making sagetv7 playback smooth

[Taddeusz]

SageTV is a 32-bit program. It will not use 64-bit DX filters. Only 64-bit programs use 64-bit DX filters.

[mangriotis]

Ok, that makes sense. I had already uninstalled the 64-bit add on, and everything was performing the same.

I still have an issue with my audio output.

ffdshow seems to come into play for .avi (mpeg2?) files, and I get no audio.

I have ac3filter s-pdif passthrough selected for H.264, MKV and mpeg4 files, and this works great. I do have the mpeg2 audio passthrough selected with ac3filter configuration, but it looks like the red ffdshow icon appears when playing mpeg2 .avi's and it never pulls up ac3filter... how can I get the sound?

I can't find within ffdshow audio config pages a setting that might pass through 2-channel sound through the optical out cable... (I must just be missing it).

edit: as I have fooled around with this more, I found something interesting. I changed (within Sage) the audio renderer to Realtek Digital Output, and now get audio even within ffdshow. I went back and disabled ac3filter, enabled ffdshow passthrough, and get the proper audio in all formats. I then re-selected "default" audio renderer, and it STILL works... even after shutting down and restarting. I don't get that one (unless some kind of merit changed or something), but it's now working.

I have also found that my system performs much smoother and more responsively using the Microsoft decoders vs. PDVD. I don't think DXVA works with PDVD as my cpu usage is much higher when that's selected (though this might be because I have something else goofy).

In effect, I have reverted to codecs being used prior to downloading the shark codec pack, except I am using ffdshow audio rather than ac3filter.

Also, I just realized that I totally hijacked the original purpose of this thread. Apologies to the op.

[panteragstk]

I'm curious as to what you guys mean by "smooth playback". I've never had any issues with playback being smooth that weren't caused by an underpowered video card. All the decoders I'm using at the moment are using dxva and never get over 10% cpu (even ffdshow somehow, still looking into that one.)

[BigSwifty]

still no joy in mudville. Installed the ATI card with CCC as you suggested. No change. Thinking that I may have made my properties file FUBAR, I reinstalled Sage clean. No change. HA is on in detailed setup yet I'm seeing >90 % CPU in Sage. I'm concerned that I have installed and removed too many CODECS and have accumulated excess crap in the system. What's so confusing is that the client, with Onboard graphics is fine.

Help me obiwankenobe, you're my only hope!

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by BigSwifty

still no joy in mudville. Installed the ATI card with CCC as you suggested. No change. Thinking that I may have made my properties file FUBAR, I reinstalled Sage clean. No change. HA is on in detailed setup yet I'm seeing >90 % CPU in Sage. I'm concerned that I have installed and removed too many CODECS and have accumulated excess crap in the system. What's so confusing is that the client, with Onboard graphics is fine.

Help me obiwankenobe, you're my only hope!

Codec packs caused me much misery. I had to start fresh with a clean install. Best thing I ever did. The only decoders I installed were the latest ffdshow, arcsoft, mpc, ati avivo, and the cyberlink decoders. I've used CoreAVC with good results, but not anymore as ffdshow has been doing everything I need it to. Cyberlink is for dvd's as it supports navigating through menus and ati works great for mpeg2 tv recordings. ffdshow for vc-1 and h.264. Mpc works well with vc-1 also (if you don't use the sage splitter). You don't need anything else.

[dealsdyker]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

Can you verify the the video and audio stream inside the Panasonic MTS files?
Check one out with MediaInfo.

My settings in Sage are just the defaults for H.264. Is it true Sage would use the same as Windows Media Player? Because I use win7/64 and Sage is 32 bit right? I still can't see videos in Sage even though they play flawlessly in Windows Media Player (same machine, same network location). Any further insight is appreciated.

Here is the info on the file from MediaInfo

General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : \\FamilyServer\Videos\Videos2010\Vid2010Christmas\00002.MTS
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 47.4 MiB
Duration : 31s 473ms
Overall bit rate : 12.6 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 18.0 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 31s 465ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 11.9 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 16.8 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.191
Stream size : 44.5 MiB (94%)

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 31s 552ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -67ms
Stream size : 986 KiB (2%)

Text
ID : 4608 (0x1200)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : PGS
Codec ID : 144
Duration : 30s 967ms
Delay relative to video : -67ms

[panteragstk]

Try choosing a specific decoder instead of default. Also, what decoders do you have installed? On my system sage won't use the ms-dtv decoders.

[Flips]

This looks like a great post. I had my system working pretty well, but I ran in to some serious issues with an vc-1 file over the weekend. Now I’m at wits end getting everything to work right, so I’m tempted to wipe out everything and follow your blog post.

I don’t see a VC-1 section in that shark app, what is used to decode vc-1, PowerDVD?

flips

[pingmustard]

I followed the instructions on the blog with the latest Shark007 codec pack + x64 addon and my playback seems fine so far (tried 1 h264 movie and 1 mkv file that's caused me issues in the past).

