Anyone get H.264 hardware acceleration working?

[ryancampbell]

I'm using an ATI 2600 Pro, Hauppauge HD PVR and SageTV 4.6.4. OS is Vista Home Premium with Aero turned off.

Recored .TS files play perfectly with 5-10% CPU utilization in the TME app and also in Windows Media Player. In SageTV, they are choppy and CPU is 100%.

If I render a file in GraphEdit, it goes to the ArcSoft splitter, splits to the two ArcSoft Decoders, then to the rendering devices. Interestingly playing the file in GraphEdit performs just like SageTV, 100% CPU and choppy.

It seems like there is some "use VIVO" switch that TME and WMP are throwing that GraphEdit and SageTV are not.

I've tried every combination in SageTV's setup, Overlay/VRM9, 3D on/off, FSE, etc. Same results for all except Overlay won't start at all.

I have also tired putting the ArcSoft decoders in sage.properties with no effect.

[Fuzzy]

I believe it is a function of the Renderer that is used. Try building the graph in Graphedit with the Enhanced Video Renderer instead, and you may see considerably lower CPU usage. Sadly, I believe Hardware accelleration DOES work with VMR and Overlay on XP, but EVR-only on Vista.

WMP and TME, i believe, use teh EVR on vista, hence the reason you are seeing the improvements there.

[sleonard]

I had to send my 3650 back for a replacement that I'm still waiting for and could only get it to play a couple of recordings the one night that I had it but it played those recordings with only 3% CPU vs. 60% CPU using the onboard 965G graphics. I'm using XP SP3, Core2 Duo @ 2.13 GHz, 1 GB RAM and 3 HD-PVR's.

Hopefully, the replacement will arrive Fri. and I can get it working over the weekend.

S

[ghostlobster]

While I think we all agree that accelleration in Vista with h.264 would be a great thing, I've been pretty impressed with the overall performance of the HD-PVR and H.264 in Sage. When I was working with it trying to straighten out the "jitters" I managed to get a very good HD picture quality and performance out of a $50 video card...an nVidia 8500GT. Finally, I slapped my ATI 2600XT back in there and it's also working flawlessly, but I'm not certain that type of horsepower is really needed.

[ryancampbell]

Fuzzy,

Bingo, you're right on with the EVR. Works great in graphedit.

So going back to XP will solve this issue? I'm not above reinstalling the OS to get this working. Hopefully the EVR will be supported in an upcoming version of SageTV, but it looks like that's been a frequent request already.

[Lucas]

Hardware acceleration works on XP with my ATI2600XT card.

I guess XP is the best bet at the moment.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by ryancampbell

Same results for all except Overlay won't start at all.

Ryan, I couldn't get Overlay working properly until I turned off full screen exclusive mode AND turned off 3d Acceleration. Try that.