried using sage set to "default" decoder, except I have no clue where in the OS it determines the default decoder. Any help?

Use this.

You definetly need to use the Nvidia decoder so you can take advantage of the purevideo features of the 6600GT.

For my video settings I run:
VMR9
Nvidia Video Decoder
Default for everything else

Audio settings I use the directshow:name of my sound card and the Nvidia Decoder for the other setting. The rest are default.

The audio settings can cause the Nvidia decoder to crash. I don't know exactly which settings work and don't work with it, but you might want try changing them.

To use VMR9 you'll need to use FSE, but you have to launch directly into fullscreen with Sage to use FSE. If not you'll likely get some errors and need to reboot.

VMR9 can be a lot more difficult to get going than overlay so you might want to get overlay working before worrying about VMR9.

I assume you're already using the latest version of the PureVideo decoder (or at least 1.02.85).

Make sure you have the most recent release of Dx9.0c. Not all releases of v9.0c are the same. I think the latest was in April.

Also you might want to look into which version of java you're using. The newest release isn't always the best one.

There are numerous threads on each topic, just do a search for them.