What Happend to my Sage :(

[Justintoxicated]

Well had this for over a month now and it's jsut one problem over the next. I have not even enjoyed a hour of tv yet!

Anyways heres my newest issue I don't know what happened but suddenly this is my picture.

I think I should probably just re-install sage. How do I backup my channel xml or am I going to have to manualy re-map everything again?


(Black bars across the picture) Looks like they are overlayed as they do not move. Basicaly 1/5th of the picture is actualy image, the black bars are 3x time size of the stripes where the image is) I have not added any plugins yet as I mostly want to get this thing running first!
It started with onely one station having this problem now I only get one station without it!
I have been playing with the sage.properties file desperately trying to get 5.1 sound to no avail. However even moving back to the origional file has not fixed tihs issue...
Everything plays fine thorugh VLC player + HDHR software.

Hardware is Opteron 165 @ 2700mhz x 2 with 2Gb ram, Raptor HD and 7800GT video card.

[Justintoxicated]

Ok By Changing the Video Renderer back to default instead of vrm9 I get a picture on all stations.

However when I maximize teh screen the picture disappears and I get a blank black screen. if I minimize the screen remains black (no picture) until I restart Sage.

This program is super buggy isn't it...

If I set back to VMR9, then I can maximize to full screen, but 1/2 the stations show these bars...So that not a good solution either!

WTF

So do I need to change video renderes depending on the station? With all these complications I may as well just plug in the cable box directly into the tv.

[Conejo]

Yes, the SageTV software might be responsible for this, and possibly your sound issue. Then again, Sage is but one of many software components through which your video/audio is processed. My guess is that your video issue is most likely an interplay issue between a decoder and your video card drivers.

You say the HDHR + VLC 'View' plays fine. Let's do some troubleshooting.

1) Record a new program (Try both SD and HD content). Even 5-10 minutes of each should work for testing.
2) Outside of SageTV, play that MPEG2 file(s) using a couple other players (DVD player, VLC, MediaPlayer). This will remove the BDA drivers as a culprit.

3) Set SageTV to a window. Set SageTV to OVERLAY

Set the 'MPEG Video Decoder Filter to

a) SageTV MPEG Video Decoder; and play the test recordings
b) InterVideo Video Decoder (if available); and play the test recordings
c) xxx Video Decoder (whatever other options available); and test.

4) Try the '3D Video Acceleration' in both ENABLED and DISABLED

5) If you want to try this in FULL SCREEN mode, then try also setting FULL SCREEN EXCLUSIVE MODE in both the ENABLED and DISABLED settings and testing.

SageTV doesn't always have direct output access to drivers and hardware. There are many annoying software hooks (like DirectX) that can cause you issues in one program but not another. (ex: My sound recorder is stuck using my disconnected bluetooth audio on startup, but other audio programs use the correct default I set in the audio control panel).

Your Video Driver usually has settings related to DirectX, OpenGL, Direct3D, and Overlay adjustment. If you've played with any one of these then it could be the cause of your interlace issue. Try reseting the defaults.

I am disheartened to find you having so 'many' issues with your setup, but then you are trying to get it to work with the most number of cool settings to produce a great Home Theater experience.

[Justintoxicated]

Ok I recorded a station with this problem the recording looks fine in WMP. other than it appears to not be the correct aspect ration (peoples heads look squished a bit lol)

In VLC player it looks normal aspect ratio and all.

In Sage I have black bars through everything (I can't tell what the aspect ratio looks like.)

I have not made any chages to video card drivers.

I just installed WMP11 recently so I think it's probably jsut WMP sucking as usual (no options to adjsut aspect ratio) I did have this black bars problem before the WMP11 install.


When set to overlay mode I get the picture back for a while, However if I then toggle fulscreen I get a playback error then the screen goes blank just like before. Restarting Sage gets teh picture back, until I select full screen mode at shich point I get the same error...I can toggle full screen first and get video that way but eventualy it will error again. Mpeg Video Decoder mode does not matter...Crashes on going to full screen on all settings available. I do notice there are 2 sage icons after the error one is SageTV and the other is ActiveMovie Window...

So whats the deal with switching to full screen mode throwing errors? I can maximize the window manualy, but not switch to full screen mode...Unless I'm using VMR9, but then only scrtain stations come in correctly and the rest have black bars through the image. Although it will record fine in either setting...

[jkoutrouba]

Originally Posted by Justintoxicated

So whats the deal with switching to full screen mode throwing errors? I can maximize the window manualy, but not switch to full screen mode...Unless I'm using VMR9, but then only scrtain stations come in correctly and the rest have black bars through the image. Although it will record fine in either setting...

Do you have full screen exclusive mode enabled? I just got a new 7600GT and found that mine, at least, does not like FSE. Since turning it off, I have had few problems.

[Justintoxicated]

Originally Posted by jkoutrouba

Do you have full screen exclusive mode enabled? I just got a new 7600GT and found that mine, at least, does not like FSE. Since turning it off, I have had few problems.

OMG thank you everything works now even WMR9 mode! What is FSE mode supposed to do anyways? I guess I can re-intall ffdshow now... I started removing a bunch of stuff.

[Justintoxicated]

Ok so I re-installed teh Combined Comunity Codec pack (has FFSDHOW ETC) and now I get the black bars when playing under VMR9.

