Playback of .ts files with purevideo

[abbott_m]

I've gotten my HD-PVR installed with all my other tunes today (1 Hauppauge 850, 2 Hauppauge 1600's) and all seems to be fine. I can preview on all devices with audio and such (all other tuners are fully back to normal).

I've run into a problem with the .ts files. I figured out after a while that I had to load the TME program to get the splitter for the .ts streams in there (I'm open to alternatives but it seemed to work). When I play back the .ts files, I get audio/video but the prefered codec (purevideo HD) isn't getting brought up for rendering the video. The resulting playback for the video is unwatchable although the audio seems quite good.

I'm running the new beta drivers with the 5.1 support.

I tried gspot and graphedit on the .ts files (not sure if any of them are actually complete files since there were several dozen reboots in the middle) but both gspot and graphedit, which are my normal tools for resolving codec priorities, just go away with no error message. Also, when I try to play a .ts file in WMP, it crashes and reports an error in asvid.ax.

I'm open to any suggestions on resolving this. The device looks to be pretty slick so far, just some tuning to take care of I suppose.

Mike

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by abbott_m

I've gotten my HD-PVR installed with all my other tunes today (1 Hauppauge 850, 2 Hauppauge 1600's) and all seems to be fine. I can preview on all devices with audio and such (all other tuners are fully back to normal).

I've run into a problem with the .ts files. I figured out after a while that I had to load the TME program to get the splitter for the .ts streams in there (I'm open to alternatives but it seemed to work). When I play back the .ts files, I get audio/video but the prefered codec (purevideo HD) isn't getting brought up for rendering the video. The resulting playback for the video is unwatchable although the audio seems quite good.

Purevideo HD isn't a codec, it's a technology. You need to specify an H.264 decoder that supports Purevideo HD. The Arcsoft Video Decoder that comes with TME should work.

[abbott_m]

I've gotten the ARCSoft decoder working but I must say it's rather less than I'm used to. I had to turn on FSE in order to get smooth playback with the video in sync with audio. I don't think my system is in any way underpowered:

Intel 9300 Quad core
Nvidia 8800GT
4gb ram
2TB drive (all setup with 64kb block size)

I was able to get the playback working by turning on FSE but that's not idea. Is there anyone who has had success with a h.264 decoder that take advantage of the nvidia hardware acceleration better?

Also, I've seen that many people are just using the HD-100 with most having success with it playing back the .ts files. Are there any gotcha's in doing that?

Mike

[phelme]

the 8800 is an odd duck because it's an older technology even though it has a higher number. check the nVidia Purevideo FAQ for more info. But it should be able to play back HD-PVR files *as long as* you also have a powerful CPU in conjunction with it. Purevideo's tray won't come up for H.264 files, it only works with MPEG2s.

I'm able to use the integrated GeForce 6150 chipset for even 1080i H.264 files with just a bit of frame hesitation that I live with it. The 6150 is accelerated for up to 720P H.264, but unfortunately it isn't for 1080i, my AMD X2 picks up the slack there ('m using the ArcSoft video codec, specified in the sage client properties file). The 7xxx series nVidia chipsets and above are supposed to be accelerated by PureVideo up through 1080p, but again the 8800 is an older design so you need a beefy CPU to help it out.

Install the NVidia System Monitor and see if the GPU is being used when playing back H.264 files. My guess is it might be like my 6150 and won't accelerate beyond 720P. Try playing the .ts files through Total Media Extreme's Theater program and watch the GPU usage. There is a hardware acceleration option in TME. It needs to be toggled either on OR oddly, off to actually enable it depending on the chipset. This option will be honored when using Sage.

Another thing to try is using CoreAVC since it is probably the fastest release codec at the moment. Though I understand there are some issues running it under Sage's demuxer currently.

[abbott_m]

Based on your info, I ran a couple tests. ARCsoft is set as the H.264 video decoder filter in Sageclient.properties. Currently my DTV STB is set to 1080i. I played a show in TME that sage recorded and saw the gpu jump to around 18% while it was playing. Did the same test with Sage and it never touched the GPU so apparently the hardware acceleration is getting bypassed.

So, based on your post, should I try lowering the resolution to 720p on the DTV box and repeat this test. I'm assuming that the 720p resolution will give me better hardware acceleration and hopefully allow me to turn back off FSE. I don't mind FSE much till I want to do pretty much anything else on the system and Sage goes into a fit about releasing the screen back to windows.

Mike

[phelme]

Originally Posted by abbott_m

Based on your info, I ran a couple tests. ARCsoft is set as the H.264 video decoder filter in Sageclient.properties. Currently my DTV STB is set to 1080i. I played a show in TME that sage recorded and saw the gpu jump to around 18% while it was playing. Did the same test with Sage and it never touched the GPU so apparently the hardware acceleration is getting bypassed.

So, based on your post, should I try lowering the resolution to 720p on the DTV box and repeat this test. I'm assuming that the 720p resolution will give me better hardware acceleration and hopefully allow me to turn back off FSE. I don't mind FSE much till I want to do pretty much anything else on the system and Sage goes into a fit about releasing the screen back to windows.

Mike

yes, set the DTV box to only output 720P and you'll have better performance (I see about a 15-20% improvement in CPU use). that's what I ended up doing with the release of the beta HD-PVR driver that fixes the 720P microstutter problem. there is a hair of a quality difference with the 1080i->720P conversion that the DirecTV box does, but you'll probably not notice.

strange though about your GPU reading, I could swear mine was the same whether I was using TME or Sage.

[abbott_m]

Is there possibly a setting in sage that I'm missing for hardware acceration?

Also, are you running vmr9 or overlay? I've run it both ways and overlay has decent performance but I've always seen the playback to be somewhat "soft" in the edges of the video. VMR9 is unwatchable until FSE is turned on (which is where I'm at right now with VMR9 and FSE). I just reset the DTV receiver to 720P and I agree that I'll probably not notice since it's a 55" DLP set and 1080i doesn't bring much bring much more to the table as far as how the video looks.

I've got a show recording now so I'll get some results in an hour or so.

Mike

[abbott_m]

Well here's an interesting and hopeful update on this topic:

1. still using the arcsoft demuxer
2. Updated the nVidia Video driver to the newest (178.13)
3. Updated the nVidia motherboard driver to the newest (15.23)
4. Set the DTV STB to 720p
5. Turned off FSE

With just the new drivers, I'm now able to view the 1080i content I'd recorded last night (Stargate Atlantis) off SciFi HD. It's just about perfect with an occasional microstutter but if you weren't looking for it you'd not see it. Lip sync is right on and even the crawl on the news channels is smooth.

I setup a recording of a baseball game and the stutter was more noticeable so I turned on FSE and it was back to perfect playback.

I used the system monitor and it looked to me like the gpu was pitching in now. I'm also pleased that Sage seems to be actually making use of all 4 cpu's in my system for playback.

During playback of a 1080i show all 4 cpu's are at around 45% and the gpu is around 95%.

During playback of a 780p show all 4 cpu's are at around 30% and the gpu is around 80%.

This is all without FSE for the cpu/gpu %. I can't see the system monitor to get the info when it's in FSE so I can only say that for sports, FSE works nicely but for movies and other shows, leaving it off works nicely (at least on this beast. Faster GPU should help out but the 8800 seems to be handling the load fine (although at it's limit).

Mike