SAGETV, MCE, and High resolutions

[phantomfsoc]

Hi people,
I've been using sage for the past year or 2. I've built my whole HTPC around it. The one issue I've had since I bought my HDTV to use with Sage is getting high resolutions. I'd like to use Sage for my PVR at a regular TV's 640x480 or 720x480 but when it comes to watching a DVD I'd like to watch it at the full 1920x1080. I've bought PowerStrip and got it working "ok" but not to my real liking. I've tried using Zoom Player, JRMC, TheaterTek, Meedio, and now I'm using Windows Media Center 05. Here is the problem
To use sage it has to be running. Fine, lets say my default reslotion is 720x480. I want to use MCE to watch a DVD, so I start it up, so powerstrip should kick in a 1920x1080 resolution. But since MCE (ehome.exe) is always loaded into memory, Powerstrip doesn't kick in the 1080i. It works the other way around too. If I use MCE as my front end so that my default res. is 1080i, sage is running in the background in sleep mode so when I wake it, PowerStrip doesn't change to 720x480. This all happens with any programs I use in some form or another. I just really like useing MCE so i wanna stick with it, and I love sage so that ain't changing either.
Sooooo, I guess my question is, is there any way to use powerstip or something else to change resolutions depending on what program is in FOCUS, not loaded. I'll try anything at this point. I'm think maybe using the Svideo out of my Video card to use for sage and the ATI Dongle for MCE. I even have some old PCI video cards lying around, how about useing 2 diff video cards?
SOME ONE HELP A BROTHER OUT!!!
Thanks Alot
Phantom

PS: I confused myself reading this, I hope someone gets it

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by phantomfsoc

is there any way to use powerstip or something else to change resolutions depending on what program is in FOCUS, not loaded.

You can probably do it via girder and the TaskSwitch plugin, but then I must ask you why? I run everything (TV and DVDs) at 1776x1000i on my Mits.

[salsbst]

DVDs and U.S. TV are both at low resolutions in the source. No good reason not to scale them all to 1080i. SageTV looks great at high resolutions. What does MCE do for you that Sage doesn't (honest question)?

[phantomfsoc]

I'd love to run Sage at high res. I find it choppy though. What decoders are you guys using, and any special tweaks to run it smooth. If I could run everything at 1080 or 1000 then I'd be happy. As for why I like MCE..... I don't know. I just like the DVD player, the music player and visualizations are much nicer, so it’s just a preference I guess

[salsbst]

The link in my signature may be outdated.... the main Sage client runs on:

2.66GHz P4
Asus P4PE
512 MB of good ram (can't remember brand at the moment)
Radeon 9600 non-pro w/component adapter @1776x1000i
WinDVD6 video decoder
VMR9

I very, very rarely notice tearing -- and I'm watching for it -- my girlfriend never notices it.

Lot's of tweaks have gone into it.... I made sure the mobo was set to perform to its highest and that the decoder was actually using hardware acceleration, things like that.

That said, I don't use Sage for DVDs nor music. For DVD, I use Zoomplayer (my dispaly has non-square pixels). For music, I use J. River Media Center. I tie them all together with Girder.

[phantomfsoc]

Thanks Salsbst

I'll go play around some more see what I can figure out

[stanger89]

If MCE is smooth then there's no reason Sage shouldn't be since they both function much the same way. As for my config:

P4 2.4B
Abit BE7
512MB Corsair XMS (PC2700)
Geforce 6800
nVidia decoders (1.00.58)

It's a pretty fresh install, no real tweaks except getting the resolution just right.

You might want to try the Overlay renderer in Sage, your 9550 definitely on the low end of VMR9 support and could causing you problems.

[phantomfsoc]

The problem is that A: there 2 programs loaded (MCE & SAGE) and B: PowerStrip didn't know which one I was using. My system is powerful enough to run both so thats not a huge concern. Right now I'm Running everything at 1700x1000 and it seems to be holding ok. Only time will tell
Thanks guys

PS: Check back sometime in case i get stranded

[salsbst]

Why must PowerStrip care which application is running? Are there times when you don't want to be at 1700x1000?

[stanger89]

PS can be set to change resolutions when an app starts, but since they are both always running it never knows to switch.

[phantomfsoc]

there are times I'd like to maybe surf the net quickly or do things in windows so a lower res would be handy so thats when PowerStrip comes in handy.

[stanger89]

I just have a couple of keyboard hotkeys (Ctrl+Shift+'key') to switch between resolutions for stuff like surfing/maintinence.

[phantomfsoc]

Are you using powerstrip? I'm finding ATI newest control panel to be working ok, even for hot keys, but sometimes it shrinks the screen to small when I switch to a lower res.
If any you get a chance to check my other post in "Hardware" about Stopping the remote in sleep. Maybe you can give me some imput on that too
I'm getting greedy

Thanks

[stanger89]

Yeah I've got PS installed. The nVidia custom resolution pannel is getting there, but not quite far enough yet.