Can't get Nvidia PureVideo decoder to work

[craigap]

I am running SageTV v5 with JRE 1.4 and the latest directX version, and PureVideo will not work properly with Live TV playback. I get an unbelievable picture when viewing dvd's, and the audio decoder is working fine for both DVD and live tv as well. As soon as I use PureVideo for the MPEG2 video decoder filter I get a continuously stuttering playback. When view a recorded show the playback is only slightly stuttered, but still noticable. I've tried every combonation of video renderer, audio renderer/decoder filter possible. I've set the defaults using Radlight filter manager and Verified preffered decoder using DECcheck. Am I just stuck using the Sagetv MPEG video decoder?
My setup works perfect except for this one issue. I'm setup using VMR9/Nvidia audio-spdif to a reciever. I've got windows XP home SP2, two Theater 550 pro's, and a 7900gt.

I've also tried all this with the latest version of JRE, but no difference. I also run into other issues with the new version of JRE, so I rolled back to 1.4. With the new version I get issues with memory and handles.

One last thing. I've read some stuff that talks about FSE. What is that. I don't see anything in sage that allows me to change or modify this property.

Thanks

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by craigap

I am running SageTV v5 with JRE 1.4 and the latest directX version, and PureVideo will not work properly with Live TV playback. I get an unbelievable picture when viewing dvd's, and the audio decoder is working fine for both DVD and live tv as well. As soon as I use PureVideo for the MPEG2 video decoder filter I get a continuously stuttering playback. When view a recorded show the playback is only slightly stuttered, but still noticable. I've tried every combonation of video renderer, audio renderer/decoder filter possible. I've set the defaults using Radlight filter manager and Verified preffered decoder using DECcheck. Am I just stuck using the Sagetv MPEG video decoder?
My setup works perfect except for this one issue. I'm setup using VMR9/Nvidia audio-spdif to a reciever. I've got windows XP home SP2, two Theater 550 pro's, and a 7900gt.

I've also tried all this with the latest version of JRE, but no difference. I also run into other issues with the new version of JRE, so I rolled back to 1.4. With the new version I get issues with memory and handles.

One last thing. I've read some stuff that talks about FSE. What is that. I don't see anything in sage that allows me to change or modify this property.

Thanks

You may not want to hear it, but I am thoroughly impressed by Cyberlink's PowerDVD decoder. May people already have it when they purchased their DVD drives.

[Humanzee]

FSE is Full Screen Exclusive. It forces Sage to run like a video game through Direct X. It should improve your stuttering, I think it is in the detailed set up screen that also conatins the option for 3D accel. This option will only be available with VMR9.

Couple of things to check. There are settings to choose your reneder for the DVD and for recordings. Make sure you set them for both.

In the properties window for the nVidia Decoder, there is a checkbox for "Use Hardware Acceleration" check it.

If all else fails try overlay. Though with a "7900gt" I would think you wouldn't have a problem.

[craigap]

Humanzee
With VMR9/3D accel on/FSE on, I can't toggle full screen without freezing up sagetv. Also, I still have stuttering with PureVideo. I also double checked all the
properties you suggested.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by craigap

Humanzee
With VMR9/3D accel on/FSE on, I can't toggle full screen without freezing up sagetv. Also, I still have stuttering with PureVideo. I also double checked all the
properties you suggested.

Ya that's the trade off with FSE, going to a windowed mode causes problems. Hence the "Exclusive" part of the FSE. Its supposed to dedicate all graphics resources to the active FSE window. When you go to a windowed mode it has to reload your desktop and drop FSE. I never got it to work correctly, either.

I presume you have a newer motherboard to even be able to run the 7900gt, there might be chipset updates available. I had problems with my motherboard and DirectX. I had to update my chipset drivers to even be able to use DirectX at all. It would peg my CPU at 100%. How is your cpu utilization while you are experienceing the problems?

Also look for newer graphics drivers. Try www.nzone.com for beta versions. they frequently advertise better support for pure video in each release.

Try using the AC3 filter for your audio renderer and make sure you select the nVidia Decoder for video, not the nVidia Post Processor.

Otherwise, try overlay. I have to use overlay because my 6600GT doesn't like 1920x1080 with vmr9. Again, 100% cpu and I get the same sort of issues you are describing. Kind of upsetting because I assumed I just needed to get a better card. If you are having problems with that card, I wonder if it is a different issue.

That's it for my ideas.

[craigap]

Humanzee,
Thanks for the ideas. I have an asus nforce4 mobo with the latest drivers from nvidia. Matter of fact, everything I'm running has the latest drivers installed. Haven't tried beta ones thought. I'll have to look into it. I've already tried every combonation of video/audio/overlay/vmr9 combonation possible. So, I guess I'll just have to try something else. Also, CPU utilization peaks at about 20% or so during playback using PureVideo or anything else.

