SageTV Client for Mac stuttering video

[sgraves66]

I'm testing out the client for mac on an Macbook Pro running leopard and notice quit a bit of video stuttering, especially in HD. The video card is more than capable of handling this so I'm wondering if there are any tweaks I can do to resolve this?

[sgraves66]

Looks like I'll have to open a ticket with support unless anyone has any suggestions.

[jakobevers]

Originally Posted by sgraves66

Looks like I'll have to open a ticket with support unless anyone has any suggestions.

I have the same problem with my Mini Mac PPC 1,4Ghz+IMac G5 2.1Ghz. But not with my IMac Intel.

[iconic]

What resolution are you running the MacBook Pro at?

[sgraves66]

Native res for my model is 1680x1050.

My 2 cents - mplayer isn't the way to go for mac/linux. They really should be using VideoLAN.

[sgraves66]

It's been about a week now - nothing back from support on this one

[iconic]

The issue with the rendering system has been improved. The next build should be better. This didn't have anything to do with mplayer (which uses the same codecs as VLC).

[mcbrems]

Does this mean that BOTH the high black levels have been adjusted (lowered), and the stuttering has been fixed? I'm still seeing washed-out looking blacks in the standard def recordings, but with only rare instances of stuttering. On the other hand, the Hi-Def recordings blacks look pretty good, but there is occasional stuttering (especially on start of play).

MB

[mcbrems]

More specifically, what I am seeing looks like dropped or skipped frames in SageTV playback of some (not all) HiDef playback. A frame of video will freeze for 2 or 3 frames, and then playback will resume normally. Surprisingly, this was happening during Letterman, when there was no action in frame but Clooney's talking head. The same video file played back normally in VLC player, and no dropped or skipped frames were noticed. It seems like a minor issue, but it makes viewing of even the simplest of content consistently irritating in SageTV.

[guho]

Full-screen video (1080p TV) is still not smooth on Mac Mini, using 6.3.5 RC placeshifter. Regardless of whether the content is HD or SD.

Originally Posted by mcbrems

More specifically, what I am seeing looks like dropped or skipped frames in SageTV playback of some (not all) HiDef playback. A frame of video will freeze for 2 or 3 frames, and then playback will resume normally. Surprisingly, this was happening during Letterman, when there was no action in frame but Clooney's talking head. The same video file played back normally in VLC player, and no dropped or skipped frames were noticed. It seems like a minor issue, but it makes viewing of even the simplest of content consistently irritating in SageTV.

[iconic]

Originally Posted by guho

Full-screen video (1080p TV) is still not smooth on Mac Mini, using 6.3.5 RC placeshifter. Regardless of whether the content is HD or SD.

The entire rendering system is being overhauled to address these issues. No ETA on a new build though, it's still in development. Early results look very promising though.

[guho]

Can you make a basic version available (no advanced rendering with transparent menus or GUI animations) similar to overlay rendering on Windows instead of VMR9 and perhaps all the bells and whistles later? Then at least we can watch.

Originally Posted by iconic

The entire rendering system is being overhauled to address these issues. No ETA on a new build though, it's still in development. Early results look very promising though.

[mcbrems]

I am answering a question posed to me a couple weeks back. I have noticed the stuttering during 720P content, once every 60 secs or so. I have also noticed stutter-free video at 1080i. I will make notes on the exact video parameters whenever I see stutter and report back

Glad to hear the rendering system is getting attention. I ponied up my 80 bucks and purchased my software key. I just really like using SageTV more than any other HTPC media center software for OSX that I've used. I also appreciate how responsive the development team has been so far.

MB

[mcbrems]

Originally Posted by mcbrems

Does this mean that BOTH the high black levels have been adjusted (lowered), and the stuttering has been fixed? I'm still seeing washed-out looking blacks in the standard def recordings, but with only rare instances of stuttering. On the other hand, the Hi-Def recordings blacks look pretty good, but there is occasional stuttering (especially on start of play).

MB

I need to state for the record that the only reason my SageTV recordings looked washed-out was because my OSX system color profile was set with the blacks too high to compensate for the lower blacks in my EyeTV and VLC playback. Now that my OSX color profile has been reset from scratch properly, my SageTV playback looks really good. No further need to compensate, because the SageTV playback seems to match the OSX color profile settings pretty well. Now I need to bug VideoLAN to fix their VLC player!

MB