My Personal Video

[Mateo]

I just finished writing about my one-way trip to Personal Video felicity. If you have a spare 15 minutes, read my narrative at http://isography.com.

I am curious what your reactions are - Sage ends up the hero.

-Matt

[mikesm]

Matt, great article. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

I have a replayTV and didn't see any of the problems you indicated with channel guides, but then Comcast isn't doing rebuilds in my city. I suspect that parts of Oakland have different channel lineups, or maybe HDTV service is creating additional entries, in any case, it's certainly weird.

On the Myth side, there is no question that one has to be careful about what hardware is selected for the system to run on. Some hardware manufacturers don't build Linux drivers for their products, and this can lead to lots of issues. My main desktop system is an Intel 875 system with ICH5R Raid support, and that disk config isn't yet supported under linux due to lack of Intel drivers. It's always best to ask around first.

But I think that you have come to the same conclusion that I and many others have. If you are going to run under windows, then Sage is the best product you can get for PVR functionality. If you have a lot of Linux experience, Myth will give you even more functionality, at least at this point in time, but it's not something to be attempted as a first Linux project.

My hope is that folks will develop plugins and such for Sage that will give it equivalent functionality to Myth and that the client code be ported to cheap frontends. The brothers should be very proud of what they have done by themselves, but it's hard to chase something like Myth with only 2 people doing development!

Thanks,
Mike

[GbrNole]

nice writeup, matt!

couldn't agree with you more and from what i've heard the pundit tv out aint half bad. i'm using dvi to my hitachi now (@ 1920x540p) and i'm absolutely blown away by the sage picture quality.

[GbrNole]

matt, you should make your next tweak by using the HQ dvd custom line.

provides a very nice picture (equal or better than the 3.25 gb/hr rate) and the file size only runs about 2.5 gig's for a 1 hour show.

after that you should play with the codecs. the latest hauppage/intervideo codec with dxva enabled really is pretty decent. after that preference steps in. elecard and dscaler look awesome but i really don't like having a high cpu load so i tend to stick with the ati cyberlink decoder which looks great with my radeon 9500 and has low cpu cycles.

[tcdrake]

Great article!
On a side note.....what's the HQ DVD custom line GbrNole?

[GbrNole]

tcdrake, check this sage link out (written by SHS) sage custom recording profiles

this is the HQ dvd setting:

seeker/recording_qualities/MyDVD=MyDVD,224,48000,6000000
mmc/python2_encoding/MyDVD=videobitrate=4500000|width=720|height=480|audiobitrate=224|vbr=1|peakvideobitrate=6000000

cut and paste it into the sage.properties file (at the end of the file) and save. do this while sage is completely turned off though, not in sleep, and restart sage.

you will have a new profile myDVD to select from this list which works with great results, for me at least

the bitrates can also be altered for better looking files or smaller file size if you wish to squeeze more on a dvd at a later date.

[mlbdude]

That custom setting seems to be worse than the DVD Standard. DVD Standard has a peak bitrate of 7250000 and has a higher audio bitrate.

I wonder what it is doing to make it look better for you? Maybe 6MB plays smoother on your system.

[GbrNole]

possibly but it just is a great compromise for me.

one thing that is weird though is that when i use the myDVD setting and i enter the pvr250 settings screen it correctly reports that i'm using VBR and correct rate too but when i select dvd standard play etc. and enter the same screen it always reports as CBR.

not sure why this is but the setting works well for my system.

[mlbdude]

Its possible that the Standard DVD profile uses CBR. I actually do prefer CBR since it kills a few more macro blocks than VBR.

I use a 6.6MB CBR profile so 6MB does seem to be a sweet spot .

[BigGator]

Great story - and all so true..
nothing goes quite as expected..

I first tried to use my AIW card for video (using snapstream) and it was awful.. then got the PVR... and tried Sage - and the PQ was there... then I got obsessive about silencing it (not quite over yet, but acceptable now)...

Even my WAF is very high.

I've sent your story to all my friends.
"-)

[Mateo]

Wow! Thanks for all the responses. I am amazed that my little http://isography.com site has recieved over 60 hits in just a few hours. I feel like a proud father at a soccer game.

I did install the new Happauge/InterVideo drivers - but since this happened prior to my sage experience, I can't say for sure if it improved things greatly or not. I imagine it did.

This cutomization GBRNole mentions, am I right to say that this is a hard disk saver that sacrifices picture quality slightly but not too much? What are the risks of giving this a whirl?

[GbrNole]

no risk, it just gives you another recording parameter which for me looks fantastic. once entered you select it as you would for any of the other recording qualities.

make sure to enable dxva though if you already haven't for the hauppage/intervideo codec.

also try and tweak your overlay color controls if you have access to them, this also helps.

[-LD]

just want to say the article was well written, very enjoyable, and so true

[SHS]

Mateo do mind I put up link on shspvr to this which most coolest story I ever read and funny article to boot.
I like part about forget Plan B let jump rigth on Plan C.

mlbdude the one I did are base on Hardware Decoder Playback (Xcard) so thing can be a bit diff using Software MPEG decoder how ever no matter what there always going be some tweaks need due to diff input source.
As for macro blocks problem your see that cuase by you input source channel for Example on my Dishnetwork if rec for USA it look dran good but I rec the same show from local air uplink channel it look like carp.

If want Highest PQ 1 hour DVD disc this about most you can go

mmc/python2_encoding/MyDVD\ -\ 1\ hour=videobitrate\=8000000|width\=720|height\=480|audiobitrate\=384|vbr\=1|peakvideobitrate\=9500000

seeker/recording_qualities/MyDVD\ -\ 1\ hour=MyDVD - 1 hour,384,48000,9500000

All Home DVD Player can not handel more then 9.7 MAX DVD Authoring is done some may get way with up to 10.0 if real lucky.
With a PC as Playback there is limnt after DVD Authoring is done so you can MAX it all way out 12MB/sec VBR or CBR

[Mateo]

GbrNole: "You will have a new profile myDVD to select from this list which works with great results, for me at least"

So it will appear in the profile of what? Of Codecs?

SHS: Sure, put it wherever you want. Anything to promote my fame and fortune (and copyright lawsuits from Comedy Central, Maxtor, NBC etc for stealing and editing their images).

The VBR, CBR conversations are a little over my head at this point... slowly getting there. Anyone have some good online resources for me to get informed?