HDTV up and mostly ok

[jphhughes]

I successfully installed an HDHomeRun this weekend. However the glee did not last long. Upon watching HDTV there was a great deal of stutter. After reading through the forum post I made a suggested change to the properties file (mmc/encode_digital_tv_as_program _stream=true”). This seemed to help but did not eliminate the stutter. After some playing around I decided to change the Nvidia TV setting from 1080i to 720p which eliminated the stutter entirely. It also seems to improve the picture quality of SD TV broadcasts. I eventually tried 1080p which was fine as well but the SD picture quality was not as good a 720p. Keep in mind that these picture quality judgments are all subjective. The stutter however was definitely eliminated. So my question is can someone suggest why I get stutter at 1080i? I don’t think it is a hardware issue (see signature).

I also came across another Issue that I am trying to get to the bottom of. When watching HDTV if I go to use the PC for internet surfing as I click on the IE icon or even if I right click on the task bar to boot task manager, Sage goes bonkers to where I end up with what appears as to copies of SageTV running in the task bar , the TV screen goes white, and I start to get messages from the Nvidia drivers about unstable application running. If anyone has experienced a similar situation it would be nice to know. I am trying to get it to a point so I can logically report it as a bug. I am using the current RC version of SageTV. Thanks again for any help.

[jbarr]

Can you please clarify what you mean by:

...change the Nvidia TV setting from 1080i to 720p...

Can I assume you simply mean to change the display resolution? Or is there some setting in the Nvidia driver or somewhere else? I'm using a Gforce 73 LE with the PureVideo drivers.

I ask because my TV is a Westinghouse W4207 42" widescreen LCD tv, and it has a "native/optimum resolution of 1366 x 768". Obviously, what screen resolution I use depends on the capabilities of the TV and the graphics card.

[jphhughes]

Originally Posted by jbarr

Can you please clarify what you mean by:


Can I assume you simply mean to change the display resolution? Or is there some setting in the Nvidia driver or somewhere else? I'm using a Gforce 73 LE with the PureVideo drivers.

I ask because my TV is a Westinghouse W4207 42" widescreen LCD tv, and it has a "native/optimum resolution of 1366 x 768". Obviously, what screen resolution I use depends on the capabilities of the TV and the graphics card.

I am not in front of the PC/TV so the best recall I have is the setting is in the Nvidia Driver software under Televison and says something like changing the signal format the TV is receiving. Under this listing I have 1080p,1080i,720p and 720i. I don't recall if their were other settings as well. I have a Panasonic 50" Plasma which is listed as digital device again under the nvidia driver software setting. Its native resolution is 1366 x 768. The specs also say that its HDTV compatibility is 480p/720p/1080i.

[Polypro]

I'd run that 7950(GT?) @1360x768 +/- any under/overscan. I also uncheck "Treat As An HDTV" and manually set everything. Is Hardware Accelleration checked in the (nVIDIA Decoders?) What's that Athlon's CPU usage at? Is Cool 'n Quiet enabled?

P

[jphhughes]

Originally Posted by Polypro

I'd run that 7950(GT?) @1360x768 +/- any under/overscan. I also uncheck "Treat As An HDTV" and manually set everything. Is Hardware Accelleration checked in the (nVIDIA Decoders?) What's that Athlon's CPU usage at? Is Cool 'n Quiet enabled?

P

Thanks for the reply. In the Nvidia Control Panel it shows the analog LCD monitor as 1024x768 and the Panasonic TV as as 1280x720. So When you say run the 7950 @ 1360x748 where do I set that? Based on the CPU usage of 40-60% I would guess that hardware accelleration is not checked, But I can't seem to find where you actually check that. Can you point me in the right direction. The CPU is set up for Cool n Quiet according to the bios.

[Polypro]

Play something in WMP or a windowed Sage...you should get the nVIDA icon in the sys tray...double click that for video settings.

Uncheck "Treat My TV As An HDTV" and then set the resolution here: (See Pic).

Try setting XP to something other than "Minimal Power Management" and disable C'nQ in the BIOS.

P

[jphhughes]

Originally Posted by Polypro

Play something in WMP or a windowed Sage...you should get the nVIDA icon in the sys tray...double click that for video settings.

