Better skip performance please

[spinnaker]

I use skip a lot. Sometimes I like to skip significant amounts at one time. For example, if I forget to pause, I might want to skip back 5 or 10 minutes.

The performance in WMC is extremely adequate. No offense but skip in NextPVr is very poor in comparison. The video will lag the audio by several seconds. A rewind works just a little bit better but I like to use skip.

In addition, if I press the left arrow two many times, I have seen it completely mess up the play buffer to where it looks like it is deleted and you are brought to the present time (occurs in live tv).


Any chance this performance can be improved?

[sub]

I use skip a lot. Sometimes I like to skip significant amounts at one time. For example, if I forget to pause, I might want to skip back 5 or 10 minutes.

If you want to skip back 10 minutes, just type 10 then press the skipback button. For 5 minutes, press 5 then skipback. Same story for skipforward.

The performance in WMC is extremely adequate. No offense but skip in NextPVr is very poor in comparison. The video will lag the audio by several seconds.

Do you mean you end up with audio out of sync with the video, or just that your hear the audio before you see the picture? If the latter, it depends where you are in the GOP, and how long the GOP lasts. The GOP is a Group Of Pictures, and only the first frame in the GOP is a complete picture (I-Frame). When you start playback in the middle of a GOP, you'll often only hear audio until the first I-Frame goes by, then the video decoder will start show pictures.

In most countries a GOP lasts about a second, so you'll get a picture within a second. On average, usually about half a second. If yours is usually taking longer, then your broadcaster maybe using longer GOPs.

[spinnaker]

Yes I hear the audio before I see the video.

Thanks for the tip on skipping minutes. But the normal skip is really useful when you are not sure exactly how far you want to skip.


Take a look at WMC and see what I mean. How are they getting this performance? I wouldn't say the difference is enormous but there is an improvment.


Where did you learn so much about PVR? I assume these are all standards? Are they documented somewhere?

[sub]

Yes I hear the audio before I see the video.

Thanks for the tip on skipping minutes. But the normal skip is really useful when you are not sure exactly how far you want to skip.

Take a look at WMC and see what I mean. How are they getting this performance? I wouldn't say the difference is enormous but there is an improvment.

They do some tricks with their DVR-MS/WTV mux to allow them to get slightly better skipping, where as I just have to rely on the default behaviour of standard directshow filters like the MPEG-2 Demultiplexer etc.

To be honest, its not an area I'm likely to invest much time in. For most people it works well enough, and it's something that I'd have to invest a huge amount effort it in for only a small improvement (on something that bothers very few people). It'd likely require me developing my own multiplexer and demultiplexer filters, which isn't something I'm keen to tackle - remember this is just a hobby project I do in my spare time.

Where did you learn so much about PVR? I assume these are all standards? Are they documented somewhere?

I've been fiddling around with NextPVR and it's predecessor for nearly 10 years, so I've learnt a lot along the way. Read a lot of specs, learnt a lot through first hand experience etc.

[johnsonx42]

You'll probably also want to try different decoders. Some handle skipping better than others.

Why is WMC better in some areas? An entire team of developers at a multi-billion dollar company wrote it and control the decoders, renderers, etc. NPVR is written by one guy in his spare time, and depends on 3rd party decoders that he can't control.

[spinnaker]

You'll probably also want to try different decoders. Some handle skipping better than others.

Why is WMC better in some areas? An entire team of developers at a multi-billion dollar company wrote it and control the decoders, renderers, etc. NPVR is written by one guy in his spare time, and depends on 3rd party decoders that he can't control.

Don't get me wrong. It is an incredible effort. Frankly I would not know where to start.

It is sad that MS put so much effort into their product then just dropped development.

Which worries me a bit about NextPVR. Any chance more people will get involved in development so it lives on?

[sub]

Which worries me a bit about NextPVR. Any chance more people will get involved in development so it lives on?

Sorry no, I'm not looking to add developers. It's a closed source app, and I want to just continue to tinker and take it in my own direction.

After committing nearly 10 years (first to GBPVR and then it's replacement NextPVR), I've think shown I'm in it for the long haul.

You guys just have to hope I don't get hit by a bus but even if I did, you've had a good run, with my software having filled a certain gap in market consistently for years. During this time, there has a been a lot of other PVR software has come and gone. SageTV, SnapStream BeyondTV, Meedio, GotAllMedia etc.

[spinnaker]

You'll probably also want to try different decoders. Some handle skipping better than others.

Why is WMC better in some areas? An entire team of developers at a multi-billion dollar company wrote it and control the decoders, renderers, etc. NPVR is written by one guy in his spare time, and depends on 3rd party decoders that he can't control.

Also what is a good source for different decoders? I am a total newb to this and have no idea where to find them.

I am currently using Microsoft DTV-DVD.

[spinnaker]

Sorry no, I'm not looking to add developers. It's a closed source app, and I want to just continue to tinker and take it in my own direction.

After committing nearly 10 years (first to GBPVR and then it's replacement NextPVR), I've think shown I'm in it for the long haul.

You guys just have to hope I don't get hit by a bus but even if I did, you've had a good run, with my software having filled a certain gap in market consistently for years. During this time, there has a been a lot of other PVR software has come and gone. SageTV, SnapStream BeyondTV, Meedio, GotAllMedia etc.

Just as long as you outlive me. But I can see where you might want to drop it for a while. At least I get that way. I mess with programing for a while then electronic design, now I m off on a different tangent fixing up my house to prepare to sell.

What I like about NextPVR is that it records in a non proprietary format so mtter what happens, someone is bound to offer another pvr that should be compatible.

[BrettB]

For the best skipping experience with NPVR, you also want to make sure that you're getting and using timing.info data. By default NPVR stores this as an alternate data stream (ADS) for the .ts file when it is saved on a device with NTFS. However, if you store to a NAS or do some sort of moving or transcoding, you may not have the timing.info available. There are some work-arounds like having the file stored as a separate file.