Is Hardware Acceleration Working With Your PVR?

[nwboater]

I have had a thread going in the SageTV 7 Beta Forum about Installing Arcsoft Decoders. After I solved that problem the thread morphed into a discussion about high CPU usage and hardware acceleration not working on the Graphics Card. Since that issue is not SageTV 7 specific (I don't think) I have asked anyone that wants to respond there to do it here instead. This seemed the more appropriate Forum.

Here's whats happening for me.

My XP client is running at 100% CPU when playing HD files from the HD PVR, live or recorded. On SD it's okay. This is not a usable situation, although the video and audio are surprisingly good.

As a result of guidance from others I have found by using GraphStudio that Hardware Acceleration on my graphics card is not enabled. I open the Properties file for the Arcsoft Filter and the boxes for DXVA 10 and 20 are unchecked. I can check them, but when I close the Properties window and reopen it the boxes are again unchecked. From this, and the high cpu usage I'm fairly certain that Hardware Acceleration is not working on my graphics card.

I thought perhaps it's an issue that my EVGA GS8400 card might require DirectX 10 to use HA. With XP I can only run DirectX 9. But then others with different cards have had the same problem.

So I'm wondering if you folks with HD PVRs know, or would mind checking out, if Hardware Acceleration is working for you? This might be a help to several people here. For those with faster CPUs than my old P4 you probably have the speed to do it in Software, and this may be a non issue.

I was planning to get a newer faster graphics card, but am now thinking that what I really need is to get HA working.

Another poster mentioned that with the Arcosft Decoders he was getting 100%. So he's running the Cyberlink Power DVD 8 Decoders and that dropped his CPU to 15%. That may be another option for me.

Any input would sure be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rod

[nwboater]

I called EVGA about the ability of my graphics card to use HA. They said that the DirectX 9 that XP uses will work with it. It will only use DXVA 1.0 & not 2.0 that Vista and Win7 can use.

So that's not the reason that in Arcsoft Properties the Selection of DXVA1.0 will not 'stick'. I've done more research on this forum and I haven't found anybody yet that was successful at making it work.

If you did please post here so we'll all know how you did it.

Thanks,
Rod

[nwboater]

I just downloaded the free player MPC_HC. I played back an HD file that was recorded by Sage. Playing back in Sage using the Arcsoft Decoders pegged my CPU @100%. Playing the same file in MPC_HC it ran 7-12%. WOW! So there it must be using hardware acceleration and Sage is not.

This tells me that my old P4 and 8400GS graphics card is quite capable of HD playback. Glad I didn't rush out and buy a new card!

So the challenge is definitely to somehow get HA enabled using the Arcsoft Decoders.

I'd sure appreciated some input from others here - so far I'm just having a monologue! There are quite a few views of this thread so there must be a little interest in the topic.

Rod

[jerryt]

Try win 7 w the Microsoft DTV/DVD decoders, it just works...

[nwboater]

Originally Posted by jerryt

Try win 7 w the Microsoft DTV/DVD decoders, it just works...

I'd love to but I don't think it will run on this old machine. I think I ran the MS Win 7 Update checker on it once, but just in case I'll go try again.

I love "Just Works! And I'm sure ready for that.

Thanks a lot for that info - and for popping in here. I thought maybe I had halitosis.

Rod

[robk]

In another thread, I mentioned I found an old copy of ASVid.ax (ArcSoft), v2.27.300.103, registered it, tried to enable DXVA in two different utilities, but no-go, it wouldn't "stick", someone replied it was a few versions too new. I temporarily gave up my hunt for an old ArcSoft decoder.
Just google ASVid.ax and you will see a couple, maybe on less than honorable sites... better have your AV and AntiMalware up to date!

There was some discussion of what version you had to go back to to enable DXVA. Also, I never tried the utility from Doom9 to make it work. Just my little experience...

Rob

[nwboater]

Thanks Rob for the Arcsoft ideas. After Jerry T's comment about Win 7 Drivers that "Just Work" and reading similar comments elsewhere I've just been checking out the feasibility of upgrading the old Dell GX280 to Windows 7.

The Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser says it meets their requirements, but the Dell site doesn't have drivers for above XP. So I've Googled a bunch for people doing that upgrade and many have been successful. They only have problems with sound and video drivers. Since I have add on sound and video cards those drivers should get picked up at install time.

Just found Win 7 on sale in Vancouver for $105Cdn which is a good price here. I'm going for it! If it solves all this grief it's well worth it. Besides I've been wanting to play with Win 7.

Sure do hope that with the Win 7 Drivers that HA will get used on my GPU in Sage!

I'll let folks know here after I've done it.

Rod

[darcilicious]

I LOVE running SageTV PC client on Windows 7; everything indeed just works! I'm planning on upgrading my Vista SageTV server (+PC client) to W7 soon-ish...

[jerryt]

Upgrading older equipment can be a pain. You can use whatever is the lastest drivers available, or run with the device disabled in device manager.

[robk]

nwboater- Win7 is an ideal overall choice, SageTV seems to work better - I ran XP for years then upgraded hardware and OS to 7 in May of this year. BUT I have to say that I've posted several times that I do not have good results with the Microsoft codecs. They work, but every 5 to 8 seconds, the video seems to either drop or display a few frames quickly resulting in a jerky picture - and it continues forever - almost like it has to "catch up" every 200 frames or so. One person told me that a bug exists when converting video at 29.97 FPS vs the 30 or 60FPS that HD uses. I have no proof of that statement, but I don't use the MS codecs because of the jerkiness.
My solution was to simply replace the on-board Radeon4200 with a PCIe Radeon4550, with the ArcSoft codec I usually run between 35 and 45% on the CPU - not perfect, but if I could enable HA it would be better. I should have bought a better video card, the 4550 was $40.

For reference, I run a dedicated Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H, Athlon II X2 Regor 2.8mHz, 2 X 1 Gig DDR2 667 a little overclocked, ATI Radeon 4550, 2 X 500G WD Blue. Display (no TV) is Acer X223w through DVI. Basically a cheap setup, but thanks to Fuzzy's advice - a Sage capable machine.

Rob

[nwboater]

jerryt - Thanks for your comments on drivers.

robk - sorry to hear that you are having the jerky problems. I wonder if it's a ATI card issue? Mine is an Nvidea so we shall see!

I am definitley going to order Win 7 tomorrw. And while I'm at it might just get a BD Drive. I'll bet getting into BD's is going to be opening up another whole can of worms, and tons more educational curves!

I mentioned yesterday that playing an HD file in MPC-HC had CPU at 8-12%. From that I'm fairly certain that HA is being used there. And playback was smooth, but didn't fill the whole screen for some reason. This morning I told Sage to use the MPC Video Decoder for h.264. Interestingly CPU ran at 50-55%. I wonder why so much higher than using the MPC-HC Player? I'm not going to worry too much about it because of my plan for Win 7 and the MS DT/DVD codecs. Thought this might be interesting to someone though.

Rod

[darcilicious]

My W7 has an nVidia GT230 and HDPVR play back (recorded and live) is smooth as silk on my 23" 1920x1080 TouchSmart...

[nwboater]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

My W7 has an nVidia GT230 and HDPVR play back (recorded and live) is smooth as silk on my 23" 1920x1080 TouchSmart...

Are you using the Microsoft Decoders?

Rod

[darcilicious]

Yup!

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by robk

I do not have good results with the Microsoft codecs... resulting in a jerky picture. Rob

I have had this on most of my builds. Reinstall of OS was my only fix.

Regarding HA, the only thing I remember which worked was;
Turn off UAC before installing video card drivers.
If I installed ATI drivers then switched off UAC, I would never get HA working again.

[something fishy]

OP
Have you tried ffdshow's DXVA filter. I use it successfully on Win7 via Shark007's codec pack. There is a Shark007 codec pack (which really only installs ffdshow and a filter control utility) for Vista/XP if you want to give it a try.

I get around 25% CPU use on an ion nettop decoding 720p with ffdshow dxva, I've never tried 1080p. It has to be worth a try as its free and if it doesnt work the uninstall is a clean one.

BTW dont let the words "codec pack" put you off - these (at least the Win7 version) seem the real deal without bloat.

Cheers
Eric