VMR9 or Overlay?

[mkanet]

I took a closer look at my HD recordings with the updated decoder and driver. There's a definate improvement deinterlacing 1080i to a 1920x1440p display @72Hz; especially during fast movement (picture stays non-distorted &sharp during movement). This is the best I've ever seen HD look period.

[pcuoco]

FSE VMR9, nVidia decoders, nVidia Geforce 6200 (non turbo-cache AGP) Forceware 77.79

[Goodspike]

Okay, in this latest release (3.0.14 RC3) I can do VMR w/ FSE reliably, except for one thing.

When Sage starts and I try to view video, I get an error message related to DirectX. The fastest way to fix this is to switch to overlay, and start a video, and then I get a video error message. If I then switch back to VMR, everything's fine as long as Sage remains loaded.

Any idea what that's about?

[mkanet]

What are the error messages you're getting?

[Polypro]

VMR only...still can't get FSE to work. This is a clean HTPC. FSE works with Media Player Classic however. Gigabyte GV-N66256DP, 81.85 Forceware, .177 Decoder, newest Java release, virgin Sage Beta install.

P

[mkanet]

Polypro, do you also have Directx 9.0c installed?

[Polypro]

dxdiag has 9.0c Build 4.09.000.0904

P

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by mkanet

What are the error messages you're getting?

When first trying to start a program using VMR, I get Playbackexception error -1,0x800401f0, something about invalid DirectX and reinstalling. When I switch to overlay, I get playbackexception -4,0x80040217, video error.

Switching back to VMR it works. I have 9c installed and am using the Java version that comes with Sage.

I think I'll try turning FSE off and see if that changes things. Up until this version my machine did have issues with FSE, but they were more major crash/hang type issues.

[mkanet]

Aha! I knew I would trick you to tell me what's wrong with your setup. Your directx is broken, not SageTV. In order for VMR9 FSE to work, you HAVE to have a non-corrupt version of Directx 9.0c installed. Reinstalling directx will most likely NOT fix this problem. If it were my machine, I would fix this problem once in for all by downloading and installing

DirectX Happy Uninstall


Then reinstall a clean copy of directx 9.0c.

Then you can have FSE and Overlay or whatever you want to use

Originally Posted by Goodspike

When first trying to start a program using VMR, I get Playbackexception error -1,0x800401f0, something about invalid DirectX and reinstalling....

[Goodspike]

Well, I did try just not using FSE, and that made the issue go away. I feel sort of stupid for not thinking of that earlier. I'll have to watch some football later to see if I really need FSE.

If it was a DirectX issue, why would the problem go away after switching video settings back and forth?

[mkanet]

...because there's an FSE dependancy which is broken in Directx on your PC... It doesn't necessarily mean it breaks all VMR9 support.

I can use VMR9, VMR9+FSE, and overlay... guess which one I use?

Overlay, in my opinion looks better no matter what on a very high res display.... This is a big exaggeration, but VMR9 looks like you're watching your video through a thin film like Saranwrap. This was a pretty tough decision for me considering how much better SageTV's UI looks when using transparencies (in VMR9 mode).

Originally Posted by Goodspike

Well, I did try just not using FSE, and that made the issue go away. I feel sort of stupid for not thinking of that earlier. I'll have to watch some football later to see if I really need FSE.

If it was a DirectX issue, why would the problem go away after switching video settings back and forth?

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Overlay, in my opinion looks better no matter what on a very high res display.... This is a big exaggeration, but VMR9 looks like you're watching your video through a thin film like Saranwrap.

I sort of thought the same thing until I just recalibrated the set for VMR. The contrast, color/hue settings are amost identical, but the "brightness" setting is way down, and somehow it doesn't make it appear darker at all. It's the first software video I've found that clearly surpasses the MyHD card by a wide margin.

[cummings66]

Brightness does not control the overall brightness of a picture. It's actually a misnamed control, some tv's call it blacklevel which is technically more correct in that it controls your black levels. So if you adjust it correctly you'll notice a more vivid picture because you'll have the full range of values as intended and not a subset of them. The same goes for contrast which is a white level control, not sure how it became named contrast.

Suffice it to say, your display will not look as good as it can until you calibrate it accurately, both contrast and blacklevels are as important as your color.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by cummings66

Suffice it to say, your display will not look as good as it can until you calibrate it accurately, both contrast and blacklevels are as important as your color.

Actaully moreso, your eyes will adjust rather easilly to a slight skew in color, but if you're black level is too high, your picture will just about always look "washed out".

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Actaully moreso, your eyes will adjust rather easilly to a slight skew in color, but if you're black level is too high, your picture will just about always look "washed out".

Yes, that was exactly what was happening. I knew it was wrong, but I wated a few days to make sure VMR was working with this release. And I'd guessed it was saturation that was off, not black level.

[mike_15]

I use VRM9 with some occasional stutters. Havent tried FSE, never looked into it as far as the benifits.
Overlay works well but I get annoyed with the menu changing sizes when video is on/off.

[Polypro]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Aha! I knew I would trick you to tell me what's wrong with your setup. Your directx is broken, not SageTV. In order for VMR9 FSE to work, you HAVE to have a non-corrupt version of Directx 9.0c installed. Reinstalling directx will most likely NOT fix this problem. If it were my machine, I would fix this problem once in for all by downloading and installing

DirectX Happy Uninstall


Then reinstall a clean copy of directx 9.0c.

Then you can have FSE and Overlay or whatever you want to use

I did it brother, still no dice. Downloaded Happy Uninstall (bought it actually, had to-to use the features) Reverted back to 8.1 off a 2001 copy of XP, rebooted, had Happy install 9.0c from a fresh Oct download of DirectX Redist. FSE is still a no go. Oh well.

P

[mkanet]

Sorry Happy uninstall didnt work. If it makes you feel any better, I would have done the same exact thing. I would just leave FSE out of the picture and assume there's something deeply rooted on your PC thats preventing FSE in SageTV to work. The only way to fix something unknown like that is to start from a clean slate (reformat and install Windows cleanly). However, it might not be worth it to you.

I am curious if your directx error dissapeared and what remaining errors or symptoms you have after enabling FSE, exiting SageTV and restarting...

[Hector]

Wouldn't it be a lot easier (and cheaper) to confirm that DirectX/FSE works (or not) on your system by testing your setup with another app that uses FSE like Zoomplayer or TheatreTek (that are free to try)?

I just did some major upgrades so I did a complete (format etc) reinstall of XP and FSE still didn't work. The key for me (6600GT) was changing the audio codec from nvidia to directsound:nvidia.

Also important was that I had to reboot to test the change. Even killing Sage and Sage service wasn't enough.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by Polypro

I did it brother, still no dice. Downloaded Happy Uninstall (bought it actually, had to-to use the features) Reverted back to 8.1 off a 2001 copy of XP, rebooted, had Happy install 9.0c from a fresh Oct download of DirectX Redist. FSE is still a no go. Oh well.

P

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Sorry Happy uninstall didnt work. If it makes you feel any better, I would have done the same exact thing. I would just leave FSE out of the picture and assume there's something deeply rooted on your PC thats preventing FSE in SageTV to work. The only way to fix something unknown like that is to start from a clean slate (reformat and install Windows cleanly). However, it might not be worth it to you...

My install of XP is fairly fresh, but for these SageTV betas.

It's only a couple of months old.

I'm just going to wait for a new release and see if that helps. There've been big improvements in using FSE in this lastest release for me, so hopefully they'll continue.