RC1 Experiences

[Capt Dean]

That pretty much explains my situation too. Playback of prerecorded is awesome. Live, well that's another story. Studder, studder, studder. And forget simultaneous record and playback. Totally unwatchable.

I have a clean formated (64k clusters) 200Gig WD HDD. Real fast.
Processor is a little weak. AMD 1.4. 512 RAM. I am using an older ATI AIW Radeon. Could the processor/graphics card be the bottleneck? This is on a dedicated HTPC running nothing else. XP Pro. (This system runs BeyondTV 3 live TV just fine)

My system specs should be more than enough according to the mim req listed on the web site.

I'm completely satisfied with playback. But since I'm using DirecTV receivers, I cannot add the second tuner and "tie" up my second reciever until I can get Live TV working properly.... I'd have to watch through the HTPC vs a seperate DirecTV box as I'm currently doing.

Whoa. Got kinda long-winded.

In short..... I'm getting stuttering in Live too.

[kny3twalker]

Capt Dean
Actually I was referring to a recording of a liveTV show kind of like sports
I watch liveTV rarely in Sage, and I believe that most TV shows and sports that are recorded live are a different frame rate
I will see if I notice this but It may just not be as much of a problem with recording but if it stutters in LIVETV it will probably in the recording as well
and are you using a pvr 250 or a AIW in SageTV?

[Capt Dean]

Thanks for the clarification.

I'm using a 350 to record. The "recordings" when viewed live stutter badly, but when played independently, show no signs of missed frames..... they are being captured just fine, just doesn't seem to be buffering and playing well concurrently.

As for your question on frame rates. It is my understanding that certain content may be recorded at different frame rates, but when broadcast will be at 29.97 per the nTSC standard. So, by the time the content gets to us, there should be no difference.

I am willing to stand corrected on that... but that's my take.

(I might take this opportunity to add that I just came on board with Sage over the weekend. Gave up on Beyond TV.... I regret having chosen it months ago based on the GUI. ... lacking real substance IMHO compared to Sage)

[dkardatzke]

Let me reiterate that the stuttering problem has been identified and fixed for RC2.

[m0ng00se30]

Hope we see RC2 pretty quick... So we can iron this out!

Thanks for the hard work Dan!!!

--Mike

[mikejaner]

Welcome Capt Dean. The stuttering thing is definatly temporary. This has not been a problem in previous betas, and as Dan says, is fixed for RC2. Hopefully you will see a better performing product this week if they release RC2. I am not having as big of a problem as others, but there is a slight stutter every once in a while where there didn't used to be.

I too am a convert from Snapstream, MythTV, and TIVO, and haven't looked back since. The big things that got me were Multiple Tuners, Hardware Decoding with my PVR350, and Networked Clients.

[rrussell]

Thanks, Dan! That's great to hear. Keep up the good work!

[kny3twalker]

Sorry Dan I was not sure
I thought you meant the stuttering that happens only very five minutes was corrected
I finally experienced that as well and does it suck
But I still find it funny whether or not it has been fixed, is that recording that were not live rboadcast seem to do ok other than the 5 minute stutter
but live broadcast do horrible even with 3d acceleration off
picture just choppy
also if I turn on 3d acceleration with overlay and hit the display button I get frame drops probably the same issue but no one has mention this before and I have not seen it in other betas
Thanks
-Robert

[tangfj]

I too hope that RC2 comes out soon so I can make use of my client software again.

Another problem that I see is that the OSD does not pop up when I use the 2 minute skip. Not a big deal, but it's nice to know where I am in the program I am watching. The OSD pops up just fine when I use the 10 second skip, but fails to come up when I press the 2 minute skip.

Other than that, I haven't had any other significant problems with RC1.

[Capt Dean]

Thanks Dan. Please don't read my post as frustration (just a statement of the current situation).... I'm a convert from BTV and am glad for it. This is a Beta release after all.... I'm surprised to see such a solid Beat as it is..... BTW thanks for your post. It's good to see the founders/developers checking in. That helps reassure that I made the right switch.

