4K HEVC success

[belleaudb]

I wanted to contribute my success story on 4K playback of HEVC/h.265/x265 files.

In an older setup I was having some limited success in playback of HEVC files. I was using an older Geforce GTX 750ti card. That card doesn't do full hardware decoding of HEVC files. Playback of those files in 1080p resulted in studder/blotchy playback on some files.

I have upgraded to a Geforce GTX 1050 card which does full hardware decode of HEVC files. Now I have perfect playback even at 4k resolutions.

System info:
Core i5 processor, 12gb ram, Windows 10, 128gb SSD for operating system, 3tb hdd for recorded tv and movies, 2tb hdd for music and photos.
Evga GTX 1050 video card.
LAV filters 0.70.2 setup using CUVID.
EVR for video renderer
LAV Video Decoder for MPEG2,H.264,VC-1
DirectShow as media player for non-MPEG Files
Default for Audio Renderer, MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter, HD Audio Decoder
75" UHD TV.

[Tiki]

Cool! So are you are playing back directly from the Sage Server computer (not extender, client, placeshifter, or min-client)?

I'm guessing you are running this on Windows - which Windows version?

Did you have to do anything special to get playback working (such as registry settings, or settings in the sage.properties), or did it just work with "DirectShow as media player for non-MPEG Files" in Sage plus the LAV filters being installed?

[belleaudb]

I'm using SageTv on a PC using windows 10 64bit for my living room 4k setup. I do have HD200 and HD300 extenders in bedromms which of course will not do HEVC.

No special splitter setups.
I did change EnableSageTVStreamDemux=1 to EnableSageTVStreamDemux=0 in the registry.

[wayner]

Any idea what video card would be required for HEVC/4K? Can any of the iGPUs in the Intel lineup do this today or do you definitely need a discrete video card?

[Deacon Crusher]

Great timing because here comes 4k hevc via ATSC 3.0.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/16/...-broadcasting/

[belleaudb]

I'm running an Inspiron 3847 with the core i5 4460 and using the built in Intel HD Graphics 4600 it cannot even run 4k at 60hz.

You will need a graphics card with HEVC hardware decoding. Any of the Geforce GTX/GT 10** series have HEVC hardware decoding.

I believe the Radeon 500 series can also do HEVC. I personally stick with Nvidia cards as I have had many Radeon cards and HDCP "problems".

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by belleaudb

I'm running an Inspiron 3847 with the core i5 4460 and using the built in Intel HD Graphics 4600 it cannot even run 4k at 60hz.

Right, you need an 8th gen (Kaby Lake) Core CPU to do 4K HEVC with the IGP.

[wayner]

An i5-4460 is a 4th generation - the newest ones are at 8th generation - Kaby Lake.

For SageTV clients I want a SFF PC that is totally silent, and it is hard to do a smaller PC if you have a discrete graphics card, plus they add heat. I have two HTPCs right now in HD-Plex cases that are totally solid state. In the future I would like to upgrade these to systems that can support 4K, but I am probably a few years away from that.

I believe the latest gen Intel processors do support 4K@60Hz and also support HEVC/h.265. For example the i3-7300 should be a suitable processor for this use. It has Intel HD 630 graphics which is supposed to support 4096x2304@60Hz on display port and the same resolution but only up to 24Hz on HDMI. And it is has a TDP of 51W so it only uses modest amounts of power. Price is about US$110 on Amazon right now.

[belleaudb]

If you don't wish to purchase a new computer you have a couple of low cost options:

The Geforce GT (not GTX) 1030 is available in a passive cooling model GIGABYTE GeForce GT 1030 GV-N1030SL-2GL for less than $70.00.

I'm using an EVGA single fan GTX1050 SC Gaming ($114.00) card. My current setup is inaudible in my living room. This card is perfect for older equipment as it doesn't require the additional PCIE auxiliary power connector.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by wayner

... For SageTV clients I want a SFF PC that is totally silent, and it is hard to do a smaller PC if you have a discrete graphics card, plus they add heat ...

Last week I completed converting my Media Room PC to a fanless system. It's not truly "Small" Form Factor, as the case is as wide as an audio system component, but it is a low-profile, low-volume enclosure. I'm using a Streacom FC5 Alpha case, which can be had for under $300, and includes all of the hardware and accessories required to passively cool an Intel or AMD CPU.

I have a mini-itx Z170 motherboard, with a modest Intel processor, but the key to the power of video playback is the addition of the MSI GT 1030 GPU, which is also fanless. This card costs about $70 and includes the full nVidia Pascal codeset; meaning its multimedia capabilities are the same as GTX 10-series variants. I am using a Pico PSU with an external power adapter, so power is also fanless.

My system has 64-bit Windows 8.1 and easily handles 4K 60hz hevc content via the card's HDMI port ...

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by belleaudb

I wanted to contribute my success story on 4K playback of HEVC/h.265/x265 files.

In an older setup I was having some limited success in playback of HEVC files. I was using an older Geforce GTX 750ti card. That card doesn't do full hardware decoding of HEVC files. Playback of those files in 1080p resulted in studder/blotchy playback on some files.

