HD-PVR and DirectShow Filters

[Beefcake550]

Aggg... this is driving me nuts.

Ok, so I've gotten my problem figured out to be that when I install PowerDVD8 for BluRay playback, bad things happen in SageTV.

Her'e my order of events...

1) Install TME from HD-PVR CD.
This gets me a correct looking graph in graphedit when I do "render media file" and it playsback and seeks great. Unfortunately, SageTV has issues when watching liveTV or recordings by starting to "play" the file.

2) Run TotalMedia Theater to try bluray playback. It wants to update...so I let it.
Now, BluRay playback kinda works, but SageTV complains that there was an error rendering the AUDIO portion of the stream. I go back into graphedit and tryu to render a recording from the HD-PVR, and it tells me the audio portion can't be rendered. However, I can build a graph with the same DS filters as before and get the fgile to playback just fine.

3) Now, I can either remove TME and reinstall from the HD-PVR CD or I c an install PowerDVD for more fun.

At this point, if I install PowerDVD, graphedit defaults to using those filters after the Arcsoft demuxer. No mter what settings I put in the SageClient.properties file, PowerDVD does not do what I want.

So, I ask how other have dealt with this. Can I either somehow tell SageTV to use the graph I've built, or what?

HELP!!!

[Fuzzy]

Sounds like the merits of the decoders are not working in your favor. You will probably want to boost the merit of the filters used in your 'working' graph, and set Sage to use Default (which will basically do the same thing as 'Render File' in graphedit).

[Beefcake550]

Fuzzy, could you suggest a good way to increase the merit of a directshow filter? I've not found a straight forward way. Sorry if thats sounds dumb.

-Brian

[Fuzzy]

try Directshow Filter Manager

[jerryt]

When you upgrade TME you lose the special audio decoder which only works with the HD PVR.

It has been posted that you can either save a copy of this audio codec and register after the upgrade, or install two versions of TME by select installation to a different folder.

Determining the filters in use, is done by enabling "Debug Logging" and then reading the txt file which it creates.

Filters used by Graphedit "Render file" only shows which filters have the highest merit value. Sage does not work the same, so use the "Debugging" trick.

Merit values, I have only been able to get stutter free playback by not adjusting merit values. Sage allows for you to be able to select any codec you want, so why force a certain codec.

[Beefcake550]

Thanks, all.

I've got some sort of an update.

I decided to format the HDD and reinstall. Everything went great! I was able to get great smooth playback from Sage for the first time. I did not allow Java to update and I left TMT (full version) and PowerDVD off the machine. Never lost A/V sync and life was good.

Now, I went to install TMT and as jerryt notes, I lost the special audio decoder needed, so perhaps I can now fix this. Second, I install PowerDVD and that kind made things a lot worse. The odd part is the neither TMT or PowerDVD would playback my BluRay movies. So, now that everything is hosed, I am going to wipe again and try one more time. I do think I did something wrong when I install PowerDVD. Now, when I want to playback a bluray dic, it keeps telling me it periodically has to do an update, so I say yes and let it, but then the movie still doesn't play.

-Brian

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

Never lost A/V sync and life was good.
-Brian

I believe that the TME software is correcting for the audio sync problem, because people are reporting the audio is in sync with Sage and the new Beta drivers. But then the TME software has the audio out of sync with the Beta drivers.

Beefcake500, Are you finding that installing the TME software is what brings on the Audio sync problem?

That would be a great solution if uninstalling the TME software fixed the audio sync?

[Beefcake550]

My "version" of av sync is different I think from what others were seeing.

My version would/could be described as "everything is fine if you don't hit rew/ff". If you did that, the audio would get all messed up and no longer exist at all. Just a bunch of blips every so oftern or nothing at all.

Sorry that wasn't a great find.

I'm going to try and clear the slate of TME/TMT and PDVD8 and see what I can do without wiping again.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

My version would/could be described as "everything is fine if you don't hit rew/ff". If you did that, the audio would get all messed up and no longer exist at all. Just a bunch of blips every so oftern or nothing at all.

What audio codec?

I am using AC3Filter with a -180ms audio sync adjustment and when FF & RW work, the sound stays with it.

Sometimes FF & RW don't work at all, Timeline issue? I think... Last program I watched, first half the timeline was broken and then the second half FF & RW worked fine.

[Beefcake550]

jerryt - I was sticking with Arcsoft's audio decoder, but it didn't really matter what I chose...

[jkinan100]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

jerryt - I was sticking with Arcsoft's audio decoder, but it didn't really matter what I chose...

Beefcake,

How did this turn out? I seem to have this same issue(Sage won't render Audio, TMT installed), but too much of a newbee to know which way to go.

Thanks,

John

[funperro]

Originally Posted by jerryt

Merit values, I have only been able to get stutter free playback by not adjusting merit values. Sage allows for you to be able to select any codec you want, so why force a certain codec.