Thanks

[Humanzee]

at only 20% you could try to use the post processor. That should offload the work onto your CPU instead of your Graphics card. kind of backwards but it might work.

[craigap]

no. I tried that too. no luck

thanks though.

Craig

[Humanzee]

I just remembered that I had a conflict with azureus and purevideo. Make sure you are runing the bare minimum of extra applications and try again. Otherwise I am out of ideas.

[mike1961]

Craig - set the video and audio renderers (and all the other settings) to DEFAULT. The only setting I have that is not default is the Video Decoder which I have set to overlay because it seems to reduce my resources. That should get it to work. But, for what it's worth, today I just upgraded my monitor to a larger widescreen and changed the resolution from my default that I liked of 1024x768 to 1680x1050 and everything started to slow down and I also had exception errors when trying to play video with that resolution which worked fine in the 1024x768. The answer lied in the fact that on that computer my video card was old and only had 32mb of RAM. So, I'm not sure how old your video card is but that may also be the culprit. In the meantime, try changing those settings in Detailed Setup.

Mike

[Hector]

A few thoughts based mostly on mistakes I've made. Others may disagree, after all this is almost rocket science.

Speaking to this issue specifically-

With VMR9/3D accel on/FSE on, I can't toggle full screen without freezing up sagetv

There are many setups that will not allow you to toggle from windowed to full screen when using FSE. Black screen, crash, known issue, To use FSE start Sage in a full screen, NOT in a window then to a full screen. For starting at windows bootup set Sage to start up in full screen mode and for launching from the desktop add the -startup command line parameter to the Sage shortcut (you have to do both to launch full screen from desktop). To be clear I mean regular full screen not to be confused with FSE (full screen exclusive mode).

Also I have found that you need to restart the Sage client when toggling FSE. It just doesn't switch for me without a client restart. I haven't checked in 5.0 but at least up until recently you could have Overlay and FSE enabled (basically a video 'oxymoron') that would cause weird behavior. Also filter changes don't always seem to take without a restart. Easiest thing is to run the sage service which makes this testing a lot easier.

And speaking to the issue as a whole-

In detailed setup are your Video/Audio settings (for livetv/playback) exactly the same as your DVD settings that you know work? Video Filter/Audio Renderer and Audio Decoder filter (see next random thought).

Be sure you call the NVidia filters explicitly. Do not rely on them being the default.

I noticed you said you tried them all but do you get the same results using overlay as with VMR9? Overlay is such basic way of displaying video that if you're having problems with it I'd be very suspicious of something else being the problem.

Be SURE the Purevideo decoder is actually being used. With Sage in a window and video playing you'll see an Nvidia icon in the system tray that appears when the video starts and disappears when the video stops.

Confirm Purevideo/FSE works on your system independently of Sage. TheaterTek Demo is good for this.

Purevideo/FSE is worth the hassle it takes to figure it out. The PQ is MUCH smoother w/FSE at least on my 6800GT.

peace . . .

[ben_gb]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but something else you can try is to make sure your Nvidia Decoder settings have the 'De-interlace option' NOT set to "Smart". Set it to "Automatic" instead.

The "Smart" setting causes bad jittering and other problems on many people's systems.

To get to the decoder options, you need to set Sage's Decoder option to Default, open Sage in a Window and play a recording (or live TV). Then the Nvidia icon appears in the System tray. Right click on this, and you will see 'Decoder properties' on the menu.

[craigap]

Holy crap! Ben_gb, you da man. I toggled sage to a window, set all my video options to default, and watched for the Nvidia Decoder icon in the tray. It showed up as soon as I refreshed the media player. I switched from smart to auto and instantly it was fixed. Sweet!
Thanks to everyone for your replies. Now to work on the FSE thing.

[craigap]

Originally Posted by Hector

To start up in full screen mode and for launching from the desktop add the -startup command line parameter to the Sage shortcut

How do I do this?

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by craigap

How do I do this?

find your shortcut to sagetv, right click and select properties. in the area where it gives the path to sagetv.exe add the extention -startup. so it looks something like

"c:\program files\sagetv\sagetv\sagetv.exe -startup"

[Hector]

-startup needs to be outside the quote marks or you'll get a targeting error.

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

Originally Posted by Humanzee

find your shortcut to sagetv, right click and select properties. in the area where it gives the path to sagetv.exe add the extention -startup. so it looks something like

"c:\program files\sagetv\sagetv\sagetv.exe -startup"