Anyone have a Fusion HDTV card working? (3.0.11)

[Jeraden]

I got mine set up and it sorta works. I can watch/record stuff with it. But it doesn't tune very reliably. Like if I'm on CBS and try to tune to ABC, the screen momentarily goes black like its try to change channels, but when it comes back its still showing CBS (even though Sage is reporting that its ABC). This happens the majority of the time. Eventually it finally decides to let me tune to a different channel, though I'm not sure what exactly triggers it. Becomes quite frustrating and I don't think I'm going to rely on this to actually record any shows and have it not switch the channel, so I'll keep using the Fusion recording app until this is resolved.

Anyone else get tuning to work reliably?

[paulbeers]

I am not sure what version you are using, but I use a Fusion5 Lite card and am not having any problems. IF I use VRM9 rather than overlay, it uses all my processing power so then it does take a while before it displays any image, but as long as I am using Overlay I do not have any problems. Are you using the TV Guide to switch channels or channel up/down buttons? I haven't tried changing the channel from my remote, I just always use the tv guide.

[Jeraden]

Well maybe I just needed a reboot somewhere in there, as everything now seems to be working fine this morning.

[Goodspike]

It's working fine for me too (Fusion 3 Gold), but I'm using VMR (and I also don't switch channels--if I'm watching live--which I seldom do--I use the live TV guide).

[flashbacck]

I see the same incorrect channel tuning also, Jeraden. It doesn't happen as often now compared to the 3.0.7 beta

[AMCooper63]

Is tehre some secret to getting this card to work? I've been told in other threads that it will not work with over the cable HD tuning because Sage doesn't speak QAM. I've also been told that it will not work with SD tuning because it doesn't have a hardware MPEG encoder (which I'm not sure I believe). I'm using both the latest beta drivers from DVIco and Sage. SD I get a blanks screen and HD, I get error messages.

[blade]

Originally Posted by AMCooper63

Is tehre some secret to getting this card to work? I've been told in other threads that it will not work with over the cable HD tuning because Sage doesn't speak QAM. I've also been told that it will not work with SD tuning because it doesn't have a hardware MPEG encoder (which I'm not sure I believe). I'm using both the latest beta drivers from DVIco and Sage. SD I get a blanks screen and HD, I get error messages.

It doesn't do QAM in Sage, only in it's own software. All of the QAM capable cards only do it in their own software and will not handle QAM in 3rd party apps. People who are using the card for HDTV are either getting in the clear stations from their cable company or OTA. As for SD I don't know if the card is hardware or not. If it's not then no it won't work in Sage v2, but v3 does support software encoding.

[bhyman1]

My Fusion5 Lite works perfectly with OTA HD. EPG guide, channel tuning, etc all work perfectly.

I'm using Sage 3.0.11, the latest Fusion drivers, and the biolt in Sage MPEG decoders. It even works sending the signal to a client from my server.

[dfitz43]

I have a Fusion 5 Gold that is working pretty well under 3.0.11. I've been impressed with the fact that I can watch real-time HD from server to client (over 100 Mbs wired network).

However, my channel mapping is screwed up. All the major stations in my market (Raleigh-Durham) are found, but mapped incorrectly and thus the EPG is fairly useless (as is accurately recording). I haven't had any luck with remapping, either.

Other people, I believe, have commented on the channel mapping issues, but I'm not sure how to resolve it.

Progress is progress, though.

cheers,
Dave

[Jeraden]

I just noticed a new problem. I had recording working pretty well, but now SageTV refuses to play back some of the HD files it recorded. For example, last night I recorded Surface Pilot, Surface episode 2, Commander in Chief, and Saturday Night live (all in HD).
Surface Pilot and Commander In Chief play back ok.
Neither Surface episode 2 or SNL will play back using Sage. First try it just instantly ends and asks if I want to delete. I say no and try again, then it just sits there with a black screen. I can close it and play one of the other files successfully.

Fortunately I can still play them with Media Player Classic, but kind of a pain. Seems strange, especially with Surface as it was 2 episodes back to back, 1 plays and the other doesn't. Anyone else having playback problems?

