My Setup for Perfect Playback in Windows 7 x64

[superdodge]

I just setup a new SageTV Server this weekend and I wanted to record my settings for anyone they may help. I've seen lots of threads about problems with Windows 7. I always had issues getting smooth playback out of my Vista setup (same PC, different HDD) but this seems to be working quite well.

Details of my Setup:
OS - Windows 7 64-Bit
CPU - AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core 2.2 Ghz
MoBo - XFX nForce 750a SLI HDMI ATX AMD (MDA72P7509)
Video - ZOTAC GeForce GT 220 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI-E (ZT-20201-10L)
RAM - 8GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz
HDD - 7200 rpm 1.5 TB Seagate

Windows Experience Index Scores (As a Reference):
Processor - 6.9
Memory - 7.2
Graphics - 6.4
Gaming Graphics - 6.4
Hard Disk - 5.9

Sage Setup Details:
1 HDPVR
1 HD HomeRun

Codecs And Options in Sage:
Video Renderer - EVR
MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter - Default
MPEG4 Playback - DirectShow
MPEG4 Video Decoder Filter - CoreAVC Video Decoder (Professional v2.0)
3D Acceleration On
Fullscreen Exclusive Mode Off
Note: I have no option to turn on DXVA as I did with the same setup in Vista

Other Settings (Outside of SageTV):
Vertical Sync to "Force On" in 3D Advanced Settings (NVidia Control Panel)
Triple Buffering On in 3D Advanced Settings (NVidia Control Panel)

H.264 Playback takes about 8% CPU Utilization with this setup.

If anyone has any other questions or needs any more information, I can provide them. I'll subscribe to this thread and respond as soon as I can.

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Also - I have seen several people report that they are using Nvidia PureVideo for MPEG2 Playback in Windows 7. In my case, PureVideo playback in Windows 7 does not work at all. It results in a single snapshot when playback starts and no screen updates until stopping or pausing again.

I have ALWAYS used PureVideo for MPEG2 and I hate to not use it; however, it appears that it just won't work for me in Windows 7. Please also note that Nvidia themselves say that PureVideo does not support Windows 7.

[MitchSchaft]

Thanks for this post. I just got the same graphics card and was wondering how I could keep the my dual CPU box from hitting 50% when running any video types. It did the same with my old card, so maybe it's a setting I'm missing. I thought having a hardware driven video setup, the CPU wouldn't move much.

I'm running WinXP pro, btw. My analog tv tuner doesn't like windows7.

[valnar]

OP, I'm glad you got it working, but Win7 x64 is the least compatible OS for Sage. XP being the best and Win2003 Server & Vista x32 being in the middle. I don't know why people insist on using a 64-bit OS then try to work around the problems. You could easily get your NVidia decoder back if you made that change.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by valnar

OP, I'm glad you got it working, but Win7 x64 is the least compatible OS for Sage.

That is an incorrect statement. I run Windows 7 x64 on my main computer and my SageTV Client runs fine after the proper patches were installed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with running Windows 7 x64.

[jerryt]

Win 7 x64 fine here also.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

That is an incorrect statement.

You can't tell me that Sage and all the tuners were created with Windows 7 in mind. You can say you got it to work, but it's incorrect that it works flawlessly without any workarounds. You at least had to do something with UAC, right? Do you use it for Netflix, analog capture, anything like that? The OP already admitted he had to take a concession to get it working.

[Fuzzy]

the FAQ on here has plenty of info on win7. As for UAC, all you have to do is install sage outside of the Program Files folder (C:\SageTV is a great place). UAC will no longer be a concern. As for drivers, of course there are older capture cards that might not work right, but that's the case with anything. What Win7 brings to the table (the built-in decoders, incredibly smooth renderer, etc) far outwiegh any inconveniences it might introduce. In fact, it takes far more 'workarounds' to get perfectly smooth playback in XP, in that you have to install 3rd party decoders to even have a chance of smooth playback, and even then, you have to make the choice of either frame-synced smooth playback with Overlay, and No transparency, or transparency with VMR with the chance of decoding being out of sync with refresh, creating tearing.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by valnar

You can't tell me that Sage and all the tuners were created with Windows 7 in mind. You can say you got it to work, but it's incorrect that it works flawlessly without any workarounds. You at least had to do something with UAC, right? Do you use it for Netflix, analog capture, anything like that? The OP already admitted he had to take a concession to get it working.

Windows is Windows. Sure, it's newer but is not THAT different from Vista.

As far as myself the only thing I did was made the SageTV folder writable by my user without needing Administrator rights. But I did that for convenience and not because I had to. UAC is still enabled with the default settings. This is a Client so I don't have any tuners so I can't speak for that. It works fine for accessing Netflix through PlayOn.

As far as tuners not being created with Windows 7 in mind. That's wrong. Reference my first paragraph. The only thing different with Windows 7 is that to be certified for Windows 7 the product must be compatible with both x32 and x64 versions. This means both x32 and x64 drivers must be available so that they can put the Windows 7 logo on their packaging. Older products are at the discretion of their manufacturer, which has always been the case with new versions of Windows. Nothing has changed.

[MitchSchaft]

Anyone know if I have a codec/hardware issue with my high CPU usage? I use Sage's decoder or nVidia's.

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by MitchSchaft

Anyone know if I have a codec/hardware issue with my high CPU usage? I use Sage's decoder or nVidia's.

