SageTV HD stutters on liveTV

[SnakeJG]

If I watch an HD stream live, SageTV stutters bad, audio's bad, has blocks in the video, everything's bad. If I then pause the playback, and let it record for __ minutes before I continue the playback, I'll have a perfect HD video for __ minutes. As soon as it catches up to a part recorded while I was also watching, it is back to stutter central. I can jump to any part of the recording, and if it was recorded while I was also watching, it stutters, otherwise, it is perfect.

My CPU usage is very low, 15 to 20% when watching + recording, 3% when just recording

System Information:
SageTV 6.3.6 RC (Same problem w/ earlier versions)
Hauppage HVR 1800, with the latest drivers CD_3.4d1
Win XP Prof SP2.
Raedon X1650 Pro w/ the latest drivers 7-12
ffdshow codec
Athlon X2 3800+ w/ 2GB of RAM
Sage Hard Drives:
Seagate 250 GB 7200 rpm, 64k block size, IDE
Western Digital 750 GB 7200 rpm, 64k block size, SATA 2nd gen (3 Gbps, NCQ)

Please help.

Thanks.

[jaminben]

I'd personally get rid of the ffdshow codec and try something like CoreAVC or Cyberlink codecs. I find ffdshow is rather like a bull in a china shop, its quick, easy and does everything you want but isnt all that system friendly. Others will proberly disagree but thats my opinon.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by jaminben

I'd personally get rid of the ffdshow codec and try something like CoreAVC or Cyberlink codecs.

How do you get SageTV to use the CoreAVC codec? I've had no luck.

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

How do you get SageTV to use the CoreAVC codec? I've had no luck.

Funnily enough I've just been reading the other thread which you started and to be honest I havent done anything diffrent than what was posted their.http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...130#post257130

I'm using CoreAVC 1.5, Halli Media Splitter, AC3 audio, SageTV_V6_3_6 & MCE 16x9 v6.3

Sage properties settings
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CoreAVC
always_use_dshow_player=true

Using Overlay with FSE disabled

Mpeg2 playback - Nvidia purevideo
Mpeg4 playback - Directshow
Mpeg Audio playback - AC3 audio
All other Video/Audio settings are set to default

I did try coreavc_professional_edition-1.6.0.1 but that didnt work for all my content so I returned to version 1.5.0.1.

Both my server and client play h.264, x.264, .ts, mpeg2, mpeg4, avi etc with no problems.

Hope this helps a little as I think CoreAVC is far superior than any other codec I've tried including cyberlinks not only for performance but PQ as well.

Regards

Ben

[SnakeJG]

I'm hesitant to pay for a codec which I doubt will solve the problem. My CPU usage is low, and if I let the file record on its own, then watch it, I don't have any problems. Given that my CPU usage never gets up to even 30% while watching and recording, I have a hard time blaming the codec.

More info: I have a signal strength of over 90% (it goes between 97% and 94%) according to Sage in the channel setup page.

My hard drives are full, so perhaps Sage is running into fragmentation problems, and can't handle writing, reading, and deleting at the same time?

Any other suggestions? (or suggestions of a free (or trial) codec I can try).

Thanks.

[briands]

I've noticed some slight stutter with LIVE TV (running right up against the file write), but if I just pause for 10~15 sec, it seems to be much smoother.

[SnakeJG]

If I pause for 10-15 seconds, and then start watching, I will have 10-15 seconds w/out stutters, but as soon as I get to a part of the show recorded while I was watching the earlier part, it will have lots of stutters again, even if I am watching with a delay

[GTwannabe]

Try running a disk diagnostic that shows you the real-time ECC corrected error rate (GRC SpinRite is a good one). Many of the new made-in-China hard drives have defective controllers that cripple hard drive performance under heavy load. However, even obnoxiously high error rates are not enough to trigger a SMART code.

I just RMA'd a Seagate that was pushing 20,000-30,000 ECC errors per second. Caused all kinds of problems with recordings on that drive; stuck time counter, random time skips, erratic FFWD's and rewinds, etc.

[SnakeJG]

Does anyone have any suggestions on Disk Diagnostic software that is either free or has a free trial? I don't particularly want to buy a $90 program to help diagnose SageTV. If not, I'll run some tests with just a single drive at a time, to see if I can find a problem that way.