Oh frack! ntl.dll nuttiness again.

[Dava]

When I switch off live preview mode, no further errors. I will use it like this for the time being.

[Pob]

Thanks for the tip. Come to think of it, I have not had any recordings fail from DVB-S, so turning off live preview should do the trick.

Great news that the 8.8's now support Hybrid crossfire in XP though - adding a card that supports this is meant to make most problems disappear.

Anyway to split up the issues and the culprits;

• Hardware acceleration crashes experienced by many 780g users - HD3200
  
• Deinterlacing problems / green screen - HD3200
  
• NTL.dll crash when tuning to a DVB-S channel - GBPVR
  
• Jerky HD live TV or HD playback if AMD Cool 'n quiet is on- Cyberlink PowerDVD
  
• H264 .ts FF/RW not working - CoreAVC
  
• Nvidia audio decoder gets deleted - Cyberlink Power DVD
  

(this would not be so bad if the Cyberlink audio decoder gave surround sound - but I can't get anything from my rear speakers using it)

So we need better drivers for the HD3200 & better H264 decoders. None of them are anywhere near perfect at present.
Because GBPVR is the software we want to use, and certainly what is running on my PC 90% of the time, it's easy to think it's causing problems, when it's actually all sorts of other issues....

[sub]

I'd even dispute the NTL.dll crash being GB-PVRs fault, otherwise all the other DVB-S users would have the same problem. Given it just seems to be you two, and you're using the pretty much the same hardware, I'm pretty sure there is something else in there at fault.

Even if you're not seeing the problem in some other app, this does not mean its GB-PVR's fault. GB-PVR could be "exercising" parts of your machine that the other app is not. (for example, different renderers mean it uses different parts of the video card drivers etc)

[Pob]

I'd even dispute the NTL.dll crash being GB-PVRs fault, otherwise all the other DVB-S users would have the same problem. Given it just seems to be you two, and you're using the pretty much the same hardware, I'm pretty sure there is something else in there at fault.

Even if you're not seeing the problem in some other app, this does not mean its GB-PVR's fault. GB-PVR could be "exercising" parts of your machine that the other app is not. (for example, different renderers mean it uses different parts of the video card drivers etc)

Good point, I stand corrected!

[Dava]

I have another combination that works for me that may also be OK for you and does kind of bear out what Sub said.

I removed the Core AVC decoder as it had expired and decided to try PowerDVD8 trial. This will not work with Livepreview off, the AMP goes nutty flicking between ProLogic, DTS, PCM and PVRX2 hangs with no picture. Bear in mind that I only changed the h264 decoder, not audio or MPeg2. If I then put live preview back on... Voila, full picture and sound and not only that, no NTDLL madness.

I had to turn the inbuilt TS reader off for this to work, and to be able to view recorded Hi Def stuff. I think it is using Haali media splitter instead as I get its icon up whilst playing. Either way it was all working last night across multiple reboots.

Strangely, I also had to deregister some filters to get PowerDVD to take, despite it being selected in config for h264. Using graphedit between each attempt showed that PVRX2 was not using what I had selected until there were no other options left.

Using DxVA with the Cyberlink decoder caused odd artifacts that I have not seen before, kind of ghostly shadows for a split second but is was only using 10-15% CPU. Switching it off restored a good picture but at around 70% CPU, similar to coreAVC. This is the ATI issue I suppose.....CCC 8.9 WILL fix it or there will be trouble.:mad:

I have done the Windows backup again but this time with Program files too as I forgot that there may also be some filters registered in there.

I will give it some more testing tonight and ghost it if it seems consistant, but at the moment I am very happy.

gbpvr is just so fantastic when it is all working.

[Pob]

Thank you for the update. I will wait to see how you get on!
I only just uninstalled PowerDVD last night;
As I reported in an earilier post, it erases the Nvidia Purevideo audio decoder (without so much as a 'by your leave'), and I could not get surround working with it. It crashed for me consistently if DXVA was turned on, and although playback of HD recordings was good and FF/RW worked, live TV was not good - very juddering. It did not seem to like cool 'n quiet either - more judders. However, I did not try your tip of disabling the built-in ts reader - I can see how it may work better with it's own ts reader, so I may try to install the trial version again...
At present I am back with CoreAVC - I still think it gives the best picture by a margin. Just a shame that FF/RW does not work for me on .ts - I have a few 2-hour (16GB!) recordings and it's a pain not being able to FF...
I also tried the Arcsoft decoders - always crashed if HA was turned on. Until there is a decoder that works with HA consistently on the 780g (so long as the files are compliant), I guess I will keep returning to Core.
Adding HD into the mix sure does complicate things - I was motoring along quite nicely using Purevideo for SD content, Core for MKV 720p files, and ffdshow for xvid / divx including High-res, but it is the H264 .ts files that are the new battleground. I still don't know why live HD TV behaves differently to recordings of the same - but I guess your tip to turn off live preview gets round this, making everything a recording.

[Dava]

Well, my system went banzai again, same old errors hangs and crashes, I just can't seem to put my finger on the true culprit although I strongly suspect the DAM/ATI hardware.


I was going to get, and indeed ordered, a PCH to get around this but ibood informed me that I would have to wait 3 weeks, despite quoting 5 days, so I cancelled.

Did you have any joy with an Nvidia card in the end?

As a result of the PCH fiasco, I have some money sitting on my credit card and its just no good there!!

[Pob]

SNIP
Did you have any joy with an Nvidia card in the end?

As a result of the PCH fiasco, I have some money sitting on my credit card and its just no good there!!

No I have not tried another Nvidia card, because your tip to turn off live preview worked, I was more than happy to use just the IGP, which was the whole idea of this build originally.
Like you said, it is just so fantastic when it is all working.
However I did have a new problem this evening - I could not view ITV HD if live preview was turned off. I had to go back to live preview to watch it, and as luck would have it live preview is working fine today. I can watch old ITV HD recordings, but cannot record anything new. Maybe the patch to enable viewing of ITV HD recordings has stopped new recordings from working?

Going back to the live preview problem, the most puzzling thing is that it works for a while, then stops working (ntl.dll), but if you just leave it and resist the urge to change all the settings / decoders etc, it will eventually start working again! I know from practice that when it does not work, you can restart GBPVR 50 times, or reboot windows 10 times, and it just will not work. So I keep going back to the idea that it is a signal strength issue:confused:

[Dava]

Or somethinng in the stream as Sub said about something once...

I have a signal strength of 100 percent with 70% quality so I can't think its that for me.

I have decided to wait for Catalyst 8.9 to see if they fix it, then I will probably go for an Nvidia 8600 and remove the ATI550 so it fits and spins!

I was also waiting for an integrated board like the 780G as the core of my new perfect system so it is quite dissappointing.

[martint123]

I have a signal strength of 100 percent with 70% quality so I can't think its that for me.

Curious, my S350 is 99% of the time sat at strength 100, quality 99.
On the nova-t-500 the strength is usually down near 60 but the quality is hovering around 100% - as soon as that drops, the picture starts breaking up.