How I stopped VMR9 stuttering (including 1080i) and solved all my sound issues.

[GollyJer]

hessjm,

If you can, play the file on the server using WMP, VLC or some other player. If it skips there it's probably a bad recording.

If not, move to the client pc. Open the file in GraphEdit and you should see two new icons in the system tray; one for Nvidia Purevideo and one for AC3Filter. Double click the Nvidia icon to bring up the PureVideo settings. Be sure Hardware Acceleration is checked then close the settings form.

Hit play in GraphEdit and shrink the video window so that it's like half the size of your screen. If the video is stuttering at this point it's probably a network bandwidth problem.

If it's not stuttering, fire up Sage and be sure that you have the video and audio decoders both set to default. The only change from the defaults in the Sage video/audio settings should be changing the renderer to VMR9.

Close and reopen Sage to be sure it correctly initialized Full Screen Exclusive mode and play the file in question. Does it work?



Also, the tray icons for Nvidia and AC3Filter should be showing when watching an HD recording with Sage. The best way to test this is to open Sage in windowed mode so you can see the system tray. The second you hit Play they should show up.

Good luck man.

[hessjm]

GollyJer,

Thanks for the help.

When I open a file with GraphEdit on the client PC, I do not see a PureVideo or AC3filter in the system tray. Is there a trick to installing PureVideo? Should I uninstall all the Nvidia drivers/PureVideo and reinstall in a particular order?

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by hessjm

GollyJer,

Thanks for the help.

When I open a file with GraphEdit on the client PC, I do not see a PureVideo or AC3filter in the system tray. Is there a trick to installing PureVideo? Should I uninstall all the Nvidia drivers/PureVideo and reinstall in a particular order?

That's weird. I've never had them NOT come up. You say the rendered graph looks the same as the one posted? Do the tray icons come up if you play the file with GraphEdit?

[hessjm]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

That's weird. I've never had them NOT come up. You say the rendered graph looks the same as the one posted? Do the tray icons come up if you play the file with GraphEdit?

Just double checked the graph and it is the same as posted. It is like the PureVideo did not install. I play through GraphEdit and ActiveMovie starts but no ICONS in the system tray. Got a feeling my background as a PC Tech is making me overlook the very obvious!

[mattdcknsn]

Thanks GollyJer, really good how to. I have one problem though. I cant for the life of me get Nvidia Transport Demux to come up during the render. I have set it to the max value and decreased the Sage demux one to the lowest, but every time it comes up with a new demux thingy.

Eventually I got an error that Graphedit couldnt render the video. I repaired it and got it working again with Sage demux. But am back in the same spot as before. I reinstalled nvidia purevideo and sage to get it back to the base. Any ideas as to why nvidia couldnt grab the file?

[Fastrack]

Originally Posted by hessjm

Just double checked the graph and it is the same as posted. It is like the PureVideo did not install. I play through GraphEdit and ActiveMovie starts but no ICONS in the system tray. Got a feeling my background as a PC Tech is making me overlook the very obvious!

I was playing around with this, and even though PureVideo was shown in the MS tool and it was selected in Sage, it didn't load in the tray. However I also had ffdshow installed with Mpeg2 playback setup in it (if you have it installed.. open ffdshow video decorder configuration -> COdecs and uncheck MPEG2)...

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by hessjm

Just double checked the graph and it is the same as posted. It is like the PureVideo did not install. I play through GraphEdit and ActiveMovie starts but no ICONS in the system tray. Got a feeling my background as a PC Tech is making me overlook the very obvious!

Do the Nvidia filters show up in DirectShow Filter Manager? If so, then PureVideo is installed. I'm inclined to say it's installed simply due to the fact that the filters are being used by the video rendered in GraphEdit. Did you try playing an HD recording with Sage in windowed mode? How about playing one using WMP? I'm grasping at straws at this point. Not sure what else to advise.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by mattdcknsn

Thanks GollyJer, really good how to. I have one problem though. I cant for the life of me get Nvidia Transport Demux to come up during the render. I have set it to the max value and decreased the Sage demux one to the lowest, but every time it comes up with a new demux thingy.

Eventually I got an error that Graphedit couldnt render the video. I repaired it and got it working again with Sage demux. But am back in the same spot as before. I reinstalled nvidia purevideo and sage to get it back to the base. Any ideas as to why nvidia couldnt grab the file?

Are you sure you're trying to render an HD recording? If I set all other demuxers/splitters do Do Not Use (a merit of 00000000), then try to render an SD recording I get the same error you describe. However, they still play in Sage. I talked a little bit about this here.

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by Fastrack

I was playing around with this, and even though PureVideo was shown in the MS tool and it was selected in Sage, it didn't load in the tray. However I also had ffdshow installed with Mpeg2 playback setup in it (if you have it installed.. open ffdshow video decorder configuration -> COdecs and uncheck MPEG2)...

For reasons unknown to us (at large), the Nvidia icon won't show up in the tray is Sage is set to use the Nvidia video decoder specifically. If you set Sage to use the "default" video decoder (and perhaps audio, as well), then you should see the icon show up in the tray and thus be able to access its properties. Note that a restart of Sage or even Windows may be necessary to get this happening.

[mattdcknsn]

I'll double check once I get home sometime. Virus outbreak is consuming my life at the moment. Thanks.

Originally Posted by GollyJer

Are you sure you're trying to render an HD recording? If I set all other demuxers/splitters do Do Not Use (a merit of 00000000), then try to render an SD recording I get the same error you describe. However, they still play in Sage. I talked a little bit about this here.