Fusion 3 Gold, OTA

[stevekim]

bhyman1 & dfitz43:

Can I ask what sort of computer hardware you're using (CPU, video, memory, etc.)? I've got my "smoke test" system set up as:
Server:
- Athlon XP1600
- Fusion 5 Lite (3.1 drivers)
- Win2k
- 512 Mb RAM
- Matrox G450 video
- 100Mbps network
Client:
- Shuttle ST62K Zen
- Radeon 9100IGP (128Mb shared system memory)
- 512 Mb RAM
- Pentium 4 2Ghz
- 100 Mbps network
- Prodigy audio

I've got this setup working, but watching DTV content live shows some stuttering and audio lags video by a noticeable amount. I can't believe that I'de need 1Gbps ethernet to get smooth payback, and your report supports this. Do I need more horsepower on the client side? Maybe a faster disk on the server side? Any recommendations would be welcome!

Thanks,
Steve

[dfitz43]

Server:
P4 2.5
512 MB RAM
Fusion 5 Gold (3.1 drivers)
Win XP SP2
some old video card (don't view anything on this)
100 Mbs wired network

Client:
P4 3.0
P4C800-E Deluxe MB
1 GB RAM
Win XP SP2
FX 5200 128 MB video
onboard audio (SPDIF out)

Stevekim,
I would guess that the limiting factor is client-side processor power for you. 2 GHz is likely just not cutting it. What are your system resources looking like on the client when trying to render HD?

There's no way that you need 1 Gbs network, at least not for a single stream. Each ATSC channel is 19.4 Mbs, so I'd imagine you should be able to stream at least 2-3 channels, even with overhead, before you'd run into problems.

Server (at least for HD) requires minimal resources, as all that it's doing is writing an already compressed MPEG stream to disk.

Dave

[bhyman1]

Server:

P4 2.4
512 Meg RAM
250 Gig "media" storage drive.
100Base-T network card
Radeon 9200 video card
Fusion5 Lite with whatever the newest drivers are
Windows XP SP2

Client:
A64 3200+
1 Gig RAM
ATI Radeon X800XL, Latest Catalyst Drivers
Windows XP SP2
SageTV MPEG decoder in Overlay mode (couldn't get VMR 9 to work reliably)

The server will actually view HD but with quite a bit of stuttering and pausing. Viewing on the client is perfect.

You should not need GigE networking. You client specs look a little weak for HD however. Like what dfitz said, a faster processor is in order. I'd go with a 3.0 Ghz chip, and you should be fine.

[stevekim]

Thanks for the tips - I suspect you've hit the nail on the head. Looking at my TaskManager, playback even of previously recorded files bounces erratically, often hitting 100% CPU load. I'll try dropping a little more CPU power in the client. If it still fails to play smoothly, I'm suspecting the video. I don't really know what kind of equivalent the Radeon IGP is, but I'm sure it's far from the average Sage HD user.

Any recommendations on a small, quiet client setup? The one thing I really like about the Shuttle ST62K is the form factor and quietness.

[Jeraden]

Well being a glutton for punishment, I decided to try to get 2 fusion cards working. A fusion hdtv 3 and a Fusion hdtv 5 lite. I had some initial troubles with Sage. For some reason when I added the 2nd card, it got added to the ignore_encoders property. I didn't realize that was the problem and was pulling my hair out. Once I removed it (why was it even added?) I could set them both up. Tonights the test, 3 things set to record at 9, 2 HD.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by stevekim

Thanks for the tips - I suspect you've hit the nail on the head. Looking at my TaskManager, playback even of previously recorded files bounces erratically, often hitting 100% CPU load. I'll try dropping a little more CPU power in the client. .

I'm totallly lost on who has what equipment, but try different video codecs. On my setup some run at 25-35% while others push 100%.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Jeraden

Well being a glutton for punishment, I decided to try to get 2 fusion cards working. A fusion hdtv 3 and a Fusion hdtv 5 lite. I had some initial troubles with Sage. For some reason when I added the 2nd card, it got added to the ignore_encoders property.

For future reference (I currently own a Fusion 3) where do you find this property?

[Jeraden]

Its in the sage.properties file in your main Sage directory. There is a line in there somewhere about mmc/ignore_encoders
I had a whole bunch of stuff in that line, not really sure where exactly they all came from. Before editting it you must first stop the SageTV service (otherwise it ends up just setting it right back to the way it was before you editted it).

[Goodspike]

I don't know whether to thank you or curse you.

I was just thinking last night, maybe I don't need to buy a Fusion 5, because recording conflicts with the MyHD isn't that hard. But now I want to give it a try.