Sage Audio Sync problems

[kamikaze2112]

I've been using sage for a couple years now and have had very good results, but I'm getting a little frustrated as of late. I had been using WinXP until the RC for Win 7 came out, and I had reasonably good luck with it, but I've since gone back to XP due to a disappearing audio issue.

Anyway, after trying to watch the men's olympic hockey tonite, I've noticed that the audio was out of sync by almost a full second by the end of the game. I've noticed this on hour long recordings of our regular tv shows as well, but only when they are recorded on the HDPVR. I've also noticed micro pauses throughout the recording, and they are pretty random but I'd say they happen every 3-15 seconds. it's really noticeable when watching sports such as hockey or Nascar, or other things with fast motion.

I get the same results with both XP and Win7. As far as video decoders, I've tried the Arcsoft decoder that came with the HDPVR, and I've also tried CoreAVC. I've never got decent playback with Cyberlink decoders so I haven't bothered to try it for any length of time.

I'm sure the machine is beefy enough, the specs are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.33ghz Q8200
4GB Kingston Value Ram (2x2gb)
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R
Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 9600GT 1gb
Seagate SATA 320gb hdd for OS and TV Recording (OS on seperate partition, TV partition formatted with 64k Clusters as per Sage's recommendation)
2 x Seagate SATA 500gb for Storage
Hauppauge PVR-150 for SD duties and remote receiver
Hauppauge HD-PVR for HD duties
USB-UIRT for blasting my satellite STB's

Now I've got no issues putting Win7 back on this box if it's the general consensus that it's the better option here, but I seem to be chasing my tail with this, and I'd really like to get it sorted out.

Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated

Thanks

[mlldrl]

I too am having audio sync issues. I’ve been using Sage for about 3 years now and recently built a new system and moved everything over to it. The only issue that I’m having is the audio sync issue BUT what I’ve noticed is that it ONLY happens with NBC network broadcasts. I first noticed it a few weeks ago while watching Heroes. I too am having problems with the Olympics. I recorded a few more NBC programs, like Today and it too goes out of sync but I don’t have any problem with the local news from the NBC affiliate. Thus far network programs on other stations haven’t had any problems. Weird! I an OTA user.

Any ideas?

M

[m1k3g]

My system is remarkably similar to yours (OP) and I was running into the same problem earlier last year. Plus I was noticing that HD video would stutter occasionally and trying to stream remote HD wasn't working well at all. I seriously considered upgrading both the motherboard and the processor to see if that would help, but before I got to that point I decided to try overclocking the CPU. My cheapo ECS mb doesn't allow for much in the way of overclocking, but I was able to at least increase the CPU voltage a little and got the CPU up to 3mhz. That has made a tremendous difference in performance overall and the audio now stays in sync. It's not something I would have thought would affect audio, but apparently it does. I recently upgraded the OS to WIN7 and performance overall is still very good.

[mlldrl]

Here's an update.

I turned off DXVA in the Sage settings and it seems to have fixed the issue. Will continue to monitor but it was happening within a few minutes of watching the Olympics. BTW, I'm using an ATI Rage HD2600 Pro video card.

M

[kamikaze2112]

Hey.

I've noticed it really bad with Heroes as well, but I don't think it's the broadcast that's the issue, or everyone would be complaining. I really feel it's a playback issue, which I'll test as I'll likely be watching more of the games tonite. I'll try playback in an external app such as VLC and report back with my findings.

It seems to be the worst on long recordings, such as sporting events and movies. The nascar races I record can be up to 6 hours in length (i usually pad the end by 2 hours to make sure I get the whole thing in case of delays) and it's really bad near the end of those. watching 30 minute programs where it's making a new file every half hour it's not even noticable.

As far as overclocking goes, I'm not too keen to start mucking around with that as I'm really after reliabiltiy. this system is my primary TV system, and if it's flaky, then it's not worth it. Besides, I hardly think that it's a processing power issue as the CPU doesn't even get above 10% during playback.

If it makes any difference, I'm using the onboard digital audio (coaxial) and the component video out on my video card. I have an audigy card with a digital out I can try as well, but I stopped using it since the onboard works just fine.

