Problems watching BBC HD live on GBPVR 1.0.16

[philpem]

Hi,
I've got GBPVR 1.0.16 installed, and on the whole it works pretty well. I can watch videos and live TV, record, play back, burn to DVD and so on. The problem is, although SD MPEG-2 plays back fine live, HD MPEG-4/AVC doesn't.

That is to say, if I select Live TV and tune to BBC1, I get a lovely picture (with a bit of tearing that I'd like to get rid of, but otherwise very nice). If I hit Guide and flip to BBCHD (MPEG-4 AVC with AC3 audio), I get a black screen and CPU usage sits at a few percent.

Now, if I set a recording of whatever length, then record from BBCHD to a file (a .TS usually), I can go into Recordings and the video plays fine, with CPU usage at around 75-80%.

What on earth is going on? Surely if I can play the recorded .TS, I should be able to watch live HD TV, shouldn't I? Is there a configuration setting I might have missed?

Thanks,
Phil.

Codecs: CCCP Codec Pack (FFDShow mainly) + QT Lite (Quicktime CODECs) + CoreAVC 1.5
(I did a Test Graph on the .TS file with CCCP Insurgent which reported that FFDshow's AAC codec was handling the audio and CoreAVC was handling video)
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
System spec: AMD Athlon64 X2 4000+ dual-core on a Biostar TA690G motherboard, 1GB RAM, 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA HDD, LiteOn LH-20A1P DVD ReWriter.

[sub]

If you try running PVRX2.exe with the "-fse" command line parameter it should hopefully sort the tearing.

When testing this type of playback I use the Cyberlink H264 decoder. I suspect you'll find this would give you a picture during live tv.

We dont have any MPEG-4/AVC channels here yet, so its not something that I've really been able to test, so probably not that polished yet. That should change at the beginning of next year when our DVB-T system starts, which is going to be MPEG-4/AVC based.

[philpem]

If you try running PVRX2.exe with the "-fse" command line parameter it should hopefully sort the tearing.

OK, I'll give that a try.

When testing this type of playback I use the Cyberlink H264 decoder. I suspect you'll find this would give you a picture during live tv.

The ATI-accelerated one? Hmm. I'll give that a go in a bit, though I doubt it'll help much.

I've got debugging set to "Info" on the main page of GBPVR's configuration utility. Where does GBPVR save that log information to? I'm just wondering if there's another codec issue (or perhaps GBPVR is assuming the incoming stream is MPEG2 and building a filter graph to match?)

[gEd]

the logs are in the folders called logs under the gbpvr folder.

just out of interest what is your HD source DVB-S2 via sky?

[philpem]

the logs are in the folders called logs under the gbpvr folder.

just out of interest what is your HD source DVB-S2 via sky?

It's DVB-S (not S2) via Sky.

I've enabled Use Live Preview Mode If Possible and Return from Timeshift Mode on Channel Change on the Misc tab of GBPVR Config, which has provoked GBPVR into providing an audio stream but no video. Here's an extract from the log:

Code:

2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    setVideoWindowPos(0,0,1360,768)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    Checking if inset mode
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    getSetting(HorizontalZoom)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    getSetting(VerticalZoom)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    getSetting(ListGraphFilters)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    Graph contains the following filters:
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - Default DirectSound Device
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - Video Renderer
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - MPEG-2 Sections and Tables
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - GB-PVR WST SRT Digital
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - GB-PVR DVB Subtitles
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - GB-PVR PSI Parser
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - ffdshow Audio Decoder
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - MPEG-2 Demultiplexer
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - Hauppauge WinTV 88x TS Capture
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - Hauppauge WinTV 88x DVB-S Tuner/Demod
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE     - Microsoft DVBS Network Provider
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    getSetting(SaveGraphFiles)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    setSourceAspectRatio() using autoAspectRatio
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    video resolution is 0 x 0
2007-08-31 23:23:12.562    VERBOSE    unknown source aspect ratio...showing full frame
2007-08-31 23:23:12.578    VERBOSE    getSetting(HorizontalZoom)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.578    VERBOSE    getSetting(VerticalZoom)
2007-08-31 23:23:14.125    INFO    DirectShowPlayerBase::playLiveStream() done
2007-08-31 23:23:14.125    VERBOSE    setVideoWindowPos(0,0,0,0)
2007-08-31 23:23:14.125    VERBOSE    Checking if inset mode
2007-08-31 23:23:14.125    VERBOSE    getSetting(HorizontalZoom)
2007-08-31 23:23:14.125    VERBOSE    getSetting(VerticalZoom)
2007-08-31 23:23:14.234    VERBOSE    setVideoWindowPos(0,0,0,0)
2007-08-31 23:23:14.234    VERBOSE    Checking if inset mode
2007-08-31 23:23:14.234    VERBOSE    getSetting(HorizontalZoom)
2007-08-31 23:23:14.234    VERBOSE    getSetting(VerticalZoom)
2007-08-31 23:23:14.281    VERBOSE    SetRenderList creating new texture
2007-08-31 23:23:22.421    VERBOSE    DisposeElementList()...
2007-08-31 23:23:22.421    VERBOSE    texture cache now has 18 textures
2007-08-31 23:23:22.421    VERBOSE    NativeUtilities::MediaHelper::stop()

Hmm.. It's picking up the AC3 audio stream and feeding it to ffdshow, so why isn't it detecting the H264/AVC video stream and feeding that to CoreAVC?

And once again, if I record to a file then play that file back, it works fine..

This looks ominous though:

Code:

2007-08-31 23:23:12.015    VERBOSE    16:9 television
2007-08-31 23:23:12.015    VERBOSE    getSetting(PreferredAudioRenderer)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.015    VERBOSE    getSetting(PreferredH264VideoDecoder)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.031    VERBOSE    FindFilterByName failed to locate filter: CyberLink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7.x)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.031    VERBOSE    getSetting(PreferredH264AudioDecoder)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.046    VERBOSE    FindFilterByName failed to locate filter: none
2007-08-31 23:23:12.046    VERBOSE    getSetting(DeinterlaceMethod)
2007-08-31 23:23:12.046    VERBOSE    Allocator shutdown...

[sub]

The h264 decoders are unfortunately nowhere near as interchangeable as the MPEG2 decoders. The different manufacturers have done things slightly differently.

I've only really tested with the Cyberlink H264 decoder at this stage. I did briefly try the CoreAVC decoder, but not enough to form any solid opinions on it. I did notice it had defined different media types for H264 content, which could be why its not auto detecting this decoder for you.