Help please! H.264 mpeg4 playback with R5000.

[cejota3]

Hello all.

I am having a total bear of a time getting HD, H.264 (i.e. MPEG 4) playback to work with my new R5000 modified receiver. My service is from DISH, and the model of my received is the Vip211.

Everything was working great before my move to HD/R5000, and ALL standard def stuff still works fine. In fact, non-H.264 HD plays back great. (For example, channel 140 ESPN-HD and channel 300 HBO-HD) I'm not very familiar with the intimate details of why these other HD channels playback fine, but I think it has to do with the fact that they are not true H.264 but rather still following some kind of MPEG2 format. (In fact, for those of you with DISH know that all of the HD channels that come on the 110/119 orbitals are like this. While all HD channels on the 128 and 61.5 orbitals {I'm tuning the 61.5} are definitely H.264.)

I know that the R5000 is tuning these stations just fine, as I have the component outputs of the 211 connected directly to my TV and the stations come through great that way.

The error I get when I try to playback is the dreaded "Playback Error -4,0x80040217". I know, I know, this means something is not correct with the decoder(s), correct?

I have the latest and greatest version of Sage 6.4, and nVidia Pureshow decoder for my non-HD playback.

I tried installing CyberLink's WinDVD Ultimate to use their decoder for H.264 playback as many people on here have said they have had success with it. No luck. (However, I still have it in eval mode as I don't want to pay $100 for it until I know it works. Could that be the problem?)

I tried adding the "videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD8)" line in my sage.properties file like a lot of people in here have said they had to do. No luck.

I've changed the "video decoder" and "MPEG4 playback" settings to all their possibilities in "advanced settings". No luck.

I'm MANY hours into this, and banging my head. Not to mention my wife is ready to kill me for screwing up the recording of some of her favorite shows?

What next? Reinstall all my decoders? Downgrade Sage? Try the CoreAVC decoder?

Any help would be appreciated!

THANK You!

[curtvm]

This may not help, but I have an R5000hd/Vip211 and have been using SageTV for a few months. I tried it a few weeks first and knew if the sage software was to my liking, I would get the hd extender (pc connected to tv is not my preference).

While testing (lots of combos of os's/hardware), and before I got the extender, I did at one point get h264 working (I have CoreAVC). After deciding I like Sage TV (and don't like VistaMC), I bought the software+extender bundle and put together a 4TB dedicated server pc. I have not been able to get h264 to work (in sage tv on the pc) with my new install for some reason, but have not really cared since the hd extender works very well and now the pc only does what its good at- moving data in/out/around. I can play the h264 recordings in media player (coreavc) if needed for some reason, though.

Bottom line (for me, at least), buy the extender and make life a lot easier. Right now I have an hdhomerun and the r5000hd, and my channel lineup for dish is set for only hd channels. I have not used the vip211 output to the tv for quite a while now and only use the extender (except when I want to see why I'm not getting a stream- like when it rains hard). I also no longer watch much live tv, either.

I think we have a few years of 'pain' to go through with h264 on the pc, before it becomes as 'easy' as mpeg2 now is.

(fyi- you can see what type of recording is taking place in the r5000hd app, and will be either h264 or mpeg2. Some hd channels as you have noticed, are still mpeg2)

[jerryt]

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

and videoframe/aac_audio_decoder_filter to set the AAC audio decoder.

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.

Troubleshooting

Determining the filters in use, is done by enabling "Debug Logging" and then reading the txt file which it creates. (Edit sage.properties and add this line: "debug_logging=TRUE")
or
You can use FFDshow audio to view all the filters in use. It places an icon in the system tray and when you open the icon, at the top it shows all the filters in use.

[cejota3]

Well, after hours and hours of fussing with the CyberLink decoder, I finally gave up on it, uninstalled _all_ decoders on my system, and then installed the CoreAVC decoder (http://www.coreavc.com). I decided to give the CoreAVC decoder a try because it seemed like some other folks on these forums have had success with it, and I (finally) did too!

In fact, it just started working _without_ making the corresponding "videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=" change to my sage.properties file, which I know is weird. In all the bouncing around I've been doing on this, I think I saw something that said that manually putting this entry into the properties file is no longer necessary on the latest (6.4.8) release of Sage. BUT DON'T QUOTE ME ON THAT! I'm really not sure, all I know is that H264 playback started working when all I had was the CoreAVC decoder installed and the "videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=" setting in my sage.properties file still set to the uninstalled Cyberlink one. (For consistency, I've gone back and changed it to what it should be.)

