HDTV Playback Stuttering/Pauses

[tfurlong]

I know there are a lot of stutter-related threads, but I didn't come across one that quite captures my issues. I recently replaced my trusty standard-def system with a shiny new HDTV system.

I installed the latest Sage TV Beta, and I'm recording QAM on a single HVR-1250 tuner to a 64k block-size partition. I am rendering video using Cyberlink and overlay.

Here is what I see:
- 1080i recordings usually have some degree of stutter on playback. By stutter, I mean that the video pauses for a second or so, the audio continues, and then the video catches up.
- I haven't noticed this issue on 720p recordings (e.g. Fox).
- If I switch to the Windows decoder, instead of pausing, portions of the screen become very blocky & colorful where the Cyberlink would pause.
- I have a MediaMVP (standard-def) extender, and all the HDTV content looks fine when played on that.

Edit: I should add that I run SageTV in service mode.

So, I think my recordings are good, and I *should* be able to play them back, but I don't know where to start tweaking. The registry? Drivers? Java?

Any help is appreciated.

-Todd

[SWKerr]

What is the video card and OS?

[tfurlong]

Sorry, it's in my profile, but I shoul've included it in the post:
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q8200, Vista Home Premium 64-bit, Hauppauge HVR1250, ATI Radeon HD 3450

[SWKerr]

Vista 64 is probably not the most common OS for Sage but I know people have got it to work for playback. I had the sage cllient setup on it for awhile and it was a pain to setup (Like all non -microsoft software in vista) but in the end it worked.

Have you installed the Avivo codecs. The following thread has a link if you don't have them. They usually come on the driver disk.
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37122

Is there any reason you are using overlay as oposed to VMR or VMR9. I just tried the latest best on vista32 and with 780G hardware which jould be similar to the ATI 3450 and it worked well. It selected VMR by default.

Fist I would downgrade the resolution to 1280x720 and try to get it working perfectly there first. Then when you are happy up it to full 1080 and see if it still works. Second add the Avivo codec pack and try to mix it up between video and io driver until you have something that works. I would use the VMR settings as well.

[Taddeusz]

I have my client running smooth as silk using the PowerDVD 8 Ultra codecs. I've described how I've done this elsewhere but in short I made sure that the Cyberlink H.264 and MPEG decoders as well as AC3Filter (I couldn't get any other audio filter to work properly without crashing SageTV) had the highest merit and were chosen by default. Made sure there were no default decoders set in the properties file as I believe they put the Arcsoft decoder in there by default now. Set it to always use Directx for playback. Use EVR as my renderer, 3D is on, FSE is disabed.

Edit: for the Cyberlink decoders you want to go into the filter properties for each one and enable DXVA. It is disabled by default. I get less that 5% CPU usage with H.264 playback and about 10-15% with MPEG2 playback.

[tfurlong]

It looks like Avivo isn't yet available with the latest 64-bit ATI Catalyst drivers. What exactly is it supposed to do? I'm typically an NVidia guy.

I switched to overlay because I saw nasty tearing when using VMR9 & EVR. If there is a way to stop that, I'l gladly switch back.

It looks like the Cyberlink codec I've been using is the one that came with the PC (from Dell). Do I have to purchase one to get good playback?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by tfurlong

It looks like the Cyberlink codec I've been using is the one that came with the PC (from Dell). Do I have to purchase one to get good playback?

Most likely yes. You can either buy just the codec pack or the whole PowerDVD player.

[tfurlong]

So, either PowerDVD 8 or the HD264 Pack should work for me? What name will the codec show up with in Sage?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by tfurlong

So, either PowerDVD 8 or the HD264 Pack should work for me? What name will the codec show up with in Sage?

The H.264 decoders won't show up in SageTV. You either have to modify the properties file so that SageTV will choose that decoder to use or you need to use DSF Manager to raise the merit of the Cyberlink H.264 Decoder so that it will be chosen as the default decoder for that type of video. Personally, I chose the latter because I couldn't get SageTV to use the decoder specified in the properties file. Mileage may vary but in my case it just works.

Edit: personally I would go for PowerDVD 8 Ultra. It comes with ALL the codecs, including ones for audio and MPEG2 video. Whereas it sounds like all you get with the HD264 pack is just the H.264 codec. Kind of a rip off for $40. One of the added benefits of PDVD 8 Ultra is if you chose to have Blu-ray playback in the future you'll already have the software. The version of PDVD that came with my BD-ROM drive was limited and did not have surround sound support, only stereo.

[tfurlong]

Yes, it does seem like a ripoff. Before I jump into that, I see that my recordings are MPEG2 (Hauppauge HVR-1250), which makes sense because my choices on the MPEG2 codec menu affect the video quality. Can I even record H.264 video? Or do I have to convert my MPEG2's to get good playback?