Problem with playback on Diamond SB9550 AGP card

[remmy925]

I recently was given an old PC, which I decided to use for a SageTV client. This PC has a Soyo K7VDRAGON (VIA KT266 Chipset), 1.8 Athlon XP, 2GB of Ram, an Audigy 2 sound card, and a Diamond Radeon 9550 (S120AGP256SB). I have the latest drivers for all the hardware and DX9c running on XP Pro SP3. This PC is running the most recent non-beta version of SageTV. This isnt a fast system, but it should be able to play MPEG-2 playback with DXVA and 3D Acceleration enabled. I am unable to do so. I have tried using the ATI MPEG-2 decoders, the Nvidia Pure Video Decoders, and the standard SageTV decoders. The only that will work is the SageTV decoder providing that I turn off 3D Accelleration and DXVA. Has anyone run into this? Does anyone know what might be causing this.

[dadof4]

I have the same Diamond Radeon 9550 on my Sage Server. Prior to using extenders it was also my client. It would never play 3D and I was forced to use overlay. It was the same with Beyond TV. It does not have the horsepower. See my signature for the PC on which it was installed.

[Striker:WG]

First question I have learned to ask myself with anything regarding media playback and Sage is:

Does it work in any other app the way you want it to?

Sage is a highly configurable application which is really a double edged sword. It gives you alot of power to configure your system exactly the way you want it to work. It also means that you've got an awful lot of rope to hang yourself with.

Before you try to tackle making something work in Sage, check and make sure it works in WMP, Winamp, PowerDVD, VLC, or any other standard media players out there. This will rule out any issues with Sage config and hardware limitations.

Next use GraphEdit to determine exactly which codecs are being used to playback your media then try and config Sage to do the same!

-Striker-

[remmy925]

I suspect the hardware should have the juice to do this since I was able to run dxva and 3d accelleration with an old FX5200. I admit I have been working on this after work and have been somewhat lazy about troubleshooting the issue. I guess I will have to move an mpeg file local to the pc and try running it in media player. Something tells me that it will probably work. I know it plays DVD video without issue in Media Player. I guess I can also try rolling back the drivers to the disk that came with the card, but they appear to be just older generic catalyst drivers. I suspect the issue is how the card is handling the onscreen menus overlayed on top of video playback. If that doesnt work, anyone know a cheap AGP card that would work for my needs? Otherwise I will just pony up the cash for a wireless media extender.

[gplasky]

Newegg. ATI 3450. About $45. Works great.

ASUS AH3450

About $20 more for a 3650.
ASUS AH3650

Gerry