HD Playback in SageTV has Video Problems

[geogecko]

I'm using a FusionHDTV 5 Lite in my HTPC to record some programs, and have noticed (especially on one particular program, "So you think you can Dance"), that after a commercial break (no commercial detection or auto skip turned on), and occasionally during the show, that the video freezes several times (although the sound never skips a beat). It is so bad at some times, that the video will stay frozen for up to 5, maybe 7 seconds at a time.

The system Sage is installed on is a AMD 3000+ A64 processor, with a 6600GT PCI-E video card, output to a 1920x1080p monitor.

It seems like if I rewind, and watch the same part over again, that it's still stuck in the same places.

I don't really know if it's a problem with my system not being good enough, the OTA antenna not getting good enough reception, or a software problem.

I'm using the latest version of SageTV, and am using the latest nVidia video drivers, and nVDVD decoders.

Anyone got any clues?

[Humanzee]

Welcome to the club. If it only happens on some shows, some of the time, on some channels, it sounds like it was a moment of bad reception through your antenna. I am not sure about the digital broadcasts, but in analog, the stations will vary their broadcast power depending on the time of day. Prime time gets full power etc. It could be that your reception isn't allways as good as you think. Weather can play a role too.

I have a similar set up, an AGP 6600GT with 128 of graphics memory and an athlon 3200+. HDTV at 1080p works fine most of the time in overlay mode but occationally freaks out or tears on me. VMR9 has lots of stuttering. That being said, poor receptions can look similar to an inadequte video card. Usually with poor reception, my picture begins to look pixalated, if it gets a little worse Ill get some digital artifacts on the screen, if its a little worse Ill get some little stutters, if its a little worse ill get some dropped frames and paused pictures while the audio continues.

You could probably download some clean HDTV samples somewhere on the web to test with but my guess is that a 7xxx series nvidia card would be a minimum recommendation for HDTV at that high of a resolution. "They" advertise that even the 6150 can do HDTV, but not with all the wizardry of VMR9 and PureVideo that makes it look good.

I'm going to get a better antenna and graphics card for my next computer, so I hopefully I can avoid these sorts of problems.

[geogecko]

Interesting. Got any links to some 1080 HD feeds? I'd like to do some testing with them. How you like your Westy? I just got one about a month ago, and love it. HD programs are amazing, when they are smooth, anyway.

All I know is I got to get this fixed before Prison Break starts back up. It's on Fox too, but I never seemed to have a problem with it...hmm...but that was before 1080P resolution (was still recording HD, just displaying it at 480i)...sounds like that may be the problem...

Would using Overlay instead of VMR9 help?

[geogecko]

I found several HD 1080 feeds from Microshaft. One in particular, something about surfing, was having stopped video fairly consistantly. I changed my Video and DVD rendering setting to Overlay, which made it perfectly smooth. It seems like the quality is not as good as VMR9, but I guess playing at all is better than nothing...

Guess I'll have to wait until I can get a 7xxx series card. I thought that I was told the 6600GT could handle HD, but I guess not many people have 1080 HDTV's...

My particular case limits me to a 6800GT for silent cooling, wonder if that would be powerful enough?

[Wheemer]

Are you using FSE?

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

Are you using FSE?

Nope, I wasn't, because for some reason, the Winamp plug-in, at least, the milkdrop screensaver, doesn't work in FSE mode.

Would running FSE mode help, and allow me to run VMR9? I guess I could give up the screensaver (although it is cool), to get smooth HD playback.

[Wheemer]

I don't run HD. But I am able to play SD files using VMR9 with purevideo on a celeron 1.7 mx400 only with FSE enabled, perfectly.

So it definately helps out...