Rendering HD files on Win/Sage 7

[AWS]

With XP and Sage 7 I didn't have an issue with rendering and artifacts/blocky pixelation. When I rebuilt the same computer and reloaded with Win7 and x64 drivers, fresh install of new software, I get abnormal pixelation or lack of rendering when viewing 1080p files. See attached screen shot. Any idea what is happening? Is this a video card driver, codec (currently using CoreAVC), or rendering with EVR issue? This particular image is from Ortus trailers showing Paranormal Activity 2.

[Spectrum]

Wow that is UGLY. Does it happen with all 1080p content or just the trailers obtained from Ortus?

Try switching from CoreAVC to the Microsoft DTD decoder for h.264 and see if that makes a difference.

Although according to your signature I might hazard a guess that the problem is that 386DX is probably not on the HCL for Windows 7

[AWS]

HA. Yeah, the signature... no, that's not really what I have.

It happens for any HD video source - BD discs, BD rips to MKV, Apple trailers via Ortus, etc. However I did just find that if I play the same content in Windows Media Player <cough, cough> it plays just fine.

The bad rendering isn't all the time. It comes and go. Sometimes it is half the screen, other times it's the lower 1/4 screen. It also happens all the time when there is smog/fog/clouds/smoke. ?

AWS

[AWS]

Ahh, so changing to the MS DTD decoder fixes the problem. Great. thanks for your suggestion. So it's a codec issue. I'll try redownloading the codec and reinstalling.

thx

[Neo]

I think you should also try to set
HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\DirectShow\EnableSageTVStreamDemux=0

(or whatever it is called in win7). This is to make sure that the haali splitter is used instead of the one that comes with sage

[AWS]

Under Windows 7 I found the "EnableSageTVStreamDemux" under:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Frey Technologies\Common\DirectShow
• HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1971940490-4241963180-2894724985-1179\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Frey Technologies\Common\DirectShow
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Frey Technologies\Common\DirectShow

I changed just one of the values and it automatically changed the other two as well.

Testing out now. thx for the idea.

AWS

[AWS]

Do I still need to go under my sageclient.properties and at:
videoframe/h264_video_decoder_filter=
set it equal to CoreAVC Video Decoder ? Some posts seem to say yes to do this, others say leave it alone and within the Sage UI set it to Default... ? I'm going to try putting it equal to CoreAVC...

Are there any other SageClient.properties values I need to set manually?

[coldtoes]

HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\DirectShow\EnableSageTVStreamDemux=0

This worked for me - solved my pixelation problem with CoreAvc and MKV files.

Thanks!

[Fuzzy]

So the MS decoders work for you... any reason to bother with CoreAVC?

[ttdberg]

Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for this fix (EnableSageTVDemux=0) - it solved all my 720p and 1080p .mkv playback issues as well!

I was pulling my hair out over this one, and finally just opened a support case with SageTV, right before seeing this. For what it's worth, here is what I was seeing (in case anyone else has a similar setup)

Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit)
SageTV7 (final release, clean install)
Intel Core i3 540 (integrated graphics)
EVR with ffdshow (from CCCP) rendering h264 content

I only have the single SageTV7 computer - is is the server and the client, attached directly to my TV. There are no extenders or placeshifters or external clients involved here.

I was having major picture corruption issues with any 720p and 1080p (h264 content) .mkv files. The whole screen would sort of turn to silver blocks and basically look like it was rendering two scenes on top of each other. It happens during scene transitions, and is much more frequent and noticeable with 1080p content. Note - playback of SD h264 content .mkv files worked perfectly, no issues there. As the OP said, it only happens inside SageTV - MPC and WMP did not exhibit this issue. I had a feeling the splitter may be the culprit because MPC and WMP were both using haali but SageTV was not.

During troubleshooting, I did try to use both the CoreAVC to the Microsoft DTD decoders, both with bad results:

CoreAVC - Same picture corruption issues and also frequently caused SageTV to completely hang.

MS DTD Decoder - Funny thing about this one is that it worked perfectly for .mkv HD content playback, but sputtered, choked, and froze continuously on .mkv SD content. Very bizarre.

Now that I know the issue lies with the splitter, I will give them both a shot again in the future to see how they operate. Thanks again for the fix, and hope these details might help someone else!

[joematt]

Just tried the REG fix and it worked. Haali Splitter worked. As an added bonus I can even play my Realmedia (RM) files (don't ask files from 2000-2003). Shouldn't have to edit the registry just to have directshow work like it should filling a bug report on this.

[Xsabre]

Is there anyway to do this in SageTV 6?

Thanks

[joematt]

Do what? This wasn't really a problem in Sage 6.

[Xsabre]

I thought this issue was the problem I was having in SageTV 6.

I don't want to hijack the thread so I created a new one for my issue.

Click to follow Link

Thanks