Yeah, even if you install the proper codecs for h.264/mpeg2 etc they're often ignored in Win7. Run Win7 DS Filter Tweaker (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146910) .

I also could not get Purevideo working in Win 7, Cyberlink PDVD9 works for MPEG2 though.

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Yeah, even if you install the proper codecs for h.264/mpeg2 etc they're often ignored in Win7. Run Win7 DS Filter Tweaker (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146910) .

I also could not get Purevideo working in Win 7, Cyberlink PDVD9 works for MPEG2 though.

Does it not work in Win 7 in general (in a dshow player) or only in Sage under Win7? I recently ran into an issue where .mp4 files wouldn't play in Sage anymore. When checking this in Graphedit it showed a working graph. The splitter in use though was from Cyberlink (probably inherited due to PDVD installation), which apparently didn't play nicely together with Sage. I then lowered the merit of this splitter that it wouldn't be used anymore, and playback is fine now again, including in Sage.

Bottom line here is, that it's not always the decoders (which pretty much can be freely selected in Sage), but also the splitters that you cannot easily change in Sage.

The less codecs you install is typically better...

[MitchSchaft]

What about Windows XP?

[texneus]

Superdodge, yes it is possible! But it would probably be very useful to also know what driver versions, audio renderer, and refresh rate you are running for the video card and tuners. I've noticed problems with some combinations over others (particularly with the HDPVR!). I also am reading about lots of issues with stutter associated to Nvidia 197.13 drivers, although I am not seeing it in SageTV so I still use them. It would be helpful to learn if others have/had problems with these items. My setup is very similar to yours, but not nearly as much horse power:

OS: Windows 7 x86
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core e5300 @ 2.6GHz
MB: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L
Vid: PNY Verto GT 240 512MB DDR5 PCI-E x16 (GeForce 197.13)
RAM: 2GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz
HDD: 5400 rpm 1.5 TB WD "Green"

Windows Experience Index Scores (As a Reference):
Processor: 6.0
Memory: 5.5
Graphics: 6.8
Gaming Graphics: 6.8
Hard Disk: 5.9

Tuner Info:
Hauppauge HD-PVR (driver 1.5.6.1) Component+SPDIF w/Firewire tuning using FWChannelProxy
Silicon Dust HD-Homerun (driver 20100213) (one tuner=OTA, one=QAM)

Codecs And Options in Sage:
Native Recording Patch Beta 10 plus Beta 10 updates
Video Renderer - EVR
MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter - Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder
MPEG4 Playback - DirectShow
MPEG4 Video Decoder Filter - Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder
3D Acceleration On
Fullscreen Exclusive Mode Off (Note this requires Aero and Aero eye-candy to be on for smooth playback)

Audio Render - Default Direct Sound device (audio output is set to SPDIF*)
Audio Filter - Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder

Other Settings (Outside of SageTV):
Java version 6 r19
Vertical Sync to "Force On" in 3D Advanced Settings (NVidia Control Panel)
Triple Buffering On in 3D Advanced Settings (NVidia Control Panel)
TV output is 1080i (29Hz, actually 29.97 which matches ATSC)
UAC is enabled but SageTV is installed outside of Program Files to avoid it.
*EDID Spoofing so the GT240 outputs DVI video as DVI so I can use SPDIF audio (see here: http://currysauce.org/2010/03/20/how...raphics-cards/)

H.264 Playback takes about 15% CPU Utilization. Playback of both MPG and H.264 is smooth. One of our local "rerun" stations is problematic because they intentionally drop ~2 video frames per second so they can insert more commercials (talk about stutter!). This is very noticeable when viewing the channel on TV, but the GT240 smooths it out such that watching it on Sage is superior to watching it live.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by MitchSchaft

What about Windows XP?

Obviously this thread is about Windows 7. But full hardware acceleration of H.264 in Windows XP is not possible because DXVA2 is not available in that OS. You need Windows Vista or 7 in order to take advantage of DXVA2 for full H.264 acceleration.

[MitchSchaft]

nevermind, i'll start my own thread. And you guys turned it in to a win7 discussion. I bumped it for another reason.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by MitchSchaft

nevermind, i'll start my own thread. And you guys turned it in to a win7 discussion. I bumped it for another reason.

Well, it did start as "My Setup for Perfect Playback in Windows 7 x64"

[MitchSchaft]

Yeah, thanks.

[doncote0]

I was looking forward to my desktop upgrade and considered upgrading to Windows 7 especially since Windows XP SP3 end of support is not that far away.

I'll try putting SageTV into it's own directory, unless some Windows 7 user tells me that it is not necessary.

[Fuzzy]

It's not a necesity, and sage will function ust fine if in the program files directory, and the configuratino in the virtualstore. It's just EASIER to put it somewhere else, so there is no confusino on what files are being used. I'd recommend C:\SageTV.

Hopefully, Sage7 will be more UAC compatible, and store user settings in user space, so it's no longer an issue.

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Obviously this thread is about Windows 7. But full hardware acceleration of H.264 in Windows XP is not possible because DXVA2 is not available in that OS. You need Windows Vista or 7 in order to take advantage of DXVA2 for full H.264 acceleration.

Hmm, I'm 100% sure I had h.264 acceleration under Win XP with an NVIDIA 8600 then an 260 with CoreAVC. I'm talking high bitrate (5000+ kbps) 720p peaking at 5 or 6% of my CPU (Intel Q8400).