Win2K + DVICO ATSC = Crash on LiveTV

[mianpe]

Hi All,

After recently acquiring a shiny new HTPC, I decided to install some equally shiny media center software... a.k.a. gbpvr! Anyway, here's my specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz
ASUS Radeon X1600 Pro, Fanless (PCI-Express)
DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Gold (ATSC)
Win2K Server, SP4
DirectX 9c (directx_apr2007_redist.exe)

I have a very bare install, just drivers and ATI catalyst control center. GBPVR installs correctly, and I can configure the DVICO tuner (after modifiing the BDA.ini slightly, see below). I can map channels to my EPG, so it seems the software is able to tune my card. However, anytime I try to access LiveTV or when a scheduled recording starts, the application crashes. Sometimes BSOD, sometimes just an "error reporting" pop-up. I've attached logs and a screenshot of the event viewer entry.

The error message in event viewer points to psisdecd.dll, and after a scant search on google it appears there might be a stability issue with the Win2K version of this file when tuning channels? Hopefully somebody with a similar setup can share their experience. (As a side note, I tried installing GBPVR on my wife's Win2K pro computer which has a DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite card, with the same results.)

BDA.ini entry for the DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Gold (ATSC) card:
[Fusion HDTV5 RT Gold (ATSC)]
TUNING_TYPE=ATSC
FILTER_TUNER=FusionHDTV, BDA Tuner1
FILTER_CAPTURE=FusionHDTV, Transport Stream Capture1
PIN_TUNER_IN=Input0
PIN_TUNER_OUT=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_IN=MPEG2 Transport
PIN_CAPTURE_OUT=MPEG2 Transport


Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can provide!
-mianpe

[topperdude]

I was having a similar problem with the psisdecd.dll. See my post here (post #97).

I noticed this was happening when I selected the TS_Mux on my W2K w/ SP4 GBPVR box. I haven't had this problem since I switched to using the ATI Encoder. Not sure if it helps, but I'm guessing the TS_Mux may not be quite as stable with W2K and MS doesn't seem to have a fix for it (the link in my post listed above is for WinXP).

Anyways, I have since re-installed GB-PVR to fix some other issues and have been using the ATI Encoder for ATSC and it was working fine the last time I tried it. Not sure which Mux you have configured, but hope this helps.

Thanks,
-Topper

[mianpe]

Thanks for the reply and link.

I already had the "ATI MPEG Mux" selected as the BDA Multiplexer under Config->Misc (see screenshot). Also, do you mean ATI decoder? I have mine setup to "System Default", and the only two listed are the "ATI MPEG Video Decoder", and "Zulu HDTV Video Decoder(BDA)" which is the one that comes with the DVICO card.

Thanks again,
-mianpe

[sub]

I am aware of fixes Microsoft supplied for psisdecd.dll on XP. I wonder if this would work on W2K? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896626

[mianpe]

No, I just tried that... it won't install. However, if the update only contains those 2 files listed in the kb article, maybe I can just try the old regsvr32 trick on them. Guess I'll try and get a copy and try it out tonight.

[mianpe]

Ok, so I found a copy of psisdecd.dll on the net (version 6.05.2600.2180).

Searching on my c:, I found the dll in 2 locations:
c:\winnt\system32\
c:\winnt\RegisteredPackages\{AA936DF4-2B08-4B1F-B071-72192E287704}\

I went ahead and stopped all apps then did:
1. regsvr32 /u c:\winnt\system32\psisdecd.dll
2. copied the new version over the old one.
3. regsvr32 c:\winnt\system32\psisdecd.dll
4. copied the new version over the old one in the 2nd location.

After rebooting, gbpvr no longer crashes!!!

LiveTV (HD) is very smooth with 5-10% cpu usage using overlay manager, but a little jerky with vmr9 (even though cpu doesn't go over about 15%).

I recorded a show, and playback was unwatchable inside gbpvr. I tried vlc .8.6b, and playback of the .mpg file was perfect.

I don't understand why LiveTV would work good, but not file playback?

Oh well, at least I'm to a point where I can start mixing and matching different codecs to try and get good performance.

Thanks,
-mianpe

[sub]

After rebooting, gbpvr no longer crashes!!!

Great.

I recorded a show, and playback was unwatchable inside gbpvr. I tried vlc .8.6b, and playback of the .mpg file was perfect.

I don't understand why LiveTV would work good, but not file playback?

Oh well, at least I'm to a point where I can start mixing and matching different codecs to try and get good performance.

