stuttering problem - menus extremely slow

[rjmarthaller]

The short version:
Is it worth trying a newer video card to fix my stuttering problems in sage?

The Long version:
DTV over the air, some HD some not
Hauppauge hvr1600
AMD 2500+ Barton
1.5gb memory
IDE RAID 0 array formatted to 64k
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (also tried Geforce4 MX 4000 but that one was worse)

No matter what I choose for rendering or player options I get stuttering on playback on both live tv and recorded shows. I originally had my Geforce4 MX 4000 in and it was even worse. The Radeon 9600 Pro made it a little smoother but my processor is still nearly maxed out, and as soon as I try to go into a menu to stop playback it nearly freezes up. I never had any stuttering problems when connected to my cable tv service, but I assume it wasn't nearly as high quality.

My question is this: Will a better video card make any difference at all or is more likely due to the processor not being able to keep up?

Would say the ATI HD 3650 make a big difference?

ps- it's a fresh install of XP Home as of yesterday. Latest drivers for all video cards involved (ATI, Nvidia, Hauppauge). I only need to output SVideo for the time being.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Taddeusz]

What type of video are you recording and playing back, SD or HD?

[rjmarthaller]

I believe it's just the HD channels that are stuttering. I only get the major networks so it's pretty much every channel that has the problem.

I never had any of these issues with the exact same setup connected to standard cable.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by rjmarthaller

I believe it's just the HD channels that are stuttering. I only get the major networks so it's pretty much every channel that has the problem.

I never had any of these issues with the exact same setup connected to standard cable.

I guess you'd need to verify the resolution of the video's you're getting the stutter on. I would suggest getting other's feedback first but I would think your Athlon XP system may not be powerful enough to playback HD video. If the video resolution is 720p or 1080i you may have playback problems. What decoder are you using for playback? Are you using Overlay or VRM9?

[rjmarthaller]

I'm using Overlay. Where can I check the resolution? I think I saw somewhere that one stream was 1080i but not positive.

[rjmarthaller]

It's just barely stuttering, I'm trying not to rebuild the whole system if possible. Would a better video card that has beefier hardware acceleration maybe do it? SD channels, PBS in my case, comes in great and menus work fast and smooth.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by rjmarthaller

I'm using Overlay. Where can I check the resolution? I think I saw somewhere that one stream was 1080i but not positive.

Using the default STV if you view the recording detail it should tell you the resolution and audio type. You'll see a line something like this:

Format: MPEG2-PS[MPEG2-Video 16:9 1080i@29.97fps, AC3/384Kbps@48kHz Stereo]

[Taddeusz]

A video card might give you smoother video playback. It really depends on how long you want to keep that system on life support. The Athon XP and AGP are obsolete technologies. If it still works for you without issue, fine. But upgrading to something faster is fairly cheap these days. In many cases less than $500.

[rjmarthaller]

My reason to going OTA is because I really only watch a one show these days, Heroes. Otherwise the tv is just kind of on in the evenings while we are doing other things, so I could no longer justify paying the cable company. I do not have an HDTV. I would like to get this machine able to record and playback Heroes, that's really my goal in all this. I still use Sage to watch other videos but nothing I'm recording myself.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by rjmarthaller

My reason to going OTA is because I really only watch a one show these days, Heroes. Otherwise the tv is just kind of on in the evenings while we are doing other things, so I could no longer justify paying the cable company. I do not have an HDTV. I would like to get this machine able to record and playback Heroes, that's really my goal in all this. I still use Sage to watch other videos but nothing I'm recording myself.

Something like a Radeon 3650 would probably work just fine. It has fairly extensive acceleration for both MPEG and H.264 video.