Build of Asus M3A78-EM (780G)

[gazoo]

Hmm, sounds odd. I had the least CPU usage with ATI, but not full HA though.

[pBS]

in vista i think yuo have to use evr to get full accell with avivo..

oh and try the 8.11 driver...i get the same results as you with 8.12 but 8.11 works a dream..
[they changed alot in 8.12 so seem to have broke all the stuff they Finally fixed..lol]
not sure if Vista driver is same tho...more hw assist is available in vista but nothing big...

oh and make sure to run the ati remover from add/remove progs and reboot to clear it out before installing new drivers, click 'cancel' when it detects the video card then install 8.11 and see how it works.. i have a hunch it will all work then...

to check 'full' hw accell, run dxvachecker and if you get both decoder device and processor device working on file playback then you're experiencing full hw decode

[soccerdad]

Thanks for the great info. I will start playing.

BTW, I found that on the client, could not get file share to work with mpeg files in live tv, but it works fine with TS files, so that is what I am now using now on the client. Now it seems I have broken the server to watch HD stuff. At least I don't watch TV off the server.

[pBS]

use mpeg for streaming..i use ati mpeg mux..works great for all my hd stuff...livetv too..
but i've found you have to use a different demux to make it smooth..default ms one can't cut hd...
i use MPC mpeg demux...handles ts as well very nicely...[bluray,etc too!] get latest versions tho from MPCHC..[1.2xx]

to use you have to specify in config.xml, search for 'demux'..
i haven't found anything it can't handle yet...
[it splits mpeg,mpeg2 PES,TS, M2TS with codecs of mpeg,mpeg2,h.264,vc1,and every kind of audio there is including truehd, and dtsHD]
and so far it's the only one with proper timestamps for every container tested..
[and quick skips]

streaming mode does use lots of net, but even 100mbps is fine for any hd you can play..
i had same results with 54m wireless too..no problems..

[pBS]

once you get it going i have some tweaks to get dynamic contrast working, and edge sharpen is kinda like upscaling.. [3450 needs tweaks to enable contrast,higher end cards have it on already...i assume 780g will need it too]
dynamic contrast makes black levels on sd the same as HD so they will be consistant colorspace wise...[so you can set black levels on hd and sd will have same black levels]
makes sd look better while not affecting HD at all..

oh and about 8.11 drivers, they even made my x1550 do full hd smooth as silk....FINALLY! [at least in XP]
[and it's slow as mud]
you can use any version of avivo,even 8.12...but to use new ui features you have to grab the 8.12 control panel separate dl too..

[soccerdad]

Thanks, you are a wealth of information!!! I cleaned out all the catalyst stuff and loaded 8.11. Now it works great with only about 25% CPU down from about 45%!. I assume that HA is working but this is all new to me. I dl'd dxvachecker but am not really sure how to use it yet. I selected ts and mpeg files and when I play it back in EVR and it says "decoder device-in use, processor device-bob device" I assume that means that I am getting HA?

It looks like it is using the Microsoft MPEG Decoder for this. I don't know how to configure it for anything else.

Also, I lost the ATI decoder when I cleaned out the ATI stuff I got it when I installed the 8.12 package and lost it when I uninstalled it. Do you know how I just install the decoder. Would this just be a custom install and not install the driver?

As far as the mpc demux goes, does this install with MPC? Or do I have to install it some other way? Then just edit Config to say MPC mpeg demultiplexer? Also, I assume the demux change is for the Server?

Thanks for your patience and great help.

[soccerdad]

Opps.. I forgot that MCP HC is just an executable and not an installation. I found the individual filters, here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles..._id=643770 but there is not a "demux" one listed. There are a couple of splitters and muxs listed. I suspect it is one of the splitters?

[pBS]

yea, splitter/demux/demultiplexer same thing...and it's the mpeg splitter...i use it on both server and client..

get the seperate download for avivo codecs and parental control..[it's in separate downloads under normal cat driver all-in-one download]
scroll down on vista page to see "Avivo™ Package"

when you open a file in dxvachecker, notice the list of codecs available to play it with..
right click on the codec and select the vmr9 or evr renderer for playback...
any codecs installed that can play the video should be listed there...
it's an invaluable tool to see what really works..or doesn't...

also try vmr9 as well as evr...it might work fine for you as well and it's got nicer features in the pvrx2 interface...

and yes, using both decoder and processor device means total accell..
tho i don't miss the decoding part when i use ffdshow, it barely uses more than avivo and is rock solid smooth...[and benefits from hardware deinterlacing, which is 90% of the hard part.] [ffdshow only uses second processor so half that to get average to compare]
i have to select libmpeg2 for mpeg2 decoder in ffdshow or livetv doesn't work..and libmpeg2 only does single threads..

for h264 and vc1 [bluray etc] try the MPCHC Video decoder...works great with full accell
tho with latest beta6 ffdshow, h.264 seems to be fixed now too..

[pBS]

see, i knew they were the real deal...beat my brains in for 2 years trying to get *any* 3xxx cards to work right...actually shelved 2 cards cuz they just wouldn't stop video tearing on 720p...and on cotrol it didn't do anything...at least now it's 'stuck' in correct mode,even thos it still doesn't work right..['wait for vertical refresh' setting]

then i heard the rumors of the transcode accell stuff and decided to try them again with the latest drivers and lo and behold! EVERYTHING worked! not to mention a couple of new sliders to play with in ccc...
so then i installed them over old ones on old system that never worked no matter what i tweaked, and sure enough, worked perfectly too...

so i'm convinced that all previous drivers from like 8.10 on down are no good...
they got all cute and messed up the way the .inf files are assembled during install so some features got left out for some people[cards]...

even sadder than a non-working slew of video cards is that i think they only fixed them cuz of all the whining about 780g chipsets not working when they're sole purpose in life was multimedia...
for the longest time they've been catering to purely gamers...
now we htpc'ers finally have a little attention..

tho bad news is, looks like the new architecture of the 8.12 cat seems to have broken the same old stuff again...LOL
maybe a couple more revs they'll realease something that actually works and i'll stick to it like glue...

[pBS]

Gazoo: did you apply any tweaks? one of the main ones disables ha on mpeg...
use 8.11 with no tweaks....works fabulously..
[NoMPEG2HDDecode i think..]
i just manually enable vibrant color and dynamic contrast and set my edge sharpen to 'on' and a value of 0 in CCC....[it still sharpens a tad bit but not too much]
[keep noise reduction unchecked, as it leads to video 'trails']