Issue with SageTV HD-PVR - playback using overlay

[Asaillant]

Hi,

I have several Issue with sagetv, I had the trial version and it was almost working fine, i had suttering issue, even with a killer computer and killer video card.

One anoying issue is that I cannot get Overlay to work. The only codec that worked is arcsoft with VMR9 (and probably responsible for the suttering issue).

how do I get overlay to work? it seems in various forums that overlay fixes a lot of performance issue.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by Asaillant

Hi,

I have several Issue with sagetv, I had the trial version and it was almost working fine, i had suttering issue, even with a killer computer and killer video card.

One anoying issue is that I cannot get Overlay to work. The only codec that worked is arcsoft with VMR9 (and probably responsible for the suttering issue).

how do I get overlay to work? it seems in various forums that overlay fixes a lot of performance issue.

Operating system? Config? Details on what is happening?

[Asaillant]

P4 dual core duo 3.0 ghz
creative sb X-FI
nvidia GTX 260
2 hard drive, everything related of sagetv and recording is on the second one, formated in 64 kb cluster. 1 TB western digital
4 gig ram

right now i have another issue but i will try to re-install arcsoft codec. since my new install, I get a pink screen with overlay. (before I was getting an error message) and with VMR9, I get image on the left half of the screen and with a nice Green overlay.

[Asaillant]

ok got the green glow issue resolved, so i am back to my original issue of quality and overlay not working.

I get a black screen with overlay. the Hauppauge start normaly but no image.

anyideas?

[danmyersmn]

I had the same problem with different codecs then what you are using so this wont help a lot but here is what I had/did. I was using PowerDVD 7 codecs for video render in Overlay. Everytime I try VMR9 I get stuttering. I have a 2.4gh AMD Tri-core, 2gb ram on an Asus MB. GT8600 video. I have been completly happy with the overlay. I upgraded PowerDVD 7 to PowerDVD 8 when I tried to watch Indiana Jones in BD and the audio wouldn't work. After that my SageTV fell apart and I only would get a black screen in overlay. VMR9 stutters terrible (with less then 30% CPU load). I spent a few hours messing with it and in the end the only solution I had was to install PowerDVD 7 again. I now have both versions and run the codecs for 7 in SageTV for video and dvd and then fire up 8 for BD discs.

You might try looking at older versions of players you have and see if you can get different codecs working. I also installed the beta demux that is on this forum and that made it worse for me. I wish we could have a selction to select the demux we use like we do for codecs and renderer. so we could try different combinations.

The VMR9 stutter is complely on SageTV. If I use graphedit and render the filter and play the video in graphedit I get no stutter at all. If I use the same codec's/render in SageTV it stutters.

[Asaillant]

well this is not working for me.

I installed powerdvd 7 and tried it with overley, still get a black screen. VMR9 with powerdvd give the same crapy image too.

This is ridiculous, it's so hard to configure! any ideas of what i could do next?

[ghostlobster]

Vista or XP?

[Asaillant]

vista

[ghostlobster]

OK, for Vista, this is what worked for me. I cant promise that it'll work for everyone, though:
First, VRM9 will not work with h.264 in Vista. You're going to need overlay.
I'm assuming you have Power DVD 7 installed, as you mentioned it earlier.
Stop Sage completely (service, client, everything.)
Update your video card drivers. The latest for the 200 series are 178.24
Edit the Sage.properties or the sageclient.properties and change the current h264 decoder line to:
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CyberLink Video Decoder (PDVD7)
Launch Sage
Advanced config
Overlay
Video MPG decoder = Cyberlink
Audio decoder= Microsoft MPEG1 Audio Decoder
MPEG 4 playback=directshow
Go into SBT's settings, and lock the STB in at 1080i. If that stutters, then lock it in at 720p. People are reporting that one works and the other does not. In my case, 720p worked, 1080i stuttered.

That's what worked for me. If you want to indicate the ArcSoft h264 encoder in the properties file instead of Cyberlink, make sure you go into Total Media Theater's config options and disable the option for hardware accelleration.

[gplasky]

I'm running Vista 64 bit, Cyberlink PowerDVD8 for my HD-PVR h.264 and they run fine with no stutter. Running 178.13 nVidia 64 bit drivers with a Biostar TF7050 with onboard Geforce 7050PV/nVidia 630a video and VMR9. No stutter and using AC3 Filter for audio.

Gerry

[Asaillant]

Thank you ghostlobster!

at lease I get overlay working with what you did. I have to do some further test however but the initial test seems good. (on computer screen)

I will test it more tonight.

2 questions:

1- Would installing windows XP work better? I guess I would be able to run VMR9? Would VMR9 give me better results?

2- some people have issues with powerdvd 8. Does it work because i also have a blue ray disc on my machine and I think PowerDVD 7 does not have the codecs to read it. So will upgrading to Powerdvd 8 screw up everything for sure or it's a case by case issue?

thank you!

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

First, VRM9 will not work with h.264 in Vista. You're going to need overlay.

Well h.264 works on VMR9 for me in Vista without any stutter. I do need to do the following registry hack;

(Quote)
"I went from choppy to smooth by changing some registry settings.

HKey_L_M\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\DSFilters\MpegDeMux values NumBuffers and BufferSize.
I currently have these set to 100 and 20000 hex, respectively.

(Up from 40 and 10000)"

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by Asaillant

Thank you ghostlobster!

at lease I get overlay working with what you did. I have to do some further test however but the initial test seems good. (on computer screen)

I will test it more tonight.

2 questions:

1- Would installing windows XP work better? I guess I would be able to run VMR9? Would VMR9 give me better results?

2- some people have issues with powerdvd 8. Does it work because i also have a blue ray disc on my machine and I think PowerDVD 7 does not have the codecs to read it. So will upgrading to Powerdvd 8 screw up everything for sure or it's a case by case issue?

thank you!

PDVD7 works just fine for BluRay playback. I use it and love it.

I would not recommend XP right now, especially as you already have Vista working (more or less.) EVR support is on the way in a beta coming out in a very short time, so once we're at EVR, life will improve a whole bunch.

The biggest thing I've seen regarding HD-PVR stutter is the output resolution of the STBs. Lock that puppy in at whichever works best for you.