Video and Audio problems

[Darx-starz]

sub

Any idea what causes the video "stuttering"?

Part of the problem with directshow is that the video is synced against the audio. There is a magic description here Download the product and read the README. I am not suggesting using reclock as you should be able to sort the problem using encoder pass thru. It worked for me. However I do remeber Sub mentioning that some codecs do not like encoder pass thru.

[jsteele]

I haven't looked at the link yet, but I do know that having tried encoder pass through and I get ZERO audio when I do. I'm using the Cyberlink decoders but have tried the nVidia with the same results.

I'll take a look at the link. Thanks.

[capone]

I don't see where you may have tried/reported the following:

1) Greatly reducing the quality for live (I don't watch in LP mode, only TS, so I'm assuming live encoding settings apply to both) and see if you still get it
2) See if you see it in WinTV2k
3) Have it in TS mode, or watching recoded shows

I think these three could help eliminate questions abut the problem being w/ GB, the system, windows, the encoders/decoders, etc.

[jsteele]

capone:

I have not yet tried reducing the quality.
I do not have WinTV2K installed, never bothered with it.
I can't say that I noticed in in recorded maerials but I wasn't 'sensitized' to it at that mode.

I can say that I have not seen any case of it since increasing the application priority from Normal to High. The video "stuttering" looks like it is gone running in this mode. And it has the salubrious affect of eliminating the brief pauses I was experiencing any time someone entered the web interface. The "High" priority setting appears to have essentially solved the problem. Another day or so to say for sure, but it certainly looks like it.

The audio "drift" problem remains however. After a period the audio and video are noticably out of sync. I haven't found a solution for this yet. The encoder-pass through simply does not work for me, I get no audio at all in this mode regardless of the decoders I choose so I am currently unning with deinterlace set to None. Still working on this one.

[capone]

I'd try expanding your troubleshooting, maybe using some of the suggestions I offered. It's going to help to know what does and doesn't make this happen. If it doesn't happen in recordings, then it has to w/ processing the live feed specifically, and not encoders/decoders, etc.

If the raising the priority helps, then it must be another process that now has a lower priority causing it. I could see where if it was intensive enough that it could continue to at least cause the sync issue.

I guess try getting creative and ending every process that you can and still use GB & windows, and see how it looks (maybe even move GB back to normal). Btw, I had problems like yours when I tired to have ffdshow do deinterlacing back before I used nVidia DVD decoders. The post-processing was just too much.

Oh...one more thing that caused a problem like that. I started using the new nVidia decoders, and had hardware acceleration on. When I turned it off, it went away. While the card can do it, it couldn't for the new decoders.

Anyway, make sure to install wintv. You have a reason to mess w/ it now.

[jsteele]

Last night I tried using TS mode and noticed that the stuttering is very pronounced, in some cases freezing the display for several seconds. In TS the video performance is in general poor. Overall it "seems slightly slower than normal" and the image "freezes" more often.

This was with the GBPVR set to HIGH priority. I reset the priority back to NORMAL and the TS performance is more "normal". But of course the overall video "stuttering" is back. Watching Perf Mon the 100% CPU spike in GBPVRRecordingService.exe still occurs coincident with the "stuttering."

[jsteele]

A few more observations in my ongoing quest to solve this problem.

I tried playing back a recorded tv program. The playback was awful, stuttering in many places and large skips of the program. When I tried moving around in the playback using forward/back/skip forward/skip back, etc the dropped materials became even more pronounced. A few minites in the film was playing, froze momentarily and when it resumed it was about 30 minutes into the movie! At one point I was about 15 minutes into the movie and hit back. The playback stopped and when it had resumed it was back at the opening credits despite the back interval being set to 60 seconds. When I hit the forward button the display stopped and resumed at a point probably half way into the movie. I know the recording is in good shape as I played it back via the web interface/VLC and it was almost perfect --- aside from some of the same kind of stuttering I had seen in Live TV.

Also I ran the windows Performance Monitor and the "offending" program definately shows to be GBPVRREcordingService.exe. The perf monitor shows a nominal 0 CPU usage with a fairly regular jump to 1.4-1.6 % every few minutes or so -- I assume this is the recording service waking up to check if there is something to do. Meanwhile GBPVR.exe is running in the 15-20% CPU range.

However every five to 10 minutes, coincident with the "stuttering", GBPVRRecordingService jumps dramatically to 85+% for 1-2 seconds. This is accompanied by a drop in GBPVR to 0% for the same period. After 1-2 seconds GBPVR returns to 15-20% and the recording service drops to a nominal 0% again. No other program running in the system exhibits this behavior coincident with the "stuttering" video.

[jsteele]

Some more discoveries.

I disabled VMR9 and the stuttering stops even though the 100% spike in GB
PVRRecordingService continues as before. I also tried changing Video Decoder from the Cyberlink to nVidea and the stuttering contines if VMR9 is enabled and goes away if I user Overlay Manager. So, it appears the the stuttering is related to VMR9 and shows up when the GBPVRRecordingService momentarily spikes at 100%. Is it normal, or is there any reason why, GBPVRRecordingService would spike to 100% CPU?

As before selecting Encoder Passthrough for Deinternlacing results in no audio whatsoever regardless of the video/audio decoders selected. This still mystifies me as it would appear the I may be the only person in the universe experiencing this :-)

In addition with Overlay Manager selected the video image is very, very dark. Is there anyway to adjust the brighness?

[jsteele]

I completely removed the Cyberlink decoders and installed the Intervideo WinDVD 6 and its decoders. I selected Intervideo as the video and audio decoders, selected VMR9 and Encoder Passthru for deinterlacing.

Using the Intervideo decoders I was able to get audio with Encoder Passthru where I was unable using any other decoders. So the audio slipping-sync problem appears to be resolved although I am not all together pleased that the only resolution is using Intervideo decoders.

And as for the video "stuttering"? That problem is still there, the only difference is that now both the video and audio stop momentarily! GBRecordingService STILL spikes to about 100% CPU for a second or two and the video and audio still freeze momentarily when this occurs.

This problem also occurs when playing a DVD when the GBPVRRecordingService momentarily takes all the available CPU resources.

[sub]

Sorry, there is no obvious cause from your description.