Uncheck "Treat My TV As An HDTV" and then set the resolution here: (See Pic).

Try setting XP to something other than "Minimal Power Management" and disable C'nQ in the BIOS.

P

I did as you suggested and in nvidia decoder hardware accelleration is checked. I did no check it it was already checked. I unchecked the treat my TV as an HDTV. The resolution cannot be set to 1360x768. The only choices are 1280x720, 1440x480, 1600x900 and 1920x1080. So I selected 1920x1080.
I changes the signal fromat to 1080p

After these changes the CPU usage is runing 15=25%. No stuttering but I am not sure about the picture quality as of yet. Need more time to view it. Looks to me to be somewhat grainey in HD.

edit: need to spend some time with HD and cpu usage. The figure I have abopve were for standard TV. Also i am running FSE in SageTV and thing this may be causing the erratic problems I dsicussed in my origional post.

Looks Like CPU usage in HD viewing is 30-49%. Let me know what you thanks and thanks for your help.

[OttoNP]

With that TV you should select 720P (you want as close to your native resolution as possible)

1080i is broadcast at 60 frames/sec or effectively 30 frames per second, actually it is 29.97. You PC is trying to make it 720P at 60 frames per second and they seem to struggle at it. I have found that I can get smooth playback with 1080i with following settings:

I can not use nvidia audio decoder with VMR9

My preferred settings:
VMR9
FSE mode on
nvidia video set to smart, but any setting will do (film will make it 30 fps)
ac3 audio decoder (latest from www.ac3filter.net) the sage one crashs my computer on dvd playback

will also work:
VMR9
FSE either way
nvidia video must be set to film, this makes everything 30 frames/sec, which is ok for 1080i since that is what you get, but it is also downgrading 720p from 60 fps to 30 fps. You could switch when you change channels, but that is annoying

will also work
overlay
othe settings don't matter, but you will get 30 fps for everything and may have to adjust color settings to equal vmr9 quality

good luck!

[Polypro]

Bummer you can't do the native rez of the display. With my old HTPC, disabling C'nQ helped. With my current rig in my sig, there is no stutter, so it can be done.

P

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by Polypro

Bummer you can't do the native rez of the display. With my old HTPC, disabling C'nQ helped. With my current rig in my sig, there is no stutter, so it can be done.

P

I found Cool 'n Quiet's clockspeed control "twitchy" at best. What I did was to install SpeedSwitchXP and use Dynamic Switching mode. Much smoother clockspeed changes and the CPU will hold at the appropriate speed vs. bouncing all over the place.

[jphhughes]

Thanks for all the replys. Unfortunately after my last reply when I was watching a show that was recording and a second show which was recording the PC just reset itself. This happened about 35 minutes into the the recording sessions. After the reboot task mamager showed the cpu utilization at around 70to 80% when recording two shows. I will take your suggestion here and make some changes and continue with the experiment.

On the other issue I am having as pointed out in my first post. This issue of SageTv showing two icons in the task bar when I try and do other thinga on the PC such as surf the internet or even fire up task manager. I have read other threads implying that this might be caused by FSE when set to on. When this happens I also get waring messages from nvidia drivers about unstable application and do I want ot shut dow twinview or someting liket that. Again when this happens SageTV goes bonkers showing two copies running in the task bar. The system becomes unstable. I get white screen on TV. In some cases if I just let it be it seems to fix its self meaning the second icon goes away and Sage start to play normal again.

Thanks again for your continue help. If anyone has had similar experience with the two icon thing I would appreciate hearing about it.

I am using comskip show depending on when its kicks in it may slwo be adding cpu usage.

[jphhughes]

Ok I set nvidia driver back to 720p. Using VMR9 with FSE, and Nvidia decoder set to smart. ALso hamde changes in properties files set "mmc_encode_digital_tv_program_stream=true"(was false), also "diable_fse_on_focus_lost=false" . Diabled "Cool N Quiet".

After these changes when recording one HDTV programs cup runs at 50% when recording two programs it runs around 65%. SO its seem to hold its own for now.

One last question. Would it do any good to get a Athalon64 X2 3800+. Would this improve performance. I can pick one of these up for $99. The MSI mother board I have in the system will support a X2. Appreciate any help with this last question.