Aero Not Working in Windows 7 64 bit (HP)

[ptzink]

Hello All,
Here is my issue. I am running a SageTV 'server' on a Windows XP Pro machine and my Placeshifter (desktop PC) is running a freshly installed version on Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. SageTV Placeshifter installs and connects to the server fine and Windows Aero visuals are still available. Once I tune a channel or start watching a recording, Windows 7 'shuts down' Aero temporarily and replaces it with the 'basic' decoration. The video displays normally, but there is no transparency and more importantly, no Aero Peak. When clicking on the box for more info, it tells me that the application mplayer is not compatible with Aero. I ran the Aero troubleshooter in Windows 7 64-bit and it was able to get Aero to work with SageTV, but then the video goes black (with audio). I tried enabling the 3D Acceleration option in the PlaceShifter settings with no success.
None of this is a deal breaker, but the strange part is that the Aero Peak feature worked flawlessly in Windows 7 RC1 32-bit. There was live video in the peak window when you moused over the SageTV icon (great when listening to a baseball game and scrolling over the icon when the action happens). This feature was very cool and I would love to have it back.
For what it is worth, I have a Core 2 Duo processor and a 1GB Nvidia 7950 graphics card.
Thanks.

[gplasky]

GT or GX2? You ran 32bit Win 7 before and so you probably had 32bit video drivers. Now you're running Win 7 64 bit and that may be part of the problem. In addition I believe Placeshifter uses openGL for the video. Make sure your card/drivers supports that. That's an older card and may not have the support. Most of the newer drivers add support for GeForce 8 series and above.

Gerry

[ptzink]

gplasky, thanks for your quick reply. It is a 7950 GX2 and it is not THAT old. I did a clean install (reformat) of Windows 7 64-bit and downloaded the 64-bit drivers from nvidia's web site, so I don't think it is a 32-bit driver problem. Again, this is not a big issue at all. I just loved it in Windows 7 32-bit and want it now in 64-bit. I will play around with some more graphics settings in the nvidia control panel and see if I can get anything to work.

[gplasky]

See if there are any openGL options in the drivers. When I say old I don't necessarily mean in years. All the latest drivers aren't adding any features to the 7xxx series of cards. Any new features or Directx 9 and above support are for 8xxx series and above. You may want to consider running the Sage PC client instead of Placeshifter to take advantage of EVR in Windows 7. You may also find it works better with an older version of the drivers for Placeshifter.

Gerry

[ptzink]

Thanks again. For as long as I have been a SageTV user, I am not sure why I have always run the Placeshifter instead of the Client on my local network. I will give the Client a go to see if that works better and report back. Thanks for the suggestion.

[ptzink]

Now I know why... The Client would be another license I would have to purchase whereas I already have purchased a media extender/placeshifter license. The Aero did work great with the Client... sigh. Guess I will try to tweak settings to get it to work with the placeshifter.

[gplasky]

Something to keep in mind-the clinet can play DVDs-either from a drive or ripped. Placeshifter cannot.

Gerry

[mdnttoker]

Originally Posted by ptzink

Hello All,
Here is my issue. I am running a SageTV 'server' on a Windows XP Pro machine and my Placeshifter (desktop PC) is running a freshly installed version on Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. SageTV Placeshifter installs and connects to the server fine and Windows Aero visuals are still available. Once I tune a channel or start watching a recording, Windows 7 'shuts down' Aero temporarily and replaces it with the 'basic' decoration. The video displays normally, but there is no transparency and more importantly, no Aero Peak. When clicking on the box for more info, it tells me that the application mplayer is not compatible with Aero. I ran the Aero troubleshooter in Windows 7 64-bit and it was able to get Aero to work with SageTV, but then the video goes black (with audio). I tried enabling the 3D Acceleration option in the PlaceShifter settings with no success.
None of this is a deal breaker, but the strange part is that the Aero Peak feature worked flawlessly in Windows 7 RC1 32-bit. There was live video in the peak window when you moused over the SageTV icon (great when listening to a baseball game and scrolling over the icon when the action happens). This feature was very cool and I would love to have it back.
For what it is worth, I have a Core 2 Duo processor and a 1GB Nvidia 7950 graphics card.
Thanks.

I experience the same problem with my ATI HD4350 on Win7 x64. As you mentioned, not a big deal, but annoying. Have you submitted a bug report?

[Taddeusz]

You should just need to go into the Placeshifter settings and enable 3D Acceleration. After that it should run fine without disableing Aero.

[Fuzzy]

agreed, if you are going to stick with placeshifter, turn on 3d acceleration. Still, I'd also recommend running Client, especially in win7. the quality will be amazingly better using EVR and some real codec's, instead of kludgy placeshifter.

[jakwre]

I just switched to Placeshifter because there is a limitation with the client, it is not able to run on a 2nd monitor in Win 7 64bit because it doesn't have the proper overlays (I'm running SageTV 6 client and server). I confirmed this with a co-worker.