New HDHR driver out

[sflamm]

Anyone installed yet? Experiences with it?

http://www.silicondust.com/downloads

[gplasky]

That's works fine and so does the latest beta 20090412 beta 1.

Gerry

[sflamm]

Great.

Do you know if it addresses any of the stuttering issues and recording issues people have been having when multiple streams are being recorded at the same time?

[gplasky]

Couldn't tell you. I haven't had stuttering issues recording multiple HD streams (2) AND watching multiple recorded HD programs (up to 3) at the same time for over a year. Never did, as a matter of fact.

Gerry

[sflamm]

not really stuttering, as much as 'flashes', like the tuner has momentarily lost lock...

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by sflamm

not really stuttering, as much as 'flashes', like the tuner has momentarily lost lock...

Nope-not that either. Make sure you have a minimum number of splitters in your systems. As important as signal strength is, signal quality is actually more important. Use the HDHR utility and check out what your signal quality is. You want a minimum of 84%-86% to as high as possible.

Gerry

[sflamm]

signal quality is excellent - I have a amp at the feed of the house. All this was working fine with my VMC.

I can also view any channel with VLC perfectly.

what's odd - it that watching live tv via SageTV I'm yet to watch it exhibit the same behavior. it is like SageTV is recording the stream badly on some channels.

[sflamm]

It is the same problem posted here!

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41206

I'm not sure what the solution is... some folks have switched to FFDShow, but I dont see why that is necessary.

And it only seems to happen on certain channels... as far as I can tell. So I dont see how it is a codec problem.

What are you using for MPEG2 playback?

[gplasky]

Cyberlink PowerDVD v8 on 3-PCs. I also have a HD200 and a HD100 which again, all the HDHR recordings are excellent. And you are saying signal quality is excellent based on the HDHR utility measurments that it is returning? Maybe the channels that have the issue are only 1080i or only 720p? Maybe the issue is more related to your video drivers.

Gerry

[sflamm]

I switched decoder back to the SageTV MPEG decoder and the flashes seem to stop (need to record some more shows to test)

Perhaps it is the Cyberlink PowerDVD7 MPEG decoder I was using.

The problem is the quality of the SAGETV decoder is a lot worse.

I have PowerDVD8 as well. I could install - the issue I had before was I could not get the PowerDVD H264 codec to work... only the PowerDVD 7.x worked...

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by sflamm

I switched decoder back to the SageTV MPEG decoder and the flashes seem to stop (need to record some more shows to test)

Perhaps it is the Cyberlink PowerDVD7 MPEG decoder I was using.

The problem is the quality of the SAGETV decoder is a lot worse.

I have PowerDVD8 as well. I could install - the issue I had before was I could not get the PowerDVD H264 codec to work... only the PowerDVD 7.x worked...

You might want to try PowerDVD 8 again with the latest Sage beta. With the latest beta you can now choose which h.264 decoder you want to use from the Detailed Settings instead of having to edit the .properties file.
Also follow tgis tutorial to make sure you are getting hardware acceleration from your video card with Power DVD. How to set Cyberlink codec Settings in SAGETV Tutorial

Gerry

[sflamm]

Thanks I'll give it a try.

Couple questions if you don't mind:

1. What version of PDVD8 are you using? Is it the latest download patch from the website? Version # please so I can make sure I'm using the same

2. With the PDVD8 version you are using can you mount an ISO and play off disk? I like to use that as a diagnostic that playback is fine outside Sage.

3. In the beta do you mean you can select the codec instead of just DirectShow?

4. What do you have selected under your Video playback settings? Want to make sure mine are identical

5. Is there anything special I need to know about installing the beta? Do I have to reinstall SageMC, DVDPro2sage etc?
Simply reinstall the .wiz and sage.properties?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by sflamm

Thanks I'll give it a try.

Couple questions if you don't mind:

1. What version of PDVD8 are you using? Is it the latest download patch from the website? Version # please so I can make sure I'm using the same
Version 8 out of the box. No patches or upgrades.

