HD-PVR A/V Sync and Stutter

[jsonnabend]

Ok, so I have my HD-PVR hooked up, a brand new 1TB SATA drive with 64k sectors, all run by a Pentium D dual core, 2.66GHz server. My video a/v is badly out of sync and stutters (checked on a recorded file in Arcsoft's player locallly, not over the network).

I'm out of ideas and out of patience. My thought is the whole HD-PVR is hit or miss -- but mostly miss at this point.

Any ideas where to look to fix this problem, or should I arrange for marriage counseling (the wife is none too happy)?

- Jeff

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by jsonnabend

My video a/v is badly out of sync and stutters (checked on a recorded file in Arcsoft's player locallly, not over the network).

Any ideas where to look to fix this problem, or should I arrange for marriage counseling (the wife is none too happy)?

- Jeff

Do you have the latest driver (1.5.6 I think?) for the HD-PVR? Did you update the ArcSoft software?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by jsonnabend

Ok, so I have my HD-PVR hooked up, a brand new 1TB SATA drive with 64k sectors, all run by a Pentium D dual core, 2.66GHz server. My video a/v is badly out of sync and stutters (checked on a recorded file in Arcsoft's player locallly, not over the network).

I'm out of ideas and out of patience. My thought is the whole HD-PVR is hit or miss -- but mostly miss at this point.

Any ideas where to look to fix this problem, or should I arrange for marriage counseling (the wife is none too happy)?

- Jeff

Well if I had to guess, your server is under powered. What kind of video card are you running? Do you have other playback devices on your network that you could try the videos on?

[jsonnabend]

I've tried it on several different machines around my network. I'm not trying to play it on the server.

I did notice tonight that the audio starts in sync but slowly begins to lag during playback (or maybe it's during capture).

I didn't think server power was so critical, with the encoding being done in hardware on the HD-PVR. Why do you suspect that I need more server power? What is it the server is struggling to do?

- Jeff

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by jsonnabend

I've tried it on several different machines around my network. I'm not trying to play it on the server.

I did notice tonight that the audio starts in sync but slowly begins to lag during playback (or maybe it's during capture).

I didn't think server power was so critical, with the encoding being done in hardware on the HD-PVR. Why do you suspect that I need more server power? What is it the server is struggling to do?

- Jeff

What machines---processor and video card? HD-PVR recordings are h.264. You're going to need a video card that does hardware acceleration on those types and a video decoder that takes advantage of the hardware acceleration like PowerDVD or Arcsoft installed on those machines.

Gerry

[jsonnabend]

I don't know the exact hardware, but I was using the Arcsoft player as my test platform. It had been working on earlier recordings, but not when I last tried it.

Since my last post, I've (re)updated the HD-PVR driver to 1.5.6 (I had been back and forth between that and the install disk drivers). It looks like the A/V sync issue is gone, but I have to finish recording a show to test the quality of the recording (I was trying to get rid of micro stutters in the recordings, which I thought had been caused by an incorrectly formatted hard drive).

Right now I'm watching live HD on a woefully underpowered client. A/V is in sync, but I have occasional glitches I'm pretty sure are playback (not record) issues. I don't have a properly configured client yet to test SageTV playback. I'm waiting on both an HD200 and a new video card.

Light at the end of the tunnel -- oncoming train or daylight?

- Jeff

[davephan]

Running the setup.exe on the root of the installation CD is not enough to get the HD PVR to work properly.

When you install the HD PVR, make sure to run \Build\CD-HD-PVR-V21A\TME\setup.exe and I think \Build\CD-HD-PVR-V21A\CDSetup\setup.exe.

Make sure that your SageTV program is up to date at least version 6.6.1, then go to "Setup", "Detailed Setup", "Audio/Video", and set the "H.264 Decoder Video Filter" to "ArcSoft Video Decoder".

Dave

[jsonnabend]

When you install the HD PVR, make sure to run \Build\CD-HD-PVR-V21A\TME\setup.exe and I think \Build\CD-HD-PVR-V21A\CDSetup\setup.exe.

What do these two items install? I have both the Total Media Extreme and the player (whatever they call it) installed. Do they install anything in additon?

I have the arcsoft decoder selected in the client.

Both client and server are 6.6.1.

- Jeff

[davephan]

It was Total Media Extreme and I think it was the drivers for the HD PVR.

When I first started setting up the HD PVR, I tried running setup.exe on the root of the CD - I assumed it was a 'normal' setup. I discovered the Total Media Extreme did not run from the root of the CD.

I was surprised that the interface to the HD PVR uses a USB connection. The throughput on the USB is poor compared to an Eithernet connection. In my case, the channel tuning is very slow on the HD PVR, and it does work without stuttering.

Dave

[mistergq]

Are you using component audio or digital optical audio? Until you get the HD-PVR running, I would recommend starting out with only audio at this point.

Second, maybe i am missing it, but what video card are you using in your server and your client?

The Arcsoft decoder and video card are very important. I was able to get .h264 playing on a single core computer with out a problem, but that was because of both the video card and decoder. If either of them were missing, I would experience the issues you are experiencing.

If you have the right video card and decoder installed properly, then I would open a ticket with Hauppauge as then the next issue is you have a bad HD PVR.

[jsonnabend]

I am using stereo (RCA) input to the HD-PVR. Luckily, I'm an audiophile first, so my home theater is only stereo, and always will be. ;-)

I absolutely have an underpowered video card in my client (I don't do playback on the server). I was hoping to test the recordings to make sure they're ok while waiting for my HD200 and video card upgrade. I'm pretty sure that no card I have in the house right now is up to snuff.

That said, it looks to me like I have the recording working, but I won't know for sure until the client side upgrades arrive, so I'll have to sit tight for a few more days (c'mon Newegg).

Thanks everyone for the help. The Sage community rocks.

- Jeff

[kamikaze2112]

I've been experiencing the same sort of issues lately, and I know for sure that my system will handle this stuff. the audio starts to lag the longer I get into a show. now, I don't notice it too badly when watching stuff that's pre-recorded as I skip all the commercials, but right now I'm trying to watch the nascar race live, and I'd say every 20-25 minutes the audio is about a half second behind, and I have to rewind and then fast forward again to get it back in sync.

I'm running component video from the server to my TV, and the server is a C2Q 2.33ghz, 4gb ram, GeForce 9600GT 1gb. Live TV has it's own 320GB drive formatted with 64k clusters.

I think I'll wipe/reload it later today and see if that fixes it, as I want to shuffle some drives and data around anyway.

[jsonnabend]

That was the problem I was experiencing. I upgraded the HD-PVR drivers to the most recent (1.5.6, I believe), and that appears to have fixed it.

- Jeff

[TallMomof2]

If you still have micro stutter check your source. Some people have to set the source at 720p, others at 1080p. Until December I had to use 720p but since then I have to have the source set at 1080p.

[jsonnabend]

Thanks for the info. I upgraded the client's video card to an ATI 4350, and life is peachy. I did have intermittent crashes of SageTV, but I tracked that down to a conflict with the sound driver and Winamp. I'll post a note on that later for anyone who might face the problem.

- Jeff