FFDshow, and SageTv

[stanger89]

Have you tried other renderers? (overlay, VMR9)

Also do you have any of the DXVA settings in Sage set to something other than default?

[Watter]

Originally posted by xlr8shun
did you do the regedit to disable vmr and allow all renderers?

can also find these options in the control panel, but they are named differently.

Yes I did, and it looks like the changes were made successfully, otherwise it seems like FFDShow wouldn't be working correctly with the Sonic decoder via WMP.

Originally posted by stanger89
Have you tried other renderers? (overlay, VMR9)

Also do you have any of the DXVA settings in Sage set to something other than default?

I can use VMR 9 in WMP with both FFDShow and Cinemaster. I can use it in SageTV with the Cinemaster codec, but when I switch to FFDShow and try to play something with VMR9, Sage freezes up. Both of the DXVA settings in SageTV are set to default.

So basically FFDShow with Cinemaster works with WMP and Cinemaster is obviously setup as my default encoder. Eveything works correctly everywhere except in Sage. Is there anything in the Sage properties file that I can change that might affect this?

-Watter

[xlr8shun]

i had sage crash on me once a while back, while i was using ffdshow w/nvidia codec

from that time forward, everytime i tried to use sage with ffdshow, reguardless if it was vmr or overlay, it would crash.

i tried reinstalling sage, reinstalling ffdshow, installing a different version ffdshow, different video drivers, different codecs, reinstalling codecs, and nothing worked. i ended up reinstalling windows. for me it wasnt that big of a deal, i have a clean image of windows for all my boxes. takes like 3 min to restore it. but, after a restore it did work.

i guess i'd start with uninstalling things, and reinstalling them, codecs, sage, ffdshow, video drivers... i dont know what else to tell ya

[mdmint]

Well, I've been following this and other FFdshow threads for awhile. Played with it and actually got it to "sort of" work. (With Sonic decoder) Man, unless I have settings way off this pupply wants some horsepower! Unfortunately my HTPC Client only has a AMD XP 2400+ and it ain't cuttin' it. With FFdshow CPU usage toggles from high 60s to pegged 100% and of course video stuttering to say the least. Other funky video when CPU hammered too. This was with VMR9, Sonic, 3D enabled. With "normal" non-FFdshow playback same settings (except of course choosing Sonic instead of FFdshow in setup) CPU during playback more like 15%... Oh well. I doubt upping to a XP 3200+ cpu would do the trick and that's the max for the sysbrd. (output ATI Radeon 9600 HD component dongle)

I'm still not 100% clear of the benefits to using FFdshow anyway. I guess what I don't know I won't miss and won't hurt me!

[dongta]

ffdshow is used to improve the mpeg picture quality. Can be used to bring DVD playback close to HDTV res. www.htpcnews.com has a guide on using ffdshow with DVDs and they included some before and after shots to compare.

I finally got ffdshow to work with nvdvd thru trial and error. Steps are really simple. Install ffdshow and follow that with the decoder of your choice. In SageTV, select ffdshow as your decoder and you're set. With NvDVD, you can verify its working when you choose ffdshow as the decoder and the Nvidia icon appears in your system tray when viewing a show.

I still need to do some tweaking with ffdshow because the PQ is a bit soft. Hope this help others having problem setting up ffdshow.

[stanger89]

mdmint,

What settings did you have enabled? Sounds like you were pretty agressive, you should be able to get some worthwhile results with a more modest selection. That CPU should be enough to do a little denoise and some sharpen.

[mdmint]

Originally posted by stanger89
mdmint,

What settings did you have enabled? Sounds like you were pretty agressive, you should be able to get some worthwhile results with a more modest selection. That CPU should be enough to do a little denoise and some sharpen.

Good question, I didn't really have much of a clue what I was doing! (didn't read no steekin' manual) I'll play with it some more tomorrow.

BTW, are you actively using FFdshow? Is anyone (everyone) else? If so, I've no choice but to get it working!

