Video Playback issues in HD

[crarbo1]

Hello,
I'm trying to convert over from MCE2005 to SageTV but I'm having some issues. I have converted my MCE2005 PC to SageTV but I get stuttering when playing HD via my HDHomeRun. This wasn't a problem in MCE2005. So, I hope it is a setting somewhere instead of a a hardware issue. Here is my specs:
Mainboard : MSI K8 Neo4 (MS-7125)
Chipset : nVidia nForce4
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2000 MHz
Physical Memory : 1024 MB (1 x 1024 DDR-SDRAM )
Video Card : Nvidia Corp GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM)
Hard Disk : ST3250620AS (250 GB)

Right now I have this as the server that I do watch the TV through directly. Would it play video better as a client or does it make a difference?

Please help,
Chuck

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

Hello,
I'm trying to convert over from MCE2005 to SageTV but I'm having some issues. I have converted my MCE2005 PC to SageTV but I get stuttering when playing HD via my HDHomeRun. This wasn't a problem in MCE2005. So, I hope it is a setting somewhere instead of a a hardware issue. Here is my specs:
Mainboard : MSI K8 Neo4 (MS-7125)
Chipset : nVidia nForce4
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2000 MHz
Physical Memory : 1024 MB (1 x 1024 DDR-SDRAM )
Video Card : Nvidia Corp GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM)
Hard Disk : ST3250620AS (250 GB)

Right now I have this as the server that I do watch the TV through directly. Would it play video better as a client or does it make a difference?

Please help,
Chuck

What mpeg decoder are you using in SageTV? Are you running XP or Vista with your Sage setup?
With XP and that card, make sure you are using PureVideo as your decoder in Sage. Also, I've seen a few problems with my setup and my HDHR where I had to pause the HDHR live feed for about 2 seconds and then unpause it and the jerkiness went away. There's a setting somewhere in the sage.properties file that will resolve this, but I never wrote it down.

[crarbo1]

Thanks for the reply. I'm using PureVideo decoder and my OS is XP MCE2005 edition. I would like to be able to change the setting you are referring to. Any chance you may be able to remember it?

Thanks,
Chuck

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

What mpeg decoder are you using in SageTV? Are you running XP or Vista with your Sage setup?
With XP and that card, make sure you are using PureVideo as your decoder in Sage. Also, I've seen a few problems with my setup and my HDHR where I had to pause the HDHR live feed for about 2 seconds and then unpause it and the jerkiness went away. There's a setting somewhere in the sage.properties file that will resolve this, but I never wrote it down.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

Thanks for the reply. I'm using PureVideo decoder and my OS is XP MCE2005 edition. I would like to be able to change the setting you are referring to. Any chance you may be able to remember it?

Thanks,
Chuck

I'll poke around and see if I can find it somewhere...but, it'll only work if the pause/unpause workaround works for you. If not, then you're looking at something else.

[ghostlobster]

One other thing...I just noticed you're running aan nForce 4 mobo. I'm assuming you're suing the integrated NIC, so you might want to change the setting mentioned here as well. I know that this was another one of the things I tweaked in my setup.
Yeah, I know, it was working fine with MCE2k5.

[crarbo1]

Thanks,
I will try that later. I tried the pause trick you mentioned and it didn't seem to help. Thanks for the idea anyway. I will report back to you when I try this other option. It will probably be after work.

Update: I had some extra time this morning and did disable what that post said to and I didn't see much, if any, improvement. I rebooted the machine after the change for good measure. Any other ideas? It plays fine on my desktop PC that I have my SageTV client on. So, I know its either a software setting, hardware setting, or hardware itself.

Thanks,
Chuck

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

One other thing...I just noticed you're running aan nForce 4 mobo. I'm assuming you're suing the integrated NIC, so you might want to change the setting mentioned here as well. I know that this was another one of the things I tweaked in my setup.
Yeah, I know, it was working fine with MCE2k5.

[ghostlobster]

I found Andy's recommendation for the buffer as follows:

It sounds like you are playing too close to the end of the live recording. You could try changing these properties (the time is in milliseconds):
videoframe/local_encoding_to_playback_delay=2000
videoframe/time_behind_live_to_disable_fast_forward=6000
videoframe/time_behind_live_to_disable_skip_forward=4000

Please note, that this will only fix the problem if using the pause/unpause also fixes the issue...which, in your case, it did not.

[crarbo1]

Thanks for the info. It is worth changing anyway. It wouldn't hurt would it? Also, if I can't get this to stop, then would my system be ok as a headless server and use other PC's as clients or the extender without having this issue. I would think so, since I'm testing out my desktop PC as a client and I can't tell that I have the same issue but I wanted to make sure.

Thanks,
Chuck

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

I found Andy's recommendation for the buffer as follows:

It sounds like you are playing too close to the end of the live recording. You could try changing these properties (the time is in milliseconds):
videoframe/local_encoding_to_playback_delay=2000
videoframe/time_behind_live_to_disable_fast_forward=6000
videoframe/time_behind_live_to_disable_skip_forward=4000

Please note, that this will only fix the problem if using the pause/unpause also fixes the issue...which, in your case, it did not.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

Thanks for the info. It is worth changing anyway. It wouldn't hurt would it? Also, if I can't get this to stop, then would my system be ok as a headless server and use other PC's as clients or the extender without having this issue. I would think so, since I'm testing out my desktop PC as a client and I can't tell that I have the same issue but I wanted to make sure.

Thanks,
Chuck

Oh yeah! Actually, I've observed that my clients play better and more reliably than my server machine. I'm really considering doing exactly what you are leaning towards...having my server sitting somewhere else purring along and a few clients and extenders feeding my TVs. For now, I've got my main rig sitting in the family room on the big screen and 3 clients scattered throughout the house chugging along happily. When I get the time, I'm going to set up the server in the spare room and snag the client off of that TV and use that one in the family room. Let the guests deal with the server noise

Regarding extenders, everyone who owns one recommends the HD100s as the only way to go, however. I don't own one yet, but the user reviews here are glowing. Most of the heavy duty users have their server rigs tucked away somewhere and a few extenders hanging off them working perfectly.

[crarbo1]

That sound promising. I will probably go the extender path. I know just have to wait until they are back in stock.

Thanks,
Chuck

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

Oh yeah! Actually, I've observed that my clients play better and more reliably than my server machine. I'm really considering doing exactly what you are leaning towards...having my server sitting somewhere else purring along and a few clients and extenders feeding my TVs. For now, I've got my main rig sitting in the family room on the big screen and 3 clients scattered throughout the house chugging along happily. When I get the time, I'm going to set up the server in the spare room and snag the client off of that TV and use that one in the family room. Let the guests deal with the server noise

Regarding extenders, everyone who owns one recommends the HD100s as the only way to go, however. I don't own one yet, but the user reviews here are glowing. Most of the heavy duty users have their server rigs tucked away somewhere and a few extenders hanging off them working perfectly.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

I found Andy's recommendation for the buffer as follows:

It sounds like you are playing too close to the end of the live recording. You could try changing these properties (the time is in milliseconds):
videoframe/local_encoding_to_playback_delay=2000
videoframe/time_behind_live_to_disable_fast_forward=6000
videoframe/time_behind_live_to_disable_skip_forward=4000

Please note, that this will only fix the problem if using the pause/unpause also fixes the issue...which, in your case, it did not.

This shouldn't have to be set. I mean really, I never had to before with any other tuners. You should be able to watch right at the "end" of the live recording. This is a Sage or a Hauppage driver problem.

[ghostlobster]

I agree with you on that. However, this is a workaround until whoever has to resolve the problem does so.