I am fine to patiently await the RC2. Even with this minor glitch (which I'm glad you've ironed out so responsively), this is IMHO a far superior product!

Keep up the excellent work.

[Capt Dean]

mikejaenr:

"The big things that got me were Multiple Tuners, Hardware Decoding with my PVR350, and Networked Clients."

Me too!

Thanks for the reasurring post. Haven't lurked.... 1st impressions are that this seems to be a pretty tight community.

Thanks for welcoming me aboard. I hope to be a positive contributer. (I currently teach troubleshooting for DirecTV, so maybe I can contribute something useful)

[Crowdx42]

Are all the properties and wiz.bin files backward compatible with previous beta's ? I am considering moving back to a previous beta but don't want to lose my previous favorites and recordings, properties are not such a big issue but would be helpful to make sure they are backward compatible also?
Patrick

[Capt Dean]

Originally posted by dkardatzke
Let me reiterate that the stuttering problem has been identified and fixed for RC2.

Ok. I installed RC2. Studder...studder. Plays back recordings fine. LiveTV over client....fine..... only with local LiveTV.

Formatted. Installed updated drivers. Installed fresh. Studder. studder.

I find it hard to believe it's the HDD. Works fine over client.
Not the processor.... plays back beautifully.... besides handles BTV3 live solidly.

I'm beginning to suspect DirectX9 and my AIW Radeon card. Shouldn't it be robust enough?

If it is the card, would a 9200AIW uffer the same for lack of DX9 support.

Any help would be appreciated.

[mlbdude]

My ATI 9000 works fine with no stutters at 640x480. What settings and decoders have you tried? Have you tried enabling DXVA on those decoders? Or are you using a 350 on the server?

A good test against DX9 is to run Overlay with 3D Acceleration off. This is how Sage 1.4 worked.

[Capt Dean]

Using a 350.
Tried the 350 reg hacks. Didn't work. Reformatted to go to a clean registry.

I tried just about every setting possibility there is. Overly. No overlay..... overlay with 3d... without3d..... default decoder.... hauppauge...... All seem to studder, but only for live. Playback is superb.

BTW: I noticed some recordings that are split. When I play them they have a several minute gap... Happened randomly 3 times now (of course no repeats to catch later..... URG)

[mlbdude]

If you are using a 350 to output then upgrading your primary video card won't help.

[Capt Dean]

Sorry. misunderstood. capturing with 350. outputing with ATI

[Crowdx42]

I think the split files is a resource problem on the motherboard commonly caused by a USB-UIRT. I had this problem with an Epox 8RDA3+ board and a USB-UIRT, switching the motherboard out cured the problem. What may help you to minimise the problem is to format the drive at 64k clusters and then in the bios disable parrallel port, com ports, any unused onboard hardware and then do a fresh install. This way all the remaining hardware may get better irq assignments, a last ditch attempt if this does not work is to go to the device manager and under COMPUTER, double click ACPI and choose update drivers, install from a speciific location, don't search I will choose the driver to install and then in the following list choose STANDARD COMPUTER. You will then have to reboot and let XP\W2K reinstall all your hardware. Now the irqs will all be assigned to do less sharinf cause virual irq assignment as been pretty much disabled (XP tends to show a lot of hardware sharing irq BUT what XP is actually doing is dynamically swapping irq when it needs to)
Hope some of the above helps.
Patrick

[Capt Dean]

This is a very comprehensive answer.... Thanks
I have already disabled ports and extraneous. I will go ahead and try your other recommendations as well. This may take a while. (Don't want to swap out the MOBO though.... made from spare parts.... including a good ASUS A266 Board.)

I VERY much appreciate you taking time to address my problem.

I'll keep you posted on the result.

[Crowdx42]

Do you by any chance have an Ati 9000 card? OOPPSS.. just seen you have an AIW card. A possible answer also would be to swap out the ati card.
Patrick