Video Stutter with v6

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

i could but the fact that it works coupled with me having to load graphedit on the pc to determine it kinda makes me a bit gun shy.

i have to load 6.1.4 tonight so maybe i'll give it a whirl.

As GollyJer says. Graphedit doesn't need installation. It just sits in it's own little self-contained folder and doesn't bother anything. There's a common misconception that graphedit is used to change default filters. It isn't; even if you swap stuff out in the filter chain, it doesn't affect anything.

You need a filter manager to actually make any changes.

[Ron]

After months and months of "trying this and trying that" with no resolution to stutter, I tried one of the new line of Nvidia video cards. I removed my 7900GT w/256mb and replaced it with an 8600GTS w/256mb. Voila -- no more stutter.

So the conclusion here is that while not everyone had stutter, it's obviously dependent on a combination of ones computer, video card and display. Since we're all using different displays, it's real difficult to exactly nail it down. I'm not all that technically inclined, but all I can report with certainty is that the new video card, at least in my setup, solved my stutter problems.

[Keenan]

Originally Posted by Ron

After months and months of "trying this and trying that" with no resolution to stutter, I tried one of the new line of Nvidia video cards. I removed my 7900GT w/256mb and replaced it with an 8600GTS w/256mb. Voila -- no more stutter.

So the conclusion here is that while not everyone had stutter, it's obviously dependent on a combination of ones computer, video card and display. Since we're all using different displays, it's real difficult to exactly nail it down. I'm not all that technically inclined, but all I can report with certainty is that the new video card, at least in my setup, solved my stutter problems.

That's great news Ron. Your posting of this is almost prophetic for me as yesterday I was mulling over the idea buying a new card and making one last stab at getting this to work before I finally scratched the whole project. Got to the store and was minutes away from purchasing but ended up saying to hell with it as I still can't see how this could be the problem.

Your report has encouraged me to go ahead and give it a try today, hopefully I'll have the same results. Of course, at this point my system is so FUBAR'ed from trying all the tips, tricks and different settings, I'll probably have to do a complete re-install as well.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by Keenan

That's great news Ron. Your posting of this is almost prophetic for me as yesterday I was mulling over the idea buying a new card and making one last stab at getting this to work before I finally scratched the whole project. Got to the store and was minutes away from purchasing but ended up saying to hell with it as I still can't see how this could be the problem.

Your report has encouraged me to go ahead and give it a try today, hopefully I'll have the same results. Of course, at this point my system is so FUBAR'ed from trying all the tips, tricks and different settings, I'll probably have to do a complete re-install as well.

The particular card I bought was BFG from BB. I believe that CC has the same card made by EVGA. I bought the card knowing that if it didn't work for me, I could return it. Yeah, it's more expensive than some online mail order places, but at least there's no hassle for trying and returning.

BTW, if you do go that route, don't forget to uninstall the old Nvida drivers and then, when prompted to, install the new drivers contained on the installation disk.

Good luck.

[Keenan]

Incredible, installed the exact card you purchased and so far, it seems all my stuttering problems are gone. The color seems right now as well, and I haven't even made any adjustments, just installed the card and the drivers.

Finally, it looks like I can start using this system for what it was intended for.

Thanks Ron, you've made me a pretty happy guy today.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by Keenan

Incredible, installed the exact card you purchased and so far, it seems all my stuttering problems are gone. The color seems right now as well, and I haven't even made any adjustments, just installed the card and the drivers.

Finally, it looks like I can start using this system for what it was intended for.

Thanks Ron, you've made me a pretty happy guy today.

Keenan:

Glad you're as happy as me. I decided to give this a try only because a friend of mine made me aware of these new cards, however he had never had the stutter issues. So it was a longshot, but I figured, "what the heck", I've tried everything else, why not give this one a try. I was really skeptical that it would help, but I needed to rule it out. But the end result quickly reversed my skepticism. And I've been keeping some recordings of the NFL playoffs from last January recorded from CBS, which had been my test recordings for the stutter issue. So you can imagine my surprise when they played smooth as silk.

Since not all Sage users have the stutter issue, and Sage was never able to duplicate it, I'm convinced that it's definitely a function of the combination of the video card and ones display. My display is a Fujitsu P55 plasma being fed a DVI signal from the video card.

[CanadianEh]

Also guys.. with the 8600GTS cards, what is the screen resolution you are outputting to? I'm using a 7950GT with a 1920x1080 resolution, and I'm barely ever getting any stutter anymore.. but I have to have FSE on

[Taddeusz]

The 8600GTS actually has more advanced video acceleration than even the 8800 series so it's not really surprising that HD would be smoother. It actually even supports full H.264 acceleration.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Also guys.. with the 8600GTS cards, what is the screen resolution you are outputting to? I'm using a 7950GT with a 1920x1080 resolution, and I'm barely ever getting any stutter anymore.. but I have to have FSE on

I'm resolving at 1360x765 to a Fujitsu P55 plasma via DVI.


Taddeusz: Someone told me that the 8500 and 8600 are more geared toward HDTV while the 8800 is more of a gaming card.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Ron

I'm resolving at 1360x765 to a Fujitsu P55 plasma via DVI.


Taddeusz: Someone told me that the 8500 and 8600 are more geared toward HDTV while the 8800 is more of a gaming card.

