Tearing problem is killing me.

[Hodr]

Ok, I built an HTPC with the goal of minimal noise and power as the goal (while being as fully functional as possible).

The specs are as follows:

780G based motherboard (FOXCONN A7GM-S)
Athlon 5050e (dual core 2.6ghz low wattage version)
2 Gigs of Corsair memory (DDR2 800)
Hauppauge HVR-2250 Capture Card.
500 Gig Seagate HD (seek is kinda loud, blows the whole quit PC thing)


I have installed Windows XP Professional 32 Bit version w/ latest updates (and SP3).

The board itself seems to have issues with XP that do not exist under Vista (sound problem where the non-HDMI output driver is not default and is difficult to access or to even install if you do not install drivers in exacting order).

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Ok, the issue. All hardware accelerated playback tears and is very annoying. This is regardless of codec selected (I have installed K-lite, CCCP, and various other codecs). It looks nice, but tears. When using hardware mode it uses approximately 8-10% of CPU.

In software mode I do not like the de-interlacing and the picture is not as clean, but it doesn't tear (and takes like 12-15% of CPU).

Situation is similar when trying other applications like media player, media player classic, or even BeyondTV.

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Has anyone else been able to get a similar setup to look nice with hardware decoding. Is there something that I am doing wrong, every post I read says the onboard ATI HD 3200 should be enough to run any content I would come accross.

I have a copy of vista business that I am not using that I could install on the machine at some point in the future (if it turns out to be an un-resolvable driver issue) if needs be, but I would rather not.

-Other things I have tried include lowering resolution, overclocking the CPU (can get over 3ghz without changing voltage), setting the vertical sync in 3d settings to always on, and hopping on one foot while whistling the national anthem.

Please let me know if you have any ideas.

Thank you.

-Hodr

[sub]

Maybe try setting GB-PVR to use the 'VMR9 Fullscreen Exclusive' renderer.

[soccerdad]

There are several users here (including myself) with 780 chip boards and we generally have had good luck with them. What ATI driver are you using? On VMR9 my best results mimic sub's suggestion with fullscreen exclusive. I am on Vista home premium though.

[Hodr]

Thank you Sub for the suggestion of using the fullscreen renderer. I have tried all of the available renderer's and the problem exists in each.

I am using the newest ATI driver from their web page, 8.561.0.0

And for soccer dad, I am glad that you do not have problems under Vista. Perhaps when I try switching to vista I will have more success.

[soccerdad]

As far as the drivers go, the latest is not the greatest. Check out this thread. http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=39752

[cdldt]

I don't know whether GB-PVR can use YUV mixing, but for me, in ZoomPlayer, YUV mixing resolves VMR9 tearing without having to use exclusive mode. Until recently YUV mixing was incredibly unstable on Radeon cards and would freeze the whole PC but this has been cleared up in the past few driver releases.

Before YUV worked, the only solution for VMR9 was exclusive.

[sub]

Unfortunately YUV mixing mode isnt possible, VMR doesnt support OSD overlays etc in YUV mode, and a couple of other things GB-PVR requires.

[Hodr]

Well, after having made so many changes that I am not sure which (if any single is responsible) made the difference, Fullscreen Exclusive mode with ffdshow seems to provide a pretty stable picture (good enough for me anyways).

I still have a couple of other issues to work out, like why I cannot get any program to pull in digital channels when my tv will (not a huge issue, backburner for now) and why the GB-PVR will at times hang when it starts a recording or goes to live tv (doesn't hang the computer, just the video while audio may or may not continue).

Thanks again for the help guys.

[sub]

Well, after having made so many changes that I am not sure which (if any single is responsible) made the difference, Fullscreen Exclusive mode with ffdshow seems to provide a pretty stable picture (good enough for me anyways).

Good

I still have a couple of other issues to work out, like why I cannot get any program to pull in digital channels when my tv will (not a huge issue, backburner for now) and why the GB-PVR will at times hang when it starts a recording or goes to live tv (doesn't hang the computer, just the video while audio may or may not continue).

If you create new thread for each of these, with logs, then I'll take a look. If the audio continues though, it sounds like it might be the video decoder at fault, so you quest for tear-free playback may not be complete with the current decoder...