Weird issue with Nvidia DVD Decoder

ToxMox · #1 03-03-2005, 10:53 AM

I've noticed something strange when using the Nvidia DVD Decoder with Sage. After a couple of days of it running it seems to stop deinterlacing and then maybe another day or two later the decoder doesn't work anymore. If I quit and restart Sage the decoder is fine again.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar.

Another thing I notice is sometimes during playback when the scene changes quickly that one frame seems to jump out of order every once in a while. I've got the old quartz.dll in the system too.

walter scott · #2 03-04-2005, 07:25 AM

not quite that problem, but playback seems to "stutter" a lot, and yes, frames out of order. this starts as soon as I start playback with it. is there anyplace you can change settings for the Nvidia decoder?

ToxMox · #3 03-04-2005, 07:34 AM

I use Radlight Filter Manager to edit the settings for it.
I have another issue with the Nvidia DVD Decoder. For whatever reason I can't play "The View". If I change to another decoder it plays fine. Of all the shows I record only The View has this problem and it is every episode.

By "can't play" I mean it gets about 1 second into the recording and the diplay breaks into large blocks and has very short spurts of audio then basically locks up SageTV.exe but the process is at 0%
Very strange.

korben_dallas · #4 03-04-2005, 11:50 AM

You aren't by chance at the end of the trial period?

ToxMox · #5 03-04-2005, 11:54 AM

No I own it.

hchucky · #6 03-04-2005, 12:01 PM

ToMax,

This sounds very similar to the issue that I am having. http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...eferrerid=1822

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Sage, decoders, video drivers, Java but no luck. I'm almost ready to format the drive and start over. I have updated my Java version and Video Drivers since this problem started but that didn't help.

HC

ToxMox · #7 03-04-2005, 12:06 PM

Yeah same deal here. The thing is I just built a new Sage box last weekend so I know a format won't help. I had this problem with my previous hardware too. The only commonality hardware wise is both systems used a 6600GT card. One being AGP and the other PCIe. Running Nvidia driver 71.81 and Nvidia DVD decoder 1.00.67
I'm going to upgrade to 71.85 tonight and maybe that will make a difference. Maybe it is a bug with the 71.xx beta drivers.

hchucky · #8 03-04-2005, 12:14 PM

I think i'm now running 71.80. I see there is a 71.90 posted yesterday.

"Our fast friends from Station drivers spotted a new driver set today, this time we can offer you a new WHQL NVIDIA ForceWare driver with build 71.90. These drivers are date stamped at the 27th of January 2005 making them the absolute newest set to date. Furthermore these drivers WHQL (Microsoft tested) signed.

Judging from the .inf files about any GeForce card is supported. This could be the next NVIDIA official driver from the loooks of it."

HC

ToxMox · #9 03-04-2005, 12:16 PM

I guess I'll have to give 71.90 a whirl instead. Having to restart Sage every few days doesn't really bother me. What is really throwing me off is my issue with "The View".
Killing the WAF since she only has me recording two shows for her and that being her favorite. I scheduled a bunch of manual recordings of it today with various settings to see if I can nail the problem. I'll report on my findings later.

ToxMox · #10 03-04-2005, 12:20 PM

Looks like 75.90 beta is available. I'll try those first.

hchucky · #11 03-04-2005, 12:26 PM

Your issue with "The View" is a strange one. I have not seen anyone else mention anything like that. Have you tried rolling back the decoder one version? What recording quality setting are you using? DVD compatible?

I'll record The View and see if I have the same results.

HC

ToxMox · #12 03-04-2005, 12:28 PM

I usually record it at "Great" quality. I scheduled one today that starts 2 minutes late and another manual one using DVD Extra long play to see if it is something like that. I have a feeling it is the show's intro for some strange reason.

byopvr · #13 03-05-2005, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToxMox

I usually record it at "Great" quality. I scheduled one today that starts 2 minutes late and another manual one using DVD Extra long play to see if it is something like that. I have a feeling it is the show's intro for some strange reason.

silly question: what happens if you switch your decoder... i.e. does the view ONLY bomb out with the nvidia decoder, or all decoders?

My theory is that it has something to do with Star Jones clogging the demux'er

rampy

ToxMox · #14 03-05-2005, 10:14 AM

Yup, it only bombs with the Nvidia decoder. It was kind of buried in post #3 but I did mention that. It literally breaks the image into large squares rearranged in all the wrong places like a puzzle. All my test recordings that I did yesterday worked fine. So it may be a combination of my PVR 250 and the intro to the show causing some really strange results. In the meantime I'll leave it starting 2 minutes late with the different recording quality and see if that fixes the problem when I'm not running a bunch of test recordings at the same time come Monday.
Maybe it is something as simple as needing an updated driver for my 250.

ToxMox · #15 03-05-2005, 12:14 PM

I think I may be coming closer to figuring out the The View problem I've been having.
I just came across another show that has the same behavior. It turns out these two shows were both set to Good quality and perhaps this is a bitrate the Nvidia decoder doesn't like. Funny thing is months ago I switched the quality on the favorite for The View back to Default (which is set to Great). I've got a feeling that there may exist a bug that once you have set an explicit quality setting on a favorite that changing it back to default has no effect. I'll have to run more tests.

ToxMox · #16 03-05-2005, 12:22 PM

Well upon further testing the actual playback issue is 100% related to the recording quality. The Nvidia DVD Decoder simply cannot handle "Good" quality for whatever reason. I can live with that. Now I explicitly set The View to a different quality instead of default. I'll just not mess with my quality settings from now on since I only did it to like 2 shows.

hchucky · #17 03-17-2005, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Well upon further testing the actual playback issue is 100% related to the recording quality. The Nvidia DVD Decoder simply cannot handle "Good" quality for whatever reason. I can live with that. Now I explicitly set The View to a different quality instead of default. I'll just not mess with my quality settings from now on since I only did it to like 2 shows.

Are you still having issues with the decoder crapping out altogether after a few days? I upgraded my video drivers to Version 71.84 and still have an issue after 3-4 days.

HC

ToxMox · #18 03-17-2005, 02:21 PM

Probably. I'm running the 75.something driver. I haven't really given it enough time without restarting Sage for other reasons to know if it still happens.

zakrzep · #19 03-22-2005, 03:35 PM

FYI:

I just installed the Intervideo decoders and then selected them in Sage. My system plays files and Live TV flawlessly now! I have an eVga MX 4000 video card.

I have spent the last few weeks trying different decoders, quartz.dll, registry settings, etc. This is the only thing that worked. I hope it helps some of you that are having playback issues.

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