How to enable hardware acceleration on Nvidia Ion based PC?

[LehighBri]

I recently purchased the Acer Aspire Revo 3610 and am loving it so far. Flash video is smooth as silk with the new flash 10.1 plugin. But I'm having issues getting smooth video to play in SageTV (7.0.10).

How do I/should I enable HW acceleration on this Ion-based PC? Do only certain codecs support this? If so, which ones? Or do I need to modify any settings in my sage.properties?

I dug around on the forums but can't seem to find an answer. Thanks in advance for the help.

[wado1971]

I have an atom/Ion basic client - below are some of my settings in SageTV

Video Renderer -> VMR9
MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter -> SageTV MPEG Video
SageTV MPEG VD uses DXVA (HA) -> Yes
H.264 VD Filter -> ArcSoft Video Decoder
Media Play for non-MPEG -> SageTV Player
---
---
MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter -> AC3 Filter

Mileage will vary.... some people will swear by x decoders but in my experience (without real good knowledge on the subject) it's a patience game of trial & error.

BTW - this Atom/Ion system has been rock solid for me - love it!

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by wado1971

I have an atom/Ion basic client - below are some of my settings in SageTV

Video Renderer -> VMR9
MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter -> SageTV MPEG Video
SageTV MPEG VD uses DXVA (HA) -> Yes
H.264 VD Filter -> ArcSoft Video Decoder
Media Play for non-MPEG -> SageTV Player
---
---
MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter -> AC3 Filter

Mileage will vary.... some people will swear by x decoders but in my experience (without real good knowledge on the subject) it's a patience game of trial & error.

BTW - this Atom/Ion system has been rock solid for me - love it!

Which OS and version of SageTV are you using? I think I may give Arcsoft a try and see if that works.

[LehighBri]

In further testing, I am getting jerky video for both MPEG2 (HDHomeRun QAM) and H.265 (.ts via HD-PVR). I am using Win 7 w/ EVR and have the latest Nvidia ION drivers installed.

I really feel like I'm missing a key setting. Any suggestions?

[LehighBri]

One additional data point. I just tried playing a 1080p .mkv file that I imported and it is smooth as silk (using EVR and Arcsoft video decoder).

I still am having issues w/ TV recordings (.mpg for HDHomerun and .ts for HD-PVR). Thoughts?

[wado1971]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

In further testing, I am getting jerky video for both MPEG2 (HDHomeRun QAM) and H.265 (.ts via HD-PVR). I am using Win 7 w/ EVR and have the latest Nvidia ION drivers installed.

I really feel like I'm missing a key setting. Any suggestions?

Post your video/audio settings from the detailed settings page. The HD-PVR definitely needs the arcsoft decoder or something similar. If you're running W7 I understand the build in h.264 decoders work well with the ts streams but I didn't have good luck with them and reverted back to arcsoft.

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by wado1971

Post your video/audio settings from the detailed settings page. The HD-PVR definitely needs the arcsoft decoder or something similar. If you're running W7 I understand the build in h.264 decoders work well with the ts streams but I didn't have good luck with them and reverted back to arcsoft.

Per previous post, here's what I'm using:
Windows 7
SageTV 7.0.10
EVR
MPEG2: SageTV Decoder
H264: Arcsoft video decoder

[LehighBri]

Did some additional testing and noticed the following:

VMR9 and Full Screen Exclusive on: MPEG2 is smooth as silk, but H264 is very jerky

EVR and Full Screen Exclusive on: both MPEG2 AND H264 are very jerky

Full Screen Exclusive off: very jerky as well

Again, I'm in Windows 7 and would think I should be able to use EVR just fine but something is just not right...

[wado1971]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

Did some additional testing and noticed the following:

VMR9 and Full Screen Exclusive on: MPEG2 is smooth as silk, but H264 is very jerky

EVR and Full Screen Exclusive on: both MPEG2 AND H264 are very jerky

Full Screen Exclusive off: very jerky as well

Again, I'm in Windows 7 and would think I should be able to use EVR just fine but something is just not right...

I had the same experience with EVR - both MPEG2 & H264 jerky. With VMR9 I had much better success with MPEG2 as you did.
What is the H.264 decoder you're using?
I've never used Full Screen Exclusive: On - so can't comment on that - why are you using this?

[LehighBri]

I've been playing around with a bunch of different settings and here's where I am:

-Enabled FSE (this is a must for me... I can't seem to get smooth playback without it)
-EVR
-I used the Microsoft DTV Decoder for the MPEG2, H.264, and DVD decoders

With these settings, playback of MPEG2 and .MKV (1080p blu-ray) are silky smooth! The one issue I'm fighting through now is to get my .TS files recorded through my HD-PVR to play silky smooth (I'm playing around with CoreAVC and Haali at the moment but feel like I've been spending way too much time on this)

Any final thoughts?

