Decoder Problems...

[jahutch]

Hey all,

I just recently installed Sage to check it out. So far, I am having a lot of codec problems. My goal for DVD playback is to use the NVIDIA PureVideo Codec with FFDShow post-processing. Here are the problems I have run into:

1) When I select "NVIDIA Video Decoder" and "NVIDIA Audio Decoder," sage does not use them. I can tell because the little nvidia icon does not show up in the task bar. If I select "Default" for both, it DOES use the Nvidia decoders. Obviously, this isn't a problem since default causes the NVIDIA Decoder to be used - but insofar as I am giving sage a trial run, it does give me pause, since not using the codec I select would seem to indicate something wonky is going on in the software.

2) How do I enable ffdshow for post processing only? I don't want to use it to decode my video, indeed, I'm not sure it is capable of doing so. Rather, I want to use the NVIDIA Codec to decode the DVD initially, then ffdshow should apply its post-processing. Thus, it seems odd to select ffdshow as the video decoder.

3) If selecting ffdshow as the video decoder IS the correct way of doing things how do I get it working? I see the NVIDIA icon, so I know its firing that up... but all I get is a black screen. In mediaportal, there was a check box for "enable ffdshow post processing" - this was very clear, worked immediately, and perfectly described what ffdshow actually does. I'm not sure what exactly sage is doing here, I just know its not working!

4) This is unrelated, but I figure I may as well ask here... when I go to chapter select in the DVD player, it becomes almost completely unresponsive. Any thoughts on what this may be, and how to fix it?

Thanks!

[jahutch]

Yay!

I answered questions 2 and 3. I had to go into the sage TV properties file, and manually set videofram/dvd_video_postprocessing_filter to ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder and leave video decoder filter on "default."

So.. ffdshow is solved! This just leaves questions 1 and 4....

[jahutch]

Ok, great... now I for no reason whatsoever have no audio. What is going on here? I tried disabling ffdshow.. still no audio. I just don't get it. Changing decoders does nothing. Why would something stop working for no good reason?

And why is stuff easier to set up in a free program (MediaPortal) than sage?

[blade]

Originally Posted by jahutch

1) When I select "NVIDIA Video Decoder" and "NVIDIA Audio Decoder," sage does not use them. I can tell because the little nvidia icon does not show up in the task bar. If I select "Default" for both, it DOES use the Nvidia decoders. Obviously, this isn't a problem since default causes the NVIDIA Decoder to be used - but insofar as I am giving sage a trial run, it does give me pause, since not using the codec I select would seem to indicate something wonky is going on in the software.

It's most likely using the Nvidia Decoder when you select it. Even if the tray icon does show up, most people can't access it if they've selected the Nvidia Decoder by name. They have to either play a video in Windows Media Player or select default decoder in order to access the tray icon.

As for the FFDshow questions I have no clue. I used FFDshow for a little while, but the Nvidia decoder looked good enough for me that I decided FFDshow wasn't worth the hassle and cpu usage.

[jahutch]

Blade,

Thanks for the info! As for my sound problems, I think there is some kind of "codec hell" going on with my computer that I was testing on. When I get home and can test on my actural HTPC I suspect the issues will clear up.