[mlldrl]

I agree that it is a play back issue...a SageTV play back issue. I was able to play the files fine in Windows Media Player on my Sage box. BUT why only NBC? I know, I know...I sound nuts and if someone called me with the same problem (I work in IT/IS field) I'd think they're nuts too.

M

[kamikaze2112]

Originally Posted by mlldrl

I agree that it is a play back issue...a SageTV play back issue. I was able to play the files fine in Windows Media Player on my Sage box. BUT why only NBC? I know, I know...I sound nuts and if someone called me with the same problem (I work in IT/IS field) I'd think they're nuts too.

M

there's no way that it's happening on only one channel. Only way I could see that is if you're using the digital audio, and there's something in your set top box (which obviously isn't the case as you are an OTA user). it may not be as noticeable on other channels if your recordings are shorter. Like I had explained, the problem gets progressively worse the longer the recording is. so on a half hour recording, it's almost non-existent, but on an hour long program, it's just out of sync enough to notice. by the end of a 2 hour program, it's unwatchable.

[mlldrl]

I know, it makes no sense but I'm telling you that it's only happening on NBC network broadcast programs. Watched the two hour Survivor premier with no problems but five minutes in to the Today show and everyone's lips are out of sync with the video. The video is lagging. With the Olympics we'd have to stop and restart the video every now and again to get it back in sync then is would drift out right away. Call me crazy if you want but it's the truth.

M

[kamikaze2112]

just ran a quick test on a recording I had of Sunday's nascar race, and even using media player classic the voices are out at the end of the recording. when I play the file in MPC, I get a halii media splitter icon in the tray, when I play in sagetv, I get a coreavc icon in the tray. Voices seemed ok in Sage, but I changed to CoreAVC after I had the issues the other nite.

Now I've gone and set CoreAVC as the preferred decoder for MPC, and the voices seem to be in line even at the end of a 4 hour recording.

I'll test the CoreAVC plugin in Sage over the next couple days and see how it goes. I'll set up to record some obnoxiously long olympic program tonite and that will be a good test.

[kamikaze2112]

ok, watching hockey again tonite, and the voices are out after the first period. I've tried both arcsoft and coreavc decoders, and have tried both Overlay and VMR9 (EVR doesn't work on XP).

this is really beginning to piss me off.

[mlldrl]

Did you try turning off the hardware acceleration?

[koan00]

I wonder if its a Splitter issue then. Have you tried this beta patch ?

[kamikaze2112]

Originally Posted by mlldrl

Did you try turning off the hardware acceleration?

not yet

Originally Posted by koan00

I wonder if its a Splitter issue then. Have you tried this beta patch ?

I've seen that before, but I don't think I've applied it.

Update tho, I switched from analogue audio to digital audio from my STB to my HDPVR, and so far, 2 periods into the Canada vs. Russia game (go Canada!!) the voices are still in sync. can't remember the settings exactly but I'm pretty sure I'm using the overlay renderer with coreavc.

[shugrue]

Hi gang.

Recently I was fiddling around with my display resolution settings trying to solve a EDID problem with a Sony KDF-E42A10 42-Inch LCD Rear Projection Television that I use as a monitor for SageTV MC.

I inadvertently messed up a setting and caused a lip sync problem of the worst kind.
The one where the audio leads the video and gets progressively worse over time.

I noticed that clicking on the mouse and bringing up the OSD would snap audio and video back into sync but would eventually decay after a few minutes to about one second.

Long story short...

After several hours of diagnostics I finally made my way back to the resolution settings and changed everything back to 1280x720 and the problem was gone.

So do consider the resolution settings of your display. Apparently the "native" monitor resolution isn't always the display adapters favorite resolution.

-pat

[kamikaze2112]

well, I think I've finally got this fixed, however it re-introduces a previous problem, that is less annoying than the one it fixes.

I switched the HDPVR from analogue audio to digital audio, and for the last two weeks everything has been in sync. I once again have the audio volume level problem that nobody seems to be able to solve, where the SD recordings have a higher volume level than the HD recordings. The volume difference is pretty big, we have to manually adjust the volume level on our HT receiver when switching between the two.

Oh well, at least the voices are in sync. Guess I'll have to pick up another HDPVR and another HD STB