fast forward and rewind problems, stutter issues with HD PVR- related?

[yacht_boy]

Hi all-

I'm recording using an HD PVR with optical audio using the setup in my signature with the most recent stable version of Sage. I have the Hauppauge 45-button remote with USB UIRT, I mapped all the buttons out by hand. I'm using the 1.1 drivers on HDPVR and decoding with the onboard ATI 3200 HD, using Overlay with the ArcSoft MPEG-2 decoders. I'm running Sage on XP Pro 64 and using whatever catalyst drivers were current about a month ago. Until I get everything worked out, I am using the default Sage interface with no extras installed. I have two issues that might or might not be related, hoping someone here can help.

First, when I'm using fast forward/rewind (10 seconds) and ff2/rewind2 (150 seconds), I get very inconsistent jumps. For example, if I am trying to skip a 3 minute commercial break, I'll push FF2 (150 seconds) and 3xFF (3x10 seconds). What happens is that although the time scale in Sage shows the correct amount of skipping, the actual playback skips forward more or less than I've asked it to. So I'll push FF2 (150 seconds) and FF (10 seconds) and it will skip forward 300 seconds. Then I'll push rewind (10 seconds) and it will skip back 150 seconds, a second rewind will skip back 150 more second, and a third rewind might skip FORWARD a few seconds. Since the time scale on Sage is not in agreement with what's happening, it can be hard to tell exactly how far I'm skipping around, but the upshot is that I can no longer skip commercials reliably and the GAF has plummeted.

Second, whenever I start a new show or skip forward or rewind, I get 5-10 seconds of very stuttery video playback (audio is fine). I know that lots of people have reported this but haven't seen a resolution. I also get occasional infrequent jitters during regular playback, just enough to drive me crazy but not so bad that we can't watch TV.

I've searched the forums here without any luck and have also remapped the offending keys on the remote with no luck. Any help tweaking settings or otherwise diagnosing this would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Jason

[TallMomof2]

I'm running the beta MpegDemux.ax that was released before the latest SageTV beta. Combined with SageMC and using Smooth FF/REW under Multi-Speed FF/REW Options in the SageMC menu I've finally achieved accurate and smooth skips using my Hauppauge remote.

The only stuttering I see is when changing channels in Live TV and it lasts less than 2 seconds.

I haven't added in 5.1 yet but plan to do so.

[yacht_boy]

Thanks for the info. I'm out of town for the week but will try the new demux beta when I get back. For folks with a similar problem, download the latest beta (this link is current as of 12-1-08, check later posts in the thread to see if there is a newer version).

Here are the instructions on what to do with the file.

[kenP]

I was wondering about your success using XP Pro 64. I just built a new Sage server and had the choice to go 32 or 64. I chose 32 thinking drivers would be easier to find, but really thought 64 might be better overall. The system is dedicated with 2 HD PVRs, 2 PVR-USB2s and 1 PVR-150. I use a firefly remote and an 8400 video card.

Would you recommend 64 over 32? Did you experience problems finding and/or getting drivers to work, etc?

Any advice appreciated as I may rebuild the server using XP 64.
Thanks,
Ken

[yacht_boy]

I was thinking that going 64 would give me a boost in performance and let me use the multi-core processor more fully, but to be honest I haven't seen that boost over the 32 system I had in there earlier and the driver issues have been significant. I wasn't aware that so many drivers wouldn't work on 64. The biggest one for me was for my USB-UIRT, but there have been several others. Now that I have it all worked out, it's fine, but if I had to do it again I'm not sure I would spend the time--not much benefit with a relatively snappy system like the one I have set up. Of course, if there is a particular piece of software you have in mind that fully uses all 64-bit architecture, then it might be different, but I don't think that's the case with Sage.