Only get video with default renderer...

[bash1979]

Well, I started off the day well by purchasing a new Geforce 6200 card for my main HTPC. I tossed my old piece of junk MX400 aside and popped in the new 6200. Installed the latest drivers, and everything looked good until I launched Sage...

I get a black screen for video, but I can hear the audio. I cycled through all of my decoders, no change. I usually use Overlay as the renderer, so I changed that to VMR9....still no video. At this point i'm thinking my video card is messed up. Finally, I exhausted my last option and selected the default renderer. All of a sudden, I got video again! Very choppy video, but video nonetheless. Cycled through the different decoders and they all seem to work (choppily). So, to fix the choppiness, I try a different renderer....as soon as I change the renderer to something other than default, I'm back to using my TV as a radio!

So it seems I'm stuck here: if I want video, i'm stuck with the choppy video from the default renderer.....if I want to use another renderer, I'm stuck with no video at all!

By the way, I plop back in the MX400 and everything is fine. I'm wondering if I wasted $100 on this new 6200...as of right now, I'm thinking I'm returning it...

Can anyone help out? Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[bash1979]

Well, here's an update on the situation. Looks like the Nvidia decoder I downloaded was the culprit. As soon as I uninstalled the Nvidia decoder, I was able to watch TV again using the Overlay renderer and the InterVideo decoder.

So, on the bright side, my new card is working, but on the other hand, i'm back to having mediocre picture quality. My hope was that the combination of buying a new 6200 and using the Nvidia decoder would give me the PQ I wanted, but unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be feasible.

Has anyone else encountered this issue with the Nvidia decoders? Or does anyone have any suggestions on how to maximize my PQ with my existing configuration?

Thanks in advance!

[cummings66]

I don't know if this is relevant to your situation or not, but when I used XP Pro with SP1 I got a black screen as well. When I installed SP2 and the rest of the updates it worked fine.

Also be sure you're using the latest drivers for your video card, not the ones on the CD.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by bash1979

Can anyone help out? Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Try changing your audio codecs also (although this is mainly for stutter issues, but the wrong one can cause no video).

[Humanzee]

Also update your motherboard chipset drivers. I just spent 2 days pulling my hair out with a similar problem with a 6600GT card. The old chipset drivers for the mother board prevented rendering of video with DirectX9c and 3D acceleration turned on. An update from the chipset manufacturer's web site fixed the problem. I still have micro stuttering so I think I will be looking into the audio codec suggestions.