I have upgraded to a Geforce GTX 1050 card which does full hardware decode of HEVC files. Now I have perfect playback even at 4k resolutions.

System info:
Core i5 processor, 12gb ram, Windows 10, 128gb SSD for operating system, 3tb hdd for recorded tv and movies, 2tb hdd for music and photos.
Evga GTX 1050 video card.
LAV filters 0.70.2 setup using CUVID.
EVR for video renderer
LAV Video Decoder for MPEG2,H.264,VC-1
DirectShow as media player for non-MPEG Files
Default for Audio Renderer, MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter, HD Audio Decoder
75" UHD TV.

I know this thread is old, but been trying your settings with no joy, black screen on STV (albeit I can hear some audio) and no LAV filter being used in the system tray. I can somehow dump the TS (NASA 4K stream from HotBirt 13ºE Satellites) off my tuner card an play the stream via MPlayer (which does use the LAV filters automatically), but nothing within STV. Which version of STV are you using?

Thanks
Eddy

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by routerunner

I know this thread is old, but been trying your settings with no joy, black screen on STV (albeit I can hear some audio) and no LAV filter being used in the system tray. I can somehow dump the TS (NASA 4K stream from HotBirt 13ºE Satellites) off my tuner card an play the stream via MPlayer (which does use the LAV filters automatically), but nothing within STV. Which version of STV are you using?

Thanks
Eddy

did you also set EnableSageTVStreamDemux=0 in the registry?

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

did you also set EnableSageTVStreamDemux=0 in the registry?

Yes, I did that as well without change.

Eddy

[trk2]

If you look in the log file is the graph filter being built with lav? You should see something like:

DShowPlayer setVideoDecoderFilter0(LAV Video Decoder) called
DShowPlayer setAudioDecoderFilter0(LAV Audio Decoder) called

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by trk2

If you look in the log file is the graph filter being built with lav? You should see something like:

DShowPlayer setVideoDecoderFilter0(LAV Video Decoder) called
DShowPlayer setAudioDecoderFilter0(LAV Audio Decoder) called

No they are not, despite I have selected the LAV filters in the configuration it still using its default:

Thu 3/28 19:53:15.222 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] VF processing on UI Thread VFJob[LoadMF r=0.0 t=0 file=MediaFile[id=139871 A[138685,1,"No Data",82@0328.18:00,120] mask=TV host=iPlay encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV 88x TS Capture NASA 4K format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 8 kbps [#0 Audio[MP2 48000 Hz 2 channels 64 kbps idx=0 id=c1]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels  MAIN idx=0 id=bd-e8020000 at=ADTS-MPEG4]] J:\Recording\82_183_0328_1953-0.mpg, Seg0[Thu 3/28 19:53:03.754-Thu 1/1 1:00:00.000]] ifn=null]
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.232 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] VideoFrame creating new media player for file:MediaFile[id=139871 A[138685,1,"No Data",82@0328.18:00,120] mask=TV host=iPlay encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV 88x TS Capture NASA 4K format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 8 kbps [#0 Audio[MP2 48000 Hz 2 channels 64 kbps idx=0 id=c1]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels  MAIN idx=0 id=bd-e8020000 at=ADTS-MPEG4]] J:\Recording\82_183_0328_1953-0.mpg, Seg0[Thu 3/28 19:53:03.754-Thu 1/1 1:00:00.000]]
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.239 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] VF file=MediaFile[id=139871 A[138685,1,"No Data",82@0328.18:00,120] mask=TV host=iPlay encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV 88x TS Capture NASA 4K format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 8 kbps [#0 Audio[MP2 48000 Hz 2 channels 64 kbps idx=0 id=c1]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels  MAIN idx=0 id=bd-e8020000 at=ADTS-MPEG4]] J:\Recording\82_183_0328_1953-0.mpg, Seg0[Thu 3/28 19:53:03.754-Thu 1/1 1:00:00.000]] targetTime = Thu 3/28 19:53:03.754
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.246 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] VideoFrame.timeSelected(Thu 3/28 19:53:03.754, true) currFile=MediaFile[id=139871 A[138685,1,"No Data",82@0328.18:00,120] mask=TV host=iPlay encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV 88x TS Capture NASA 4K format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 8 kbps [#0 Audio[MP2 48000 Hz 2 channels 64 kbps idx=0 id=c1]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels  MAIN idx=0 id=bd-e8020000 at=ADTS-MPEG4]] J:\Recording\82_183_0328_1953-0.mpg, Seg0[Thu 3/28 19:53:03.754-Thu 1/1 1:00:00.000]]
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.253 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Creating GraphPluginHandler...
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.253 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Done creating GraphPluginHandler
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.254 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Detected default audio stream index to be: 1
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.260 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] DShowPlayer setAudioRendererFilter0(Default DirectSound Device) called
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.451 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] DShowPlayer setTimeshift=1 buffer=0
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.465 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] NATIVE Loading the source file
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.866 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] NATIVE Setting up the MPEG demux
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.894 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Calling GraphCreated for the PluginHandler
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.895 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Done calling GraphCreated for the PluginHandler
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.895 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Audio Stream #1 format Other channels 2 freq 48000
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.895 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Audio Stream #1 format Other channels 2 freq 48000
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.895 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Audio Stream #2 format Other channels 2 freq 48000
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.895 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] NATIVE RenderAudio called stream=1
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.895 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] NATIVE RenderAudio step 1
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.895 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] NATIVE RenderAudio step 2
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.895 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] NATIVE RenderAudio step 3
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.932 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] DShowGraphFilters=AudRend,Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder,SageTV MPEG2 Demultiplexer,J:\Recording\82_183_0328_1953-0.mpg,
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.933 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] DShowPlayer setVideoHWND(67158)
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.934 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] VideoFrame.timeSelected2(Thu 3/28 19:53:03.754, true) currFile=MediaFile[id=139871 A[138685,1,"No Data",82@0328.18:00,120] mask=TV host=iPlay encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV 88x TS Capture NASA 4K format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 8 kbps [#0 Audio[MP2 48000 Hz 2 channels 64 kbps idx=0 id=c1]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels  MAIN idx=0 id=bd-e8020000 at=ADTS-MPEG4]] J:\Recording\82_183_0328_1953-0.mpg, Seg0[Thu 3/28 19:53:03.754-Thu 1/1 1:00:00.000]] realDur=0
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.938 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] About to perform media time selection for 0
Thu 3/28 19:53:15.938 [AWT-EventQueue-0@5539d8] Running the playback graph.