I'm sure later revisions of the 8800 are going to have the same acceleration as the 8600GTS. nVidia did the same thing they've been doing for a while. The first gen in a card line was just to get something to market. Then later card revisions will have more advanced features that didn't make quite it for the initial release.

[pvr599]

I read through this entire thread and I can't say I came up with an answer. I am SO frustrated. After I got a 42" plasma I figured I should probably get a new video card. So I go the 8600GT. I never had problems before with just a 32" regular TV and onboard video. Other than that change I reverted my 2 SATA drives back to singles from Raid 0. Could that be it? I don't know.

I should probably tell you I am having the same problem as most in this thread. I have very annoying jerky playback with fast moving TV. I watch hockey and it is really annoying and unwatchable. Forget about HD, I have an HDHomerun that I use until I figure out where the problem is. Kind of a waste there.

Is there a definitive answer to this? Software or Hardware? I don't know where to start and I feel like I'm going around in circles.

Thanks for any advice and thanks to everyone who is working so hard to resolve this.
Dana

[SpiffyRex]

You don't need a RAID configuration but should format your recording drive using 64K blocks NTFS. My system has an old 80GB ide drive for XP (formatted using the default block size) and a 500GB SATA (64K block size) for recording and storing movies. Does your 8600GT card supports HDCP? If so make sure you are using the latest ForceWare drivers to activate the hardware decoding. Are you having problems playing mpeg-2 SD, mpeg-2 HD, or h.264 video sources? For example, the video from your HDHomerun is mpeg-2 HD if you are tuning to digital stations. If you have a satellite receiver with the r5000hd mod and you tune to one of the HD channels, chances are you will get h.264 video. Finally, make sure your Sage configuration is using VMR9, DirectShow mpeg4 playback, FSE mode, 3D acceleration, and you have the latest version of SageTV 6.2.10.
If your system still can't record/playback mpeg-2, it's time to turn debugging on and see what SageTV is doing. Let us know if you need help configuring all these settings or turning debugging on.

[pgman]

I've been away from the forums for some time now - actually having given up on Sage completely. I was having horrible stuttering issues with my system as well and nothing I did would help that much. Yesterday I bought an 8600GTS just for the hell of it. I also bought a new motherboard and CPU because I already had a 7600GT board in my system - I didn't think that could possibly be the problem. Today, I am taking the mother board and CPU back because, when I put the 8600GTS in, my computer came to life. Not only is ALL the stuttering gone - even the fastest-moving 1080i stuff out there - but the whole OS is running better with no more glitching when an application takes exclusive control of my video hardware and startup / shutdown happen faster, too.

The only thing I can say is that the 7600GT was, apparently, the ENTIRE cause of more than nine months of complete frustration. For now, I think I am going to stay with Vista Media Center (which did work better than Sage with the 7-series video card and now runs perfectly) but I would like to try Sage again sometime when I have a weekend to kill.

Here is my hardware - two years old and nothing special, but I feel like I can probably get two or three more years out of it now!!

MSI motherboard with Intel 945P chipset
P4 CPU (Socket 775) with HT @ 3.0GHz (running at 3.2GHz - 800MHz FSB)
Windowa Vista Home Premium
2GB Dual-channel DDR2 RAM (667MHz)
OS on PATA HDD
DVR Drive on SATA300 HDD
EVGA nVidia 8600GTS video
AverMedia A-180MCE ATSC tuner

If you've been fighting this stuttering problem for a long time, and you are using the 7-series nVidia card, I would definitely recommend finding a local computer vendor who will let you try an 8600GTS and return it if it doen't solve anything. You may find that its the best $200+ dollars you've spent on your system.

[Keenan]

That was my experience as well. I fought with a 7600 card for months and finally took one last stab at the problem with an 8600 and bingo, stuttering gone.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by Keenan

That was my experience as well. I fought with a 7600 card for months and finally took one last stab at the problem with an 8600 and bingo, stuttering gone.

Same here. All problems were gone after installation of the 8600GTS.

[pgman]

So now my question is whether or not I can load Sage TV on my Vista system and have the same success. I really would like to go back to the Sage interface because it is way easier to use than Vista MC, but I think I will leave well-enough alone for now. I also would like to figure out how to use my purevideo decoder with Vista, but I can't seem to find any info on how to do that.

[Ron]

Originally Posted by pgman

So now my question is whether or not I can load Sage TV on my Vista system and have the same success. I really would like to go back to the Sage interface because it is way easier to use than Vista MC, but I think I will leave well-enough alone for now. I also would like to figure out how to use my purevideo decoder with Vista, but I can't seem to find any info on how to do that.

I use XP, so can't help.

[Keenan]

I use XP as well.

[Keenan]

Originally Posted by pgman

So now my question is whether or not I can load Sage TV on my Vista system and have the same success. I really would like to go back to the Sage interface because it is way easier to use than Vista MC, but I think I will leave well-enough alone for now. I also would like to figure out how to use my purevideo decoder with Vista, but I can't seem to find any info on how to do that.

You might search through the below thread at AVS, I haven't followed it closely since I got my setup working right, but I know there was some postings about Vista/PV/8600.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=835630

[SpiffyRex]

XP, P4 3GHz single core, 7600GT, Intervideo video decoders from WinDVD8. Stutter free on mpeg-2 HD (< 15% CPU utilization) and h.264 (80% CPU utilization). Yes, that's pushing it for h.264 but it's working.