R5000 - Any updates on MPEG4 / H.264 with Dish Network?

[Vinylvision]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

...For some reason, installing Vista Home fixes playing of h.264 streams with SageTV... the Nvidia Vista drivers won't do proper scaling for the video or allow overscan correction...

Several questions HawgGuy:
-What release level Nvidia Vista drivers did you use?
-Which graphics card were you using?
-Do you think you would have gotten similar results if using Vista Premium?

I have been following this thread with great interest since I will be getting a R5000-HD for use with Dish Network and Sage. I am now building a client PC and had planned on using Windows XP Pro. Now I guess I should consider changing the client build to so that it will be totally discreet dual-boot (either all XP Pro or all Vista) until I find a satisfactory method to display h.264 streams.

Thanks for your post and this thread. Please continue to keep us informed of your results.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by Vinylvision

Several questions HawgGuy:
-What release level Nvidia Vista drivers did you use?
-Which graphics card were you using?
-Do you think you would have gotten similar results if using Vista Premium?

The latest 158.24 from June 1, 2007. Also tried beta drivers from guru3D 160.04.

MSI Nvidia 7600GT

I used Vista Home Premium. Not sure as to the other flavors of Vista.

I still think that Nextcom has some work to do with regard to the r5000 properly identifying h.264 streams. Occasionally they are misidentified as MPEG-2 0 x 0 (null) by mistake and cause a playback error with Sage. Re-tuning the channel usually fixes this, and it usually happens on NFL-HD (the channel of most interest to me right now) and rarely on others.

I have a problem with the video not being scaled correctly. If I adjust the overscan in Sage correctly for SDTV, it chops off the sides of HDTV. If I adjust the overscan for HDTV, I have big black bars on the side of SDTV. With Sage under XP the video automatically scaled correctly.

[redondo_se]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

For some reason, installing Vista Home fixes playing of h.264 streams with SageTV. I have no clue why, but it does for me.

Thanks for the info HawgGuy!

But, what the hell?

Seems like they should be able to get it working in XP also.

1. Are you recording and playing back on the same machine? Or if separate server and client, is your server also running Vista?
2. Are you using a custom demux?
3. Which codecs are you using for mpeg-2 and H.264?

This is all promising news

Thanks,
Sean.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by redondo_se

1. Are you recording and playing back on the same machine? Or if separate server and client, is your server also running Vista?
2. Are you using a custom demux?
3. Which codecs are you using for mpeg-2 and H.264?

This is all promising news

It is promising.

I am recording and playing back on the same machine.
No custom demux.
Using the Microsoft MPEG-2 codec for non-MPEG-4
Using Cyberlink Delux 7.3 for MPEG-4, though I'll bet the HD264 pack codecs would work just as well.

I wish I could get SD to scale properly in Sage/Vista like it did with Sage/XP. (leaves black borders on the sides for SD). HD is fine.

[mkanet]

I'm curious (sorry if I missed this in a different post), but why would you replace Cyberlink's hardware accelerated H.264/AVC Decoder (HD264) decoder for a non-hardware accelerated decoder?

Under PowerDVD, I can play any kind of blue-ray movies and Apple 1080p videos with hardly any CPU usage (quadcore CPU + Nvidia 8500GT).

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

Had some time to play around a little with trying to play an H.264 r5000hd capture today.

I switched:

videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (HD264)

For this:

videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CoreAVC Video Decoder

And tried to play a previously recoded file.
The file plays great in MPC or when rendered with GraphEdit.

When I try to play in Sage. It plays for about 3 seconds video & audio then freezes. With the Cyberlink H.264 decoder the video does not play at all, but the sound plays fine and there is no freeze.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by mkanet

I'm curious (sorry if I missed this in a different post), but why would you replace Cyberlink's hardware accelerated H.264/AVC Decoder (HD264) decoder for a non-hardware accelerated decoder?

I wouldn't. Now.

At the time. I could not play HW accel h.264 streams without stutter, and playing without HW accel resulted in a crash every 20 mins.

I've since resolved the problem with HW accel and it plays just grand.

[Kimper]

I am thinking about switching from cable to dish with r5000/sage. Reading through this thread I was still unable to determine if we are more or less seemless yet? With the proper decoders is Sage capturing and playing back h264/mpeg4 stuff correctly?

Thanks!

[NEOSG]

Yup, working like a champ.

Things may be different now, but in order to get it working I am using:

Cyberlink Ultra with H.264 support and latest patches for MPEG4
Nvidia for mpeg2 (personal preference)
AC3Filter for Audio

Registry tweak for smooth H.264 playback (forgot which key, but forum search should find it)

[Fluffdaddy]

Incredibly seamless

My best Home Theater decisions.

1) HTPC with SageTV DVR software

2)R5000HD

3) Toshiba HD DVD Player

4) 65" Rear Projection TV

5) My empty wallet..................Priceless

[Jabroni]

Im thinking into jumpin' into a Dish HD modded with R5000.. just wondering if the mpeg4 playback probs has been sorted out on the new 6.3 version?? (preferlly on windows xp)

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by Jabroni

Im thinking into jumpin' into a Dish HD modded with R5000.. just wondering if the mpeg4 playback probs has been sorted out on the new 6.3 version?? (preferlly on windows xp)

Yes, totally.

[Jabroni]

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

Yes, totally.

Guess im getting ViP 211 receiver and doing the R5000 as soon as I get it
And hopefully getting the next month an HD Extender to get this hd content to my other HDTV

Thanks for the info

[Jabroni]

Ok now I got a new question.. is there a way to select which audio track to use from certain channels?? And what if the stream contains a closed caption pid? Can it be added to the video output on screen??