Intermitent Stuttering with Live OTA

[alfi33]

I am seeing a lot of intermitent stuttering when watching live HD OTA. It seems to happen only on a couple channels....or at least, at one time. I can tune to a different HD OTA channel and it plays fine. Watching DVDs or previously recorded HD content works perfectly. CPU usage is around 20-30%. The workaround (if you can call it that) is to restart the Sage UI. Since, I am running Sage as a service, I can then rewind and watch what I missed and it plays fine. It seems I have to do this every hour or two. I have an MVP and I have not experienced this problem with it.

My system:
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard
ATI HD3200 integrated graphics with Catalyst 8.5 drivers (version 8.7 gives me BSOD)
Athlon64 X2 5000+
2 GB RAM
500 GB SATA formated with 64k clusters
Hauppauge HVR-1600
Hauppauge HVR-1800
---------
XP Pro SP3
SageTV V6.3.10.166
SageMC STV version 6.3.7a-fix
Java Version 1.6.0_07
---------
Overlay
InterVideo NonCSS Video Decoder for Hauppauge
3D Acceleration disabled
FSE disabled

Anybody have any ideas what could be causing this? Or what I should try to narrow down the possible causes?

[evilpenguin]

SageMC is just a skin and doesn't have any affect on the playback of videos. You should PM Opus4 (the mod) and have him move this thread into the SageTV Software thread. You'll get a lot more responses there.

[Opus4]

If he's using a custom STV, he shouldn't be posting in the SageTV Software forum until trying a default setup -- that should be the first step of any troubleshooting: get rid of all customizations, including the hidden extras, and try to reproduce the issue that way.

- Andy

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

SageMC is just a skin and doesn't have any affect on the playback of videos. You should PM Opus4 (the mod) and have him move this thread into the SageTV Software thread. You'll get a lot more responses there.

Before you do that, you should switch back to the default STV (SageTV3.xml) and verify that the problem exists there. Once you verify that it happens in the default configuration, then you can get help in the other forums or open a support ticket with SageTV.

Aloha,
Mike

[alfi33]

Thanks. I should have thought to take SageMC out of the equation when troubleshooting from the beginning.

I've switched over to the default STV last night and I will see how it goes. Like evilpenguin said, I suspect that this will not have an effect but I certainly appreciate the need to remove all possible variables.

Alfie

[alfi33]

I've loaded the default STV and I'm still seeing some stuttering. It only happens intermitently and does not occur with previously recorded stuff. Restarting the Sage UI only makes it go away some of the time. Rewinding does not seem to help.

One thing that I have noticed is that CPU usage drops way down to 4-8% when the stuttering starts. However, when it is playing smoothly CPU usage is 20-30%. This seems odd to me but I am not sure exactly what it means.

I thought it might be Cool n Quiet but I disabled it and it still happened.

Any ideas?

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by alfi33

My system:
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard
ATI HD3200 integrated graphics with Catalyst 8.5 drivers (version 8.7 gives me BSOD)
Athlon64 X2 5000+
2 GB RAM
500 GB SATA formated with 64k clusters
Hauppauge HVR-1600
Hauppauge HVR-1800
---------
XP Pro SP3
SageTV V6.3.10.166
SageMC STV version 6.3.7a-fix
Java Version 1.6.0_07
---------
Overlay
InterVideo NonCSS Video Decoder for Hauppauge
3D Acceleration disabled
FSE disabled

I just chatted with someone on this board who has, or had, the same motherboard.
Why disable 3D Acceleration? Did I not get a copy of the memo again?
Do you get stuttering using the SageTV decoder?
Have you tried the Nvidia PureVideo Decoder Trial. I've got an HD3650 and now run the 'Bronze' version after the trial.


Your PC is overkill, or killer, or something. I'd try reinstalling the codec, or check buffer, Java Heap Size settings.
How 'old' is your wiz.bin? Another 'test' might be to rename the .bin/.bak to wiz.bin.temp and wiz.bak.temp and try LiveTV again. Quit, delete, and rename back to original to recover. Or not.

