HD-PVR Extreme Blockiness

[gplasky]

A lot of times the stuttering has to do with what audio decoder you are using with your video decoder. And if you've installed the new drivers for the HD=PVR you can now get DD 5.1 so the audio is a AC3 stream and not a AAC stream.

Gerry

[ShortySeanbo]

Originally Posted by gplasky

A lot of times the stuttering has to do with what audio decoder you are using with your video decoder. And if you've installed the new drivers for the HD=PVR you can now get DD 5.1 so the audio is a AC3 stream and not a AAC stream.

Gerry

I've changed around the audio decoders along with the video decoders (so they match) whenever I've tried a new codec. I don't have an s/pdif cable right now so I can't test the 5.1 ac3 output, but that's an interesting idea.

[Apap]

Are you using Overlay or VMR9 as your video renderer?

Goto setup>detailed setup>video\audio

Look at the top line on the right side.

I have found that Overlay runs much smoother than VMR9 for H264 content.

[ShortySeanbo]

Overlay for all of them. VRM9 seems slower and unstable. The video tends to just stop when using VRM9.

[ShortySeanbo]

Although I currently do not have the money and it is not my desired solution I must ask:

Would getting an HD Media Extender and effectively cutting the head off of this computer solve my problems?

[Taddeusz]

I believe I was having the same problem as you were with the Arcsoft decoder on my Client machine. I have my problem partially solved. I am using the Cyberlink H.264 Decoder from PDVD 8 Ultra along with the Arcsoft Audio Decoder. They way I made this combination work is to upgrade my SageTV demuxer to the beta version.

The problem I run into with this configuration is that if I stop playback during a recording that has not completed yet my SageTV Client crashes. This does not happen with recordings that have already been completed or on H.264 videos that are in my library. The Arcsoft decoder, however, does not do this. I submitted a bug report through the site but never got a reply back about it.

[ShortySeanbo]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I believe I was having the same problem as you were with the Arcsoft decoder on my Client machine. I have my problem partially solved. I am using the Cyberlink H.264 Decoder from PDVD 8 Ultra along with the Arcsoft Audio Decoder. They way I made this combination work is to upgrade my SageTV demuxer to the beta version.

The problem I run into with this configuration is that if I stop playback during a recording that has not completed yet my SageTV Client crashes. This does not happen with recordings that have already been completed or on H.264 videos that are in my library. The Arcsoft decoder, however, does not do this. I submitted a bug report through the site but never got a reply back about it.

So I don't know exactly what fixed this...but it is fixed.

I am now running the new demuxer, ffdshow Video Decoder for h264, and the Arcsoft Audio Decoder running Overlay.

It is clear to me that that this was an audio problem, which is pretty sad. Particularly considering that CPU usage hovers at 20%.

The system is still rather unstable and I may try going back to the CoreAVC codec.

[ShortySeanbo]

I want to thank the SageTV community for its support.

I recently tried to play the Blu-ray of Iron Man and noticed the same strange blocky pattern in both TMT and PDVD8. A little internet research revealed that this Blu-ray is H.264 encoded. That was the last straw and I just RMA'ed the motherboard and ordered a different model. I will post here when I get the operating system rebuilt and get the video card running with the correct drivers.

Again, thanks to the community for its help. I now own a version of Sage :-)

[ShortySeanbo]

I replaced the P5Q-EM (G45 based MB) with a P5E-VM (G35 based MB). This allowed me to install the latest forceware drivers for my 9800GT. Several things to notice.

Not only does the Blu-ray of Iron Man play just fine in Total Media Theater (no blockiness, and it looks gorgeous!), the total power consumption of the system is noticeably less by viewing my UPS. My hunch is that the correct drivers are making better use of the graphics card.

Current settings:
H264: Arcsoft Video Decoder
MPEG2: Arcsoft Video Decoder
AAC: Arcsoft Audio Decoder
Audio: Arcsoft Audio Decoder

Works relatively well. A few lingering issues:

1) The remote is rather pathetic. Large delay and it loses every 3rd button push.
2)Going from an SD channel to an HD channel or the other way is a recipe for meltdown. The system is libel to display the channel at the wrong aspect ratio or just refuse to display anything. My temporary fix was to make the STB output at 1080i even for SD stuff and that seems to work but I'm sure it isn't ideal.
3)I still get a little stuttering at times. My guess based on what I have seen so far is that I need to play around with the audio codecs some more.

Thanks again for everyone's help.