YAHDQ (Yet Another Hardware Decoder Question)

[solinar]

I have a newly set up HTPC consisting of:

MSI 945 Neo5-F Mobo
Asus EAH3450 Radeon Video Card
Intel C2D 6200 (@ 2.2GHz)
Onboard Audio

Samsung 57" 720P DLP
Pinnacle HD Pro USB stick (800e)

Last night, I freshly installed Win XP Pro, with all updates, motherboard drivers, ATI Catalyst driver, the AVIVO driver, and AC3Filter.

I install SageTV, use all of the defaults and the picture on Live TV (analog SD cable through the Pinnacle) is pretty pixelated/aliased, but the framerate is smooth.

I pick VRM9 and turn on 3d acceleration, and the picture quality goes up (looks less aliased), however, in scenes that have movement, its like the framerate around that area of the picture drops (kind of like stop-motion) and looks stuttery and my processor load is around 25%-35%.

I pick the ATI AVIVO decoder for MPEG2 decoding and get the same effect. If I pick VRM9 and turn off 3d acceleration the picture goes back to being smooth, but aliased.

What am I doing wrong?