Help Me Choose the Best Decoder

[MrLarkins]

I encounter playback issues sometimes, ie, it doesn't play. When this happens, I just minimize Sagetv, and open up my Cyberlink PowerDVD 16 software and it always plays fine. Would be nice to NOT have to do that.

My video files range widely (mkv, mp4, mpg, tp, ts, vob, avi). I'm sure the audio used within those varies as well.

If there are decoder that you recommend that I don't have, please suggest them.

Below is a list of my settings and other options I have.
Video Renderer

• default
• video overlay
• directx9 vmr
• evr **selected**

MPEG2 Decoder

• default
• arcsoft
• microsoft DTV-DD
• Sagetv MPEG **selected**

Hardware Acceleration - yes

H.264 Video Decoder

• default
• coreavc
• arcsoft **selected**
• microsoft dtv-dvd

VC-1 Decoder

• default **selected**
• arcsoft
• WMVideo DMO

Media Player for non-MPEG - Always use Directshow

MPEG2 Audio Decoder

• ac3 filter
• arcsoft audio
• microsoft DTV-DVD
• MPEG Audio
• Sagetv MPEG Audio **selected**

[Tiki]

I'm not a fan of the Sage mpeg decoder. I prefer the Microsoft decoder. But, Sage decoder may be best choice of those listed if you need closed captioning playback support.

Sage is generally not very tolerant of poorly formatted mpeg recordings (e.g. Incorrect time stamps inside the recording). Running the misbehaving recordings through ffmpeg (just a remux, not a full transcode) or using Video Redo's Quick Stream Fix usually can fix these kinds of problems.

If it is something else, may be worth posting more info (logs, media info on the problem recording, etc.). Working through problems like this often helps others and can sometimes lead to product improvements / bug fixes.

[MrLarkins]

i have VideoRedo 4. I can try that. Closed Captioning is irrelevant for me. I have no use for it.

So here is additional insight about my playback issues:
MKV all have artifacts while playing and are extremely glitchy. (video: avs, avc // audio: dts, ac-3)
MP4 will not play at all. however, if you ff you see the frames. it just won't play. (video: h264, avc // audio: aac)
MPG all play fine (video: MPEG2 // audio: ac-3)
TP all play fine (video: avc // audio: ac-3)
TS will play, but have no audio (video: avc // audio: ac-3)
AVI all play fine
VOB (there was only 1 of these, so I converted it to MP4.

is there anything else (besides the log) that i can provide? is there a codec with video redo or powerdvd that can be used inside of sage?

[Shaw]

This thread asks the same thing I'd like to ask, so instead of making a second thread, I'll tack on my plea as well

I've been getting to moving my sagetv to a new machine (i7, win10 pro). So far so good, but playback of recordings is skippy, and scanliney. Compared to Amazon Prime Video (1080p streaming) on the same machine, the videos in sagetv look pretty bad.

I'm using the same AVerMedia HD OTA recording card in the new machine. It recorded nice on the super old AMD/XP rig... and playback was clear and smooth given how old that machine was. But that old rig used nvidias purevideo decoder cause it had an nvidia gpu in it.

I don't have arcsoft, just the sage and microsoft choices so far. So I'm working with a 'clean' system. I just hope to figure out what to install to make it playback better. I'm curious on the LAVFilters, but... filter packages? *shrug*

Unlike your needs though, mine is very specific to dealing with just OTA HD recordings from the AVerMedia, which are:

1080p (??)
1080i
720p
480i (from those really lowball HD broadcasts like PBS)

All my other videos I play through VLC, and then Amazon Prime Video, and soon Netflix will have their own players. I just need to find a way to cleanup the playback from sagetv9 now, as its really sub par.


(Hope you didnt mind me tacking my plea onto your thread!)

[MrLarkins]

here is the log file

[trk2]

I'm going to recommend using LAV Filters. LAV is continuously updated, it should play everything, and it should do it with great quality. Just set your decoders to LAV Video Decoder (I also use the LAV audio decoder) and you should be good to go.

[MrLarkins]

found it, downloaded and installed it. in sage, i had to 'view all' bc LAV wasn't listed.

i changed all the decoders to LAV video or audio

it didn't help. i still have the same problems as stated above

[trk2]

I forgot an important step. Under your start menu, find LAV Filters and load LAV Video Configuration. Under the hardware acceleration section, select DXVA2(copy-back). Click apply, then OK to exit configuration. Did that make any difference?

[MrLarkins]

done, but it only got worse. same issues as before, but now the TS files won't play whereas before they'd play without audio. MKV is still pixelated, MP4 won't play./


i'm confused. why will my cyberlink powerdvd 16 play everything, but sage won't?