Satellite cards for PC's

[Pob]

As Gazoo mentioned in an earlier post, it is a balancing act with decoders.
Things were complicated by trying to get HA working on the 780g - I gave up on this, opting for a simple but working software-only decoding instead.

EDIT: Thought things were working, but again it just stopped working 'spontaneously'
Like Dava, crash only happens when viewing sat channels. But I use Hauppauge HD-S2, Dava uses Compro S350.
Dava found a work-around - to disable live-preview (always use timeshift). This stops the ntl.dll crashes for some reason.

[Pob]

Sub if you would like a Compro VideoMate S350 card for testing purposes, please give me an address I can ship it to...
(I think I read in a thread somewhere that you don't have one of these cards)

I had purchased the S350 to replace the Hauppauge HD S2, but I missed the deadline to return the Hauppage - so have ended up with a surplus card!

[Dava]

I used to use Purvideo on the old ATI system but have been experimenting with various others for SD.

I still have an issue recording HD but it is fine in LivePreview mode and other than that the only concern is tearing. I have tried setting the refresh rate at 60Hz as suggested for video on other sites and also at 75 figuring @25fps x3 should fix it. I have messed with vertical sync too but it is still evident. I also notice that HD displays at 50fps, is this because it is 1080i in the UK?

How is your picture in this area?

[Pob]

I used to use Purvideo on the old ATI system but have been experimenting with various others for SD.

I still have an issue recording HD but it is fine in LivePreview mode and other than that the only concern is tearing. I have tried setting the refresh rate at 60Hz as suggested for video on other sites and also at 75 figuring @25fps x3 should fix it. I have messed with vertical sync too but it is still evident. I also notice that HD displays at 50fps, is this because it is 1080i in the UK?

How is your picture in this area?

Yes I hate tearing too! For me, refresh rates made no difference, the only thing that stopped it was using the right renderer. On the 780g it has to be VMR9 FSE - no tearing on HD or SD. On my old Nvidia PC the only renderer that had no tearing of HD material was EVR (.Net 3.5 on XP).
I found incorrect refresh rates cause judder (on panning shots or news tickers), but not tearing.
What is the issue you have with recording HD stuff?

[Pob]

SNIP I also notice that HD displays at 50fps, is this because it is 1080i in the UK?

In the UK all TV is 25 frames a second. So your refresh rate should always be a multiple of 25....
But downloaded content is often 30fps (29.97 in fact).
I use the coloured Hauppage remote to change the desktop resolution on the fly, using reschange, before launching GBPVR. If I notice judders I just exit GBPVR, press the relevant button to change the resolution, then start GBPVR again - all from the remote, of course!
You can get reschange here: http://www.12noon.com/displaychanger.htm

This is the part of my irremote.ini that does the business (full ini attached)

;GBPVR------------------------------------------------
GRNPOWER={run(C:\Progra~1\devnz\gbpvr\PVRX2.exe -fse)}
BLUE={run(C:reschange.exe -width=1280 -height=720 -refresh=50)}
YELLOW={run(C:reschange.exe -width=1360 -height=768 -refresh=60)}
GREEN={run(C:reschange.exe -width=1776 -height=1000 -refresh=25)}
RED={run(C:reschange.exe -width=1152 -height=648 -refresh=50)}

[Dava]

Well it appears that a lot of my problems were fixed by installing XP SP3. I had been holding off, trying to keep things simple.

Firstly I can now record HD from the S350 and play in gbpvr.
The EVR renderer now works at the correct AR (as posted in another thread)
No tearing with EVR! (still at 60Hz refresh)
HD and SD look smooth.
All my games through gbpvr still work

I am very happy with the limited tests that I did last night and so spent the rest of the evening backing it all up.

I would still like to get HA for H264 as others have managed as the cores run at around 70% making the fan noisy with AVC.

It seems that I gave up too early as I bought a PCH a couple of days ago in an attempt to fix playback. I think it will replace the MVP for the bedroom instead, and I'll move the MVP into the car as my next project.

It is just so satifying when it all suddenly works well.

[Dava]

In the UK all TV is 25 frames a second. So your refresh rate should always be a multiple of 25....

That is what I figured, ie 75Hz should be good but no, it was still tearing. I have read about powerstrip allowing you to set 50Hz and was going to try to force this in CCC before it all started working. I will leave well alone now!

Fraps does not seem to get an fps reading with EVR but in VMR, BBC HD was definitely showing 50fps. I thought that maybe the 2 interlaced frames would have to be sent at 50 to be combined into 25:confused:

Thanks for the IR stuff but I do not use the Haup IR, I use a Redrat3 to kickoff an Autoit script which sendmessages to gbpvr.

[Dava]

It was all going so well...........

So I made a system restore point, backed up the GBPVR folder and also did an MSBACKUP on the system state and Windows folder just in case.


I went to use it last night and keep getting 3 seconds of live TV before PVRX2 causes a fault in NTDLL.DLL.

So I restored the GBPVR backup, rebooted.... same thing.
Did the system restore......same thing
Restored Windows and subfolders..... same thing.



It does only happen with the DVB-S source, the 2 analogue sources are fine.

This is getting really depressing now.

In terms of real cost, this "cheap" Videomate card has cost me a fortune, a whole new HTPC, untold hours of my time and a Popcorn hour to boot! (not received yet).

I will try and get it back but it is a little worrying that none of the backup methods managed to get me back to how it was.

[Pob]

Got the same issues, but with a Hauppage HD S2, so don't think your Videomate card is to blame.
As you stated over on the support forum, it does seem the 780g could be the real culprit.
In a weird way, I am relieved that someone else is having the same issue! At least I know I am not the only one struggling with the same symptoms.
Having avoided ATI hardware for ten years or so, I can assure you it will be a lot more than ten years before I touch ATI again! It was only because of AMD buying ATI that I got suckered into considering the 780g, having only bought AMD cpu's, and on paper it did look a bargain. But in fact it has had a reverse effect and soured my views not just on ATI but on AMD also! I think an Intel board with an Intel chip would have been much less grief.
Like you, I have spent more hours trying to get this build stable than I can calculate. If I was getting paid for these hours, this would turn out to be the most expensive PC in the history of mankind!
However there is one thing niggling me - the fact that we both started to get these NTL.dll errors on pretty much the same day. Is there a chance that it is linked to a Windows update, or something similar? I read that you tried a backup - was this a 'forensic' backup like Ghost or Trueimage? Unfortuneatly I normally do ghost backups, but this build has never been stable for long enough for me to do a backup!

[Pob]

Another thing Dava - are you using any other software to watch satellite? It does worry me that I don't get ntl.dll errors watching, for example, BBC HD using DVB Dream. Have you tried DVD Dream with your S350?