Really having a tough time with STV 5.0

[darrenkarp]

Originally Posted by wrwaugh

When changing to Overlay, it is wise to disable 3D mode. Try it and see if it makes it play in stv.

Where is the 3D selection?

[Hades]

Detailed Setup / Advanced / 3D Acceleration = Enabled/Disabled

[cmaffia]

Perhaps test sage on a completely dedicated PC if you have available
Not much experiece with running SageTV on MCE but maybe this is an issue within itself... not sure. All I can say I have built many a SageTV setups and although I have seen that error message beforem, the suggestions that others have made would always clear things up or help point me to the root of the problem in no time at all. If you don't have another machine perhaps you have another hard drive to play around with Sage without jeopardizing your MCE setup (or vice versa).

Originally Posted by darrenkarp

John,

Switched from VMR to Overlay, started live tv, got playbackexception.....great!! NOT!

[darrenkarp]

According to SageTV it is compliant on an MCE box with the obvious services disabled.

Can someone tell me what effect turning 3D off has?

Many thanks to all for their replies.

There is a prize to the person that gets me up and running.

Darren

[darrenkarp]

I thought everything was going well until while watching live tv I tried going to guide...nothing...then main menu...nothing....live tv was still playing!

I VNC'd into the box and my PC monitor was in fact showing me the main menu and the TV live tv....very odd and VERY annoying.


What's up?

Darren

[darrenkarp]

Guys,

Putting this PC into single display mode (it was in clone mode as I have an Infocus projector connected to the video card (FX5750) DVI output) seems to work. However, although I don't need to see live tv on the TV and projector at the same time I don't want to have to manually keep switching to clone mode or assigning the projector to be the primary display, etc. each time I want to watch something on the projector.

Is there a solution?

Cheers
Darren

[nielm]

Sounds like you are using overlay renderer in Sage (which will always be the case if 3d accelleration is disabled), and your nvidia display settings are confgured to have full-screen overlay on your TV-out, which means that whenever any video is played, it will be full-screen on the TV...

With most video cards video playback works best on the primary monitor (often VMR9 stutters on secondary, and usually overlay does not work at all on secondary).

So, if you want Sage on your TV-out, set the TV to be the primary monitor.

To disable full-screen video, go into display control panel/settings/advanced/FX5750 tab/Fullscreen video, and set Fullscreen Device to Disable...

Restart Sage on the TV-out, and you should now get menus at the same time as video...

Why did this not happen in MCE? MCE uses VMR9 renderer (I believe) in Full Screen Exclusive mode -- You can configure this in Sage, (3d accelleration enabled, video renderer VMR9, full screen excusive mode), but given the problems you have been having, I think it will create more problems

[wrwaugh]

So, as you have learned, MCE works on its own setup configuration within Sage. It is running VMR9 for renderer and in Full screen mode. You do not set these settings, they are default when using the MCE.

And you have been instructed to make sure you are using the older version of Java.

The STV for sage (on a computer, not the MCE) you configure for the computer. If you choose VMR9 for the render you will need 3D acceleration enabled. However, the VMR9 and 3D has given you and many users problems... old threads in this forum seem to show the PVR350 has particular problems with this.

Overlay with 3D disabled is about the most basic, and should work with most any system. However, there are always a few individuals who will have problems with any settings, for no apparent reason.

You have already tried using just the 150 and leaving the 350 out of the loop for now which is best until you have stability.

It can be a pain trying all of the possible combinations of renderers and Mpeg2 decoders, and, in your case, primary monitors.

So, pick a monitor, pick a decoder, and start changing renders. Etc.
Have fun; and when you just can't stand it any more, simply post back to the forum and someone else will offer a suggestion which will inspire you to try again.

What was that definition of insanity... trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome?

[cummings66]

I had similar issues when I used a dual monitor setup with the Infocus PJ. I eventually made the Infocus the primary display and it worked fine, but I still got jitters.

In the end I dedicated the computer for HT use only and got rid of the monitor, it made a tremendous difference in how fast it worked, and from then on I had no problems to speak of.

Well, I should say once I pulled the 350 out I had no problems, you'll never have a completely stable system with that card in there IMO.

For what it's worth I used the Nvidia drivers and 3d with VMR9 of course and turned off the output from the 350 using only dvi. Worked fine.

[SpaceFuzz]

While experimenting with some settings, I turned "Full Screen Exclusive" on, and everything worked fine. I then forgot about the change. Two days later, I started getting intermittent PlaybackExceptions (0x80040217). Finally, I remembered, and turned that setting off. At first, it still didn't work. But I changed my decoder from Nvidia to SageTV, and it worked. I then changed the decoder back to Nvidia and it still works. Sheesh, that bugged me for quite a while. Hope that saves someone some time!

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by darrenkarp

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. Describing ever nuance of issues I have would take up far too much of everyones time. Suffice it to say that I am currently watching TV using MCE again!

I think everyone second guessing your problem is wasting more time. The more you describe your problem and trial and errors, the more accurate and faster experts can pin point the problem.

No user of any level should have to go through what I have had to go through and I class myself as technical to a point. 3 days so far.....

Trust me on this, 3 days is nothing compared to what average users spent on any PVR setup, MCE included. When things don't work for whatever reason, it could take weeks and months before you find a solution.

Don't get me wrong, I WANT STV to work !!!

Darren

We want you to get SageTV to work also. My suggestion is to reduce your setup to simpler configuration. Unplug the projector, disable clone mode, VNC, and whatever other stuffs you have. Just run SageTV alone with the tuners only. Try to configure one tuner to work with the UIRT first, and see if you can get playback on the computer monitor, whether overlay or VMR. Once you get video, audio and channel changing to work, then proceed to the next tuner. One step at a time, you can then connect the projector, VNC, and all the other stuffs later.

And just FYI, "STV" usually referred to the skin or theme for SageTV.

[something fishy]

I feel a bit guilty as I answered your original post with a 'yes this will work' recommendation.

However:

Next is the channel changing problem. I'm using my USB UIRT with a stereo to dual mono splitter and despite reading a post regarding editing the zone files (adding Z1 and Z2 to each of the 2 IR files) only one of my two Sky STB's changes channels. I have the main UIRT hidden away to stop any stray IR signals coming from the front.

I don't do this myself (I have 2 dissimilar STBs) but reading the original 'three zone' post suggests that you want to add Z2 and Z3 to the .ir files to use the USB-UIRT blasters (Z1 is an LED emitter to the open air on the front).

Switched from VMR to Overlay, started live tv, got playbackexception.....great!! NOT!

If you just switched from VMR9 to Overlay and didn't manually deselect 'Use full screen exclusive' mode Sage will throw an error like this.

I agree though that as MCE uses VMR9 FSE then that would be the best solution to get working in Sage (in my view the deinterlacing is better using VMR9). Unfortunately mine is now working flawlessly so I can't offer any advice other than to back up neilm's recommendation. I also use ultraVNC and its video hook driver can sometimes cause problems.

Some recent nvidia drivers have caused wierd problems for me (random frames being interspersed into the video, surreal effect). But the latest drivers seem to work well.

I don't know if the xmltv importer that you are using requires Java 1.5.x (I use the lmgestion importer which does). If not then downgrading Java to 1.4.11 helps prevent some problems (though not specifically as you describe). I have found Java 1.5.5 and 1.5.4 unstable but so far Java 1.5.2 seems OK and still allows the lmgestion importer to run.

Hope this helps
Eric