what is the best decoders

[Lost85]

ok i have seen on the forms people talk about different decoders which one is the best for video and sound
right now i have ffshow which works with everything but when try watch a DVD

[gplasky]

For a DVD you're going to need a paid for decoder. nVidia Purevideo is for DVDs and mpeg2 only. PowerDVD 8 can handle DVDs, mpeg2 , h.264, BR and more. Both can take advantage of hardware acceleration on certain video cards. Arcsoft TME can play mpeg2, DVDs, BR, and h.264, does hardware acceleration and comes with the HD-PVR or can be bought.

Gerry

[mistergq]

Because of what it does with h264, I recommend Arcsoft TME. I was able to make a single core P4 3.0 GHz a Sage Client and play h264 recordings.

[HelenWeathers]

Arcsoft Total Media Theater(TMT) is less expensive than Total Media Extreme(TME) and has all the codecs needed for rendering your video and audio streams, from Blu-ray, DVD, SageTV etc.

[xj-boonie]

Originally Posted by gplasky

For a DVD you're going to need a paid for decoder. nVidia Purevideo is for DVDs and mpeg2 only. PowerDVD 8 can handle DVDs, mpeg2 , h.264, BR and more. Both can take advantage of hardware acceleration on certain video cards. Arcsoft TME can play mpeg2, DVDs, BR, and h.264, does hardware acceleration and comes with the HD-PVR or can be bought.

Gerry

How does one turn on hardware acceleration for either/both the Arcsoft TME codec and PowerDVD8 codec?

[gplasky]

Go into their respective players and eable it in the preferences.

Gerry

[lobosrul]

NVIDEO Purevideo for mpeg-2. AC3Filter for AC3 and DTS. FFDshow for absolutely everything else. If you ever want to play 1080p (high bitrate) h.264 and you have a multi-core cpu be sure and get the multi-threaded release of ffdshow.
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/vi...rs/ffdshow.cfm Unless you have an old CPU I don't see the need to purchase any h.264 decoders with hardware acceleration.

[psklenar]

DUmb question ... if I'm doing 100% of my viewing via HD200's ... do I need ANY decoders/codecs on the actual SageTV server?

Thanks,
pat----

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by psklenar

DUmb question ... if I'm doing 100% of my viewing via HD200's ... do I need ANY decoders/codecs on the actual SageTV server?

Thanks,
pat----

None.

Gerry

[psklenar]

Gerry,

Thank you VERY much sir!

pat----

ps, love your avatar!

[judoGTI]

I'd like to tack onto this thread because Im upgrading to Sage 6.5 and installing an HD-PVR tonight.

Which would you recommend for the H.264 files? nVidias PureVideo HD or the one that it comes with (ArcSoft TME?).

I have an nVidia 9500 GT card.

Thanks!!

[jdamore]

I'm using the cyberlink decoders that came with Powerdvd 9 and they work great, IMO. I really wish I could use Powerdvd's "Truetheater HD" and "Truetheater Motion" effects in sage.

[ozfiles]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

Arcsoft Total Media Theater(TMT) is less expensive than Total Media Extreme(TME) and has all the codecs needed for rendering your video and audio streams, from Blu-ray, DVD, SageTV etc.

You will need to buy Total Media Extreme to have the Arcsoft video and audio decoder show up under Sage.

I installed Total Media Theater and nothing showed up under the detailed Setup of Sage.
I then installed Total Media Extreme and they showed up no problem.

[gplasky]

When you install TME that comes with the HD-PVR the Arcsoft decoder shows up both under video/audio and DVD. Make sure you reboot and/or restart Sage for it to show.

Gerry

[Islander]

Sorry to necropost.

So in essence, anything I do at the server to try to improve the quality of playback will have no impact on the quality of the playback at the HD200? Is there anything that I could do at all to improve the quality of playback at the HD200 if they are (all 4) already connected using HDMI and they are connected to new 50 inch plasmas? (of course I am using the High quality option to serve the files to the HD200 as well).

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by Islander

Sorry to necropost.

So in essence, anything I do at the server to try to improve the quality of playback will have no impact on the quality of the playback at the HD200? Is there anything that I could do at all to improve the quality of playback at the HD200 if they are (all 4) already connected using HDMI and they are connected to new 50 inch plasmas? (of course I am using the High quality option to serve the files to the HD200 as well).

If your recording HD off the air or with QAM, your quality settings on your SageTV server won't matter at all. If your unhappy with the video quality, well welcome to the wonderful world of cramming in as many channels as possible using digital compression.

If your using analog tuners to feed your 50 inch plasma... well theres your problem.

[PLUCKYHD]

built in windows 7 decoder is also what I consider top notch for all but native blue ray playback.

[rv73]

Hello,
I use an onboard G45 express intel graphics card for my sage media center, and find when I turn OFF hardware acceleration I get less hanging when FF/Rewinding and skipping through recorded TV (Windows XP)

Can you explain please:

- What Sage's Hardware Acceleration ON/OFF feature does exactly ?

- Is using Sage MPEG2 decoder just as good as using Nvidia's PureVideo decoder ? Any advantages with/without a Nvidia video card for MPEG2 viewing ?

Thanks,
R