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

At this point I'm not sure if it's a good/bad/or indifferent idea. My original thinking was that because .ts files are unprocessed mpeg files they would be 'cleaner' to use. Discussion can be read here as to why, in Sage, they don't really appear to be different at all. After reading stanger89's reply and doing a little testing it seems that transport stream and program stream files have both been processed to strip extra content streams from an HD recording. After recording the same show in Transport Stream and Program Stream format the resulting files were less than 2% different in size. This was probably just a difference in runtime due to commercials. The difference between an unsnipped .ts and a program stream file should be anywhere from 10-50%.

I've changed back from raw ts to converted ps.
I never got round to testing the only show I record that's in HD video because sage really didn't like the raw ts feeds. They were skippy and sage became sluggish when trying to decode them. One of them wouldn't play and I know it recorded as I was watching it live through sage while it was doing so.

So, for me, when recording HD or SD over firewire TS=bad PS=good.

Next test: AC3 filter vs nVIDIA audio decoder.

[GbrNole]

phil - playback of TS files is one of the areas that has really been worked on in version 6.

just to get off topic a little bit with the whole nvidia audio vs. AC3filter audio the issue i really have with nvidia is when nvidia is used to pass the ac3 stream recorded in the HD content.

for some odd reason nvidia audio decoder will work just fine with my HD recordings if i set the output to 2-channel but that's not exactly favorable.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

phil - playback of TS files is one of the areas that has really been worked on in version 6.

just to get off topic a little bit with the whole nvidia audio vs. AC3filter audio the issue i really have with nvidia is when nvidia is used to pass the ac3 stream recorded in the HD content.

for some odd reason nvidia audio decoder will work just fine with my HD recordings if i set the output to 2-channel but that's not exactly favorable.

You may have mentioned this before, but I can't remember. Are you passing the audio through SPDIF, or listening directly on a 5.1 setup on the computer?

[GbrNole]

i use spdif - currently coax spdif but i have used toslink before too. all audio from my htpc is always via spdif - i've never used an analog connection.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by hessjm

Just double checked the graph and it is the same as posted. It is like the PureVideo did not install. I play through GraphEdit and ActiveMovie starts but no ICONS in the system tray. Got a feeling my background as a PC Tech is making me overlook the very obvious!

One of my buddies is having this same problem. However, his stuttering is gone with theses settings so we're certain PureVideo is being used. A simple way to get to the Nvidia settings, even if you don't get the icon, is to right click on the PureVideo box in GraphEdit and choose Properties.

[hessjm]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

One of my buddies is having this same problem. However, his stuttering is gone with theses settings so we're certain PureVideo is being used. A simple way to get to the Nvidia settings, even if you don't get the icon, is to right click on the PureVideo box in GraphEdit and choose Properties.

O.K., I uninstalled the PureVideo and the Nvidia drivers and reinstalled them and IT WORKS - pretty much. I still had some stuttering but very very little. I looked back at the server by remote control and noticed that the CPU was in the high 90's even bumping 100% while recording 2 channels. So, I dusted off a Dell Workstation 530 with dual XEON P4 1.7GHz processors. I figured 2 true processors may reduce the usage even though they are not as fast as the GX260. Tonight I will record 2 programs at once to see if this has worked or not. One problem I may be experiancing is that CBS in this area is on ch2 in Kalamazoo MI broadcasting at half power so as not to interfere with ch2 in Chicago and Detroit. So, GollyJer your solution does work!

The only thing to fix now is that since the new server install the non HD programming on right at this moment is squished so I have to go back to the server to see what I goofed up there! Again, Thanks a bunch for all the help.

[deitysteve]

Long story as to how I got here but the short story is that I was having major stuttering problems, I followed GollyJer's post and nailed stutter-free playback. The only other modification I had to make was to stop using my RAID array as my TV storage device. That was last Saturday (it is Thursday now).

So tonight my stutter is back... but my symptoms are really weird!
1) Local ABC plays back perfectly (60FPS solid according to FRAPS)
2) Local CBS plays back horribly (35 - 40 FPS)
3) Local NBC hangs Sage altogether.

My Graph looks exactly like GollyJer's in GraphEdit. AC3Filter is set up correctly, Sage is in FSE mode. My PureVideo settings look good (my icon is back GollyJer!). I'm about at my wit's end here.

Lately SageTV has really made me appreciate my HD TiVo - it just works.

[PhillJones]

Ouch, I'm sorry to hear that. The only thing I can suggest is going back to basics and checking the stream outside of sage and checking the recordings outside of sage and starting from there.

I feel your pain. Although my system is stable now, touch wood. I do live in fear that one day it's just going to stop working smoothly or that I'll have to upgrade and the upgrade won't work smoothly. If I had my time again, I would definately buy an HD tivo and an expensive DVD player for the same amount as i paid for my HTPC.

[GbrNole]

roll on the HD media extenders - the sooner the better is all i can say.

i still have a feeling that more of these problems are caused by the sucky signals that the providers are sending out rather then sage being entirely responsible.

heck when my wife was watching american idol the other night i lost count of how many times the picture jumped between HD and ED. i don't mind those transitions at adverts and stuff but it's annoying as hell when it happens throughout the show.

[soulprops77]

I'll second the sucky signals idea. I've looked at a few different recordings from different channels in graphedit and different graphs are created.

For instance, I have trouble with FOX (the worst offender), and NBC, but the CW seems much, much better. In GraphEdit, FOX and NBC use the Sage splitter, while The CW uses the proper NVIDIA DeMux. . .

I can't explain why this is happening because I know precious little about the mechanics of this stuff beyond the bits and pieces I've picked up around these forums, but it seems to me that the networks send out very different streams.

That being said. . . mplayer (latest Win GUI), VLC and my TWC DVR have no problem playing any of the streams so I see no reason that Sage shouldn't be able to.