I do wish with how far we've gotten, things would just work out of the box -.- I can't imagine how much man hours people have wasted trying to get stutter free HD playback.

One advice I can suggest -- some video cards have better codec support than others. I had an ATI HD2600 on a P4 before and it worked but was glitchy. When I upgraded card but kept same codecs, the glitch went away.

Cheers!

Originally Posted by GollyJer

benjatelcom, can you try this and tell me how it goes?
4 Steps to Stutter Free Playback in SageTV

I've been trying to narrow down the number of steps it takes to get Sage playing back perfectly. That blog post is it. The instructions have worked great for three of my friends each with different setups.

The only caveat is you won't get hardware accelerated playback with subtitles. Until Sage fixes their problems with FFDShow DXVA decoder I'm unwilling to post how to get hardware acceleration with subtitles. It's too complicated.

[Flips]

Originally Posted by pingmustard

I do wish with how far we've gotten, things would just work out of the box -.- I can't imagine how much man hours people have wasted trying to get stutter free HD playback.

They do. It's called the HD300... I am amazed at that little $150 box. It just plays anything. I don't even want to total up how much I have spent on my client box to get it quiet, and fast enough to play HD video. No to mention the countless hours you are referring to...

What is the latest recommendation on the HDMI Sound driver for the ATI cards? Is it best to just use the ATI driver? Or should I be using the realtek driver? I know at one time this were issues with one versus the other.

flips

[Flips]

GollyJer!

This is an excellent set of guides! Thanks for putting these together! A lot of files I had before weren’t working for me before are now working great! I actually don’t have PDVD10 installed yet either, just Arcsoft, so I am interested to get that installed and try that. VC-1 had a slight stutter so I had to specifically say use Arcsoft in the Sage settings and now it is working great. I’m guessing installing PDVD will fix that issue.

I did have one issue with a Cars clip I got an error dialog box from reclock that said:

The audio format is not supported by the hardware / driver:
48000 samples/sec
24 bit PCM
6 channels

I’m using an HD5450, so I think that error is due to my card, not my receiver, right? I played with some of the reclock and FFDshow settings, 24 bit int padded to 32 in reclock and checked some of the various bit rates in ffdshow, 16 bit int and 32bit floating point.. I got sound, but then part way through the clip I got just loud static. Also, other clips starting having some audio and video issues. I reset everything back to the original and thought I should ask the experts here as to what those settings should be.

Thanks again,
flips

[cadillac]

Followed gollyJer's guide and I now have the best audio sync in a long time! I run dishnetwork and a HD-pvr which usually is very flakey. I do have a lower volume level, but I've found the other thread on that. Thank you for your hard work!

For the search bots:
sync audio hd pvr dish

[BigSwifty]

So I'm extremely frustrated that getting Sage to playback HD recordings is so troublesome. I have upgraded my video card as described above, performed a clean install of Windows, only installed "clean" codec programs (shark, antipack, Nvidia purevideo, core) and I am still having issues. I no longer have annoying stutter. What occurs now is pixelation after about 10 or 20 seconds of good rendering. I have tried numerous combinations of audio and video sources under detailed set up and this issue persists. Again, any suspect files play without issues in VLC media player.

This is on a Sage host running in service mode. A different client machine has had no issues playing the HD files. I was planning on trialing the DIVX codecs tonight but I don't have much hope in a different outcome.

So overall it's better than it was however this “delayed” pixelation issue is a real drag. Wife and kids are ready to commit homicide. I hate to say it but with the amount of hours I put in to date I am almost ready to throw the towel in.

[Flips]

Originally Posted by BigSwifty

So I'm extremely frustrated that getting Sage to playback HD recordings is so troublesome.

I feel your pain... Can you post some more details about the file, mediainfo output. How does the graph look in graphstudio? What does ffdshow say when it is playing through sage?

flips

[BigSwifty]

Not my standard Choice of viewing but.. .
Media info:

MPEG-TS: 16.2 GB
1VIDEO STREAM: AVC
1AUDII STREAM: AC-3

Graph:


Not presently using ffdshow

[Flips]

Does it play okay on that graph? The last time I looked, CoreAVC didn’t support hardware acceleration. I use Arcsoft for AVC files. Do you get better performance if you specifically say what avc decoder directly in Sage instead of default? How are you outputting your sound HDMI, optical?

flips

[panteragstk]

You guys should not be having this many issues with HD playback. I used to, but I finally figured out what the issue was. My issue was the codec pack I was using. I reinstalled windows. Downloaded ffdshow, coreavc, ATI AVIVO (no amd owns it so it is called something else), and power dvd for their mpeg 2 decoder for dvd playback. I use coreavc for h.264, ffdshow for vc-1, ati for mpeg2 HD, cyberlink v8 for dvd. I have no playback issues whatsoever after struggling with them since sage v7 came out.

