Issue with video decoder settings

[csstup]

Just installed GB-PVR for the first time on a clean XP Pro install. No codec paks or anything crazy installed, in fact the only codecs I've put on are the Nvidia PureVideo MPEG decoders. No ffdshow or Divx or anything.

Setup:
150MCE tuner
Onboard 6150 video with 84.xx series drivers
PureVideo MPEG decoders version 223

For the most part, GB-PVR seems to do what its supposed to. I've not had a chance to fully explore it yet, but I've come into something that seems odd.

The Nvidia MPEG2 decoders are the default for my system (merit of 0x00800001). Playing a captured MPEG2 stream in WMV uses the Nvidia decoders properly (and the icon appears in the tool tray).

So when GBPVR's configuration for Video Decoder is set to "System Default", both the LiveTV and Timeshift mode work as they should. Video decodes properly and the PureVideo TT icon appears. See attached graph (copied/exported TO XML from lastgraph.grf) in SystemDefault.xgr

If I tell GBPVR that I want to force the Video Decoder setting to "NVidia Video Decoder", then I get odd results. During LiveTV mode, everything works the same. The video works as expected, and the tool tray icon is there. As soon as I shift into timeshift mode, things stop working properly. The TT icon pops up for a split second, but then goes away. The video is all compressed inward (like displaying a 16:9 image on a 4:3 display), and it has all sorts of checkerboarding that pops up every few seconds. Go back to LiveTV mode, and its fine. See attached graph (also copied from lastgraph.grf) in NVidiaDecoder.xgr

Any ideas here? The NVidiaDecoder graph makes it look like it is indeed piping through correctly, but there is definately a problem. The obvious difference is the "System Default" graph doesn't have the "GB-PVR Flow Status" in the pipeline, whereas the NVidiaDecoder one does. Why is this? What does this component do, and why isn't it included in the "System Default" setting?

I looked through the forum to see if someone else already had this issue, but I turned up nothing. Thanks!

[sub]

Apparently its fairly normal that the purevideo tray icon doesnt show up sometimes. I dont know why - you'd have to ask nvidia about that one.

The obvious difference is the "System Default" graph doesn't have the "GB-PVR Flow Status" in the pipeline, whereas the NVidiaDecoder one does. Why is this?

GB-PVR tries to use the GB-PVR Flow Status filter when ever it can, but it cant do this when you rely on the 'system default' decoder. This filter is used for a few things - on analog setups like yours its most important task is keeping track of current aspect ratio of the video stream, which is used for automatic aspect ratio control etc.

For your described symptoms, there are two things I'd check. First, press F7 a few times to make sure you're on the 'auto' aspect ratio mode. Second, in the config app view the video decoder settings, and make sure its display type set to 'anamorphic' otherwise both GB-PVR and the nvidia decoder try to maintain the aspect ratio leading to undesired results.

[csstup]

The PV tray icon not appearing is a pain, since you can't see what the active stream is doing.

My PV setting was set to "Content Default". I changed to "Anamorphic/Raw", and there was no change either way. I did leave it on AR.

Pressing F7 to cycle through the modes, I can only get normal video in "Full" (of course its stretched 4:3) when in VMR7/VMR9. The other modes get all checkerboardy, left aligned with white/black bars on the right hand half of the screen. The OSD data is normal, just the video capture is wacky. When GBPVR is in Overlay mode (PV settings don't seem to matter), all of the available video modes do work as expected.

[sub]

The PV tray icon not appearing is a pain, since you can't see what the active stream is doing.

Sorry, I cant help you with that one. Its something of nvidia's doing. I treat all video decoders the same. The (sometimes) creation of this tray icon is just something special the nvidia decoder does. I'm not sure what rules they follow for this.

My PV setting was set to "Content Default". I changed to "Anamorphic/Raw", and there was no change either way. I did leave it on AR.

Pressing F7 to cycle through the modes, I can only get normal video in "Full" (of course its stretched 4:3) when in VMR7/VMR9. The other modes get all checkerboardy, left aligned with white/black bars on the right hand half of the screen. The OSD data is normal, just the video capture is wacky. When GBPVR is in Overlay mode (PV settings don't seem to matter), all of the available video modes do work as expected.

