Hollywood Plus for decoding SageTV video

[KJake]

I've run across this DirectShow filter for the Hollywood Plus. I'd test it out, but I can't seem to figure out how to setup GraphEdit properly.

Can someone use this or help me out with it? I think this could be use with Sage to get better video when watching programs.

[SHS]

Read this KJake
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=11547&

[clavinniu]

I tried this out and was unable to get audio to sync with the video. Let me know if you have any luck.

[SHS]

Don't worry about the audio as long it playing that what counts.
This must do this.
Change bitrate and audio to diff setting run them for 10Min run time each
VCD, SVCD, VCD, DVD4MB, DVD6MB, DVD8MB and MAX 12MB all setting here must be with VBR and CBR setting.
You need do 2hour of channel change.
Last thing leave the GraphEdit run for a min of 12hour with no change channel with DVD4MB setting.

[KJake]

Thanks for that tutorial. The main problem was the version of GraphEdit I was using. It didn't know how to get the properties of things. I wasn't able to make this work yet, but that's because I don't have a capture card, and trying to use a movie file from disk seems to crash it. I think clavinniu has proved the point for me though, it looks like maybe the Hollywood Plus could be included as a functional, but probably unsupported method of decoding your MPEG2 signal to TV!

Howabout it Jeff?

[clavinniu]

I'm with KJake. How about Jeff?

These cards are great. In theory you could probably achieve CPU usage at around 5-10% while watching TV. This would free up the computer for other uses. These cards are also extremely cheap. You can find them on e-bay for about $20 bucks. I use mine to playback my recordings. They look great on the TV without any macrovision, overscan, etc issues.

[KJake]

My PVR-250 is coming soon, maybe tomorrow, but most likely not til next week. I'll play around with Sage and decoding to the H+. I know the sage.properties supports some options to include custom filter pins. Mayber there is a way to trick the current Sage into outputing through the H+.

Jeff, I think it would be a great idea to offer this as an unsupported or beta option. The H+ is much more popular than the Xcard.

[SHS]

Due it from graphedit first if can't get work that way then most likely not work at all KJake.

[clavinniu]

SHS-

You use an XCard with Sage? How much CPU usage does Sage use with XCard? Is there a blank screen when running Sage through TV? Is audio perfectly in sync? Does the picture ever shutter?

Charley

[SHS]

Yes that rigth clavinniu I use the Xcard with SageTV or SageRecoder
This can v from low 3% to 15%
No blank sceen when using the S-Video output or Composite output or YPbPr component output this turn on automatic ocen Xcard startt getting a mpeg feed.
Yes far I can tell it in sync and there no shutter unlesss the my dran satellite start messup which there nothing that can done about that hehe.
Note SageTV UI will not be display on the TV set being there no OSD support this why I use VIP and old Video card so it can be display on the PC Monitor beeing with the VGA PassThur cable it Full Screen only unlike the H+ which has a windows mode but degrade PC monitor a lot ocen crack up rez pass 1024x768.

[justme]

Note SageTV UI will not be display on the TV set being there no OSD support...unlike the H+ which has a windows mode

Does that mean I would see the SageTV UI on my TV if I used an H+ card. Or would I still need to use some sort of pass thru cable with the H+. Assuming of course I could get it to work reliable with SageTV.

What I'm after is a combination of hardware that would allow me to use an older computer with SageTV client to display on my TV using it's SVHS jack. I want it to be able to show the sageTv UI and still have the quality/low cpu usage of a hardware decoder card. My main computer would still do most of the recording, but I don't want to have to use a monitor to watch TV/SAGE UI with the client computer. Is there a combination that will allow this, at this time?