picture not smooth.

[pinkpig]

Hello all, this is my first post here

I just bought a hauppauge pvr150. I installed it in a machine that isnt going to be my HTPC. My HTPC parts are on its way. Right now the system specs are athlon xp 2500+, 512MB, 30gig HD 7200RPM 8.5ms, using onboard video its a via/s3g km400/kn400.

So i have gbpvr installed and when i go and watch something within bgpvr the picture is there, but its not smooth. Its choppy for a couple of seconds and then its smooth for a few seconds and then choppy the next few seconds again. Is this happening because of the onboard video that im using?

I just want to make sure that its not the pvr150 thats causing it to be choppy.

so i just want to make sure that when i receive my HTPC stuff and a better video card that everything would be fine...

thanks
Laura

[colin]

More than likely its the mpeg codec that is the problem. Have you tried changing the playback codecs (through config)?

Cheers,
Colin.

[pinkpig]

By the codecs you mean like the divx codec etc... ?

[colin]

You want an mpg 2 codec for decoding purposes and the views on this board so far are, some are good and some are not so good.

I use the ones that cam e with the Hauppauge software and I have not had any problems. Then again, I don't install many codecs so there is less chance of interferance.

I don't do Divx/Xvid stuff as I prefer to create encodes that i can put onto DVD and anyway, using the right techniques you can get really good mpeg-I files with excellent quality - but I digress from the topic.

When you run the config app what choices of codec's can you use for playback - it will be defaulted to "system default" but will list other's if it can find them,

Cheers,
Colin.

[rtiangha]

I'd have agreed with the codec possibly being the problem last week, but now I'm not so sure. Actually, I've been getting the same effect myself. I think I can reproduce it by changing channels very quickly. First by quickly changing channels using the Ch +/- and then jumping around by quickly typing in channel numbers. Eventually, I'll get the weird jumping problems (sometimes it takes four changes, sometimes many more).

My fix has been to exit Live TV by pressing STOP or Back and restarting Live TV. This usually fixes it. Sometimes the jumping will continue so I exit and restart Live TV until it stops (Which it does eventually).

Not sure what the problem is, but since this release was rushed, I'm hoping that whatever fixes are done for the next one will automatically fix whatever is causing this.

Edit: Forgot to mention that this happens no matter what codec I've used. It's been reproducable with NVIDIA DVD 1.00.58, DScaler 5, and Hauppauge Intervideo versions 4 and 5.

[Treetop]

Was just about to post about the same behavior myself.

Some other problems that occur with a system I set up for a friend.

In overlay mode (Live TV) Audio works, but no picture.
In VMR9 (LiveTV): pic and audio, but major stuttering. Its almost like it needs to catch up (buffer?). After about 5 seconds, everything is smooth....then a few seconds later, it lags behind and stutters.

I was originally thinking this may be due to the hardware. The Specs on this computer:
1.6Ghz, 384M of RAM, on board video, PVR-150, WinXP.
(My friend will be getting more RAM soon )

Live TV works beautifully in the WinTV application. Also, GB-PVR makes great recordings, that can be played back in WMP perfectly. So Im not sure if its his system and the app. Maybe both?

I should also mention, that I haven't tried any newer drivers for the PVR-150. This is something that I will do next time I get a chance.

Treetop

[rtiangha]

Quote[/b] (Treetop @ Feb. 11 2005,09:37)]In VMR9 (LiveTV): pic and audio, but major stuttering. Its almost like it needs to catch up (buffer?). After about 5 seconds, everything is smooth....then a few seconds later, it lags behind and stutters.

Yes, that's exactly what I get too whenever I change channels too quickly (my specs are in my signature). Are you saying that it happens to you everytime you start LiveTV? It doesn't eventually go back to normal by exiting and restarting LiveTV?

[Treetop]

Quote[/b] ]Are you saying that it happens to you everytime you start LiveTV? It doesn't eventually go back to normal by exiting and restarting LiveTV?

As far as I can remember, I have never gotten smooth playback. Regardless if I exit and re-enter liveTV. I remember the video going smooth for about 15 seconds... I then changeed channels, and the stuttering began again.

Being that your computer has enough umph, I'm beginning to wonder if its hardware related at all. Also, I see that you are using DirectX9.0c. I know that there were people having problems with FF/RW with BeyondTV and that directx version.
The only work around was to uninstall it and re-install v.9.0b.

Wonder if that may have something to do with it? I know I'm reaching for ideas here, but something is better than nothing I don't know which version my friend has but, I'll check later this weekend and change it if its 9.0c

So far, the only things that I can think about trying: Upgrading the PVR-150 drivers and checking which DirectX version he is running.

Any other ideas are welcomed... in case those two don't have any effect.

[Treetop]

Quote[/b] ]Not sure what the problem is, but since this release was rushed, I'm hoping that whatever fixes are done for the next one will automatically fix whatever is causing this.

Did you have this problem in earlier versions?

Are the earlier versions still available for download?

[rtiangha]

To my knowledge, I didn't have this problem in previous versions. Mind you, the previous versions used to cache a buffer file to disk first before displaying the channel, so quick channel change wasn't possible like it is now.

For me, at least, I can get a good Live TV feed most of the time. It's only when quickly changing channels (and I mean *quickly* as in hitting CH+/- or punching in channel numbers successively before it has even finished displaying the channel) that I experience it. For the record, I'm using the latest stable drivers from the Hauppauge site (as well as the latest WinTV and IR software from the site too).

Not sure if it's a DirectX or a driver thing or something else. I'd definitely update the 150 drivers for sure (preferably to a stable release from the Hauppauge site and if that didn't work, trying one of the latest beta drivers from the forums at shspvr.com) as the 150 is a relatively new card so each driver release right now probably fixes some major bug or two. It may solve some problems you never knew you had.