High CPU with Zotac NFORCE 630i

[starflight]

I'm testing SageTV as OTA-HD replacement for Tivo S2DT, but I'm hitting a problem with video playback maxing out the CPU. I've spent the last two days searching this forum, but no luck finding a solution.

The file in question is encoded MPEG2-PS[MPEG2-Video 16:9 720p@60fps, AC3@48kHz 5.1 eng] recorded using a Hauppauge 2250. Sage TV uses about 50 to 60% CPU to play the file. However, VLC media player (http://www.videolan.org) plays the file with 1% or less CPU.

I've installed SageTV 6.4.8 (21 day trail) using the default settings running on WinXP SP3.
The Motherboard is a Zotac N73PV-Supreme. It uses a GeForce 7100 onboard GPU which includes the nVIDIA PureVideo HD.
I've installed the latest motherboard drivers from Zotac including the GPU.
The CPU is an Intel E2200 2.2GHz running at 2.2GHz.

Thanks!

[gplasky]

You need to have a decoder installed on there that will take advantage of any hardware acceleration that chipset can do. I had good playback on a mbwith the 7050 onboard GPU with PowerDVD 8 installed. You could try the SageTV decoder and enable hardware acceleration. My new mb is based on the 9400 with ATI HD3300 gpu and playback is flawless. VLC is using its built-in binary decoders and may be able better. The other thing to try is getting the latest nVidia drivers from nVidia (181.22). That supports your chipset.

Gerry

[starflight]

Originally Posted by gplasky

You need to have a decoder installed on there that will take advantage of any hardware acceleration that chipset can do. You could try the SageTV decoder and enable hardware acceleration. VLC is using its built-in binary decoders and may be able better. The other thing to try is getting the latest nVidia drivers from nVidia (181.22). That supports your chipset.

Gerry

I update the nVidia driver to 181.22, but no improvement. VLC uses a little higher CPU now (10% - 20%) to playback the mpeg file. I tried the WinDVD9 trial software. The mpeg playback was lower for WMP and Divx at about 30%.

I'm wondering if the MB GPU supports PureVideo. I can't find a difidifind answer searching nVidia website.

I have tried the SageTV decoder, but it doesn't help.

Thanks,
David

[RocKKer]

This might help....

Is "SageTV MPEG Video decoder uses DXVA (hardware acceleration" set to yes? This is in setup / detailed setup/ Video/Audio.


Once I set that to yes my CPU usage went way down to 3 - 4%

[starflight]

I think I discovered the limitation of the nVidia 7100 GPU. The Purevideo supports mpeg2 and mpeg4 at SD level. There's Purevideo HD for OTA HD channels and BD DVDs which is in the nVidia 8800 PCIe video cards and 9000s series GPUs for MBs.

I was testing with OTA HD and SD recordings and comparing the results for HD to SD. duh!?!?

My CPU on OTA SD recordings run < 10%. For OTA HD recordings the CPU > 60%.

Now I have to decide whether or not to upgrade the MB or just live with it.

Thanks all!

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by starflight

I think I discovered the limitation of the nVidia 7100 GPU. The Purevideo supports mpeg2 and mpeg4 at SD level. There's Purevideo HD for OTA HD channels and BD DVDs which is in the nVidia 8800 PCIe video cards and 9000s series GPUs for MBs.

I was testing with OTA HD and SD recordings and comparing the results for HD to SD. duh!?!?

My CPU on OTA SD recordings run < 10%. For OTA HD recordings the CPU > 60%.

Now I have to decide whether or not to upgrade the MB or just live with it.

Thanks all!

I used to have a client with a 7300GS (discrete graphics card) and was barely able to handle OTA HD. I'm not surprised you are having problems with the 7100.