Yeah, this will most likely just come down to the combination of decoders etc. From memory, I think Zulu decoder that came with the Dvico software was pretty popular with Fusion owners.

[mianpe]

Ok, after a ton of tweaking, I think I'm close to my final solution. Here's what I'm using:

Recording:
Muxing: ATI MPEG Multiplexer --> saves to mpg files.

Plaback:
VMR9
De-Muxing: MainConcept Demultiplexer
Decoding: MainConcept MPEG-2 Decoder, with:
a. Hardware Acceleration enabled
b. Deinterlacing method set to VMR (no other deint methods work when hardware acceleration is used.)

In Graphedit, this config works flawlessly. A really beautiful picture with only 5-10% cpu usage. No interlacing artifacts at all. Seeking/scanning is fast and accurate, and it handles "bad packets" or "stream errors" really well.

My one last problem though, is that with this config in gbpvr I still see some interlacing artifacts. My assumption was that gbpvr worked as a DirectShow player and if I could get the file to play good in Graphedit, it would work the same in gbpvr? Maybe this is happening because of my lack of understanding of vmr? (I've read on the wiki and the forums that vmr9 is not supported in Win2K, but it *seems* to be working for me...) Anyway, any light anybody could shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-mianpe

PS: By the way, I noticed that the "MainConcept MPEG-2 Decoder" is listed in the config.xml as "MainConcept MPEG Decoder". (maybe an older version, before they created an MPEG-4 Decoder ) Anyway, I had to add the above to the config to get it to work.

[sub]

Ok, after a ton of tweaking, I think I'm close to my final solution. Here's what I'm using:

Recording:
Muxing: ATI MPEG Multiplexer --> saves to mpg files.

Plaback:
VMR9
De-Muxing: MainConcept Demultiplexer
Decoding: MainConcept MPEG-2 Decoder, with:
a. Hardware Acceleration enabled
b. Deinterlacing method set to VMR (no other deint methods work when hardware acceleration is used.)

In Graphedit, this config works flawlessly. A really beautiful picture with only 5-10% cpu usage. No interlacing artifacts at all. Seeking/scanning is fast and accurate, and it handles "bad packets" or "stream errors" really well.

My one last problem though, is that with this config in gbpvr I still see some interlacing artifacts. My assumption was that gbpvr worked as a DirectShow player and if I could get the file to play good in Graphedit, it would work the same in gbpvr? Maybe this is happening because of my lack of understanding of vmr? (I've read on the wiki and the forums that vmr9 is not supported in Win2K, but it *seems* to be working for me...) Anyway, any light anybody could shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, it does just use the directshow filters to do playback, and in theory should produce exactly the same picture as you'd get with the same filters and settings in GraphEdit.

Did you change any settings on the 'MainConcept MPEG-2 Decoder' filter? Remember, GB-PVR has to use whatever are the defaults for this decoder.

You can check exactly which filters were used by looking in the gbpvr.exe-native.log.

PS: By the way, I noticed that the "MainConcept MPEG-2 Decoder" is listed in the config.xml as "MainConcept MPEG Decoder". (maybe an older version, before they created an MPEG-4 Decoder ) Anyway, I had to add the above to the config to get it to work.

Ok, I'll add this to the master file.

[mianpe]

Did you change any settings on the 'MainConcept MPEG-2 Decoder' filter? Remember, GB-PVR has to use whatever are the defaults for this decoder.

Yes, I changed it to enable Hardward Decoding, and also the deinterlacing method. Darn... I was hoping gbpvr would pick that up. I know it is using the right filters, but I guess it is not using the right settings for the decoder. I don't suppose there is anyway around this?

You can check exactly which filters were used by looking in the gbpvr.exe-native.log.

Here's the log entry:
2007-05-23 07:45:08.500 VERBOSE Graph contains the following filters:
2007-05-23 07:45:08.500 VERBOSE - Video Renderer
2007-05-23 07:45:08.500 VERBOSE - Default DirectSound Device
2007-05-23 07:45:08.500 VERBOSE - MainConcept MPEG-2 Video Decoder
2007-05-23 07:45:08.500 VERBOSE - AC3Filter
2007-05-23 07:45:08.500 VERBOSE - GB-PVR Flow Status
2007-05-23 07:45:08.500 VERBOSE - MainConcept MPEG Demultiplexer
2007-05-23 07:45:08.500 VERBOSE - D:\TV\Two and a Half Men\Two and a Half Men_20070521_19001930.mpg

Thanks,
-mianpe