Freesat - how are people getting on

[BigMoose]

Pob, I see you have the Gigabyte 780g mb (I have one too), what are you using to view the HD channels? I assume you dont have problems with recorded BBC HD playback? I didn't for months but have no idea why it hangs every 30-40s or so now...

Is the fixed TS Reader in the survival thread? Not that Ive tried to record ITV HD so no idea if I have the updated one! Live TV "preview mode" works fine on both BBC and ITV HD for me...

[sbiddle]

Here in NZ ATI cards have proven to be a real nightmare with interlaced H.264 content.

Hardware acceleration is absolutely vital for good quality H.264 decoding (and essential if you want to decode 1080i) and the PowerDVD or Arcsoft codec have proven to be the two best options in the markerplace. Users of ATI cards (and I had a 2600 myself) have had continual issues with decoding of interlaced content, issues such as picture breakup, loss of audio/video sync and green pixelated content are all common. As of the latest Catalyst drivers ATI still don't seem to have fully solved the issue after being aware of this issue for months.

NVidia 8 or 9 series GPU's seem to be the the way to go.

[BigMoose]

I've been following the massive AVS HD2x00 users forum so have been through all the fun and pain of each software release. In the end I've given up with CCC and use Powerstripe instead to get 1080p@50 (which CCC would never do) and the interlacing is spot on. Live preview mode for both SD and HD is spot on, except I get the odd seconds of judder on H264 (either HD or SD - I'm in Ireland where their DVB-T SD is H264) but that happens within PDVD on the stuff I record from GBPVR so no idea if it's a PDVD or ATI issue. I just cant fathom why my playback of recorded or time-shifted HD content pauses every 30-40 seconds. Its maddening! I might try Nero9 for a laugh later (I realise Sub has removed Nero from the list in config, but will have a play and see what happens).

I guess if this turns into an ATI rant I should move it to the hardware forum!

[MartinsPVR]

Yes myself and some others are still having some issues with the Nova HD-S2 in GPBVR, and the new TS reader was for any satellite card to enable recording and playing back ITV HD, so not specific to the HD-S2. However I don't think these problems should prevent you getting one - it is only a matter of some channels not being picked up in a scan, and crashing when watching live-preview satellite TV. These can be circumvented by manually editing the scan-cache file (or borrowing someone else's scan-cache), and by not using live preview (i.e. use timeshift instead).
BUt you are right, the HD-S2 is not a dual-tuner card - the one tuner can work with standard 'S' or 'S2' signals. But I don't think GBPVR supports S2 - and nothing (free) is broadcast using S2 at present in the UK. I have seen some talk of Channel 4 HD going unencrypted next year and possible using S2, but I would not hold my breath!

Thanks Pob for the feedback, my new card arrived today .....

[BigMoose]

How are people finding ITV HD playback? I watched something on it (ManU v Celtic, although not a fan of either!!) for the first time in ages last night and my playback was fairly jerky and not good. This is in live TV "preview mode" - BBC HD plays back perfectly though. I'm not sure what I've done (again!) since last watching something on ITV HD when it was as smooth as BBC HD... Other than perhaps I'm running in 1080p@50 now instead of 720p@50. But not sure why BBC HD would playback fine but ITV HD not... Another thing is that timeshift mode did not work, nor did playing back somethign currently being recorded. I recently upgraded the TSReader based on Pobs thread with Sub which I thought was meant to fix this problem. Given I was trying to watch the football I didn't try timeshift on BBC HD though, so will do so later. Anyone got this working ok for ITV HD??

[sub]

I recently upgraded the TSReader based on Pobs thread with Sub which I thought was meant to fix this problem.

No, the purpose of the patch I made for Pob was to allow it to find the audio and video streams correctly when playing back ITV HD recordings. This patch was required due to a change ITV made to how the streams were identified.

Your problem is most likely related to your video decoders, or machine's capabilities.

[BigMoose]

But that's my problem... ITV HD recordings (or time shift) wont play. Live preview being jerky for ITV but not BBC is odd, but I know that's not likely to be the TSReader... That my machine can play BBC HD perfectly but not ITV is odd though.

As a slightly separate thought, which is better to use for BBC/ITV HD playback - 720p@50 or 1080p@50. Note that 1080i isn't an option cause I've never got it to work on this stupid 780G mb!! To be fair I've not tried with recent drivers, but it used to be so awful I gave up.

[sub]

If you can make a short recording of ITV HD available, I'll download it and check I can play it here.

[mvallevand]

Sub, I think Pob did upload some ITV files already and you could

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...hlight=itv

Martin

[sub]

Yes, but both Pob and I can play the his ITV HD files. I wanted to see if there was something different about BigMoose's recordings that would stop them playing.

Pob does have remaining issues from that thread relating to skipping, which I'm fairly confident are fixed in the next release.