Getting the most out of SageTV + HD PVR

[devman]

Hi, new user here.

I'm currently on trial with SageTV 6. I already own an HD PVR and would like to know what I should do to get decent live playback of HD content. I've been searching for a 'how to' or a guide on google and haven't really come up with reliable material. I've got it running for now, but live playback is choppy.

I'd particularly like to know:

What settings should be changed from defaults?

Which H.264 codec I should use? [x264, CoreAVC, Arcsoft, Cyberlink, ffdshow, etc]

Machine Specs:
AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (Brisbane)
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (780G Chipset)
1TB Hard drive partitioned with 80G system and 850GB @64k/block for media.
Display is a 42" Sharp Aquos 1080p
HD PVR for component capture.

Thanks.

[bastian74]

You didn't mention video card.
I use Arcsoft Video, ac3filter for audio, and dxva is enabled.
I verify dxva is enabled by using graph-edit and clicking properties on Arcsoft.

For me, if Powerdvd or CoreAVC was even installed, I couldn't get smooth playback from Sage.

[devman]

Video card is part of the 780G chipset on the motherboard. Uses the Radeon HD 3200 hardware iirc.

[devman]

Cyberlink H.264 never gave me stable playback in SageTV. It worked fine in graph edit and it other players though so I'm not sure what the problem is.

I'll try ArcSoft and ffdshow when I get home from work tomorrow.

[Rico66]

Do you have the problem only with live playback, or with recorded shows as well? I've seen this as well, though not consistently and I don't think it's a decoder problem (at least not if your using e.g. cyberlink which supports dxva fine with this mobo). What seemed to help is to hit pause and play, which essentially means that your playback is about 1/2 a second delayed.

[devman]

Did some more searching, got some excellent info from the following threads.

Hardware Acceleration in SageTV w/HD-PVR
HD-PVR h.264, XP, Vista, Demux, Overlay, VMR9, EVR, DXVA 1/2, What I know...

It is almost perfect using the ArcSoft Decoder but there is still noticeable tearing present during playback. This tearing is not present in Total Media Theater, it is however present in GraphEdit and WMP so I'm wondering what extra filter TMT must be using to clean up the output (if that is indeed the case).

Not perfect yet but a lot closer.