Poor hd playback.

[utekineir]

This weekend i purchased a ati theater 650 card, and installed in my computer along with a fresh install of rtm vista business.

I can't get smooth playback from the tuner with either sage 5.0 or the beta for 6.0.

Playback on 16x9 hd broadcasts is pretty much awful. I really like the sage program so far especially the media center features, but unless i can get smooth playback theres no way I'll purchase it.

The computer is

amd opteron 165 (dual core)
ati 1900xt video card
2 gigs ram
sata 7200 rpm hard drive.

any help in getting smooth playback would be greatly appreciated.

also any recomendations on good hdtv indoor antennas (have an apartment in the city) i had purchased a simple ge one however, its reception seems a bit lacking.

thanks in advance

[Goodspike]

Try different audio and video codecs in the setup area. Both can make a big difference.

If you're running with Sage Service on, try turning that off to see if it helps.

Disconnect from the internet, and then make sure neither your Anti-virus or firewall are affecting performance.

[Opus4]

Before someone else handles any playback ideas: is the drive where the recordings are stored formatted using 64K clusters?

Also, list what you are using as the video renderer and decoder in Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio, and whether you are using 3D Acceleration in Detailed Setup -> Advanced.

- Andy

[eclectic2k]

Sounds like just about the same issue as I have.

I too have an ATI TV wonder 650. (this is the ATI card that uses the Theater 650 chip)
Also:
AMD Athlon64 3200
nvidia nforce with 6150 graphics
2GB RAM
SATA 7200 RPM Drive

The capture seems to work fine, and will play back stutter free with the overlay video renderer. I cannot use VMR9 without the playback becoming choppy, both in recordings, and live TV. (though it does seem to look better when it's moving ;-)

Other settings:
nvidia video and audio decoders
3D acceleration enabled
directsound audio renderer (spdif out)
DXVA = default, and dscaler disabled

I saw somewhere a note about "logging_flush_each_entry=false" - that did not help. I have not yet tried other Java versions besides 1.5.0-09 which was the most recent when I set this up a few weeks ago. I have the machine setup to give higher priority to services (for reasons other than sage) I recently switched to running sage as a service, and that made no difference.

Oh, and I have to admit the drive is 32k clusters. Don't ask ;-) (but again, overlay works flawlessly??)

-CK

[Jesse]

Hi,

OTA HD can be very touchy! First and foremost make sure you are getting solid reception. This is a must.

I am now having very good success playing back HD in V5 on a 720p plasma. I am using a P4 3.0e, 1 gig of mem, 7600GT AGP (I was also successful with a 6600GT), and the nvidia decoders. To get it smooth VMR9/FSE was a must. This is a dedicated client and I have no other programs running besides sage. No AV, no girder, no nothing.

I too use the 650 cards, but only for SD. For HD I use the vbox usb tuners. Also be aware that unless things have changed in the last month or two the 650 cards are not officially supported by sage.

What is the clock speed on an 165 opteron? I would think you will need at least 2.0 g clock speed to get this done.

eclectic2k-I would be surprised if the nforce 6150 will ever do HD really smoothly.

For indoor antenna ideas see the AVS forum and antennaweb.org.

HTH

J

[salsbst]

I'm starting to wonder whether the reason that I can no longer do VMR9 since moving to v6 on my laptop is that FSE isn't being engaged...

[utekineir]

Thanks for the help so far.

To clarify some things, i just put in an extra drive to run the recording off of and its formatted with 64k clusters, its a few year old 200 gb drive 7200rpm with 8 meg cache.

I have the default sage mpeg decoder installed and the nvidia decoder.

I was using the ac3 audio codec, but things seem to go smoother with the default.

I just enabled fse, about 10 minutes ago, doesnt seem any different.

Right now playback is pretty smooth. However now i'm getting tearing in the upper section of the screen. On the upside things are running smooth in overlay, vmr9 however stutters a bit here and there, and also gets choppy after several minutes.

[Lucas]

Ditto. I am also getting tearing in the top of the picture when playing HD video with an Nvidia 7600GS and the Purevideo decoder.

[cummings66]

In the old days of VCR's I'd call what I see flag waving. If you had a flag at the top of the picture it appears with the tears that happen that it momentarily waves at you, or so we described it then.

I get lots of watery motion at the top, and occasional tears down lower. Please submit those bug reports.