I might need to change the filter's merit...

Eddy

[routerunner]

Some progress...

Thu 3/28 20:12:52.910 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Creating GraphPluginHandler...
Thu 3/28 20:12:52.911 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Done creating GraphPluginHandler
Thu 3/28 20:12:52.911 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Detected default audio stream index to be: 1
Thu 3/28 20:12:52.916 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] DShowPlayer setAudioRendererFilter0(Default DirectSound Device) called
Thu 3/28 20:12:52.938 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] DShowPlayer setAudioDecoderFilter0(LAV Audio Decoder) called
Thu 3/28 20:12:52.959 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] DShowPlayer setTimeshift=1 buffer=0
Thu 3/28 20:12:52.961 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] NATIVE Loading the source file
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.462 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] NATIVE Setting up the MPEG demux
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.468 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Calling GraphCreated for the PluginHandler
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.468 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Done calling GraphCreated for the PluginHandler
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.469 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Audio Stream #1 format Other channels 2 freq 48000
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.469 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Audio Stream #1 format Other channels 2 freq 48000
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.469 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Audio Stream #2 format Other channels 2 freq 48000
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.469 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] NATIVE RenderAudio called stream=1
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.469 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] NATIVE RenderAudio step 1
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.480 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] NATIVE RenderAudio step 2
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.480 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] NATIVE RenderAudio step 3
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.494 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] DShowGraphFilters=AudRend,Audio Decoder,SageTV MPEG2 Demultiplexer,J:\Recording\82_183_0328_2012-0.mpg,
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.494 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] DShowPlayer setVideoHWND(525876)
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.495 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] VideoFrame.timeSelected2(Thu 3/28 20:12:47.079, true) currFile=MediaFile[id=139875 A[138686,1,"No Data",82@0328.20:00,120] mask=TV host=iPlay encodedBy=Hauppauge WinTV 88x TS Capture NASA 4K format=MPEG2-PS 0:00:00 8 kbps [#0 Audio[MP2 48000 Hz 2 channels 64 kbps idx=0 id=c1]#1 Audio[AAC 48000 Hz 2 channels  MAIN idx=0 id=bd-e8020000 at=ADTS-MPEG4]] J:\Recording\82_183_0328_2012-0.mpg, Seg0[Thu 3/28 20:12:47.079-Thu 1/1 1:00:00.000]] realDur=0
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.504 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] About to perform media time selection for 0
Thu 3/28 20:12:53.504 [AWT-EventQueue-0@14189d0] Running the playback graph.

Got LAV Audio kicking in (and LAV audio in the system tray), by manually modifying the Sage.properties, but still no video.

Eddy

[routerunner]

OK, I think I got it. It works fine on 4K video files (MKV) and on SD/HD OTA, however on 4K OTA is not able to match pins with the filter capabilities when building the graph, maybe LAV need to export such capabilities to connect with STV demux.

Will spend some more time, but I guess the problem is ultimately with LAV video decoder.

Cheers
Eddy

[belleaudb]

I just wanted to follow up on this.

I've updated to the 64 bit version of SageTV and of course set the properties in the registry and all is well. No special STV's or mods other than Complementary Metadata Tools and the NWS weather plugin. All my media and recordings are done on an external RAID 5 system with 9TB space.

I'm still running windows 8.1 as music playback hangs and stalls when on Win 10. Don't know why and could not find a reason except maybe the fact that Win10 doesn't use DX9.

Will be upgrading to a new system with Ryzen 5 2600X and 16GB that comes with Win 10. Hopefully music playback will work on the new system.