OTA HD playback issues

[ripple]

I need some troubleshooting guidance as the WAF has been very low lately .

I've used Sage for over 6 years and have upgraded most parts of my system along the way. My system:

• Intel PERL865 MB 2.2Ghz CPU
• 2GB RAM
• Radeon 9200 AGP
• PVR-250
• PVR-500
• AverMedia A180
• 1TB Seagate SATA drive (1 OS partition and 3 Video partitions using 64K)
• SageTV 6.5 running as a service

I have 2 distinct problems with playback of HD content:

1) Playback of a couple HD programs will work fine for a while. At some point I will start playback of a recorded HD program and the video will show all black and the time counter will not move even though I can hear the audio playing normally. If I restart the SageTV process (just the GUI portion - I don't have to do anything with the background SageTVService) it will then play the file normally. HD playback will be fine for 3 or 4 hours then but at some point I have to restart SageTV again to get HD playback to work.

This has been occurring for a few years now and has a high annoyance factor. I'm looking for ideas to isolate this problem - drivers, decoders, etc...

2) Some HD recordings made by my A180 are never able to be played by Sage. Even after restarting SageTV (as above) the video refuses to play. When I move the mpg file to another PC I am able to play the video through WMP or PowerDVD, although in some cases there are "scratchy" noises in the audio. Does this indicate my A180 may be dying?

Thanks for any advice in advance.
Kevin

[MitchSchaft]

I'd say you need a new mobo, cpu, and video card. I dont think they even make AGP cards anymore. That PC is a dinosaur.

[wrems]

What about resolving your woes with a shiny new HD200? Turn your current rig into a server without playback and connect up the HD200, probably cheaper than replacing the entire PC...

[ripple]

Well my hobby budget is not up to the task of replacing all my hardware. With 3 PCI capture cards and and AGP video if I get a new system I also have to buy all new cards. The HD200 is not a bad idea but I'm not sure if I can run a cable to my home theater area. Plus I need to read more about the remote for that...

I was hoping for some ideas on how to diagnose whether my drivers or hardware might be shot. It seems odd that I am able to play some HD content just fine and simply restarting Sage gets others to play fine. Could this be related to PureVideo drivers that need updating?

[Taddeusz]

As far as playback goes your main problem is your video card. The Radeon 9200 is/was a very basic card based on the earlier 8500. I don't know that it supports full dxva hardware acceleration for playback.

Your cheapest bet would be to upgrade your video card to something that supports gpu accelerated playback such as this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161318

[ripple]

I have an extra Geforce 6300 that I could use. Does anyone know if that would be better than the Radeon 9200?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by ripple

I have an extra Geforce 6300 that I could use. Does anyone know if that would be better than the Radeon 9200?

Do you mean 6200? It has video acceleration but I don't believe it has full GPU acceleration for MPEG video where the decoding is fully offloaded to the video card.

The Geforce 6200 and Radeon 9200 are about on par with one another.

[Yalbik]

Originally Posted by ripple

The HD200 is not a bad idea but I'm not sure if I can run a cable to my home theater area.

Just out of curiousity, how is your server currently connected to your TV?

If you aren't using an extender you must have run video/sound from the server to the TV. Wouldn't it be reasonably simple to run cat6 the same way?

[ripple]

Originally Posted by Yalbik

Just out of curiousity, how is your server currently connected to your TV?

If you aren't using an extender you must have run video/sound from the server to the TV. Wouldn't it be reasonably simple to run cat6 the same way?

Yes, I have direct video/sound from the server to the TV. I was assuming that I would move the server (currently on 802.11b wireless) near my router and just have the HD200 by my TV. I'll have to get a bigger entertainment center if I keep it all there .

I'll look at a new card - part of my concern about a new card was how hard it might be to get all the video drivers and layers rebuilt. I would assume that once a new card is in and new drivers installed I would need to reinstall the PV decoder and make sure that Sage is using the right setup? Or would a new card not need the PV decoder?

Thanks

[Taddeusz]

Installing a new video card shouldn't affect decoders. The PureVideo decoder is just a DXVA capable decoder and will take advantage of any features on any video cards, not just nvidia. Personally, I don't like the PureVideo decoder. I much prefer the Cyberlink decoder over it. But either one will support full GPU decoding if the video card does.

[ripple]

I'll be upgrading my video card per everyone's suggestion, but I had a followup question while I'm trying to understand all this:

If these Sage playback issues are related to my old video card, why am I able to play them back in WMP without issues? Does that imply that Sage is using different filters than WMP?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Taddeusz]

Possibly. You can use GraphStudio to figure out which decoder it is defaulting to. Use DirectShow Filter Manager (dsfmgr) to check and change filter merits to adjust which ones get chosen first. You can also use it to change the default filter settings to ensure that dxva is enabled properly.

[ripple]

So if I understand correctly, I should find out what filters WMP is using and bump up its merits so they get used by default?

When I use graphedit on the mpg file in question it should be showing me the default filters being used, right? And if Sage is set to use Default they should be the same... but how do I know what filters WMP is using?

(Feel free to point me to a good graphedit/filter resource and I'll try to dig out the info myself)

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by ripple

So if I understand correctly, I should find out what filters WMP is using and bump up its merits so they get used by default?

When I use graphedit on the mpg file in question it should be showing me the default filters being used, right? And if Sage is set to use Default they should be the same... but how do I know what filters WMP is using?

(Feel free to point me to a good graphedit/filter resource and I'll try to dig out the info myself)

Yes, graphedit and WMP should be using the decode filter with the highest merit as the default. It should also serve as the default system wide.

For SageTV the only difference is that it inserts its own demuxer into the graph rather than using the system default. The reason for this is so that it can playback a video which is still being recorded. The default filters generally won't allow this.

One thing you can try is to set always_use_dshow_player=true in your properties file.

[ripple]

One last question:

I've got most Mpeg2 streams from my Avermedia A180 playing fine using these filters as seen in SageTV debug:
SageTV Mpeg2 Demultiplexer
Nvidia Video Decoder
AC3Filter
Default DirectShow Sound
Video Renderer

There are some recordings, however that won't play at all even though they are recorded by the same A180 and are using the identical filters. Video A is from one OTA channel and plays fine in Sage, Video B is from another OTA channel and shows black screen with audio and freezing. Both Video A and B play in WMP and GraphEdit using the same filter graph as above (default demultiplexer is Elecard).

Does this mean there is some inherent difference in the video stream from one channel to the other which Sage has trouble with ?

[Taddeusz]

Could be. Different stations use different equipment and different parameters to encode their video. You might try a different decoder to see if that clears up the issue.