Jerryt,

How am I able to get SageTV to allow me to select any codec I want? If I select the 'MPEG 4 Playback' button in the Video/Audio section of SageTV setup, the only options I can choose from are 'Directshow' and 'SageTV Player'. I have 4 h264 codecs installed... all of which *can* be selected within dvb dream and my theatre, but not within sagetv. When I choose directshow, it seems like it randomly chooses a codec to use for H264 channels.

I am, however, able to choose specifically what codec to use for MPEG2.. just not for MPEG4 as described above. What am I missing here?

Thanks

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by funperro

Jerryt,

How am I able to get SageTV to allow me to select any codec I want? If I select the 'MPEG 4 Playback' button in the Video/Audio section of SageTV setup, the only options I can choose from are 'Directshow' and 'SageTV Player'. I have 4 h264 codecs installed... all of which *can* be selected within dvb dream and my theatre, but not within sagetv. When I choose directshow, it seems like it randomly chooses a codec to use for H264 channels.

I am, however, able to choose specifically what codec to use for MPEG2.. just not for MPEG4 as described above. What am I missing here?

Thanks

Edit this line in sage properties by adding "Friendly Name" of the H.264 codec you would like to use, here are four for you;

videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD8)
Try with or without the (PDVD7) or (PDVD8) extensions.
or
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=ArcSoft Video Decoder
or
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CoreAVC Video Decoder
or
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=Sonic AVC/H.264 Video Decoder

[stanger89]

and videoframe/aac_audio_decoder_filter to set the AAC audio decoder.

[funperro]

jerrt & stanger89:

thanks for the suggestions. I went ahead and added the lines you suggested... (of course, only added one... then tried sage... no luck, then tried the next one, etc).... but unfortunately none of them worked. In fact, the codec never changed when I changed to the H264 channels. This was easy to identify as the 'Elecard' logo is always in the upper right hand corner of the screen, no matter what 'friendy name' line I've inserted. Is there something I'm missing here?

thanks again for all the help -

[bastian74]

After much testing I ended up getting ahold of the full version of the latest TME and using the arcsoft video decoder and ac3filter, with sage set to directshow and overlay.

This allowed me to use TME for multi-channel audio blu-ray and sage to run smooth. (If live tv skips, I jump back 10 seconds and its ok)

I uninstalled powerdvd and installed nero (I had to manually unregister nero's video/audio filters using a filter manager)

With CoreAVC or PowerDVD sage seemed to ignore the merit setting and also ignored the properties file. I don't get it, but I was only able to get reliable h264 playback if there was only one codec installed that handled h264.

ffdshow was ok installed so long as I went into the properties of it and dissabled h264 support.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by funperro

jerrt & stanger89:

thanks for the suggestions. I went ahead and added the lines you suggested... (of course, only added one... then tried sage... no luck, then tried the next one, etc).... but unfortunately none of them worked. In fact, the codec never changed when I changed to the H264 channels. This was easy to identify as the 'Elecard' logo is always in the upper right hand corner of the screen, no matter what 'friendy name' line I've inserted. Is there something I'm missing here?

thanks again for all the help -

1) Under "Audio / Video" menu MPEG4 needs to be set to "DirectShow".
2) The filter you want to use must be installed on the OP system.
3) Verify that the recorded file is H.264

Elecard may be hijacking your graphs? Use "Direct Show Filter Manager" to lower the merit value of Elecard if you have to.

[funperro]

Originally Posted by jerryt

1) Under "Audio / Video" menu MPEG4 needs to be set to "DirectShow".
2) The filter you want to use must be installed on the OP system.
3) Verify that the recorded file is H.264

Elecard may be hijacking your graphs? Use "Direct Show Filter Manager" to lower the merit value of Elecard if you have to.

to respond:

1) yes, this was set to directshow.
2) yes, all these filters have been installed (was using each of them just fine through dvbdream)
3) yes, the recorded file is H.264. I know which of my HD channels are H264 and which are not by checking on lyngsat.com.

your last point, regarding elecard hijacking my system, makes sense. I'll try reducing the merit of elecard and see what I can come up with. If that doesn't work, I'll go the route of bastian74 and make sure only one H264 codec is present on the system. Thanks for the suggestion of "direct show filter manager".

[bastian74]

Another filter manager is RedlightFilterManager_1.6
I like the way it categorizes the filters, though filter manager color codes them better. Try both.

[Taddeusz]

Yea, the way I got mine to work properly was not to adjust the lines in the properties file but to adjust filter merits to prefer the codecs I wanted it to use. I could never get SageTV to prefer the ones I specified in the properties file.

You can download GraphEdit to help verify which ones it is going to use by default. Keep in mind that SageTV is always going to use the SageTV MPEG Splitter unless you set a custom splitter in the registry. I've currently got mine working with the Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 H.264 decoder and the "Cyberlink Audio Decode" Apparently the one with the "r" doesn't work right but the one without will. Not sure why.