Problems with ATI 2600 Pro

[jhendrix]

I have a Sapphire Radeon HD 2600PRO 256MB PCIe graphics card in my sage client machine and I'm having a couple of problems. (I've updated to the latest java, ccc, and sage)
I'm running an Athlon 64 3200+ on a 6150 motherboard with 1 Gig Ram.
I'm using NVidia decoders.

When I view an HD show (captured from ATSC tunner), I get stuttering and my GPU is maxed out at 99%.
When I play the same show in windows media player, it plays fine and GPU is 66%.
Both have VMR9 set.

Another problem I have is when I set it to overlay in sage, I get a playback error.

I installed PowerDVD ultra to use the cyberlink decoders, and the stuttering got even worse.

I have tried just about every suggestion I can find in these forums and still can't get smooth playback.

-Jeff

[Motofreak75]

you have to make sure that the decoder merits are set correctly and dont even bother with Nvidia decoder with this card, Because it sounds like its working in WMP and not in sage, it sounds like it isn't using the same decoders. Take a look with WMP and which decoders are being used and turn on the debug log in sage to find out what decoders and which splitters is being used in Sage unless you have graphedit to see whats being used. It makes a huge differences if its not using Hardware Accel DXVA.

I have a Asus 2600Pro with 7.10 drivers and have had zero issues with HD mpeg2 or H264 or VC1 files, unlike the ton of Nvidia cards that I have gone through over the years and not a single one of them could decoder HD correctly like it was advertised. They have a very hard time with Hardware Accel with H264/VC-1 content.

[jhendrix]

WMP is using the NVidea decoders (the little icon appears in the system tray and if I open it, it shows the stats about the video, bitrate, etc).

When I play it in sage, I don't get the NVidia icon, but I have it set to use the NVidia decoders in setup. (If I change it to another decoder in sage, it becomes almost unwatchable). At least with the NVidia decoders it's watchable. Static scenes (news, late show, etc.) hardly stutter at all, but any fast movement I'll get fast stutters.

Also, what would stop me from being able to switch to overlay mode? (I get a playback error when I do)

Thanks
-Jeff

[kevine]

Originally Posted by jhendrix

Also, what would stop me from being able to switch to overlay mode? (I get a playback error when I do)

Jeff, this may be a silly question but have you turning off 3d Acceleration in the Advanced menu? I need to turn this off when I switch to Overlay or I get a playback error. I have the 2600Pro too.

[jhendrix]

Turning off 3D Acceleration does allow me to use overlay mode.
One thing I did notice is the On-Screen Display is still transparent (I thought this was only suppose to do this in VMR9 mode)

[kevine]

Originally Posted by jhendrix

Turning off 3D Acceleration does allow me to use overlay mode.
One thing I did notice is the On-Screen Display is still transparent (I thought this was only suppose to do this in VMR9 mode)

Thought so too.

[autoboy]

I had the same problems as you and I finally ditched the 2600pro. I tried every iteration of decoders, renderers, and deinterlacing settings. Try using the ATI mpeg decoders. They came with your install CD in the Avivo folder. That helped me a little.

One other interesting thing I found was that when I got the Nvidia decoders and VMR9 to be the defaults, and I set Sage to default decoder and default renderer, the GPU % went down to 85% but I still got judder. Same setup with the Nvidia decoders selected and VMR9 selected in Sage got me 100% GPU. Weird huh??? This was the same with the cyberlink decoders, and the ATI decoders I was never able to actually select in Sage.

I had the same system spec as you BTW.

[mikesm]

I have had pretty good luck with my 2600pro. What OS are you using, XP or Vista?

Thanks,
Mike