First HTPC - Live TV and playback studders

[Zato]

First off, thanks so much Sub for GB PVR, I really love it so far.

I finally got my new system up and running. I have one major issue, and a few minor questions I'm hoping someone can help me with.

First off, my Dedicated PVR system:
AMD Athlon 1.2 CPU
Abit KT-7 Motherboard
640MB Ram
300GB Maxtor 7200rpm HD (bought new)
Hauppauge PVR-150 retail (bought new)
SB Audigy 1 (bought new)
GeForce 4200ti w/128 ram
Realtek 10/100 Network card
Antec case w/350w smart PSU (bought new)

Software:
Win XP Pro sp2
Nvidia PureVideo decoders
No virus scanners or any resident scanner of any kind, Indexing is turned off
Using the latest build of GB-PVR
Currently using Overlay for the video playback settings, tried VMR9 initially and it looked great, but studdered even more
Have video setup with TV as primary and only output at 800x600. I tried 720x480, but it chops off some of the GBPVR menu.

I have this setup on a 20" TV in our computer room for now using Svideo cable, not using a receiver or anything yet, just straight to TV to see how we like it before I hook up to our main TV (32" Sony).

Main issue is with live TV and video playback. Live TV is a little choppy - it's not horrible, but ANY studder is worse than regular TV which means we won't want to use it. Video playback is better, but still not 100% fluid, especially with alot of action on screen (like a basketball game).

Originally, I tried live TV and playback through my monitor only, and it worked much better. It was only after I setup the TV out that my problems really started.

This weekend I going to try several things I read here and elsewhere to tweak the system:
1. Trying different nVidia drivers - gonna try the latest beta ones as well as the NGO Optimized ones. Will try to overclock my video card a tad to increase its performance
2. Did the quartz.dll fix for DX9c mentioned elsewhere
3. Try an older Haup150 driver that people have had good success with, then use the Hauppauge Tweak utility to help performance/quality
4. Use the TVTuner utility to see if any settings changes has a postitive impact
5. Try VMR7 instead of Overlay.
6. Sound I try a different audio decoder than the nVidia one? Nero perhaps?

I have read posts from several people running a successful system with less, but I can't help but look at my hardware as the culprit.

Upgrading the MB/CPU is pretty much out of the question. I'd need to get new ram also. The MB doesn't support a faster CPU. So that leaves me with the Capture, video, and sound cards being the most ideal place to upgrade for my setup.

I already intend to upgrade my sound card to the new Diamond DDL Xtreme7.1 for digital out (only $58!). Would this alone give a performance boost?

I'm considering returning the PVR150 and getting a PVR350 instead ($50 more). It would seem this would have the largest impact, due to the hardware decoder. But it's a bit pricey solution since I will need to also buy an IR blaster (another $50?)... so $100 more for the new card and blaster. I'd gain the FM tuner, but frankly don't care about that too much.

Then, there's the video card. From what I've read I'd really need to get a 6xxx series Nvidia card to have a huge impact. For the $$, I think I'm better off just keeping the video card I have and getting the PVR350.


Other questions:
Using the Overlay setting is the most fluid, but the picture quality isn't very good. It's noticeably blurry/washed out, and skin tone isn't right. I've read this as a common complaint. I'm hoping once I do the software tweaks I mentioned above, I can go back to VMR9 or VMR7 for better quality.

Using netradio in GBPVR, there is a section to display the artist, song, etc. but they are never displayed. Is there anyway to get them to display?

Is there anyway to extend the length of the IR Blaster cable?


Gah, sorry for the long post. Hope you guys have a great holiday weekend. Any comments/suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks!

[sub]

I'm considering returning the PVR150 and getting a PVR350 instead ($50 more). It would seem this would have the largest impact, due to the hardware decoder. But it's a bit pricey solution since I will need to also buy an IR blaster (another $50?)... so $100 more for the new card and blaster. I'd gain the FM tuner, but frankly don't care about that too much.

Then, there's the video card. From what I've read I'd really need to get a 6xxx series Nvidia card to have a huge impact. For the $$, I think I'm better off just keeping the video card I have and getting the PVR350.

No, dont do this. The PVR350 is no longer supported as a tv out device. Its too buggy.

[sub]

Other questions:
Using the Overlay setting is the most fluid, but the picture quality isn't very good. It's noticeably blurry/washed out, and skin tone isn't right. I've read this as a common complaint. I'm hoping once I do the software tweaks I mentioned above, I can go back to VMR9 or VMR7 for better quality.

Its probably the quality of you video card's tv out causing this. Also worth trying other video decoders though - they all look slightly different.

Using netradio in GBPVR, there is a section to display the artist, song, etc. but they are never displayed. Is there anyway to get them to display?

They will be populated for the currently playing song if you set <UseWindowsMediaPlayerForNetRadio>false</UseWindowsMediaPlayerForNetRadio> in config.xml.

[Zato]

Wow, good to know.

So are there any video cards capable of hardware decoding that people would recommend?

I'll try some other decoders as well, just heard that the Nvidia one was one of the best (for video). Not sure about the audio.

[stefan]

There are no cards with hardware decoders that are supported by gbpvr. There are, however, cards with mpeg accelerators. They help software decoders with decoding, thus lessening the strain on the cpu. Like you said, some (all?)Nvidia cards have such accelerators. You need to use a software decoder that is compatible (able to take advantage of) the hardware accelerator you use in order to benefit from it. Not all software decoders can use all hardware accelerators.

[stefan]

Hm... just reread your post, and realized I didn't quite read your post correct. What I wrote is still valid, though

[Zato]

One other thing I haven't tried is going in to the GBPVR settings and lower the quality of the liveTV, but not sure what to set it to. Any thoughts on this?

Sounds like my best option then for hardware change is to get the best video card I can find for a good price (really needs to be $50 or less).

Fry's has a FX5500 for $30 after rebate. Not sure how much better that is over my 4200ti. I suppose I could try it and return it if it doesn't help.

[csy]

See if you can get a cheap ATI 9550. This has MPEG2 acceleration and hardware deinterlacing. The Nvidia FX series do not have hardware deinterlacing.

[mpking]

You said this is a dedicated system.

Is the windows install fresh or is it just been repurposed?
If you've just moved a system you've had from a while, I'd highly suggest you start with a fresh load of XP.

I had some horrible studders, and it was some autoupdate program that some random peice of software had inserted on my system.

[Zato]

This is a new WinXP install, on a brand new hard drive. I have all the apps and OS on a C partition, and all video files on a D partition.

I decided against getting the FX5500 card, I read elsewhere that in some cases my 4200ti is actually better. So I tweaked my 4200ti a bit and overclocked it... it's running very nice now. Still a studder here and there, but overall pretty good. CPU is 85-95% on playback... I think I've reached the cap of what my current system can handle.

Now I'm just trying to work on the quality of the picture... my wife is complaining that it looks kinda blurry. Even after I upped the sharpness setting in the Hauppauge Tweak tool. Not sure what else I can do. Also, the picture on my TV isn't quite aligned vertically. The text from channel info at the bottom is cropped out of view, and the top has a small black bar. It's like it needs to be moved up a quarter inch or so but I can't find the settings to do that.