New user... some problems

[otakucode]

Alright, after looking at all the options out there I settled on Sage and put togethermy inital HTPC setup (I'll be upgrading to a more robust server/client architecture with a big RAID, mutliple tuners, etc in the future).

I've just gotten Sage up and running. Problems I am seeing...
LiveTV is jerky. Especially on panning, the video is jerky, audio remains fine though.
I cannot use the top level video rendering method (VMR9).
LiveTV looks like crap. I didn't expect it to look great because it never does on HDTVs, but I had read about people saying that DVDs look fantastic with the upconvert, so I figured SDTV might at least look as good as it does when its piped directly into my TV.

My hardware:
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (is this card not capable of VMR9?)
AMD Athlon64 3200+
512MB CAS2 RAM
Hauppage WinTV PVR-150, using its tuner on analog cable

I'm using everything else at the default, and this is on a clean install of Windows (XP Pro SP2, all updates current). I installed the Hauppage software, latest Catalyst drivers, latest Realtek AC'97 drivers (I'm using the onboard sound on the mobo and its optical out), and AC3filter, made sure I could play things in WMP, then installed Sage. I see lots of talk on the forums about using different video decoders and things, but pretty much everything I read is nVidia-centric so I don't know if there are ATI equivalents.

Any help would be appreciated...

[otakucode]

I should clarify my VMP9 problem. When I select it and then choose to test it, one frame of video shows up, audio plays OK, but the video never moves. When I hit "No" to say its not working, Sage pops up its little "working" icon in the middle of the screen and won't proceed, I have to kill Sage from task manager, forcing an end because it is not responding.

[bcjenkins]

decoders.. it's all about the decoders.. If you haven't purchased any yet, try the nvidia purevideo trial. ATI gives away cyberlink, I think..

B

[otakucode]

OK, I have VMR9 working and I got the nVidia Purevideo decoder. I can select it in Sage and everything, but is there supposed to be some configuartion for the Purevideo decoder? I can't find anything in Programs or in the control panel for it. And my video is still jerky. In the Hauppage WinTV2000 application, video is completely smooth. In Sage, its jerky. CPU usage remains low while Sage runs, and there is plenty of free physical memory. Sage is set to record to a 300GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 drive with 16MB cache, formatted with NTFS, 64k cluster size.

If I record something with sage and go back and play it, it exhibits the same jerkiness as livetv. I'm going to try playing some media off of my fileserver to see if it exhibits any jerkiness next.

[otakucode]

OK, I downloaded a 1080i video clip to test with. Result: Playing with Sage, the file is jerky just like LiveTV... not more so, just the same. Playing with VLC, the video plays smoothly with no problems.

This jerky playback is driving me nuts. It's not the PVR-150 because the video is fine in the WinTV2000 application. It's not my hard drive, it's plenty fast enough and is using DMA Mode 5. It's not the decoder, VLC uses the Purevideo decoder just like Sage does and VLC plays it smooth. It's not the CPU, it never breaks 40% even playing the 1080i clip. It's not memory, there is always at least 250MB physical memory free. It can't be the video card drivers because, again, VLC works fine, as well as the WinTV2000 app.

So what's left? It almost has to be something inside of Sage. Obviously it's not a common problem... frustrating.

[Polypro]

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...46&postcount=6

Also see if a search for " ATI VMR9" turns up anything.

P

[brewston]

My 9800 pro did VMR9 fine (before I got rid of it because the fan was too noisy) Its now replaced with a 9600 SE (fanless) and that does VMR9 too

hope that helps a little :-)

Tim

[otakucode]

I did a bit more fiddling... I followed your instructions Polypro and the video was still jerky. I searched on "ATI VMR9" and didn't turn up much, but realized I had left some stuff out of my previous posts. Overlay displays the exact same problems as when using VMR9. Using the Hauppage MPEG decoder, or the Sage MPEG decoder, or the nVidia decoder, all produce the same results. Things recorded by Sage and played with VLC play fine. Everything played by Sage is jerky. Live TV, recordings, imported media, DVDs, everything. The only other weird thing is that when I open the Catalyst Control Center, it cannot display the content in the preview window, it throws an error except on the Video tabs where it displays everything OK.

My main query is why VLC plays the exact same content using the exact same decoders flawlessly, but Sage is jerky?