The only problem I've got now is that is seems like my dual (Pentium 4 class) Xeon 1.8GHz processors cannot keep up. H.264 playback quickly becomes choppy and CPU use spikes to a sustained 100%. Alas, this is still the case even when I tell CoreAVC to "always skip" deblocking. If anyone has some hints on how I could get this under control and watchable again, that would be great. Otherwise, this machine will probably be relegated to a server and I'll need to build up something with more horse-power for actually watching this stuff.

BTW, I've been an avid Sage user for a few years now. I love it, despite many trials and tribulations with it (as I'm sure anyone that is reading this has experienced). But my experience in getting the R5000 to work has been by far and away the most complicated and problem-prone things I've done to Sage. I wish there was more of a "how-to" and "things to watch-out for" guide for this kind of a setup!

Thanks!

[curtvm]

I should have phrased my earlier statement a little better- I can get h264 in sage to work on the pc with coreavc, but it is not 'smooth' (it runs, slight pause,repeat). I have an E7200 cpu with plenty of ram, and windows media player has no problem playing the h264 recordings. The hd extender also has no problems with the h264 live or recorded streams, so it seems there is something in the interaction of sage and coreavc and windows video.

If I remember correctly, I think the one time I had coreavc and sage working good was when I was using an earlier version of coreavc (1.7.x?). I had lots of combos tested, so there may have been other factors involved.

Did I mention already that I love the hd extender?

[jerryt]

When there is only one h.264 codec on your machine, then sage does not have to have the setting because there is only the one choice. Same effect as adjusting merit value.

Try Arcsoft video decoder for choppy playback.

What operating system do you have?

[btrcp2000]

how do you get coreavc to appear on a separate sage client as an option?

I have it installed on a laptop, and if I play something in WMP, the icon appears in the tray, but it does not show up as a choice in sage. I have directshow enabled.

[cejota3]

Originally Posted by curtvm

Did I mention already that I love the hd extender?

Curtvm, yup, I hear you. But Sage currently doesn't have any in stock, and it is not clear when they will be available again. I'm convinced that's probably my easiest way out of all of this. In the mean time, I found a pair of 3.2GHz processors on eBay for $50. We'll see if they make a difference, if not, then I'm probably suffering until the HD Extender is available again.

Originally Posted by jerryt

Try Arcsoft video decoder for choppy playback.

What operating system do you have?

I'm using WinXP Pro SP3. JerryT, as to the Arcsoft video decoder, have you had experience with it versus the CoreAVC decoder? I ask for a couple of reasons. First, most threads I've read regarding this subject just have people quoting what has worked for them, not the path of what else they tried. Second, CoreAVC makes a big deal of saying they have the "fastest" H.264 decoder out there. I have no idea if it is true, but if it is, it would seem like the best choice for my current processor-challenged machine. Finally, for the Arcsoft decoder, what actual product do you purchase? I was on their website and they sell like a hundred different products. Good for them, but none seemed to be "just" the H.264 decoder. It seems like (similar to Cyberlink) you need to purchase their DVD player package to get the decoder. Is that right?

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

how do you get coreavc to appear on a separate sage client as an option?

I have it installed on a laptop, and if I play something in WMP, the icon appears in the tray, but it does not show up as a choice in sage. I have directshow enabled.

Btrcp2000, sorry, but I'm using the CoreAVC on the same machine that is my Sage server. In other words, I'm not running it on a Sage client. However, like I said in an earlier post, it is the only H.264 decoder on my system and it "just works", albeit with processor-limited induced studdering. I didn't have to select it as a decoder in the "Audio/Video" settings menu or anything like that. In fact, none of my Sage menus show it as an installed decoder. However, you do need the "MPEG4 Playback" setting set to "DirectShow".

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

how do you get coreavc to appear on a separate sage client as an option

See post #3, you enable it in sageclientproperty and it does not appear as an option anywhere.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by cjwhelan

I'm using WinXP Pro SP3. JerryT, as to the Arcsoft video decoder, have you had experience with it versus the CoreAVC decoder? I ask for a couple of reasons. First, most threads I've read regarding this subject just have people quoting what has worked for them, not the path of what else they tried. Second, CoreAVC makes a big deal of saying they have the "fastest" H.264 decoder out there. I have no idea if it is true, but if it is, it would seem like the best choice for my current processor-challenged machine. Finally, for the Arcsoft decoder, what actual product do you purchase? I was on their website and they sell like a hundred different products. Good for them, but none seemed to be "just" the H.264 decoder. It seems like (similar to Cyberlink) you need to purchase their DVD player package to get the decoder. Is that right?

I have each of these codec installed and can change with the property edit.

Arcsoft is installed with "Total Media Extreme", seems to operate with the least resources on my machine.