HD-PVR Playback Choppy on SageTV clients

[dynamix]

I recently purchased an HD-PVR. The video quality is great, my problem is playing it back in Sage.

I currently have one sage pc to record everything, and two other sage client pc's to playback content. Everything is 6.4.7.

My main issue is that Sage plays everything recorded through the HD-PVR very choppy. Hardware accelleration off/on, nvidia codecs, arcsoft codecs, I've read all the forums and nothing stops the stuttering. It might make it stutter less, but doesn't eliminate it.

The thing is, the video plays back silky smooth in ANY player EXCEPT sageTV. Can anyone suggest anything else which might help? I've spent about 10 hours trying out suggestions from other posts, and nothing has made much difference.

It's very frustrating see it play perfectly in WMP or MPC, only to have choppy results in sage for seemingly no reason.

Thanks.

ps HD video recorded from a HVR-1600 plays back flawlessly in Sage. Just not from the hd pvr.

[bhyman1]

System specs?

Video card?

Video card driver version?

[dynamix]

System specs?

Video card?

Video card driver version?

both machines are plenty powerful, but specs are:

SageTV Client #1:
Athlon XP 3500+
1gig ram
nvidia 8500gt w/ 175.19
WindowsXP Home

SageTV Client #2:
Athlon X2 5000+
1gig ram
nvidia 8800gt w/ 175.19
WindowsXP Pro

Both boxes are fresh installs of the OS, and run nothing other than the SageTV client.

Also worth pointing out that the slower of the two boxes actually stutters less. Very strange.

[ben_95sl1]

see http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...9&postcount=25

I posted my progress:try overlay.
There must be something with the sage, maybe the demux as its probably the only piece that is different from other players. I'm too tired to get this thing working, any help appreciated.

[bhyman1]

Try using an older nVidia driver. That took care of it for me. I think I'm using 163.75 but it might be 169.21. Pretty sure it's 163.75 though.

175.19 definately gave me problems with stuttering.

And use Overlay.

[dynamix]

Originally Posted by bhyman1

Try using an older nVidia driver. That took care of it for me. I think I'm using 163.75 but it might be 169.21. Pretty sure it's 163.75 though.

175.19 definately gave me problems with stuttering.

And use Overlay.

I have some news... at first I tried using the 169.02, the oldest driver I could find on nvidia.com. That turned playback in sage to a garbled mess.

Then I tried the 177 beta driver. It still stutters, but stutters less. I dunno... still pretty annoying to see the constant stutters.

I would like to pop an ATI card into my machines and see if that changes anything.

Again, frustrating how the video plays back fine outside of SageTV, yet stutters in SageTV.

[ben_95sl1]

If it makes you feel any better, I have more problems with my ati hd3450 in sagetv, vs my nvidia 7900gs.

Ben

[Taddeusz]

Strange. I'm having zero issues with my Radeon 3870 on Vista x64.

[Chriscic]

Playback of my HD-PVR files in Sage has been a mess for me so far. Both in software (2.4ghz core 2 duo) on one system, and via hardware acceleration (ATI 2600pro AGP) in the other.

[Taddeusz]

On my Vista x64 client system I have SageTV set with 3D and VMR9 enabled and FSE disabled. I'm using the ATI decoder for MPEG and Arcsoft for H.264. What I've done is uninstall all filters that are not needed. Then I adjusted the filter merits to prefer Arcsoft. I used GraphEdit to ensure that the Arcsoft decoders are used automatically by default. Set this way I get stutter free playback.

I'm not a fan of the Arcsoft decoder though. I think playback from it looks too rough. Kind of like an edge detection routine was run on it. I also get little glitches during playback that don't appear with other decoders. I wish I could use the Cyberlink H.264 decoder but so far it does not play well with the SageTV MPEG splitter when used for the HD-PVR files.

As a side note I also have the Matroska Splitter installed to make MKV playback easier.

