Audio stutter in recorded HD material playback

[Bryann]

This is pretty odd so I'm guessing there's a setting I need to tweak or something.

When I play recorded HD shows in Sage the audio pops/stutters every few seconds but not at regular intervals. It's like the audio is choking on the stream somewhere along the way. What's odd is that this doesn't happen watching TV live through Sage (firewire) nor does it happen when I play the file in WMP.

Any ideas?

Settings: VM9, Nvidia, Default, Default, Disabled, Default DirectSound Device, AC3Filter

Other options that show up under audio renderer are: SB X-Fi Audio [8000], Cyberlink Audio Renderer (PDVD6), Default WaveOut Device, DirectSound: SB X-Fi Audio [8000]

Other options under audio decoder: Cyberlink Audio Decoder, InterVideo Audio Decoder, MPEG Audio Decoder, Nvidia Audio Decoder, SageTV Audio Decoder

[GbrNole]

try setting ac3 filter to use wav out and set sagetv to use default wav out device.

this is one thing i wish sage would do in version 5.1 - completely isolate the install of 3rd party codecs from the main install package and only install them as an option.

[Bryann]

That didn't fix it but I am making progress. It seems that Sage was choking on the video as well, not just the audio, and the skips always happen in the exact same spots. So I've started messing with the video but have hit a snag.

Two things I've tried is playing it in WMP and PowerDVD7. PowerDVD7 uses PureVideo and has hardware acceleration turned on - performs flawlessly. So I tried setting the video decoder to Cyberlink and it didn't make an appreciable difference.

Considering the possibility that the PureVideo trial decoders were flaking out (read a few reports of that here) and the fact that I couldn't access the settings for some reason when clicking on the icon, I shelled out for the bronze, uninstalled the trial decoders, and installed the decoders they sent me. I fire up the video in WMP and the icon pops up in the tray, I change the settings to Anamorphic, Hardware Acceleration enabled, De-interlace to Automatic, and Prefer VM9. Restarted WMP and it plays great. Go to Sage, change the video decoder to Nvidia Video Decoder and try playing the video - stutters are still there but I also notice that the decoder tray icon doesn't appear.

So that is where I'm at. I tell Sage to use Nvidia video decoder and it apparently doesn't. VM9 is set, computer restarted, etc. and yet it's not using the PureVideo decoder. Any ideas?

[GbrNole]

are you still using ac3 filter for sound?

nvidia decoder works just fine for me provided i use an audio codec other than the nvidia one. with either powerdvd (cyberlink) audio or ac3filter selected my HD playback is flawless.

the other thing to consider is make sure full screen exclusive (FSE) is turned on in sage if you're using an nvidia video card. since you said you can collapse to the tray icon in sage you don't sound like you're using FSE.

ps. if / when you enable FSE shut down sage and restart it right after you enable it. it can be a pain to make it stick at times otherwise.

[Bryann]

No, what I said was that the Nvidia Decoder tray icon does not appear when I play the video in Sage, despite telling it to use it. For audio I have it set to Cyberlink for decoding and rendering but it makes no difference from AC3 and using the DirectSound X-fi decoding/rendering.

[GbrNole]

provided nvidia is the default decoder in windows then you can set video decoder in sage to be default and the icon will show up.

as i said though - the bigger problem is that if you can exit full screen to even see the tray icon and still have video playing and you're using an nvidia video card then it will ALWAYS stutter unless you use FSE.

[Bryann]

All right, but how would one go about making Nvidia the default decoder? Right now FFDShow is hanging onto the default.

[Bryann]

I tried FSE again (I did try that before) in dualview and single display and it makes no difference. I've added my system specs to my signature if that might help.

[Bryann]

Well, I got it fixed. There was some issue with Sage and the Nvidia Purevideo decoder. I used the PowerDVD 7 'hack' to make it show up in Sage and it works flawlessly. What makes it odd is that PowerDVD 7 is using PureVideo decoding from Nvidia yet there's no stutter. VM9 with no FSE, AC3 filter, Direct Sound X-fi.

Thanks for the help Gbrnole.