Try what I've done above and see if that helps. This shouldn't be that big of a problem. If it was this thread would be much bigger. I knew when I was having these issues it was something with my system. I figured out what it was and no issues since.

[BigSwifty]

panteragstk- I agree there should not be this much issue playing back HD files. Especially since I did a clean install as noted above and did not install any codec packs that do not have a clean uninstall tool (shark, antipack, Nvidia purevideo, core).

I've been using Sage for quite a while now and have considered myself a fanboy for Frey technologies however I'm really pulling my hair out. There are, besides this post, numerous issues noted on these forums of people having issues with HD rendering. GollyJer, with his excellent “4 Steps to Stutter Free Playback in SageTV” and babgvant’s “AntiPack” and “Installing Ffdshow” have penned excellent blog tutorials attempting to simplify the issue.

Others have said the default Microsoft codecs in Win7 are all that is needed. After a fresh install, utilizing only the Win7 codecs did not work for me. I added the shark codecs and followed the instructions to a T. No luck. Uninstalled shark and then tried the antipack. No luck. Babgvant’s “Installing Ffdshow” blog is somewhat critical of Ffdshow opining that it installs and co-opts control with ridiculously high merit so I have been somewhat hesitant to try it.

Reading your post it seems that you have essentially unchecked all options for Ffdshow other than for VC-1. Is that it? Also, I have tried coreavc for H.264 with no luck. Will not having Ffdshow cause coreavc for H.264 to not work? As you can see from my above graph it doesn't. I will try installing Ffdshow before TV watching time tonight and exactly duplicate your settings; hopefully my wife and kids won't kill me tonight.

The EXTREMELY frustrating part is that all of these files play without issue on my other client machine using just the Win7 codecs. All these files play without issue through VLC. Also, as a trial, I installed WMC and mediabrowser. I am not impressed at all with the interface or folder system however any of the problematic files play spectacularly in media Center. Grrrrrrr

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by BigSwifty

panteragstk- I agree there should not be this much issue playing back HD files. Especially since I did a clean install as noted above and did not install any codec packs that do not have a clean uninstall tool (shark, antipack, Nvidia purevideo, core).

I've been using Sage for quite a while now and have considered myself a fanboy for Frey technologies however I'm really pulling my hair out. There are, besides this post, numerous issues noted on these forums of people having issues with HD rendering. GollyJer, with his excellent “4 Steps to Stutter Free Playback in SageTV” and babgvant’s “AntiPack” and “Installing Ffdshow” have penned excellent blog tutorials attempting to simplify the issue.

Others have said the default Microsoft codecs in Win7 are all that is needed. After a fresh install, utilizing only the Win7 codecs did not work for me. I added the shark codecs and followed the instructions to a T. No luck. Uninstalled shark and then tried the antipack. No luck. Babgvant’s “Installing Ffdshow” blog is somewhat critical of Ffdshow opining that it installs and co-opts control with ridiculously high merit so I have been somewhat hesitant to try it.

Reading your post it seems that you have essentially unchecked all options for Ffdshow other than for VC-1. Is that it? Also, I have tried coreavc for H.264 with no luck. Will not having Ffdshow cause coreavc for H.264 to not work? As you can see from my above graph it doesn't. I will try installing Ffdshow before TV watching time tonight and exactly duplicate your settings; hopefully my wife and kids won't kill me tonight.

The EXTREMELY frustrating part is that all of these files play without issue on my other client machine using just the Win7 codecs. All these files play without issue through VLC. Also, as a trial, I installed WMC and mediabrowser. I am not impressed at all with the interface or folder system however any of the problematic files play spectacularly in media Center. Grrrrrrr

I feel your pain trust me. 10 months of troublshooting with no end in sight had me considering doing away with sage. But there was no way all the effort I had put in would go to waste. I'm telling you don't install the codec pack. I don't care what guide says what, they cause problems. All configurations are not the same so guides are only what they are "guides". They will work for some, but in your case they don't.

Right now I use ffdshow for everything except mpeg2 playback. I still can't figure out if h.264 is using CoreAVC or not because all my graphs say ffdshow, but cpu usage is WAY too low for that to be the case. I'd like to think with all my effort (and lots of extra effort to help me by babgvant) I've learned how to fix the whole codec issue. I'll help you figure it out. When playback issues occur attach a log to your post and I'll let you know what is going on. I've had lots of help in the area from sage support as well (I feels like we talk too much) so I'm in a position to help you out. Let me know what I can do.

EDIT: I noticed that you said the pack had a clean uninstall. Don't trust that. Start from scratch with the bare minimum and tell me your driver versions for your video card as I have quite a bit of experience with that as well.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by BigSwifty

So I'm extremely frustrated that getting Sage to playback HD recordings is so troublesome. I have upgraded my video card as described above...

What video card are you using? Are you testing playback with your server or client? I'm not sure your signature is updated.