HD PVR - Inferior visual quality

[MrD]

Originally Posted by Twinkle

The screen shot was saved to a BMP and then converted into a JPEG (because of the forum's size limits) on maximum settings. In any case, the technicalities don't matter - I'm telling you that when you look at the JPEG, that's what I see on the TV.

Things look better at 1080i, I just need to see if I can overcome the remaining issues.

I just noticed, you said your TV... are you using an HTPC to display on the TV? Is so, do other high resolution images with text look sharp?

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by MrD

Ack!

Get rid of ffdshow.

As in uninstall it? Or as in change the merits? In any case, I didn't think it would matter what the default graph is - I thought that changing the settings in Sage overrides them.

In this case ffdshow is part of the CCCP Codec Pack, and it's what's used periodically when I view files through MPC HC.

Originally Posted by MrD

I have

Video -> CoreAVC Video -> VMR
Audio -> CoreAAC Audio -> DirectSound

again 1080i stutters in SageTV so a changed to 720p.

Zoom Player played things at 1080i pretty well, but if I tried to advance the video it would freeze.

Not reassuring. I'll see if I can give CoreAVC a shot - but if it's not doing it for you either, I'm not sure I see a point.

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by MrD

I just noticed, you said your TV... are you using an HTPC to display on the TV? Is so, do other high resolution images with text look sharp?

As I said earlier in the thread, I have 1:1 pixel mapping.

[MrD]

Originally Posted by Twinkle

As I said earlier in the thread, I have 1:1 pixel mapping.

Missed that, does that mean you are using a digital input to the TV?

I had terrible results with ffdshow, it kept getting in the way and it was very choppy. The only way I was able to make CoreAVC work was to un-install ffdshow.

[sleonard]

Here is a jpeg of my graph. This is what it should look like.

S

[phelme]

Originally Posted by sleonard

Here is a jpeg of my graph. This is what it should look like.

S

yep, that's what you want Twinkle. your ffdshow install might have also thrown a media splitter into the mix (like Haali). and that would insert itself into the decoding chain in Sage too if I'm not mistaken. you want nothing but ArcSoft decoders. ffdshow likes to mess with everything, try removing it via the Control Panel.

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by phelme

yep, that's what you want Twinkle. your ffdshow install might have also thrown a media splitter into the mix (like Haali). and that would insert itself into the decoding chain in Sage too if I'm not mistaken. you want nothing but ArcSoft decoders. ffdshow likes to mess with everything, try removing it via the Control Panel.

Does that mean that you and sleanard both have this graph, and you use 1080i without any stutterring, chop, or sync issues?

Also, how do you have Sage configured insofar as the decoders and other A/V stuff go?

[phelme]

Originally Posted by Twinkle

Does that mean that you and sleanard both have this graph, and you use 1080i without any stutterring, chop, or sync issues?

Also, how do you have Sage configured insofar as the decoders and other A/V stuff go?

I've got four different clients, all with AMD X2 processors, one with an ATI X800 card, one with an ATI X1600 and two with the lowly NVidia 6150 (the 6150 can only manage Overlay on H.264 content with the CPU handling most of the work). Their graphs all look like that and they all play fine. The nVidia's are running 720P output as my aging projector doesn't do 1080i, the ATI's are doing 1080. My HD-PVR is recording at 1080i because of the current Hauppauge driver frame-skip problems with 720P.

You could try creating your own graph in GraphEdit using just the ArcSoft decoders and see if it works. Do a search on the Net to see how to assemble a graph. It's pretty easy. Here's a link to help you get started. You can use your existing graph, delete the filters you don't want (like ffdshow!) and insert the new ones. Choose the ArcSoft multiplexer and decoders from the DirectShow category.

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by Twinkle

Does that mean that you and sleanard both have this graph, and you use 1080i without any stutterring, chop, or sync issues?

Also, how do you have Sage configured insofar as the decoders and other A/V stuff go?

I don't have any of those issues. My CPU is a Core2 Duo @2.13 GHz and video is onboard Intel 965G.

S

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by phelme

You could try creating your own graph in GraphEdit using just the ArcSoft decoders and see if it works. Do a search on the Net to see how to assemble a graph. It's pretty easy. Here's a link to help you get started. You can use your existing graph, delete the filters you don't want (like ffdshow!) and insert the new ones. Choose the ArcSoft multiplexer and decoders from the DirectShow category.

I'm not sure what the purpose is of creating my own graph unless there's some way I can get Sage to use it - is there a way?

But also, I turned on debugging to see what Sage was using - and I have some excerpts below. If I left out anything important, let me know. But from what I can see, it's basically doing what you think it should be doing anyway - which says that it's ignoring the system's default graphs to begin with.


----------------------------------------

Fri 7/25 12:13:32.884 DShowPlayer setVideoRendererFilter0({CD8743A1-3736-11D0-9E69-00C04FD7C15B}) called

Fri 7/25 12:13:32.891 DShowPlayer setVideoDecoderFilter0(ArcSoft Video Decoder) called

Fri 7/25 12:13:33.704 DShowGraphFilters=Video Renderer,Default DirectSound Device,VidRend,ArcSoft Audio Decoder HD,Line21 Decoder,Video Decoder,SageTV MPEG2 Demultiplexer,F:\S-Data\CNNNewsroom-296192-0.ts,

----------------------------------------


Is that not basically what you said it should be doing anyway?

[Barloworld]

Though I have nothing constructive to add, I was very interested in this thread because I have an HD-PVR on order.

