Stuttering when playback on PC

[AzJazz]

I am running Sage 6.4.8.

When playing back HDTV content on my PC I saw constant "stuttering". To fix this, my 5-minutes of research came up with changing the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\DSFilters\MpegDeMux\NumBuffers=dword:00000080

It seems to work OK now, but I have a few questions:

1) Technically, what does this do?

2) Is this the "optimal" fix, or should I be modifying something else? (It tried the Sage FAQ's suggestion on modifying my video card performance, but it didn't work - and I wasn't a fan of that solution, anyways)

3) If this is the best solution, is there an upper limit for the NumBuffers value? (i.e., is there a problem if I set NumBuffers to 0x200?)

Thanks!

PS: For those interested, I have attached a .reg file for this fix (if this is the right fix).

[toony]

what hardware are you using?

[b-morgan]

I don't know if I'm hijacking this thread or not but I have a similar problem.

SageTV server is AMD 3800+ CPU, 4GB memory, XP Pro SP3, Radeon X1950 Pro, and 2 - Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600. I have 2 internal SATA 1TB drives and 1 external USB2.0 1TB drive. Gigabit Ethernet adapter and a Gigabit Ethernet switch. SageTV software is 6.5.6 RC.

SageTV client is Intel Core2 Duo E8400 CPU, 4GB memory, Vista Ultimate SP1, GeForce 9800 GTX, Gigabit Ethernet adapter connected to a Gigabit Ethernet switch. SageTV software is 6.5.6 RC.

I also have an STP-HD200 connected to the Gigabit switch. Firmware is 20081230 0 beta.

A digital HD video recorded OTA on the server plays back on the server and on the HD200 in either standalone or extender mode perfectly, but I get stuttering on the client via SageTV. Same video played through Windows Media Player plays perfectly on the client.

The stuttering occurs in both a window or full screen. I have tried various settings for the Video and Audio Renderers and Decoders. I've tried various registry setting changes that I've found in this and other threads with no success. I also notice that if I use the FF and RW buttons on the SageTV client, the stuttering gets worse.

I'm using Vista because I have a DX10 application (Lord of the Rings Online) that also works perfectly (and looks great in DX10).

Any suggestions on where to go from here? I'd like to be able to use the SageTV client on the Vista computer occasionally, although the need has diminished somewhat due to the addition of the HD200 (I still don't have a digital TV yet).