Video quality verses hardware

[G__]

Hello,

I have been searching the forum for users of the same hardware as I have and I was not lucky in finding any information, so I will apologize in advance if I am asking the same questions that have already been posted.
Here is my hardware.
Motherboard: MSI K9NGM3 (MS-7349 ver1)
CPU: AMD 4000+ 64bit x2
Ram: Crucial 2GB PC6400 (was 4GB but needed 2GB for another project)
300GB SATA drive / 1GB CF card (used with OS in this system)
Video: On board nvidia 7050 (HDMI or Composite out for HD)
Audio: standard on board Realtec (S/PDIF out or via HDMI)
The original capture cards ( SkyHDTV / DViCO tuner cards). These are not anything that would run properly on Windows, even after finding drivers for them. More on the cards later.

OS: Linux Gentoo modified for this HTPC by the MFG. I added the dual boot to Windows 7 RC

My situation is as follows. Under Linux the video runs quite smooth, real time or recorded video. Internet video such as Hulu or other IPTV video is OK, but there are other factors that cause the video not to run that smooth. Good days and bad days with that. Since I have been a beta tester for MS for some time now I got to play with Win 7 beta to the RC and dual booted this system. Most of my tuner cards are not that new and do not do the decoding on the card and end up using the CPU for the processing. I have tried all my cards for Clear QAM 256 (cable) and ATSC (off air) under Win7 WMC and I could not after many hours of tweaking get the video as smooth as the Linux side of the system, not even close. I know the overhead is quite less with Linux then a Windows based system. What this boils down to, is after paying $500 US for this system and being under a tight budget, will this hardware support smooth video with Win 7 and Sage? Will my system as it stands be capable of good video? I am quite technical minded but as for media systems I am quite new to it and there is not any HTPC books for dummies that can reach a technical level that is not consumer sugar coated. Thanks for taking the time to read this long winded post. Any help in getting this system working or suggestions on what I need would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Holidays,

G

Just a quick update. I mentioned that the two SkyHDTV ATSC/QAM cards probably would not work with Windows 7, they do, but only with their installed Windows software. They also can run under the DViCo Fusion HDTV 5 Gold drivers. Apparently Win 7 does not see Clear QAM with these cards in WMC or Sage 6.x scanning. ATSC seems to work fine for what little I can get with rabbit ears. Again, the software that was written for the cards tunes the Clear QAM fine. In the registery it is listed as SkyHDTVBDA and it has the PowerToy set to 1. In addition, these cards will tune Clear QAM in the Linux package. I have no grasp on why WMC or Sage does not see QAM. Could this be due to the Windows 7 being the 7100 RC instead of the off the shelf release? If so can this be tested with the version I have here?

[G__]

110 views on this post. I guess it's the holidays or no one has any knowledge if this system would provide clean stable video with Win 7 and Sage. I have read what is required for use with Sage, and the specs are under rated compared to what I already have running for hardware. Running any video under Win 7 is not as clean as Linux on this system. Apparently, there are no one in sales or tech support that read through these posts.

No Sale.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by G__

Apparently, there are no one in sales or tech support that read through these posts.

Correct. As the forum description states, this is a user-to-user forum. Sage support personnel do not read every post. If you need an official response, use the designated support links.

[Tiki]

Sage offers a free trial... Why not try it and see how it goes?

I can't tell you what to expect from your system, but I can give you some ideas based on my current and past setups:

1. I started several years ago with an old Pentium III 550MHz with 512MB ram and I don't remeber what video card. Running XP Pro with a Hauppauge PVR-150 capture card (hardware MPEG-2 encoder) it captured standard def signals perfectly with almost no CPU load. Playback was marginal though (needed 80% CPU and sometimes stuttered). Had to use Overlay (not enough power for VMR9)

2. I upgraded to a Sempron64 3100+ (Socket734) with 1.5GB RAM and an nVidia 6200 AGP video card and added 2 more PVR-150s - still XP Pro. Standard Def playback was now very smooth and required very low CPU load (~15%). Had to use Overlay with FSE (Full Screen Exclusive) mode to get best results.

2a. I added a Silicon Dust HDHomerun (2-tuner, clear QAM connected via Ethernet). Recording and playback of SD video was still perfect. Recording of HD video from the HDHR was perfect as long as my CPU load stayed below 80%. Playback of 720p video was fine but required about 80% CPU. Could not playback 1080i video at full frame rates (got a strobe effect as frames were dropped).

2b. I upgraded the video card to an ATI HD4650 AGP. Now I could play back 720p MPEG-2 (around 50%CPU) and 1080i MPEG-2 (around 65% CPU) and h.264 (around 15% CPU for 720p with a hardware-accelerated codec, never had any 1080i samples to test), SD playback required more CPU than before (~30%). Still had to use VMR9 with FSE for smooth playback of HD video.

3. I built a new server this week with Athlon II X4 630 Propos, 2GB RAM (was 4, but had to remove 2GB to make PVR150s work), Win7 64bit, and ATI 4350 PCIe. So far, I haven't been able to get the CPU usage above 20% and I'm just using default codecs with EVR, so I don't think hardware acceleration is even being used right now.

If you have problems, try to find a codec with hardware acceleration (the nVidia Pure Video codecs are very good and will work with some ATI cards, but not sure if they work with Win7). Try different renderers (these are configurable in Sage). Re-start Sage after changing renderers or you may get a playback exception error. If using Win7, EVR is probably best. If using WinXP, VMR9 with FSE enabled is probably best.

[paulbeers]

The Nvidia 7050 IGP will be very underpowered for anything in the HD realm on Windows machines. I can't speak to how it works in Linux, but I can tell you I had very unreliable HD playback with my old Nvidia Geforce 7300.

So basically I am stating the same thing as Tiki, your IGP will be a very limiting factor to getting smooth playback.

[simonen]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

The Nvidia 7050 IGP will be very underpowered for anything in the HD realm on Windows machines.

I used a board with this graphics processor for a few years and it did a fine job with HD content (no h.264). My CPU usage was always low when playing recorded content from my HD Homerun.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by simonen

I used a board with this graphics processor for a few years and it did a fine job with HD content (no h.264). My CPU usage was always low when playing recorded content from my HD Homerun.

Even 1080i? That is where my 7300GS would choke every time.

[simonen]

Yeah, 1080i was no problem for me. I was using the purevideo nvidia decoders as well. I only upgraded so I could make the move to blueray

[G__]

Thanks guys,

I was getting a bit discouraged by no responses after all the folks that read the post. I usually get a bit long winded in my initial posts due to the many questions that come after a very short post due to lack of detail, so I place as much detail tha I can think of in the first post. I actually shortened it down a bit after reviewing it.
I had a feeling it was my video card. I haven't had much luck with ATI cards, but that was some time ago and I have been using NVidia cards or VOB for years now. Guess it was due to the purchase of a ATI tuner card for 200+ and received no support, but since Asus is marketing the cards with HDMI I probably will reconsider the Radeon boards. One other small problem, literally, it is the room in this case. I only have 4.5 inches/11.43cm to work with.
I did the test in Win 7 WMC to test the computer and everything was fine except the video. Not sure if they were counting HDCP or just a low end video, probably the latter. Now back to beating this system to being able to scan QAM and ATSC. The cards I have are working fine for ATSC and QAM with their software but WMC only sees them as analog No ATSC or QAM. CX chipset and BDA.
Just waiting for the Ceton cards. Hurry up Ceton. http://www.cetoncorp.com/ProductsWMC.php


Thanks again for all your input.
Again.. Happy New Year to all !