Using VMR9, reproduce the problem with 'auto' aspect ratio set, then zip and attach the gbpvr.exe.log and gbpvr.exe-native.log and a screen shot and I'll take a look.

[csstup]

Sorry, I cant help you with that one. Its something of nvidia's doing. I treat all video decoders the same. The (sometimes) creation of this tray icon is just something special the nvidia decoder does. I'm not sure what rules they follow for this.

Yeah, I figured. I was just complaining more than anything.

Using VMR9, reproduce the problem with 'auto' aspect ratio set, then zip and attach the gbpvr.exe.log and gbpvr.exe-native.log and a screen shot and I'll take a look.

Setup in VMR9 mode, here are the screenshots. "auto" was actually working okay with the content tonite, not sure what that was about. So now "full" and "auto" were both working. But attached is a screenshot of the video mess I was talking about on the other modes. This one is of "letterbox", but the others are similar. Shifted-left video, with the black/white random data on the right. Sometimes it will "click" into correct video, but then go right back to screwy again.

The first picture is "auto" mode, looks normal. "full" looks okay as well.

The second is "letterbox", which has this type of issue. All the other modes suffer similar distortion.

Finally attached are also my logs from the above session of taking the screenshots.

[sub]

The second of these looks like the nvidia aspect ratio bug, discussed in a few threads on this site and a few others. The work around is to use the VMR9 Custom mode (or I think you can use the 'full' aspect ratio aswell). I think some older versions of the nvidia drivers also didnt have this problem.

[csstup]

The second of these looks like the nvidia aspect ratio bug, discussed in a few threads on this site and a few others.

Now I feel stupid, I just never saw any pictures of what the effects of this bug were. I saw the words "tearing", but to me thats not what my issue looks like. I also never caught onto the phrase "f7 aspect ratio bug". I was thinking "video mode 0xf7" or something along those lines. Now I get that its the "cycle aspect ratio with f7" to fix. And I'm finding threads like this .

Anyway, I was able to resolve the immediate issue. The issue was indeed the "Hardware acceleration" option being set in PureVideo. When using DXVA, apparently its a known issue and mentioned in other threads (now that I know what to look for! Should this be a FAQ issue? Use my screenshot if needed, or I can take more.

Turing off "Hardware acceleration" - PV control now shows a YUY2 feed, and no more aspect ratio issues.

I tested with both VMR9 and VMR9 Custom with "Hardware acceleration" disabled, and both seem to work okay. Looking at other threads, it seems like I'd want VMR9 Custom if it works for me. Perhaps the differences could be added to the install guide.

Also note that with "Hardware acceleration" disabled, my PureVideo tooltray icon stays present. Doesn't disappear anymore during timeshifting mode.

Thanks for looking at my logs and screenshots. Now I can start customizing and such. This whole experiment is to see if a HTPC can replace my 55xx series ReplayTV, and a LinkPlayer2 streaming DVD player into a single (and maybe better?) unit, plus adding ASTC timeshifting.

[sub]

No worries, glad you got it sorted.

[csstup]

Actually I misspoke. I was in LiveTV mode, not timeshifting when I was testing, so the tooltray icon still disappears even with DXVA mode disabled.

I am experiencing a problem with VMR9 Custom, in that when timeshifting, pressing pause will only leave the frame on the display for about 2 seconds, then it goes to black video. OSD is still presented. Pressing pause again will restore the stream and its fine.

VMR9 regular doesn't exhibit this behavior. Is this a known issue with PV or something else on my system?

[sub]

Actually I misspoke. I was in LiveTV mode, not timeshifting when I was testing, so the tooltray icon still disappears even with DXVA mode disabled.

As I mentioned above, I have no control over this one - you'd have to ask nvidia.

I am experiencing a problem with VMR9 Custom, in that when timeshifting, pressing pause will only leave the frame on the display for about 2 seconds, then it goes to black video. OSD is still presented. Pressing pause again will restore the stream and its fine.

I'm fairly sure you'll find the fix in this thread: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=22672