Windows Media Center 7 works well. NextPVR not so much.

[mikeh49]

NPVR asks Windows to play any file that is not an NPVR recording, so merit comes into play in that case. May explain the use of LAV.

You can look at the NPVR log to see what decoders it used for recordings, and, I think, live TV.

I'd banish LAV for any use with US mpeg2 TV.

I'm still thinking your 8200 video is not up to the task.

[t^2]

I'm still thinking your 8200 video is not up to the task.

Hard to say. All I know is that the 8200 works fine with WMC 7.

A systematic way - with appropriate tools and knowledge - of troubleshooting these issues would be nice.

[Graham]

Is it a hardware decoding thing? It may be that NextPVR is using a decoder that is not using hardware decoding. In NextPVR Settings ... Decoders there is a button marked with ellipsis to the right of the decoder selection box. The decoder properties/settings can be viewed and set by clicking this button. But ... i can recall that I have had trouble getting changes to stick when I have gone this way (may be a permissions thing).

If you have installed Cyberl... via SAF, you should have a DXVA ON in the Start menu. Good luck.

[t^2]

Is it a hardware decoding thing? It may be that NextPVR is using a decoder that is not using hardware decoding. In NextPVR Settings ... Decoders there is a button marked with ellipsis to the right of the decoder selection box. The decoder properties/settings can be viewed and set by clicking this button. But ... i can recall that I have had trouble getting changes to stick when I have gone this way (may be a permissions thing).

If you have installed Cyberl... via SAF, you should have a DXVA ON in the Start menu. Good luck.

I've tried Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder and PDVD13. Microsoft DTV-DVD uses hardware acceleration and doesn't have any settings that are exposed (won't get anything clicking on the ellipsis button) . PDVD13 was set to use HA too. Naturally, I checked the CPU loading and both decoders ran at 15 to 30%. Without HA on my rig, the CPU's run between 35 and 55%.

Actually, I believe I don't see these problems when HA is turned off. If I was sitting in front of my machine I would verify that statement (something I'll do tonight), but that's what I recall.

[stustunz]

turn on force wait for vertical sync in your video card 3d settings
turn the rest off or down
if you have a setting that says enforce smooth video(or similar) try selecting that
in cyberlink decoder settings I use force bob (people say this will lower the resolution but who cares if it gives smooth playback) you could also try weave ,just don't leave it on auto

try changing the refresh rate also 60hz multiples for the states

[t^2]

turn on force wait for vertical sync in your video card 3d settings
turn the rest off or down
if you have a setting that says enforce smooth video(or similar) try selecting that
in cyberlink decoder settings I use force bob (people say this will lower the resolution but who cares if it gives smooth playback) you could also try weave ,just don't leave it on auto

try changing the refresh rate also 60hz multiples for the states

Thanks... Now we're cooking with gas...

So turning V-Sync on was a big improvement. I didn't select Bob. I've left it in auto. Why do you recommend Bob vs. auto?

So here is the current state of things:

- WMC 7 Live TV: Good
- WMC 7 playback of Live TV recorded with WM7: Good

- NPVR Live TV (Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder): Good
- NPVR playback of Live TV recorded with NVPR (Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder): No Good. Still same problems as before - sync issue?

- NPVR Live TV (PDVD13 Decoder): Good
- NPVR playback of Live TV recorded with NVPR (PDVD13 Decoder): Good.

Note about my PDVD13 Decoder experience: Last night While using PDVD13 Decoder I was seeing everything cycle from lighter to darker (like brightness was changing). The word that comes to mind... Like pumping - cycling like a beat every couple of seconds. So, I tried to use Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder instead. However, as mentioned above, it's having trouble with playback of recorded TV. I do note that every time I go look at the settings for the PDVD13 Decoder it doesn't show you your last changes (they go back to default - Misc = SW and Video Mode = Auto-Select). What the settings are actually set to is likely what you last selected. You can only tell by watching TV or playing back video. So perhaps I had it on Bob or Weave when I was seeing that "pumping". Today, I gave up on Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder and went back to PDVD13 Decoder and it no longer has that pumping problem. It's working good now. Wonder how long that will last...

- WMC 7 playback of Live TV recorded with NVPR: Good

- NVPR playback of Live TV recorded with WMC 7: Now it won't open the WTV file. Perhaps screwing around with merits screwed this up. If I remember right it was using the LAV splitter instead of the MPEG-2 Demultiplexer for WTV files, so I lowered LAV's merit to see if it would use the MPEG-2 Demux. I recall it still used LAV. Don't know if LAV was the problem, but playback of WTV was no good.

So any suggestion or comments would be appreciated... Thanks...

[t^2]

Guess I spoke to soon. Just flipped on a Basketball game. Lot more motion and panning and the problems are showing here. Sync or interlacing issues? Watched the same game on WMC 7 with no problems - perfect. NPVR glitchy stuttering briefly every few to several seconds. So NVPR not setting up the video drivers/card options the same way that WMC 7 does? Something in the special sauce between these two applications is different. The question is... What is it and can NPVR be made to duplicate WMC 7's performance or no?

[stustunz]

Turn bob or weave on don't leave on auto
What's probably happening is the decoder gets confused
Wmc doesn't record the same as NPVR apples and pears dude

[stustunz]

Also find a program with a ticker tape running along the bottom , news updates . Use this as your test when the ticker tape is smooth with no glitches everything else will be to
If it has jagged edges as it scrolls that's interlacing wrong
If its jumping it's either wrong refresh rate , not in sync , or the decoder switching between what ever going on in the back groun because it's set to auto.
Or you video card is rubbish and doesn't decode properly , try switching to software decoding , if that fixes it then buy a new video card.

What renderer have you got it set to ?
What audio decoder are you using ?
If you use something like graph edit what decoders etc does it use to play the file ? ( from memory I had to lower the Merritt on something from Microsoft to get smooth playback on one machine) basically try and remove anything with Microsoft in the graph


It will be as smooth s wmc but needs reasonably new gear to do it.

[t^2]

Also find a program with a ticker tape running along the bottom , news updates . Use this as your test when the ticker tape is smooth with no glitches everything else will be to
If it has jagged edges as it scrolls that's interlacing wrong
If its jumping it's either wrong refresh rate , not in sync , or the decoder switching between what ever going on in the back groun because it's set to auto.
Or you video card is rubbish and doesn't decode properly , try switching to software decoding , if that fixes it then buy a new video card.

It will be as smooth s wmc but needs reasonably new gear to do it.

Yes I have seen some glitchiness with ticker tapes. It can be smooth for the most part but then sometimes have occasional stutters when viewed in NVPR. However, it's always smooth with WMC 7. In either case there are no jagged edges.

On a side note, when switching PDVD13 Decoder to weave, there is a good amount of combing.

Switching to software decoding does seam to eliminate the main problem. However, playback may be uniform (in terms of stutters and glitches) with SW decoding, it's just not as smooth overall when HA is enabled (and working right - periods with no stutters etc. ). It's certainly not as good as WMC 7 gets with HA (which is near flawless - at least with my eyes) on this machine.

I'm not opposed to getting new hardware. This computer is starting to show some grey.

Still... It seems odd to me that WMC 7 can make this hardware work fine, but - as of yet - I've been unable to get NVPR to do the same.