FSE - is it working right?

[pgman]

I have the latest release of SageTV installed on my Vista Home Premium (32-bit) OS with the latest drivers for my GeForce 8600GTS video board. I've spent the last three weeks (since I downloaded it) tweaking and fussing with it to get it working right. I pretty much have it all working well now, with two exceptions.

The first is that Windows Media Center STILL somehow activates itself from time-to-time and I have to manually turn it off, go into the task manager and force quit the eh* crap that is running in the background. This is a minor annoyance, and I know I will eventually get it all turned off for good. I tried all the tips and tricks I found here for disabling VMC, but there is still something I missed.

The second issue is that, sometimes, the entire screen turns white when I move the mouse. This most-often happens when the mouse cursor slips onto the other desktop (I am running a computer monitor as my secondary) or if I try to "minimize" SageTV. The only way I can recover from this is CTRL-ALT-DEL and force SageTV to minimize. Then, I can go on about my business.

This ONLY happens if I am running in FSE mode. My hardware seems to be happy with FSE disabled - it actually seems to playback more smoothly with FSE turned off (even when using VMR9, which doesn't make any sense to me). I am just wondering if FSE is broken in this version of SageTV. I know there have been issues with it in previous versions, but I've been using Windows Media Center for a while and so haven't been using Sage - I missed a few revisions.

[wayner]

Does VMC get initiated by the remote? If that is the case then make sure that SageTVTray is running. I had this same problem as well.

[gplasky]

Stop Media Center from popping up

This will also address your issue.

Gerry

[pgman]

Does VMC get initiated by the remote? If that is the case then make sure that SageTVTray is running.

It may be that some of the buttons on my remote are causing VMC to re-start. I am using the Gyration remote that is meant to be used with VMC, but I thought I had already turned all the VMC services off and such. I will check again, and that registry change is new to me.

Regarding the other issue I am having (with FSE), I mentioned that my system actually seems happier with FSE turned off. Last night, I noticed that DScaler was enabled and, when I disabled it, the picture quality got better - not in color or clarity, but in motion. On 1080i sources, fast panning had a tendencey to look "choppy" - I wouldn't call it stuttering because it was not random in nature. It just looked like the system was methodically dropping fields (or maybe even frames) to keep up with the data. With all the DScaler stuff turned off, this appears to be gone.

Can someone explain to me what DScaler is, how it works and when it is appropriate (or advisable) to use it?

[Polypro]

1. I use Business, but does Home Premium have gpedit.msc ? You can prevent VMC from running anything from there.

2. If you are using Aero, you don't need FSE. Aero runs everything in 3D.

3. Dscaler is an open source video decoder (I guess you have it installed, because Sage is allowing you to select it). I would try the Sage, Nvidia, Cyberlink, or VMC's built in decoders and see what you like best.

P