HD-PVR recordings break up after rewind or fast forward

[ryttingm]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Wow! Using this technique I was able to get the Cyberlink H.264 decoder to work without stuttering! Instead of using the Arcsoft splitter I used Haali Media Spliter (AR). That seemed to do the trick quite nicely! Now when I set the merits to prefer the Cyberlink decoders everything plays smoothly.

The only odd thing I noticed is that when the resolution changes mid stream it trips up the decoder a bit. Doing a quick FF corrects it.

The video looks MUCH better compared to the output from Arcsoft.

Tad,

Have you noticed any issues playing actively recording files using the Haali Media Splitter? I installed Haali on my system using the registry tweak, and my system plays back pre-recorded HD-PVR files great. However, whenever I try and watch programs currently recording sage hangs.

-Mike

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by ryttingm

Tad,

Have you noticed any issues playing actively recording files using the Haali Media Splitter? I installed Haali on my system using the registry tweak, and my system plays back pre-recorded HD-PVR files great. However, whenever I try and watch programs currently recording sage hangs.

-Mike

Honestly, I don't use my client system much, if at all. So I have yet to thoroughly test it. It wouldn't actually surprise me if that were the case though. Since one of the reasons SageTV prefers it's own splitter is so that programs can be concurrently played back and recorded. I will try and play around with it when I get home and post back my results.

[Taddeusz]

Ok, just tried it out and you're right. Fully recorded shows play fine. But when you try to play something that is being recorded I get the spinning circle of death. While it sucks it really doesn't affect me that much as I don't use usually use that computer for "live" viewing. That's what my HD100 is for.

[Clift]

One of the last things I tried and have been pretty happy with is using the Elecard MPEG Demux with Elecard Audio Decoder and CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7.x). The PDVD7.x seems to work better than the PDVD8, go figure. I tried the ArcSoft Demux but it took FOREVER for the picture to start when tuning and when changing channels. Unacceptable! The CyberLink MPEG Demux is a lost cause... And I couldn't get Sage to work with the Haali Media Splitter or the Haali Media Splitter (AR). The Elecard demuxer is by MainConcept so I imagine it's very close to the Sage Demuxer (also by MainConcept). I can not get it to work with the CyberLink Audio Decoder, using CyberLink Audio Decoder (PDVD8) I get no sound, and using the CyberLink Audio Decode (PDVD8) or the CyberLink Audio Decode (PDVD7.x) I get an error. The ArcSoft Audio Decoder works too but the picture has an ever so slight stutter every now and then, but not so with the Elecard Audio Decoder. I may try AC3Filter, but honestly I am happy (and so is my wife) that everything is smooth for now. So, until the 5.1 drivers come out, I'm not gonna mess with it.

Anyway these are my specs:
Athlon 3000+ single core, socket 939
SoundBlaster Audigy SE
2GB DDR SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT (PCIe)
Windows XP MCE 2005 Rollup 2
Firewire Channel Change
250GB SATA HDD (64k cluster blah blah blah)
Sage 6.4.8
3D enabled
Overlay
FSE off (but it wouldn't matter if it's on)
SageMC
HD-PVR with a Scientific Atlanta SA4250HDC set to output only 1080i
HDHR QAM over 802.11g (who says it doesn't work over anything less than wireless-n?)

I am getting around 15-20% cpu usage with DXVA

I admit that I am running at the very edge of what my hardware can do but the video card was well worth the upgrade price ($90 from Newegg, replaced a Radeon HD2400 Pro) compared to a new MB, processor and DDR2 RAM. I get very smooth payblack with only choppiness during the initial video start when the on screen menu (miniguide) is up. I am happily recording Disney HD, TNTHD, ESPNHD etc which I was never able to do before. And the CyberLink decoder looks WAAAAYYYYY better than the ArcSoft Decoder. The edges are crisper and the colors are more vibrant. The only thing I have left to do is play MKV files with DXVA. right now I can play them, but at 90-100% processor usage, within Sage. I need help getting the Haali Media Splitter set up but that's for another day.

[GollyJer]

I have the same problem with LiveTV (never checked until now). Sorry the solution isn't perfect guys.
Clift, can you playback LiveTV?

[Clift]

I play LiveTV just fine, but I haven't tried watching a show while it's recording or even placeshifting while "recording". I don't see how it should be any different though. I mean, I was watching Cold Case the other night and I paused for about 5 minutes and it was fine. I don't see how that should be different than if I was recording it and started watching 5 minutes after the recording started because essentially Sage is recording the LiveTV stream anyway.

But I'll check tonight. I have to be sly about my debugging now cause I got the "you're always messing with that thing" talk last night while trying to get MKV files to play with DxVA.

