Intermittent motion blur

[hoborg]

BTW, about Catalyst 8.11 - Not sure about that, but i bet this version had broken MPEG-2 DXVA on WinXP. wich was fixed in Cat. 9.4. My HTPC is now on Cat. 9.10 and all works without any issue (ATI 4550 + WinXP)

[hoborg]

so I do need the unlock code?

Yes, for live TV *unlock* is "must have"

[BigMoose]

Another member had problems with broken recordings whilst another recording was in progress or watchign live tv. IIRC, it turned out that they needed to install the correct/up to date drivers for their motherboard so that the IDE/SATA controller was running correctly. Also I believe that it is important to have the disk controller set to AHCI rather than IDE in the BIOS. However, if this is not the case, a re-install of windows *may* be required.

That was me. I noticed that when recording two things at once (one SD, one HD) and watching the HD recording at the same time as both recordings were in progress, i got "gaps" in the recordings, where it would pause for a second or two (possible more). Sometimes it was most definately in the recording as it would do it at the same place when playing back several times (after recordings were all done), sometimes it seemed to record OK but give issues just during the playback while recording (but then played back fine if re watched later). Turned out to be disk performance - the recording/playback of HD (1080i H264 from BBC HD) while recording an SD prog at the same time seemed too much for it - with the SATA controller in IDE mode. I put it into AHCI mode and it was a little better but not perfect until I installed the actual gigabyte driver and the problem went away. Since then I've also bought a bigger/quicker 2nd disk leaving the OS and the recordings on different disks. And have upgraded to Win7 for the laugh.

[liteswap]

Yeah, you're right...and I actually have a 4350. I'm just afraid of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," philosophy. (Despite how this thread seems, I actually have a working system, and I'm not keen to spend a week getting it back).

I will install the card, I'll just give myself a good deal of lead time to do so.

I feel your pain: that's exactly why I was so reluctant to believe that changing the hardware would change anything - I thought it was more likely to break stuff. But in fact, it fixed everything...

[keith_leitch]

That was me. I noticed that when recording two things at once (one SD, one HD) and watching the HD recording at the same time as both recordings were in progress, i got "gaps" in the recordings, where it would pause for a second or two (possible more).

This is good information and sounds familiar. Further tests indicate that watching either SD or HD video causes the problem. However, watching a very low-res MPEG had no effect. I don't think that simultaneous recordings (even many of them) make any difference.

I have my doubts that the cause is the same, because it would be too big a coincidence for my disks to start failing at the same time as I downgraded Catalyst, but the symptoms are so similar that I want to investigate. Can you explain how to check and change the SATA modes?

I have separate system and video drives, but the system drive is IDE. The video drive is SATA.

[BigMoose]

You might be able to tell in the windows control panel (maybe under the device manager?) what mode the SATA drive/controller is in. But for sure the machine BIOS will tell you. Go into setup the moment you turn it on or reboot it. Somewhere in there will be the SATA controller and if it's in IDE or AHCI mode (or possibly some RAID mode). Are you running XP or Vista/Win7? Cause I think for XP you'll need the SATA driver for your motherboard handy before you make that change. Although mine worked in Vista (in that it found the drive when in AHCI mode) i needed the motherboard driver anyway to make it work well. So have a hunt for and download that before you start.

[keith_leitch]

Can you provide small sample to test with SAF?

Even my smallest samples exceed the forum's upload limit. Can you pm an external address?

[keith_leitch]

BTW, about Catalyst 8.11 - Not sure about that, but i bet this version had broken MPEG-2 DXVA on WinXP. wich was fixed in Cat. 9.4. My HTPC is now on Cat. 9.10 and all works without any issue (ATI 4550 + WinXP)

Yes, but even restoring to the version I had been using before (9.8) didn't clear up this ridiculous problem with playback and recording.

[keith_leitch]

Hey, all...could this have anything to do with having installed the Avivo codecs? Edit: Nope...deleted them and no change.

It has got to be something that happened when I installed 8.11, or did something related to that installation. Never had this problem before that. Given what Hoborg said about versions earlier than 9.4, I'm thinking that maybe elements of it are hanging around like a bad smell. Maybe I should do the "full ATI Delete" thing rather than upgrading.

Tomorrow, though...

[keith_leitch]

I am going to search the hardware support and possibly take this there. It is time for a summary in this thread.

If anyone has ever had any problems based on overloading the GPU of their ATI card, particularly in the 1000 series, then I could probably use your advice. After five hours' sleep, I am pretty sure that is the problem.

When I was first dealing with the topic of this thread (the intermittent motion blur) I didn't realise that it was a deinterlacing problem. I assumed that I was overloading my CPU. To deal with this, I installed AVIVO codecs, which claim to utilise the GPU on the video card, instead.

Now, I can record as much video as I want with no problem; even four sources at once (2 hi-def, one SD and another from the net). However, as soon as I WATCH video while even one source is recording, the recording turns to jelly (metaphorically speaking of course; if it were literal, I would at least have jelly to console me). It is worse when I watch HD than when I watch SD, and it is fine when I watch a simple low-res MPEG1 file (340x288). This seems to indicate that I am overloading the GPU, which is now trying to do the additional work of transcoding my recordings.

I never had this problem before, so it must be based on something I have installed. I have been focussed on installing Catalyst 8.11, but pBS and other experienced members tell me that is the best choice for my x1250 adapter (and, indeed, the imaging did improve when I wasn't recording). So, the other two things I installed was ffdshow and those Avivo codecs.

The only flaw to my theory is that UNinstalling both codec packs has not fixed the problem. However, when I installed the codecs, I was able to view MOV and WMV for the first time. Surprisingly, now that I have uninstalled them, I can still watch MOV and WMV. Are shards of them hanging around? Would using the "remove everything ATI" utility get rid of them?

I am convinced this is not based on general system speed or stability. My drives are in IDE mode, but both using Ultra DMA 5 or 6. The CPU is not spiking significantly during these activities.