SageTV & HD Audio

[ehfortin]

Hey,

Took some time today to install a brand new Windows XP on my GF9300/nForce730i machine. I've installed all the windows patch (including SP3). To this, I added TME (the version that came with the HD-PVR) and SageTV Client. No stuttering on the recording and... 3-5% CPU usage. GPU and Video Engine are busy but nothing near the limit (contrary to what I got on Windows 7 but... must admit I didn't tried the old TME version, just the new demo of TME2).

So, as everything was good, I decided to uninstall TME from my current SageTV client and to reinstall it without applying any Arcsoft patch. Guess what... 2% CPU usage with all the decoding load being handle by the ATI HD3450 (wrote it wrong in my first post).

The conclusion I have now is that the original TME as a good DXVA decoder that work well both with the GF9300 and the ATI board. The most current update of TME and the newest TME2 are not working properly and I can't figure why but... as everything is working great, I guess I'll enjoy my setup and let the investigation to anybody else who would like to pursue it.

Hope this info may be useful to someone.

Thanks again for the assistance and comments.

ehfortin

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Rico66

Not really. Yes, you can use ffdshow to handle the audio part, but for the video side (vc-1) it doesn't work for me (using Nvidia).

On older Nvidia GPU that is correct, newer parts should get DXVA2 for VC-1 as well.

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by babgvant

On older Nvidia GPU that is correct, newer parts should get DXVA2 for VC-1 as well.

I didn't say that Nvidia + ffsdhow cannot get DXVA. My comment was mainly about Sage. VC-1 playback of such content plays fine using ffdshow (SW or DXVA) outside of Sage (in combination with the Haali or MPC splitter). But within Sage this is a no go, causing mainly crashes.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Rico66

I didn't say that Nvidia + ffsdhow cannot get DXVA. My comment was mainly about Sage. VC-1 playback of such content plays fine using ffdshow (SW or DXVA) outside of Sage (in combination with the Haali or MPC splitter). But within Sage this is a no go, causing mainly crashes.

Assuming that you're using V7 that issue isn't specific to Nvidia HW (if you're seeing it on V6, something is wrong); the splitters don't work right w/ decoders that expect WVC1 output.

For VC-1 content played w/ V7, the TMT filter is currently the only reliable option.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Assuming that you're using V7 that issue isn't specific to Nvidia HW (if you're seeing it on V6, something is wrong); the splitters don't work right w/ decoders that expect WVC1 output.

For VC-1 content played w/ V7, the TMT filter is currently the only reliable option.

I finally found out what is causing me so much headache. The line 21 filter that sage insists on inserting into the graph is what is causing my playback problems. I graphedit I can build the graph the exact same way as sagetv without the line 21 decoder and it works perfectly, however when I add the line 21 filter it crashes just like sage. Can I remove the line 21 filter?

Thoughts?

[babgvant]

You could try lowering the merit or use my GraphPlugin (V7 only) to block it. Strange that it's joining though.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by babgvant

You could try lowering the merit or use my GraphPlugin (V7 only) to block it. Strange that it's joining though.

I tried blocking it with your plugin and removing it from the registry using one of many dshow filter managers. I'll look around for more info.

[babgvant]

Is the plugin not able to block it? Or is it crashing the process on load?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Is the plugin not able to block it? Or is it crashing the process on load?

Your plugin wasn't able to block it, and the tmt3 decoder works great with tv, but when trying to play blu rays it crashes every time. I just got an email from sage saying they fixed the line 21 issue for me in the next build. I hope it is just one of those simple updates and not 7.0.18. My problems would be over if they fixed this for me.

EDIT: Well they put the fix in .18 (Don't insert the Line21 CC decoder filter when playing back BluRay content on Windows as this causes issues on some systems.) but the line 21 decoder is still there in my graph.

[Rico66]

I was finally digging out md HD PVR CD and installed Arcsoft for the purpose of getting that Video Decoder for VC1 playback. I got this working within Sage without problems, but it doesn't use DXVA (I think there was a similar discussion about this a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't see a solution there...). Looking into the property sheet of the Arcsoft decoder shows indeed thart DXVA is not selected. I tried to select these settings, but it seems that they don't stick (don't get saved). Is there any way to have this decoder utililize DXVA?

CPU usage is around 30% and there's no stuttering (compared to the wmo decoder which stutters), so I can probably live without DXVA, but I'd still like to know, if DXVA is actually be possible here.

[panteragstk]

So, after installing sage on a newly installed os I have solved the video playback problem with VC-1. Somehow a plugin was the cause of the videos not playing. I haven't found out which one yet, but I will as I slowly install more...

[Flips]

ugh.. after buying a new ATI card, and screwing around codecs and drivers with this for most of the weekend, I found out today that you can't do this in XP! :-/

gah.. now do I spend $100 on windows 7, or just just junk my computer and buy an hd300 for $50 more..

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Flips

ugh.. after buying a new ATI card, and screwing around codecs and drivers with this for most of the weekend, I found out today that you can't do this in XP! :-/

gah.. now do I spend $100 on windows 7, or just just junk my computer and buy an hd300 for $50 more..

Have you tried using ReClock as your audio renderer?

[Flips]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Have you tried using ReClock as your audio renderer?

I haven't... so you're saying I've got a chance? I will give that a try next.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Flips

I haven't... so you're saying I've got a chance? I will give that a try next.

The MPC-HC audio renderer is another option.