Video card recommendation

[SickBoy]

Well, I returned the HD5450 card. For now I just don't think it solved anything. I've reverted to the onboard HD4200 adapter.

I installed the HD Pack on Reddwarf's recommendation and switched it to Cyberlink decoder/EVR and it seems to be the smoothest, least skip-prone combo I've found yet. That said it's still far from perfect. I have a spare hard disk laying around and I think my next option is to try Win7 on that spare drive. I'd like to try to get the hardware I currently have working rather than throwing more money at the problem. If I do end up needing a different video card, it seems I'll need a different power supply as well.

I won't be able to try that until December, though. The wife and I are leaving for a holiday in Europe in two days and I don't have time to mess with it between now and then. I'll keep this thread bookmarked and resurrect it when I come back to the project.

[ga_mueller]

If you're in the US, and recording OTA or cable HiDef, then you'll want a decoder that enables DXVA with mpeg2. There aren't many of these around. Most people have powerful systems and say that you don't need DXVA for mpeg2... for me I need it. I'm using an older version of the Cyberlink mpeg2 decoder (PDVD7, clvsd.ax) and it works great with my wimpy Atom 330 for all cable HiDef. There are other decoders around but you'll have to dig a bit. I tried Nvidia's PureVideo decoder but as noted it's very old. If you use XP you will not get hardware accel with EVR. Those who say it's great with XP have very powerful systems which can do everything in software. XP supports VMR and Overlay with DXVA. You also need to get an application that will tell you if DXVA is being used (like GraphStudio), otherwise it's hit or miss.

[SickBoy]

Yeah, my latest line of thinking is that if a $100 license of Win7 brings me some better video performance on the equipment I have, that it's the way to go. With the power supply constraints I have, installing a super powerful video card is not an option. The one thing I didn't think of, with the comparison to my desktop machine, was that the desktop is Win7, which might explain some of the performance difference.

I've been considering a Hauppage HD-PVR but I want to get this stuff ironed out first, because I definitely want to be able to utilize the clearQAM HD channels on my HDHR.

[imilne]

XP may be a different story. I know the 4550 will do VA on Win7 if Aero is disabled, ESVP is disabled and no other video processing is being performed. It may be the same for the 5450 but I've never tested that stripped down config. Realistically, not many will run all those settings on Win7.

Hmm. One more thing to add to my ever expanding list of "does it still work on Windows 7" for when I switch over...

[mikeh49]

I'll chime in again for Win7 for video, and I'm no MS fanboy. For me, on US clear QAM MPEG using the dvr-ms mux, the Microsoft DTV-DVD decoders and EVR give me the best picture, almost perfect, and, most importantly, exceed the WAF requirements. Based on the work of Johnsonx42, I set the video and audio decoders in PVRX2 config to System Default, which lets DirectShow figure it out. No decoders to unpack, no filter merit to worry about, just AC3 filter to install (and it is well behaved, for me anyway). It seems like everybody has something different that works for them, but I had trouble duplicating anything but the setup described above. Next best for me was the MPC-HC video decoder; good, but MS is better.

I'd try 7 with your on-board video before buying another video card. It would be nice to know if there is an on-board video solution that will do MPEG HD and the community will appreciate your investment. I drank the 780G kool aid, and had to get the 9500GT to recover. The 780G is now assigned to office duties, where it is quite happy playing Flash.

[Reddwarf]

I'll chime in again for Win7 for video, and I'm no MS fanboy. For me, on US clear QAM MPEG using the dvr-ms mux, the Microsoft DTV-DVD decoders and EVR give me the best picture, almost perfect, and, most importantly, exceed the WAF requirements. Based on the work of Johnsonx42, I set the video and audio decoders in PVRX2 config to System Default, which lets DirectShow figure it out. No decoders to unpack, no filter merit to worry about, just AC3 filter to install (and it is well behaved, for me anyway). It seems like everybody has something different that works for them, but I had trouble duplicating anything but the setup described above. Next best for me was the MPC-HC video decoder; good, but MS is better.

I'd try 7 with your on-board video before buying another video card. It would be nice to know if there is an on-board video solution that will do MPEG HD and the community will appreciate your investment. I drank the 780G kool aid, and had to get the 9500GT to recover. The 780G is now assigned to office duties, where it is quite happy playing Flash.

On NPVR there is no such thing as system default with regards to decoders, but I agree that W7 handles video better that XP ever did, so I think with W7 the onboard video should work well given the right decoder and using EVR.

[SickBoy]

Alright, back from Europe and tweaking with this setup again.

Bought another Win7 license today and installed on the spare hard disk I had laying around (with the existing system disk disconnected to facilitate quick switching). After some fights with driver installs I got everything pretty much working. I don't have GraphRecorder fully configured but can test video over FW from the STB via VLC and I have one of the tuners for the HDHR configured.

Observation #1: HD video from the STB via VLC is pretty damn smooth, a lot better than before, audio still cuts out quite a bit though.
Observation #2: Video playback from HD recorded files seems smoother, though there are still some skips/jumps which I suspect exist in the file itself.
Observation #3: HD channels via the HDHR pretty much don't work at all. ever. In either VLC or GBPVR. Definitely worse than my desktop machine.

Observations #1 and #2 are, no doubt, positives. Observation #3 is a definitive step backwards. Right now my HTPC is wired in to my home network via a home powerline network bridge. I am now wondering if that's my hangup. Any ideas if streaming high def video between the HDHR and the HTPC needs heaps of network bandwidth? The adapters I have indicate they're a 70 Mbps network interface.

Next step is to test all this out by hooking up the box directly to the router and not through the home powerline bridge.

[SickBoy]

Yep, it's definitely the network bridge. Got totally smooth high def video from the HDHR in both VLC and GBPVR (EVR with MS decoder) in Win7 with the box connected directly to the router. I'm glad to find out the onboard Radeon HD4200 video works for high def.

Now to figure out how to run a hard line from the router up to the GBPVR box...

[ga_mueller]

Yep, it's definitely the network bridge.

Both Wireless G and Powerline didn't work with HDTV for my GPBVR client. Since I had coax to it, I bought a couple of used FIOS routers on ebay and set up a MoCA bridge... perfect...

[SickBoy]

Just got a hard line gigabit connection run down to the router (turned out to be easier than I thought it would be).

I'm getting totally smooth live TV playback from HD channels via the HDHR even under XP/VMR9 FSE. For now I think I'll just sit on that - the Win7 install was a test install on a spare drive and I really, really don't feel like reinstalling/reconfiguring/retweaking my system. So long as I am getting good smooth playback and recording I think XP is good enough for me.

Incidentally, I did pick up a PCI-Express 9500GT card at the computer store while I was out. $23 after MIR, I figure I can either use it in the HTPC or in my desktop when I finally get around to upgrading it.

Thanks all!