[xlr8shun]

yah i use it. activly... on my 2500+ @ 2ghz

just sharpen and tomsmocomp deinterlacing, with nvdvd

[stanger89]

I ran it for a while with unsharp mask and Denoise3D on nVDVD decoders, but I've done a lot of tweaking/experimenting lately (WinDVD 6) and after that I'm tired of screwing with stuff so right now I'm just using Sonic CP with DXVA.

[Watter]

Arggggg!!!

I finally gave up on getting it to work and just wiped my system clean; formatted the drive and started over. I followed the following process:

1. Formatted my OS partition
2. Installed XP Pro w/SP1
3. Installed all security patches
4. Installed Video and Hauppauge Drivers
4. Made an Arconis True Image backup
5. Installed Cinemaster Codec
6. Installed SageTV

At this point I tested everything. Cinemaster codec is setup as default decoder and everything is working fine with SageTV.

7. Installed FFDShow
8. Set AllowAll Renderers in the registry for the Cinemaster codec
9. Set All Supported for Raw Video in FFDShow and turned on the OSD
8. Enabled the OSD in FFDShow

Once again, everything works fine in Windows Media Player. FFDShow is automatically used when I play a mpg file, but in Sage, when I select FFDShow as my decoder, I get the exact same error I was getting before. Nuts!!

The only thing I can think is that perhaps it has something to do with the FFDshow version I'm using. I'm using one of the newer version and not the old 2002 versions from sourceforge.

Any other ideas?

-Watter

[stanger89]

I run the newest on I've found 20040405 I believe.

I've attached my CP VideoDec Key

[Watter]

Lately there's been a new release every couple of weeks (with only minor changes, of course) via the the FFDShow FAQ at AVS. I've tried everything from the the old 2002 version up to the latest one released today. All have similar problems for me.

I will say this though, the latest SSE performance improvements make a dramatic difference with some settings. Yowzers! My CPU usage (on a 3 Ghz P4 Northwood) went from 80% to 50% with my standard DVD watching settings.

I'll take a look at the reg settings you posted, Stranger. Thanks!

-Watter

[Watter]

Just for kicks I backed up my registry entries and imported these. Still no go. same problem. Thanks anyway, Stranger.

-Watter

[xlr8shun]

weird.....

[Watter]

Well, I guess I'm jusy going to have to wait for the official NVDVD 3 release. Apparently it has the built in ability to insert FFDShow as a postprocessor without all of this hassle. Supposedly it looks good too.

Frankly, I'm not usually in the camp of people who fail to get things like this to work, but now, I've actually failed with two things related to SageTV. I've recently upgraded to a P4 3Ghz and now I can't get my PVR-350 to work (It's worked fine for the past year on my nForce2 mb) and then this FFDShow thing. Oh well. At least I can watch DVDs with all of the FFDShow goodness enabled.



-Watter

[stanger89]

Originally posted by Watter
Well, I guess I'm jusy going to have to wait for the official NVDVD 3 release. Apparently it has the built in ability to insert FFDShow as a postprocessor without all of this hassle. Supposedly it looks good too.

That's only when using the app, when using just the decoders you have to use ffdshow the same way as other decoders.

Hey could you post the exact error you get?

[Watter]

There was a MPEG-2 Video Error in playback. Details: Failed connecting video stream to the Overlay Mixer ErrCode=0x80040217

Can someone whoe speaks "video-graph" translate that?

-Watter

[gplasky]

Looks like you're trying to use overlay with ffdshow. I believe you need to use vmr9 for it to work properly. (or vmr7)

Gerry

[mlbdude]

You should be able to get it working with VMR9, VMR7, or Overlay. At least I have.

That is an error I would expect when something is competing for the Overlay mixer.

[Watter]

Originally posted by gplasky
Looks like you're trying to use overlay with ffdshow. I believe you need to use vmr9 for it to work properly. (or vmr7)

FFDShow works with overlay. Believe me, I wish it were as simple as that.

-Watter