I am completely amazed at 2 things:
1. How much help the community has offered.... 4 pages worth!
2. How negative Twinkle is to most of the responses. At the very least, how about saying thank you for their interest and effort?

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by Barloworld

2. How negative Twinkle is to most of the responses. At the very least, how about saying thank you for their interest and effort?

What negativity are you referring to? People make suggestions and comments, and I reply to them. Sometimes their suggestions or comments are not applicable, in which case I'll point that out. Am I supposed to pretend that a comment made in error was factually correct instead? I have neither insulted nor belittled anyone, and yet you come in here and start making accusations.

And while I am of course, thankful at people's efforts, I usually proffer that thanks at the end of a thread - which usually means when the issue is resolved, or when it's determined that there's no where else to go. In the meantime, I'm concentrating on the problem at hand. It's both inappropriate and unmannerly to chastise me for not punctuating every other sentence with showers of gratitude. If you want to do things that way, go right ahead - but don't assume that everyone else shows their gratitude the same way that you do, and don't assume that they should.

[sic0048]

It's hard to distinguish between rudeness and efficiency on the internet. I too took Twinkles posts as a little negative in the beginning (in fact I posted some comments about it early on and quickly edited my post to delete them). But I have come to change my tune.

Twinkle may not post a lot of fluff his(her) posts but is instead are to the point. He has been willing to try things to make is setup better. We've all been in his shoes and it is extremely frustrating to have paid good money for a system that is performing less than adequately. Hopefully the cause will be tracked down and he'll be much happier with the HD-PVR.

PS - I've gotten mine, but I've had trouble getting the IR emitter to work. But I've only have about an hour to mess with it as the last couple of nights have been filled with other projects. So I haven't actually recorded anything to do a comparison with. This weekend doesn't look any better, so it will be early next week before I make headway on my system.

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by sic0048

It's hard to distinguish between rudeness and efficiency on the internet. I too took Twinkles posts as a little negative in the beginning (in fact I posted some comments about it early on and quickly edited my post to delete them). But I have come to change my tune.

Twinkle may not post a lot of fluff his(her) posts but is instead are to the point. He has been willing to try things to make is setup better. We've all been in his shoes and it is extremely frustrating to have paid good money for a system that is performing less than adequately. Hopefully the cause will be tracked down and he'll be much happier with the HD-PVR.

That's pretty on target. I do tend to make my posts sharply on point, and you're right - sometimes, it's easy to misinterpret that. To you and everyone else, I apologize if I came across in a way that was unintended. I am, in fact, very appreciative of all the help I've received. My focus has been getting this set of issues resolved - not just out of frustration, but if the HD PVRs that I have aren't going to cut it, I really want to know that before my return period expires. Otherwise, I'm really... um... up the stream without a decoder?

Originally Posted by sic0048

PS - I've gotten mine, but I've had trouble getting the IR emitter to work.

I know it's not really helpful, but I saw so many threads about the IR not working properly on the HD PVRs before I bought them, that I never even assumed they were an option. It might be less stressful if you choose alternate means.

[Twinkle]

Aha! An update. The excerpt from the log file I gave earlier - I didn't realize until a few minutes ago that Sage wasn't set to use the ArcSoft Video Decoder - it was set to use Cyberlink's decoder. I just went into Sage and confirmed that, and I also set the Audio Decoder to Cyberlink as well. And unless I'm misreading them, the resulting log files show that it's still only ArcSoft's decoders that are being used - for both audio and video.

That would certainly explain why I'm not able to get anywhere with this!


Does anyone know what's causing this and how I can fix it so that Sage uses the decoders that are configured for it to use?

[stanger89]

The settings in Sage (the gui) are for MPEG-2 video and MP2/AC3 audio and will have no effect on HD PVR recordings which are H.264 video and AAC audio. There aren't GUI options for H.264 video and AAC audio decoders (yet at least).

[sic0048]

If you've updated the sage.properties file (as suggested by Brent on page 2) to include this line

videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=ArcSoft Video

then Sage should be using the Arcsoft decoders.

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by stanger89

The settings in Sage (the gui) are for MPEG-2 video and MP2/AC3 audio and will have no effect on HD PVR recordings which are H.264 video and AAC audio. There aren't GUI options for H.264 video and AAC audio decoders (yet at least).

Ah, well, that would explain things, wouldn't it? Ai.

Okay, so since I've had the stuttering all this time with the ArcSoft decoders, I decided to properly try the Cyberlink decoders. I edited the appropriate lines:


videoframe/additional_audio_filters=CyberLink Audio Decoder (PDVD8)
videoframe/additional_video_filters=CyberLink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD8)
videoframe/audio_decoder_filter=CyberLink Audio Decoder (PDVD8)
videoframe/dvd_audio_decoder_filter=CyberLink Audio Decoder (PDVD8)
videoframe/dvd_video_decoder_filter=CyberLink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD8)
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD8)
videoframe/video_decoder_filter=CyberLink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD8)



...but now when I go to watch live TV, I get a few seconds of video and then the video (and audio) freezes. Did I miss something?

[MrD]

CoreAVC

[Taddeusz]

Well, I got my client reconfigured last night. And I have to say that 1080i plays fine on it using the Arcsoft decoder without any kind of combing. I have 3D enabled using VMR9. Not sure why mine would work and not other's. My setup is as follows:

C2D E6550
4GB DDR2 800
Radeon 3870
SB X-Fi
Vista Ultimate x64