[GollyJer]

Originally Posted by Clift

I play LiveTV just fine, but I haven't tried watching a show while it's recording or even placeshifting while "recording". I don't see how it should be any different though. I mean, I was watching Cold Case the other night and I paused for about 5 minutes and it was fine. I don't see how that should be different than if I was recording it and started watching 5 minutes after the recording started because essentially Sage is recording the LiveTV stream anyway.

So I'm a little confused. Was Cold Case recorded or being recorded as you watched it (LiveTV)?

[Clift]

well it wasn't being "recorded" per se, but it was playing. The thing is when you record it writes to the hard drive... well when you watch LiveTV it records to the hard drive and then reads from the hard drive. That's why you are able to pause and rewind back to the time you first tuned to the program. Now I don't know if Sage does anything different in how it handles the process for a show tagged with "record" versus just watching one, but it should all be the same, technically speaking.

[Razillian]

So I may be a little slow sometimes, but I looked through the Elecard website and I have no idea what I would need to get. Besides the consumer products, there are free downloads and the codec packs that provide 21 day free trial (but no place to purchase the codec that I saw).

Clift can you specify which product you are using, and if possible the GUID you used in the registry to specify the Elecard demuxer?

[Clift]

http://www.elecard.com/products/prod...-studio-avchd/
When you install that it comes with all of the elecard modified and all of the Mainconcept codecs. Supposedly the MainConcept H.264 codec supports hardware acceleration and I turned it on from within Directshow Filter Manager, but it wasn't using DxVA when I used it in Sage so I fell back to CyberLink.

try downloading the demo and see if it works for you. I can't guarantee the demultiplexer will work when the trial is over but there may be ways around that...

[Clift]

For the elecard demux I m using

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\DirectShow]
"CustomDemuxGuid"="{136DCBF5-3874-4B70-AE3E-15997D6334F7}"

[GollyJer]

I installed the Elecard Converter Studio demo just now (rebooted for good measure) and am not seeing any of the Directshow filters. Has anyone else tried it yet?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by GollyJer

I installed the Elecard Converter Studio demo just now (rebooted for good measure) and am not seeing any of the Directshow filters. Has anyone else tried it yet?

You'll probably have to use something like DS Filter Manager and see exactly what the decoder is called and add it to the Sageclient.properties file here:
videoframe/additional_audio_filters=
videoframe/additional_video_filters=

SO for example you might add Elecard h.264 Video Decoder or whatever it is being called to the additional_video_filters line.

Gerry

[GollyJer]

When I installed Elecard Converter Studio none of the DirectShowFilters registered on my computer. i.e.- none of them showed up in Directshow Filter Manager, GraphEdit, Installed Codecs, or any other application that shows the DS filters installed on the machine. I found the .ax files in the Program Files folder for the Elecard software and was able to register them myself using regsrvr32 and have been testing things for a little while. I can't seem to get audio working when using the Elecard Demux. Clift, are you using Cyberlink Video and Audio decoders?

[Clift]

I'm using Elecard Audio Decoder and CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7.x) with the Elecard MPEG Demux. You have to enable the MPEG demux through a registry setting.

The path is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\DirectShow

The key name is:
CustomDemuxGuid

And the value is whatever the CLSID of the elecard demux is....

[GollyJer]

Clift,
It's improbable that SageTV is using the Elecard Audio Decoder for the hd-pvr recordings as it doesn't decode AAC.

Check your log for the line that looks something like this:
DShowGraphFilters=AudRend,VidRend,Line21 Decoder,CyberLink Audio Decoder (PDVD8),CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD8),Custom Demultiplexer

It will tell you how Sage ultimately builds the graph as other decoders are picked if the one you specify doesn't work.

-Jeremy

[Clift]

Hmm, interesting. I'll check it out when I get home.

[jgourd]

Originally Posted by otakucode

The new Catalyst drivers FINALLY fixed this problem for me as well!

I installed 8.9 and now all my H.264 videos are just blobs of green dancing around.

[jgourd]

I keep reading about people being very specific about what their filters and splitters are and in what order. How does one go about changing that stuff?

Right now, since I followed the advice here all I get is nasty green blobs instead of a picture on my client machine. Why is this so hard? This should be easy stuff. Making us all learn to be PC witch doctors waving chicken's feet over our installed codecs really should be against the law.

I just want two products that I bought together as a bundle to work together without me having to spend hundreds of hours reading other peoples suggestions as to what might work and in the process, make the machine worse and worse instead of better.

[jgourd]

I managed to get everything working very smoothly. I had to open one of the HD-PVR files in the Arcsoft player and changed it to disable hardware acceleration while the file was playing. After that, everything was golden. It fast forwards and rewinds just fine.