Jerky Playback, dead pixel line, audio cutout...HELP

[bgkast]

I'm almost at my wit's end with this program. When watching live TV or a recorded show I get a vertical pixel-wide black line, jerky video playback, and the audio cuts out after about 30 seconds of watching the show. Playback is slightly jerky with WinTV, but the other problems with the dead line of pixels and audio cutout do not occur, so I do not think it is a hardware issue.

I have tried the various options for video renders and decoders, with no luck. I have been playing with the audio renders and decoders too, but have yet to try all of the possible combinations.

I am running the latest version of Sage (6.6) and windows XP sp3 on my older Sony Viao with a HVR-1600 tuner card. I could see my older video-card being the cause of the jerky playback (it's a rage fury pro/xprt 200 pro), but I have no issues watching DVDs or playing on-line streaming content such as netflix or hulu.

I also can't get SageTV to play DVDs, or get the stupid remote control to work, but those are issues for a different thread...

[paulbeers]

DVD and HULU are fairly low res video formats compared to HD and therefore if it is a lack of video playback "horsepower" then everything would be jerky. Your system specs would be extremely helpful for us to determine what the issue is.

As for DVD playback, if you are trying to just play a DVD you need to use other video codecs (set this in the DVD detailed setup and not just the standard video playback) as the Sage provided codecs do not handle the DVD encryption.

[MitchSchaft]

Wow, that's an old video card. I have a feeling it's your hardware causing you troubles. Post your specs for us.
As far as not being able to play DVDs, it's probably a codec issue. You have to go in to Sage's settings, go to the DVD setting menu and choose what codec you want Sage to use for DVDs. You probably dont have a codec installed for it to use, so I would head over to babgvant's site and go through his tutorial for installing AntiPack:
http://babgvant.com/blogs/andyvt/arc...g-your-pc.aspx

[OneOfMany]

If I recall, I sold those cards in the late 90's. I think they were 32MB or 64MB and barely supported the 4x AGP standard. If thats the case, it is entirely probable that the system you are using may not be adequate for displaying video.

[bgkast]

Hardware Specs are as follows:

Asus P450-VL motherboard from a Sony Vaio VGC-RA718G, Pentium 4 3.0 GHz processer, 2.0 GB Ram, 80 GB and 500GB hard drives, HVC-1600 tuner card, Sound Blaster audio card and old AGP video card mentioned above. Anything else I should try before I shop for a new video card (and a bigger power supply to power it)?

As for the DVD playback I am using VLC Media player for DVD playback. I have tried both options sage gives me for MPEG2 Video Decoder: Default and SageTV MPEG Video Decoder. These were the only choices I had in SAGE TV before I installed VLC too.

Thank you for the help!

[bgkast]

Originally Posted by OneOfMany

If I recall, I sold those cards in the late 90's. I think they were 32MB or 64MB and barely supported the 4x AGP standard. If thats the case, it is entirely probable that the system you are using may not be adequate for displaying video.

I *think* this one might be a 128, but I am not positive. I got the computer second hand for this project

Thanks again.

[MitchSchaft]

Rage128 is just the name of a chip they used to make. And that pro 2000 model of yours has 32MB onboard with the Rage128 chip.

[bgkast]

Got it. New video card time! I just pulled the trigger on this one: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=Z700-5202

It was the only one I could find that had VGA, S-video and DVI out, supported dual view and would work with my 250W power supply.

I'll follow up once I get it in.

Thank you

[MitchSchaft]

That's much better, but may give some issues with HD playback. I have the geforce 7600 and consider that the minimum card to get for HD. But for regular DVDs and TV, it should be fine.

[reeven]

I notice that : vertical pixel-wide black line myself, here:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ghlight=reeven

[MitchSchaft]

Are you outputing to a CRT TV by any chance? Otherwise, it sounds like you have some major hardware issues.

[bgkast]

I was outputting to a crt tv via a/v cable and a mitsubishi hd1000 projector via vga, and was having the pixel line in sage on both.

I got the new card in yesterday and it seems to have fixed the video issues. Playback is now smooth with no pixel line. I am still having the audio cut out problem which makes sage unusable. After 30 seconds of watching live tv or recorded shows my sound disappears. Again, this does not occur In any other program including winTV.

Any ideas on a fix for my audio? Thanks for the help so far!