Room for improvement:
-Sage/Narflex... somehow you need to make it clear when FSE is needed and when it's not... it's not acceptable to just "try it" and see what happens
-There needs to be a better way to tell if the Ion acceleration is being used or not... I know this isn't a Sage thing but there has to be a better way (e.g. CoreAVC displays a tray icon when it uses the CUDA acceleration)

[UgaData]

If your using the Arcsoft decoders that came with the HD-PVR, I would suggest checking the Arcsoft decoders properties and verify that DXVA1.0 & DXVA2.0 are enabled. I use Graph Studio to check the decoder properties.
(Graph->Insert Graph Filter-> <list of installed filters> Find and highlght Arcsoft Video Decoder then click the properties button.

I have on more than one occasion, pulled my hair out, running in circles trying to determine why all of a sudden video playback of recorded shows is just crappy.

I have tried changing decoders (CoreAVC, Microsoft, etc.) to no avail. then for some reason I check the properties of the Arcsoft decoder and find that DXVAx.0 is not enabled. I have no idea what caused these settings to change but they did (maybe a TMT or TME update/upgrade, SageTV update?).

FWIW - I'm running Vista32 and SageTV 7 (the decoder issue has been with both 6.x and 7.x versions of SageTV). And I use EVR and I don't use FSE. As long as the Arcsoft decoder has DXVA1.0 & DXVA2.0 enabled all video plays like expected.

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by UgaData

If your using the Arcsoft decoders that came with the HD-PVR, I would suggest checking the Arcsoft decoders properties and verify that DXVA1.0 & DXVA2.0 are enabled. I use Graph Studio to check the decoder properties.
(Graph->Insert Graph Filter-> <list of installed filters> Find and highlght Arcsoft Video Decoder then click the properties button.

I have on more than one occasion, pulled my hair out, running in circles trying to determine why all of a sudden video playback of recorded shows is just crappy.

I have tried changing decoders (CoreAVC, Microsoft, etc.) to no avail. then for some reason I check the properties of the Arcsoft decoder and find that DXVAx.0 is not enabled. I have no idea what caused these settings to change but they did (maybe a TMT or TME update/upgrade, SageTV update?).

I will try this out tonight. Just curious... what applications from the HD-PVR software do I need to install to get the codecs to install? I installed just the Total Media Extreme application but I could not see the Arcsoft codec in the list of available codecs in GraphStudio for the life of me. Once I get the codecs installed, I will resume my testing.

[UgaData]

As far as I know it should just be TME. It's been a while since I did a complete install, what else is on the CD from Arcsoft (besides Arcsoft connect and TME?)

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by UgaData

As far as I know it should just be TME. It's been a while since I did a complete install, what else is on the CD from Arcsoft (besides Arcsoft connect and TME?)

After installing TME from the HD-PVR CD, when Windows 7 rebooted, it said that it blocked the Arcsoft driver due to driver incompatibility. Is there any trick to getting this working in Windows 7?

[LehighBri]

After much finagling, I finally got the Arcsoft Video Decoders to install and they seem to be working better thus far for both my H.264 content and some of my 1080p mkv files (some show up with artifacts, whereas using the Microsoft DTV Decoder show up fine). Unreal how much of a headache getting the right codecs causes.

[mangriotis]

I am also trying to get my client PC set up in a similar fashion... it's a Zotac Ionitx-F-E board with Windows 7 (x64).

I can't yet get anything from the HD-PVR (.ts files) to play at all. I get a playback exception no matter which codec I choose. After reading this, I will install TME from the Arcsoft disc on the client PC, then try the Arcsoft decoder again...

I have also been unable to get the Microsoft codecs to appear in the list, and asked the question in another thread (http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=48311) but haven't seen a response. Since you guys seem to have tackled this issue already also, any chance you can help answer that question too??

Thanks

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by mangriotis

I am also trying to get my client PC set up in a similar fashion... it's a Zotac Ionitx-F-E board with Windows 7 (x64).

I can't yet get anything from the HD-PVR (.ts files) to play at all. I get a playback exception no matter which codec I choose. After reading this, I will install TME from the Arcsoft disc on the client PC, then try the Arcsoft decoder again...

I have also been unable to get the Microsoft codecs to appear in the list, and asked the question in another thread (http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=48311) but haven't seen a response. Since you guys seem to have tackled this issue already also, any chance you can help answer that question too??

Thanks

Use SageTV 7 and the Microsoft decoders will show up just fine in Windows 7 (use EVR as well instead of VMR9 or Overlay). If it doesn't, submit a bug report.

[mangriotis]

Yeah, forgot to mention that I was going to try to get everything humming with the new client before upgrading to v7...

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and change over already... I am a little worried about screwing things up this close to the World Cup though.

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by mangriotis

Yeah, forgot to mention that I was going to try to get everything humming with the new client before upgrading to v7...

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and change over already... I am a little worried about screwing things up this close to the World Cup though.

If you don't want to upgrade to v7, then you can try the native patch in v6 to get this working:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...t=native+patch

[phelme]

Originally Posted by UgaData

If your using the Arcsoft decoders that came with the HD-PVR, I would suggest checking the Arcsoft decoders properties and verify that DXVA1.0 & DXVA2.0 are enabled. I use Graph Studio to check the decoder properties.
(Graph->Insert Graph Filter-> <list of installed filters> Find and highlght Arcsoft Video Decoder then click the properties button.

OK, what's the trick do getting the DXVA settings to "stick" within SageTV? Is there a registry method?