New to Sage, issue with VMR9 rendering

[archcommus]

Hello there. I've been using TV cards for years but am just now starting to get into PVR software. I've been trying every program out there and right now am playing around with the SageTV 5 trial. So far I really like everything about it. One of the things I like most that BeyondTV cannot do is keep the TV running in the background while I fiddle with the main menu. However, this requires VRM9 rendering to be enabled. Unfortunately, when this mode is enabled, anytime I do any other kind of "animation" on my computer, e.g. opening the Start menu, or an AIM notification popping up, it makes the animation AND the playback within Sage extremely choppy until that animation is over. I'm sure my computer is plenty powerful to do this and that shouldn't be the issue. My specs:

A64 3200+
1 GB PC-3200 DDR Corsair
Epox 9NPA+ Ultra
X800 XL 256 MB PCI-E

If I change it to Overlay everything runs smooth, but then of course I can't see the beautiful video through the menus.

Also, as a side note, I downloaded the nVidia PureVideo decoder and it does indeed seem to look a bit better than the default decoder, even with SDTV. However, since this decoder is not free, I'm wondering if the DScaler decoders are equally good or if the nVidia one is worth paying for.

Well that's all for now, thanks for any help.

[nielm]

on detailed setup, use:
Overlay renderer
3d acelleration off
Overlay color keying on
Video menus=background
and you can get a semi-transparent background with overlay. It's not as smooth as VMR9, but it works

[archcommus]

Yes, that is how I had it when I was playing around with the v4 trial. True, that "works," but it's nowhere near as nice as VMR9. I just fail to see why VMR9 shouldn't work properly, what's the issue? Does this happen for everyone?

[archcommus]

So is this something that most people experience? Who CAN properly use VMR9 rendering?

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by archcommus

So is this something that most people experience? Who CAN properly use VMR9 rendering?

I can use it on two of the three machines in my setup

a) P4 2.4Ghz w/NVidia 6600GT @ 1776x1000i via component

b) Dell Inspiron 1.8GHz w/Radeon 9000 Mobility @ 1280x720p via DVI

I get a bit of tearing and/or stuttering on both machines unless I enable full-screen exclusive mode.

I can't use it on my server, which runs a lowly NVidia FX5200 via svideo.

[archcommus]

Well my computer is plenty powerful for this task, then. It only presents an issue when an AIM notification pops up or when I open any right-click menu or the Start menu. You don't experience stuttering when you do those things? Again, my video card is an X800 XL with Catalyst 6.2 drivers.

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by archcommus

Well my computer is plenty powerful for this task, then. It only presents an issue when an AIM notification pops up or when I open any right-click menu or the Start menu. You don't experience stuttering when you do those things? Again, my video card is an X800 XL with Catalyst 6.2 drivers.

I don't do those things or anything like them. I run full-screen exclusive mode, which means I'm pretty much locked into SageTV's window until I minimize it (i.e. "Standby" aka "Sleep").

The one exception is that I still have a girder script that tries to draw little green bars to indicate volume level when I change the volume. Those bars sort of show up in front of Sage for a split second, but Sage quickly overwrites them. Anyway, Sage doesn't stutter or anything when this happens, but the volume bars now look goofy. This is on the desktop, not the laptop, btw.

[archcommus]

Ahh okay. If I used this computer as an HTPC exclusively like it appears you do I would have no issue with VMR9, either. It only stutters when I go and do other things with Sage in a window.

So I need to hear from someone who does other things on their computer while using Sage, to see if this is fixable or not.

[salsbst]

As far as "what's the issue", VMR9 is processor and graphics card intensive. When you start changing processes and asking your video card to render other stuff, you are interrupting a carefully managed pipeline of data that flows from the hard drive through the mobo and processor, and ultimately through the video card. At high resolutions, you're asking a lot out of the machine to be able to do two things at once. I didn't see you state it.... what resolution are you running at?

[archcommus]

I suppose you're right, I just didn't see that as something intensive enough to bring it to its knees when it starts rendering something else at the same time. So perhaps VMR9 is really only best suited for those with dual core processors or those who use their computer exclusively as an HTPC.

I am running at 1280x1024.

[StephaneM]

Hello,

Originally Posted by archcommus

Unfortunately, when this mode is enabled, anytime I do any other kind of "animation" on my computer, e.g. opening the Start menu, or an AIM notification popping up, it makes the animation AND the playback within Sage extremely choppy.

Check in Catalyst Control Center that you selected "Balanced" for the "Standard Settings" under the "3D" node, this should remove this problem.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[archcommus]

That worked perfectly, thank you very much! I'm very happy I can use VMR9 mode now, it looks so much better. How did you know that was causing the issue, if I may ask?

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by archcommus

How did you know that was causing the issue, if I may ask?

Because I played alot with all ATI settings to see how they impact video quality in VMR9 mode. And I noticed that bumping up parameters like Anti Aliasing or Anisotropic Filtering caused massive stuttering on the video if the video was covered by anything transparent from any application (ie SageTV / BeyondTV itself or utilities like mine wich does popup a transparent window).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[salsbst]

If this isn't already in a FAQ, it should be. That's good information. I bet a lot of folks would find this helpful. Thanks, Stephane.

[archcommus]

Yes, thank you very much. Hopefully a mod could maybe find this and put it in a FAQ.

[Opus4]

The FAQ thread has been open for posting additional FAQ material...

If there are things that could be posted regarding driver settings for video cards, feel free to do so. (I might merge similar topics or edit for format.)

- Andy

[archcommus]

Originally Posted by Opus4

The FAQ thread has been open for posting additional FAQ material...

If there are things that could be posted regarding driver settings for video cards, feel free to do so. (I might merge similar topics or edit for format.)

- Andy

Done.

Thanks!