VMR9 scaling bug

[sundansx]

Jeff,
I was watching some video the other day and noticed blocky video is some areas. I switched from VMR to Overlay and the problem went away. I am using a ATI Radeon All in wonder card with 4.2 drivers. I strongly suspect it might be related to the VMR9 video scaling bug that is well documented in this thread:
http://forum.inmatrix.com/ikonboard/...t=1978;hl=dxva

Blight has a workaround in Zoomplayer to fix this, what is happening in SageTV to workaround this problem. I would rather use Sage w/ VMR9 because it does not crash UltraVNC (with video hook driver).

thanks.

[stanger89]

What's your video card specifically, if it's not a 9600/9700/9800, it doesn't do VMR9 in hardware. In that case, VMR9 is done in software and probably not nearly as well.

[sundansx]

I have an original All in Wonder Radeon. Could you reference your sources of where you found out that other ATI cards can't do VMR9 in hardware? I was of the understanding that any card that could do direct 3d, could do basic VMR9 in hardware.
Reading the microsoft docs, it looks like VMR9 also provides an interface to use special effects through pixel shaders on the image. I am pretty sure this support is restricted to full DX9 featured cards, such as the above mentioned.

[stanger89]

VMR9 in hardware requires a DX9 capable card, the Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800 (and any cards based off those chips) are the only Radeons that support DX9. You need DX9 class HW to take advantage of DX9 features. Now you can run DX9 on older (DX7/8 class) hardware but all the DX9 features will be run/emulated in software, requiring much more CPU power and resulting in lower quality.

Sorry can't find any good links though.

[mangriotis]

I have been using overlay instead of VMR because I can't get the aspect ratios to display correctly within VMR. Is this the same issue?

Also, have you used RealVNC? I am currently using that, but it seems as though development has slowed on this product and I am intrigued by UltraVNC. I am wondering how it compares.

[salsbst]

Just so that we're all on the same page: SageTV 1.4.10 and earlier support either overlay or VMR7... not VMR9. SageTV 2 additionally supports VMR9.

Seeing as we're not in the beta forum here, are we sure we're all talking about the same VMR?

[stanger89]

I've seen AR problems as well, there are a large number of things that contribute to that.

I don't use VNC, my Sage box is a dedicated HTPC connected to an HDTV @ 1280x1024i so I have no need, and no desire to screw it up.

Yeah, VMR9 is new with Sage 2, VMR7 is what was available in 1.4, it's DX7 based and will work fine on most VCs but it seems that while VMR9 can equal/exceed the PQ of Overlay, VMR7 is generaly considered inferior to Overlay.

[salsbst]

Under VMR7 in 1.4.10, I had difficulty with the zoom settings unless I used the "source" aspect ratio option. Using overlay that wasn't a problem if IIRC.

Unlike the overlay, VMR attempts to travel over the VNC pipe (I use TightVNC) which gives me a headache since the bandwidth isn't there and since it causes my CPU to work too hard which causes the case fan to speed up. I wish there were a way to prevent that.

Under TightVNC, nothing crashes with the overlay... it's just a black square.

[pawn]

I'm not sure what you mean by "blocky video", but I too have had problems with VMR9 and strange scaling: as in, the video some always splits in panning motion (i.e., top half of the screen seperates from bottom half).

I'm currently using an AIW Radeon 7500, so stranger89's advice sounds right, except for two things:

- VMR9 mode works well otherwise (blended video, stability, etc.), and,

- my CPU usage is about the same using VMR9 as it was using VMR7 (or whatever v 1.4.x used), and I didn't have any problems then.

[salsbst]

Somewhere on the inmatrix forum, Blight recommends that people with pre-9500 Radeon's use the tweaked drivers known as "Omega" for improvement in VMR9 capability.

But ultimately the best solution to eliminate tearing is defininity improved by using a 9500 or newer card. I see tearing on my 7500 and I don't on my 9600.

[stanger89]

However I do have tearing on my Sapphire 9500 64Mb

[salsbst]

Okay, let's make that 9600 and up

[pawn]

Originally posted by salsbst
Somewhere on the inmatrix forum, Blight recommends that people with pre-9500 Radeon's use the tweaked drivers known as "Omega" for improvement in VMR9 capability.

But ultimately the best solution to eliminate tearing is defininity improved by using a 9500 or newer card. I see tearing on my 7500 and I don't on my 9600.

Aaaahhhhh....that's what tearing is. Always wondered. Now that I know first hand, I'm not sure how to feel...