2. With the PDVD8 version you are using can you mount an ISO and play off disk? I like to use that as a diagnostic that playback is fine outside Sage.
I don't do ISO's but as long as it is presented as another drive I don't see why it wouldn't play.

3. In the beta do you mean you can select the codec instead of just DirectShow? Yes-SageTV beta 6.5.13

4. What do you have selected under your Video playback settings? Want to make sure mine are identical ALl of my PC clients runs Vista-both 32 and 64 bit. So Video Renderer is EVR, MPEG2 Video Decoder filter is Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD8), MPEG4 Playback is Directshow, H.264 Video Decoder Filter is Cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD8), Dscaler Deinterlacing Filter is disabled, Audio Renderer is default, and MPEG Audio Decoder filter is AC3 set for 5/1 speaker output including subwoofer.

5. Is there anything special I need to know about installing the beta? Do I have to reinstall SageMC, DVDPro2sage etc?
Simply reinstall the .wiz and sage.properties?Backup your wiz.bin somewhere else. Upgrade right over the existing installation. When you're done it will have the SageTV3.xml default interface. Go into Detailed Settings and choose your SageMC_169-#.xml (#= whatever the number of plugins you installed)

Gerry

[sflamm]

Did you mean 6.5.13 for the beta, instead of 6.3.13?

Why havent you taken the latest PDVD8 patches?

It seems like you can select the codec in 6.5.9. Is this something different?

In the tutorial steps above, step #11 says:

11. Use above procedure to set cyberlink codes for H264 codec or to set cyberlink audio codecs.

What are the keys that are suppose to be exported and then imported?
CL264dec? CLAud? in addition to CLVSD?

[sflamm]

I installed PDVD8 and the .13 beta.

Now when I try to play a .m2ts it just shows an arrow going round and round in circles

Help!

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by sflamm

Did you mean 6.5.13 for the beta, instead of 6.3.13?

Why havent you taken the latest PDVD8 patches?

It seems like you can select the codec in 6.5.9. Is this something different?

In the tutorial steps above, step #11 says:What are the keys that are suppose to be exported and then imported?
CL264dec? CLAud? in addition to CLVSD?

Yes- I meant 6.5.13 beta. I made the correction in the post.

Unfortunately I was scammed on eBay with the Cyberlink purchase and found out thru Cyberlink suppport the key the seller provided was blacklisted so no updates can be done. It works for me so I just left it as is.

No you cannot select the h.264 codec from Detailed Setup in 6.5.9. From the 6.5.13 release notes:

STV Updates
1. Added option in Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio to configure the H.264 Video Decoder Filter on Windows

Follow the document. Export the keys created by FilterManager and edit them for SageTV entries.

Gerry

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by sflamm

I installed PDVD8 and the .13 beta.

Now when I try to play a .m2ts it just shows an arrow going round and round in circles

Help!

I thought this was only supported on extenders? HD200.

From the 6.5.11 release notes:

2. Added support for importing BluRay BDMV folder structures. These are now recognized as a single MediaFile. They currently will appear along with DVDs so STVs won't need modifications yet to show them. The ONLY playback mechanism for these currently is the HD media extender (firmware update required). This only plays the main movie of the BluRay; it does not support any menus or other interactive features currently. It does support multiple audio tracks, chapter selection and all the standard playback controls. Subtitle support is in progress.

Gerry

[sflamm]

I am able to play .m2ts files in folders just fine on both server and client ( i dont have extenders)

I have also been able to play bdmv folders, but not with PDVD8 (folders created by clown_bd.

I was able to play .iso files created by clown_bd as well. suddenly i find that most of them are not playing, not sure why?

i tried the PDVD8 codec for TV playback (setting it as the MPEG2 codec) and that does not seem to solve the glitches/flashes. Interestingly, they are not present when the built-in SageTV codec is used.

[KJake]

Looks like a new version came out yesterday. The 0411 version caused lock-ups.