[ben_95sl1]

Taddeusz: Is this with Hardware Acceleration enabled? Also, which arcsoft audio decoder is being used, there is a regular one and an HD one.

thanks

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by ben_95sl1

Taddeusz: Is this with Hardware Acceleration enabled? Also, which arcsoft audio decoder is being used, there is a regular one and an HD one.

thanks

According to the filter settings for the Arcsoft decoder hardware acceleration is enabled. But I don't know for sure whether it's being used or not. I've heard conflicting reports that hardware acceleration is broken in certain circumstances with the Arcsoft decoder. That in Vista it will only accelerate with EVR and not VMR9, which means SageTV isn't accelerated. I just know I get smooth playback.

I'd have to check when I get home but I believe it's using the regular audio decoder.

[dynamix]

I'm not a fan of the Arcsoft decoder though. I think playback from it looks too rough. Kind of like an edge detection routine was run on it. I also get little glitches during playback that don't appear with other decoders. I wish I could use the Cyberlink H.264 decoder but so far it does not play well with the SageTV MPEG splitter when used for the HD-PVR files.

Yes, while my playback stutters with both Arcsoft and Nvidia decoders, I've noticed that nvidia decoder looks much much better than arcsoft decoder. Arcsoft also makes SD recorded shows look especially horrible. Unfortunately the nvidia decoder also stutters even more than arcsoft.

Like others I have my playback set to overlay, acceleration off, and I've tried countless varieties of decoders.

I'll have to investigate this Graphedit software to see if that helps, but it does seem as though it's getting overly complex in order to try to get basic playback working properly. If I have a sage problem, I have to worry about sage version, java version, video driver version, and now decoder preference... Meanwhile WMP and MPC seem oblivious to these factors and just work.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by dynamix

Yes, while my playback stutters with both Arcsoft and Nvidia decoders, I've noticed that nvidia decoder looks much much better than arcsoft decoder. Arcsoft also makes SD recorded shows look especially horrible. Unfortunately the nvidia decoder also stutters even more than arcsoft.

Like others I have my playback set to overlay, acceleration off, and I've tried countless varieties of decoders.

I'll have to investigate this Graphedit software to see if that helps, but it does seem as though it's getting overly complex in order to try to get basic playback working properly. If I have a sage problem, I have to worry about sage version, java version, video driver version, and now decoder preference... Meanwhile WMP and MPC seem oblivious to these factors and just work.

I agree with the complexity. I primarily use my HD Extender for my viewing so my client wasn't that much of a concern till recently. Originally I was only trying to get my MKV's to playback properly. As it turned out the only change I needed to make to get the HD-PVR recordings to play properly was to change merits on the filters. Everything else was set to work properly in Sage.

[dreary79]

I'm in the same choppy mess as all of you. Errrr.

[SWKerr]

It has been awhile since I set it up but I also had some initial problems as well. I initially installed it without installing the ArcSoft software and hence no ArcSoft decoder. Everything recorded but there was some skipping. After researching it I figured out you could select your decoder by editing the properties file. (details from geektonic.com below)

Since I had not installed the ArcSoft software I did not have the decoder for the fix. As soon as I installed the ArcSoft software it started skipping very badly. It skipped badly in the ArcSoft software as well. I uninstalled it and all was back to normal. I had no idea how to just install the decoder so I ended up installing on the minimal components from the ArcSoft install so that the codec installed and none of the possibly offending software and did the properties hack for the ArcSoft decoder. All was good after that. I had the exact same problem with the Client box.

I have now tried CoreAVC and the ArchSoft decoder and both seem to play perfectly. I bought the CoreAVC decoder since is allows me to read the files with MeGUI and convert and edit them as I would like. The CoreAVC solution might look just a little better.



(from geektonic.com)
If you want to use CyberLink PDVD8 Decoder add the following:
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD8)

If you want to use CoreAVC Decoder add the following:
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CoreAVC Video Decoder

If you want to use Arcsoft Decoder add the following:
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=ArcSoft Video Decoder

If you want to use the Divx Decoder add the following:
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=DivX H264 Decoder Filter