Custom DirectShow graphs?

[salsbst]

Pretty please? It would be great if we could build our own DirectShow graphs for playback.

Heck, it would be great if we could build them for recording, too!

[lovingHDTV]

I second this, pretty please

[Watter]

I'd "third" this in a heartbeat if I had any idea what you guys were talking about.... Care to clue in the clueless?

-Watter

[salsbst]

DirectShow graphs describe to the directshow system how video and audio should be routed from one filter to the other. Here's an example of a graph depicting live video being routed from the Hauppauge 250 through a filter called ffdshow (which can help clean up the image among other things) and then to the VMR7 renderer.

http://forums.sage.tv/forums/attachm...=&postid=10954

If we could build our own graphs then we could add tools to the processing of video and audio.

[JJarmoc]

You mean this is all we'd need to be able to use FFDshow with sage output?

Wow.. that would rock.

[salsbst]

The other neat thing about the particular graph above is that it uses the preview pin on the Hauppauge Capture filter. This means that the video is 100% live and not MPEG2 encoded. I was hoping that v2 would have included a "truly live TV" feature built around the use of the preview pins, since there were a number of people claiming that the lack of truly live TV was a deal killer.

[JJarmoc]

That's pretty cool too. I for one could care less if live tv is a few seconds delayed. I mostly watch things less than live anyhow. Even if I plan to watch something as it airs, I'll start it 15 minutes or so late and FF the commercials. But if people want that, and it's easy to give em, while providing useful benefits for everyone else, I'm all in favor of it!

[salsbst]

There are two reasons that I want truly live TV:

1) it makes it much easier to calibrate the TV card
2) it would be nice -- no -- awesome to skip MPEG2 encoding and decoding for sports.

I suppose that this would wreak a little bit of havoc with the client/server API, though, which works by passing MPEG2 over the network.

[GbrNole]

sports are one of the biggest reasons that i wanted time slip feature and live tv wouldn't allow for this so live tv only serves for easier calibration purposes for me.

it would be nice though if a scaled down postprocessor was natively built in to sage and optomized for specific configurations.

getting very close to an HD picture in this scenario sure lessens the desire to be able to record hd content.

[billeR]

Incidentally, you don't need to create a custom graph to use FFDSHow for your Sage playback. I use it today. Just select Mpeg2 & Raw in the ffdshow config & use vmr. Works like a charm. Try turning on the ffdshow osd in the ffdshow setting just to make sure that it is actually working for you. I use the elecard decoder w/dscaler (tomsmocomp) for sage playback and denoise + resize (lanczos) with ffdshow.

And let me give a big "second" to how great it would be to have the ability to connect to the preview pin and avoid the extra mpeg compression. Man that would be so perfect....PRETTY PLEASE?


bill

[lovingHDTV]

Yes, I have ffdshow working for tv playback, but would like to be able to setup the graph so that dvds played with Sage would use ffdshow also.

[lovingHDTV]

would really be nice to just be able to put the graph in xml format in the common directory, then be able to select which one you wanted Sage to use within the video and dvd setup windows

[salsbst]

After realizing that we need to go to MPEG2 to cross from server to client, I'm less gung ho about the preview pin on a personal level, since I'm using the client.

Nonetheless, it would be a nice feature for SageTV for those who aren't using the client.

[salsbst]

billeR and lovingHDTV, yes, I sort of thought that would work in ffdshow's case because it seems to find a way into the graph that SageTV builds for us due to its merit, I guess. Thanks for the confirmation.

[ErsatzTom]

I don't know the first thing about graphs (at least this kind) but this kind of flexibility could only enhance Sage's reputation as having the best PQ. Especially if, as was recommended above for it to be in an external xml (or other format) file, people could easily share their graphs. Sounds great.

t

[billeR]

Yes Salbst, I just use SageTV, don't use the client. I've actually been considering dropping Sage and just getting a tivo and flyvideo or like capture card so I can scale/process on my HTPC. I feel like the "extra" compression that the pvr250 does is an insurmountable obstacle to the best PQ. Now don't get me wrong, I'm "satisfied" with my SageTV PQ and the cool pvr functionality helps get me over the hump, but I'd be thrilled if I could have pvr functionality, and the ability to view live LiveTV without the extra mpg2 compression.

[billeR]

OK, just re-read my post above & realized that probably reads a little more negative than I intended. I really like SageTV and am super impressed with v.2

bill

[stanger89]

Originally posted by billeR
Yes Salbst, I just use SageTV, don't use the client. I've actually been considering dropping Sage and just getting a tivo and flyvideo or like capture card so I can scale/process on my HTPC. I feel like the "extra" compression that the pvr250 does is an insurmountable obstacle to the best PQ. Now don't get me wrong, I'm "satisfied" with my SageTV PQ and the cool pvr functionality helps get me over the hump, but I'd be thrilled if I could have pvr functionality, and the ability to view live LiveTV without the extra mpg2 compression.

Unless you're talking a DirectTivo then switching to Tivo wouldn't get you anything since it also compresses everything.

[billeR]

true dat - I actually have my eye on the new hd directivo

[stanger89]

Originally posted by salsbst
The other neat thing about the particular graph above is that it uses the preview pin on the Hauppauge Capture filter. This means that the video is 100% live and not MPEG2 encoded. I was hoping that v2 would have included a "truly live TV" feature built around the use of the preview pins, since there were a number of people claiming that the lack of truly live TV was a deal killer.

One thing to consider is that without deinterlacing the video from the preview pin looks much worse than the compressed video, there are terrible, constant interlace artifacts. Adding this support well would be more complicated than just rendering the pin.