Vista 32 bit and then Windows 7 32 bit EVR

[abbott_m]

Well, after using EVR quite successfully for around 8 months, it suddenly just stopped working right (coincidentally with a hard drive failure which was fun to troubleshoot). Since I had it all apart, I went on and changed out the O/S (full reinstall) to windows 7 32 bit and have gotten all my tuners, USB-UIRT, TV Translator, etc working in it. I then tried to turn back on EVR with PDVD8 and get huge stutter in the playback. when I go to overlay, the video plays just fine (All H.264 stuff in .ts files). I'd also recently updated my TV to a 1080p set and thought my video card might be a tad underpowered (Nvidia 8800GT). A quick trip to the store and I have an Nvidia 260 GTX now but EVR is still not playing nicely (overlay still looks decent but isn't as crisp as EVR). I will also note that FSE makes windows 7 just display a blank screen which was an interesting discovery.

I've run the performance tests in Windows 7 and am coming up with a 5.5 rating with memory being the slowest component (video is around 6.5 on a scale of 7.5 I think).

So, my question is after trying PDVD8 and Core AVC for H.264 files, I can't get EVR functioning again in Vista or Windows 7 and I have no idea what nerd knob to turn to make it work again.

As an asside, Core AVC seems to play stutter free but has huge interlacing problems in 1080p to the point that it's not living up to it's marketing hype of being the fastest H.264 codec out there.

Mike

[abbott_m]

bump

[babgvant]

The 8800GT should have more than enough go to do full HWA.

What is the CPU utilization when you play a file?

Does it work in GraphStudio?

[abbott_m]

Well, It's a done deal now. I'm on a 260GTX but EVR won't function properly in windows 7 and the entire reason I rebuilt on win7 was the problem with EVR (although I didn't discover the issue until I already had it loaded up). When I run the system performance applet in win7, it's at 5.5 with the only reason it's that low is the memory I have installed.

One curious thing I found was that WMP would play the H.264 files with absolutely no codec loaded other than what came with the system. It'd sure be nice if sage could use that as it seemed to do the audio and video flawlessly.

The utility you mentioned (graphstudio), I've not used in the past nor heard of. What does it do?

CPU utilization on this Quad Core is hard to monitor when it's in full screen mode but from what I can determine, it's hardly getting above 10-15% at most for any of the cores.

I've taken off any other software like showanalyzer or comskip and moved it to another machine. I've also RMA'd the motherboard so basically, other than the memory and PS, the whole system has been replaced in one way or another.

Mike

[babgvant]

WMP on 7 uses MediaFoundation for playback, where Sage is a DirectShow based media player.

GraphStudio is a GUI for simulating graph building and playback.

I wrote a article on how to use it a while back.

Drag the file on, delete the "Video Renderer" filter, then from the "Graph->Insert Video Renderer" menu item select "Enhanced Video Renderer".

Then click right click on the pin that was connected to the "Video Renderer" and select Render from the options.

Assuming it all connected OK, click the play button to init playback.

HWA doesn't require full screen to work, so window Sage and pull up taskmgr. CPU utilitazion if HWA is working should be very low (in the 2-3% range).

[abbott_m]

Sorry for the confusion. I'd not noticed that Graphedit had been renamed as graphstudio. I've always liked that.

When I run a graph on some of the .ts files they graph fine using the built in win7 drivers but some just fail with a message saying it can't make the graph.

I'll run the processor utilization when I get home as using VNC isn't usually a good indication of the cpu utility.

When using overlay (or default in sage, I've selected both), cpu on 3 of the cores goes to around 40% and playback is smooth (although the cpu is high). When I select EVR, cpu goes much loser (around 10-15%) but I can't at this time tell if the video is smooth with VNC.

Give me about 2 hours and I'll post on it again.

Mike

[abbott_m]

Well I checked out the cpu utilization and the results are:

1. overlay - ~48% on all 4 cores
2. VMR9 - ~45% on all 4 cores but with glitches in the video
3. EVR - ~3-5% but the video is not viewable

I'm running this in 1080p over a DVI cable. I'm quite honestly stumped.

Mike

[babgvant]

What decoder? Latest drivers and all that right?

Are those numbers in graphstudio? If the EVR doesn't work in graphstudio it won't work in Sage.

[abbott_m]

Running current version of nvidia video drivers, mainboard drivers. Codec is pdvd8 which has worked nicely for me in the past. CoreAVC turned out to basically be a waste of cash as the video was unwatchable. My last gasp is to move the video card to the second PCI-EX16 slot rather than the first one. I just replaced the main board so this is really throwing me for a loop.

[babgvant]

does the evr work in graphstudio? there shouldn't be any diff b/w the slots.

[abbott_m]

Actually, I can't get graphstudio to even open a .ts file. Just says it can't open it. It does .mpg files just fine. Guess I could have a problem with the pdvd codec but I just did the base install from the installation media as I've done before.

[babgvant]

Open the attached file in graphstudio, then "File: Add Media File" to select the ts.

[TallMomof2]

In order to get EVR in Win7 I had to purchase the Cyperlink H.264 codecs. Once installed I was able to choose H.264 in Sage and EVR works great.

[babgvant]

The TMT decoder should work, but you have to jump through some hoops.

Ideally, Sage will add MEDIASUBTYPE_H264 or MEDIASUBTYPE_AVC1 support to their demuxer. Then it will work with the built in MS decoder.