[Off Topic]
PS: I loved the simulpost between Opus4 and MeInMaui. I've always suspected some psychic link or multiple personalities between those two. I guess this rules out the multiple personalities. Anyway, make me laugh when I first saw it.

[alfi33]

Originally Posted by Conejo

I just chatted with someone on this board who has, or had, the same motherboard.
Why disable 3D Acceleration? Did I not get a copy of the memo again?
Do you get stuttering using the SageTV decoder?
Have you tried the Nvidia PureVideo Decoder Trial. I've got an HD3650 and now run the 'Bronze' version after the trial.

I've tried to use 3D Acceleration a couple times but I've had stability problems when it's enabled.

I've tried a few different decoders including Cyberlink and Avivo and I seem to have stability problems with these as well. I'm pretty sure I've tried the SageTV decoder. I can't remeber why I didn't like it so I'll give it another go.

I've avoided the PureVideo decoder thinking that it would not be ideal given my ATI video card but I'll try anything at this point.

How do like your HD3650? I've thought about trying a different video card but because everything works fine 90% of the time I doubt this is the problem.

Originally Posted by Conejo

Your PC is overkill, or killer, or something.

Overkill? Really? This is a new build. I hoped to run Blu-Ray on it soon and thought I needed these type specs to make it work. I want to get this issue worked out before I bite that one off though.

Originally Posted by Conejo

I'd try reinstalling the codec, or check buffer, Java Heap Size settings.

I've already increased the Java Heap as suggested in the thread you mentioned. What buffer are talking about and how do you check it?

Originally Posted by Conejo

How 'old' is your wiz.bin? Another 'test' might be to rename the .bin/.bak to wiz.bin.temp and wiz.bak.temp and try LiveTV again. Quit, delete, and rename back to original to recover. Or not.

My wiz.bin is not very old. I've only been using SageTV for a month or so. I'll try your test tonight but what is the wiz.bin for?

[Conejo]

I'm going to take a big leap here and say ALL of your issues are directly related to your ATI driver install. Until you get that fixed you'll be chasing phantom bugs for the life of this setup.

I upgraded from my ATI on-board video because it didn't handle HD streams. Got an nVidia 8500GT that displayed beautiful BSOD messages and driver errors that no version corrected. Replaced that with an ATI HD3650 and it's been smooth sailing.

The PureVideo codec smoothed everything out and works with both nVideo and ATI cards, but you need to get your driver issue fixed first.

Your system is 'killer' for the SD and HD your currently using. Going Bluray (at 40Mbps streaming) could top it out.

--

If your motherboard is using shared memory for video, try looking at your RAM chips. Try swapping their slot.
Otherwise, if your retailer allows returns, try installing an ATI or nVidia card with dedicated memory.

[alfi33]

I think this mobo allows me to dedicate memory to the IGP in the BIOS. I'll try that and swap some RAM sticks around tonight.

I've read about others having ATI driver issues with this mobo so you might be right. The fact that it's sooo sporadic makes it difficult for me to troubleshoot. I've loaded and re-loaded 3 or 4 different versions of Catalyst. It'll work great for hours....and then like crap for 10 or 15 minutes (or anytime my wife is trying to watch something).

I'm hoping that ATI will release Catalyst 8.8 this month. Maybe that will help.

But I might have to take your suggestion and buy another card to try out just for kicks.

(SageTV sure is a lot of fun....but man, it is also a time-sucker!!)

[alfi33]

I think I finally got my stuttering issue resolved!!

Looks like it was the RAM voltage setting. It was set to 1.8v by default and my Cosair RAM requires 2.1v. I upped the voltage a little over a week ago and it's been stutter-free ever since!

I'm not sure if this voltage increase was important mainly because I am using an IGP or if I would have still had the problem with a discrete card.