I seem to feel that VMR9 is the renderer of choice? Is there some way I can have this codec pack installed AND use VMR9?

CCCP installs FFDShow Video Decoders:
Divx
Flash Video
Generic MPEG4
H.264
Xvid

I'm sure someone is familiar with this codec pack? it's not bloated like all the others. I'm stillt rying to understand what all these Codec do...I think I'm getting closer with this codec pack (mainly ffdshow I would presume) I now have working 5.1 with the modified dshow setting in the .properties files for Mkv files.

Everything works using overlay, but it's hit and miss with VMR9 and the codec pack installed. If anyone knows what I need to disable in the codec pack I would be very greatful.

-Thanks again
Justin

[ToxMox]

What are ALL your settings in your Video/Audio section of the detailed setup?

[Justintoxicated]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

What are ALL your settings in your Video/Audio section of the detailed setup?

Well I can tell you but the only one that seems to make any difference is changing from overlay to VMR9. None of the others seem to make much difference. I installed the Nvidia Video Decoder hoping it would solve the problem but I'm not seeing any difference using this either (good thing I did not purchase it yet). With current settings everything works ok so I'm not desperate, jsut curious as to why VMR9 does not work, and what the advantages are (EVERYONE IS USING IT), actualy, so long as "Overlay" is selected everything works perfect, chaning this to VMR9 I have problems.

What is the advantage of VMR9 over Overlay? I seem to think the images look better (When they come in properly).

Video Renderer: Overlay

Chaning to VMR9 makes some HD look good, seems a bit more crisp (but maybe it is all in my head?), but most regular cable and some HD gets the Black Bars Across the screen as shown above...
Tried VMR9 with all kinds of combinations of Mpeg2 and Mpeg4 settings with no noticable difference. However uninstalling the CCCP removed the black bars (As well as FFDSHOW and my 5.1 audio for MKV files) I have altered the Sage.properties file in 2 places
always_use_dshow_player=true and adding the mkv file extention.

No other alterations to Sage.properties have been made.

Mpeg2 Decoder: Nvidia Video Decoder (Changing makes no difference)(Other options are: Intervideo Video Decoder, NVidia Video Post Processor, SageTV, and ffdshow MPEG4 Video Decoder)
MPEG4 Playback: DirectShow (Changing makes no difference) (Other options are: SageTV Player)
DXVA (both set to default)
Dscaler Deinterlacing Filter: disabled
Audio Renderer: DirectSound:SB-X-fi Audio[B400]
MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter: AC3 Filter

Pictures of Codec Pack Install.



Hardware Specs are:
Opteron 165 @2700MHZ x2
Nvidia 7800 GT
2Gb Ram.

[ToxMox]

Get graphedit if you don't already have it and drag one of your problem mpegs into graphedit and post a screenshot of the resulting graph if you get a chance.

[Justintoxicated]

This file plays fine in both VLC and WMP11.
It gets the same black bars as Watching live TV stations inside of sage which using the VMR9 setting.

[ToxMox]

Oh I didn't realize you were trying to play avi files. Try messing around with your FFDshow settings in the CCCP folder in your programs menu. You may want to try a different codec pack uninstall yours first (I also use CCCP)(could try another or even just get individual codecs) or download DSFilter manager and change the merits so a different codec gets used for your divx files.

[Justintoxicated]

I thought live TV was formated to mpeg2? I'm just saying that this file has the same symptoms when played through sage. It plays fine everywhere else. Why would setting VMR9 give me black lines in sage?

It must be an ffdshow codec problem. I can change the order, or whatever but I don't really know what I am doing. Would screenshots of codec info help? I really need to go back to Codec College or something.


This is a recording from sage of a program that was showing bars yesterday.

[ToxMox]

Most tuners/encoders format mpeg2 but if you are using a device like the plextor then it records divx. Which recording device(s) are you using?

[Justintoxicated]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Most tuners/encoders format mpeg2 but if you are using a device like the plextor then it records divx. Which recording device(s) are you using?

HDHR

[ToxMox]

From the second graph you posted I think Roxio is partially the culprit.
If it were me I would use DSFilter manager and lower the merits of several codecs then reboot and post another graph and also give playback a shot...here are the codecs I would lower:

Lower these to the lowest setting:
Roxio MPEG2 Demuxer
Roxio MPEG2 Video Decoder
FFDShow Audio Decoder
AVI Splitter

And lower this to just above the lowest setting:
FFDShow MPEG4 Video Decoder

[talbot3]

From your graphedit screenshots, you are not rendering with VMR9. The video render filter is VMR7. You need to bump up the merit on the VMR9 Render and lower VMR7 to see if graphedit can render correctly with VMR9.

[ToxMox]

That shouldn't be needed. By setting Sage to use VMR9 everything should render in VMR9

[talbot3]

Yeah, that will load the VMR9 filter in the sage application. But if you are troubleshooting VMR9 playback with Graphedit, doesnt it make sense to run the tests using the VMR9 filter?

[ToxMox]

I just wanted to know what the default codecs were that were associated with his files. VMR is controlled in Sage so it didn't matter what the last step of the graph was. I wasn't looking for him to test playback in graphedit.