Probably a widely discussed problem: STUTTERING

[Gemini1706]

LiveTV stuttering: causes and remedies.

I have a Pentium III 1GHz Machine with 256MB of ram (PC100), PVR-250MCE, Windows XP Pro with SP1, DirectX9.0c.
I am planning to use Radeon 9500 Pro for TV-Out, but for now I am using old TNT2 video card to view on monitor.
I also use a 30GByte Harddisk, 100ATA 7200rpm.

I installed GB-PVR successfully, and was experimenting on my monitor (before hooking stuff to mt TV using DVI with Radeon 9500 Pro).

During LiveTV, Windows Task Manager shows: ~ 70% to 80% CPU usage, and about 160MB of PageFile (virtual memory) usage (without GB-PVR it shows 90MB PageFile Usage)

For the LiveTV/playback I used:

1-a regular old TNT2 video card,
2- Installed a free codec pack (K-lite codec pack 2.27 Full from http://kppfree.altervista.org ) which uses elecard as the mpeg decoder.
3- I am using Overlay Manager (not VMR9) since my TNT2 video card cannot do VMR (obviously)


Now, the LiveTV option works fine except of those problems:

1- During fast moving scenes, the video blurs/slows down, which appear as a decoding issue.
Will changing my decoder to say Sonic Decoder or something similar will solve my problems?
Will increasing RAM help this? or it is just a decoder problem?

2- Even during slow/still scenes, or fast scenes, I see a little bit of stuttering (kinda like dropped frame??) with some scense every few seconds not running 100% smooth (jerky/jumpy). It is not very severe, but it is still noticable.
Is this Stuttering due to:
Low RAM? Do I need more RAM?
Slow Macine? I do not think so, since CPU usage never went above 80%
Bad Decoder? Will buying the Sonic codec help this? Unlikely since it is more like a system slowdown due to paging file or RAM or harddisk, (unlikely CPU)..
Video Card? Do you think installing the Radeon 9500 Pro will help resolve this? I do not see any link between the video card and the stuutering.. Is there?


Please help..
I really do not want to upgrade mu machine to a faster one, since it appears that CPU is not fully overloaded so a faster machine will not help..

Basically, what worked for you/other people?:

1- Better codec? Is this has anything to do with Sttutering?
2- More RAM?
3- Faster machine? (God, please NO NO)
4- Radeon 9500 Pro can help reduce stuttering? Unlikely



One LAST thing:
The shortcuts Ctrl+Q ...etc. for LiveTV as said in the FAQ section DO NOT WORK. I press Ctrl+Q but still LiveTV is running and does not pause... WHAT TO DO? I Still do not have a remote control...I am still EXPERIMENTING to see if the whole project is worth it or no..

Sorry for the long post..

Thanks in advance...
Cheers...

[sub]

Its 5:45am here, and I'm not really up to writing a huge response at this time of day.

This machine should be fine, and easily able to play video smoothly. GB-PVR does use quite a bit of RAM, but should also be fine with your machine with 256MB. Just dont run too much else at the same time.

I'm not familiar with the codec pack you mention so not sure what MPEG2 decoder it contains, but I strongly suggest you try some other MPEG2 decoders if you can. Which one? I'm not sure, mileage seems to vary for different users. I usually use either the Intervideo one that came with my PVR350 card, or the Cyberlink decoder that came with PowerDVD.

I do suspect the Radeon 9500 Pro would help a little, although even with the new card VMR may not be an option. VMR can be quite CPU intensive. Overlay is quite capable of giving very nice smooth video, just lacks the nice semi-transparent OSD.

PS, I just tried Ctrl-Q on LiveTV here and it seems to pause just fine. This the first report I've seen of this. Are you sure the GB-PVR window had focus at the time you tried.

[colin]

Quote[/b] ]2- Installed a free codec pack (K-lite codec pack 2.27 Full from http://kppfree.altervista.org ) which uses elecard as the mpeg decoder.

I would suspect the K-Lite codec pack to be your problem. I have seen on other forums these kind of jumbo codec packs causing issues,

Colin.

[Gemini1706]

Thanks sub and colin for reply..
I will try different codecs later.

I am glad that you said my machine should be fine    
I do not care about VMR: Overlay should be fine.

The Ctrl+Q thing I click when the LIVE_TV window is in focus (I do click the window to bring it forward, since there is another ALL-BLACK Window behind it I suspect this is the main GB-PVR window though I do not see any thing on it).
Do I need to do Ctrl+Q while the all black screen is in focus?
LiveTV is not in full screen, it is windowed and not maximized so I maximize it by clicking the max button..
Do I need the other window to be in focus to do keyboard commands? Strange..
How do I make LiveTV full screen mode? If I made it full screen, can I still issue keyboard comnads?

Thanks a lor for help..

Thanks in advance for any further help

Cheers...

[sub]

Ah, you are having codec problems.

GB-PVR only has one window. It uses this window for showing the menus and the video. There is a situation (MPEG2 decoder is not compatible with currently configured renderer) that can occur that causes a Active Movie window to popup. This is what you are seeing.

One you get the codec thing sorted, LiveTV and Video playback will correct appear in the same GB-PVR window and be fullsized etc.

This is also why your keyboard controls arn't working.

[Gemini1706]

Thanks a lot sub..
I cannot believe the level of support that you guys give for this free program..
I am gonna make sure I will donate something for your company..
This is support cannot be found even for very expensive software..

I will try different codecs and will let you know my results..

Cheers...

[colin]

Download the elecard mpeg codec (not the one associated with the K-lite). Its a 30 trial but at least this one has worked for other people. Can't remember the link for it, but search the forum, its here somewhere.

You may need to remove the K-lite stuff - codec's can be fun to figure out!

[Gemini1706]

Ok.. I tried putting the 9500 Pro, but looks like it has some problems (I remeber it did this problem a while back in this same computer):

Every now and then, Windows freezes for a few seconds (No programs are running, maybe only brwosing the web) and then the video card driver(ATI ver 4.8 and also tried 4.7) issues this weird message:
The Video Card cannot (?? I forgot the exact words, but the meaning is roughly the same) send the hardware accelration command ... blah blah blah..
[Do you want to send the error report to ATI: Yes, No]

Now this happens randomly every many minutes or hours.. even while browsing ...etc.

Could this be a compatibility issue between my Video Card 9500 Pro and my old PIII motherboard (it is a Sis 635 based motherboard)?

If I turned down hardware accelleration in the ATI driver, will this affect SaeTV and decoding power? I have the option to step down hardware acceleration in maybe 6 steps (cursor and mouse accelleration, then 3D blah blah ...etc.)..

NOTE: The Video Card 9500 Pro is running FINE in my other AMD XP1600+ machine and I use it for gaming alot.. it is working 100% fine with the same drivers ...etc.

What is this weird error? Conflict with motherboard?
Hardware accelleration down can slow SageTV?

Thanks for help in advance..

Cheer....