Video Renderer

[MickBurke]

I figured out the culprit in the weird video problem I've been having, and it's the "Video Renderer" setting in the video settings. I switched it around and now the recordings that were problematic are oK. Only problem is that every now and then an MPG file recorded from my QAM tuner will show up blank (but with audio) i switch it again and it works OK. Of course now I don't recall what it was originally set at and I have no idea what theses are actually doing. The options I have are: Default video renderer, video overlay renderer, DirectX9 video mixing renderer (VMR9) and Enhanced video renderer. Can someone tell me what the best option is or what the different options really are? Can I add something better?

Any recommendations??

[Taddeusz]

If you're running Windows Vista or Windows 7 EVR is the best option. Assuming your hardware is capable it allows the full acceleration of both MPEG2 and H.264 video.

[MickBurke]

Thanks. Yea, I guess I should have mentioned, I'm running XP on a Nvidia 7900GS card. Seems to use a bit more processor for EVR, but it seems to have the least problems as well...

Thanks for the input.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by MickBurke

Thanks. Yea, I guess I should have mentioned, I'm running XP on a Nvidia 7900GS card. Seems to use a bit more processor for EVR, but it seems to have the least problems as well...

Thanks for the input.

Ok, then VMR9 should be the best choice.

[MickBurke]

Great, thanks again.

[Taddeusz]

To get the best advantage out of VMR9 you'll need to pick decoders that support it and make sure those options are enabled in the decoder. For example, if you're using Cyberlink decoders you'll need to use a program like the DirectShow Filter Manager and go into the Filter Settings and ensure that dxva support is enabled. Otherwise you won't receive the advantage of acceleration and CPU usage will be higher as a result. Other decoders have similar options although I'm not sure that SageTV's own decoder is capable of hardware acceleration.

[MickBurke]

Thanks again!

I downloaded that tool, and adjusted as you recommended. Unfortunately, it didn't have any real effect on CPU usage. Is that a limitation of the old Gforce 7900 GS perhaps?

[Taddeusz]

What kind of recordings are these? How much CPU usage are you seeing during playback? What kind and how fast of CPU do you have?

[MickBurke]

Some are .ts files form my Hauppague HD PVR's and otehr are .mpg's from the internal QAM tuner. It's getting to about 60% CPU on all 4 cores of the Core2 Quad CPU (Q9400 @2.66Ghz). If I set the affinity it will do OK with mpegs on 2 cores, and will still go to the same 60%, but for the .ts files it will need all 4.

Thanks again!

[Taddeusz]

The HDPVR recordings are going to require a lot since Windows XP has no support for DXVA2. Those will always require a lot of CPU resources to play under XP. However, if you have a good MPEG2 decoder you should get near zero CPU usage on the QAM recordings as long as you're using the VMR9 renderer.

What MPEG2 decoder are you using?

[MickBurke]

OK, so for the .ts files a new video card won't help. It'll take an upgrade to windows 7?

Thanks!

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by MickBurke

OK, so for the .ts files a new video card won't help. It'll take an upgrade to windows 7?

Thanks!

Correct, even with a new video card an upgrade to Vista or Windows 7 would be required for full hardware acceleration of your H.264 HDPVR recordings.

[MickBurke]

OK, so one last question, woudl I get ay benefit out of windows 7 with my existing Nvidia Gegorce 7900GS (x2), or would I need different hardware to get the benefit that Windows 7 would enable?

Thanks again!

[Taddeusz]

According to the nvidia 7 series specs you should get full H.264 acceleration with Windows 7.

[MickBurke]

Guess I'll back it up and give it a try! I still prefer XP for the look and feel, but if I actually gain something, I might want to make the move. Thanks again!

[MickBurke]

Sorry, I just realized that I never answered the 'what mpeg decoder are you using' question. Since I'm still struggling with the MPG playback issue, I have it set for the Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD9). I also tried watching one of the files in VLC player, and got the same CPU usage... Is there another decoder, or other settings that I might play with?

BTW, I'm still on XP at this point...

[Taddeusz]

The Arcsoft Video Decoder is decent. Although I prefer either Microsoft's decoder which comes with Windows 7 and is excellent for hardware accelerated MPEG2 and H.264 or the Cyberlink decoder for MPEG2. One thing you might try is changing always_use_dshow_player=true in your properties file.

[MickBurke]

Well, that gained me about 15-20%... Thanks!

[Striker:WG]

One thing to try doing (if you want to stick with Cyberlink codecs), is to rename your direct show filter manager to be sagetv.exe before running it.

The Cyberlink codecs save their settings per application in the registry so the easiest way to associate the settings your making in Direct Show Filter Manager is to name it sagetv.exe so the settings are saved in the registry as if they were originally saved from SageTV itself. Otherwise you have to start hacking around in the registry renaming keys for it to work properly.

-Striker-

[MickBurke]

Hmmm, so I installed windows 7, and now I only can view the .MPG files, if I try to view any of the .ts H.264 recordings, I get: There was an error in Playback. Details: sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-5,0x80040200): There was a problem
rendering the audio portion of the content for playback. I went through all the listed decoders, but none of them work...

Any suggestions??