Disappointing MPEG2 decoding

[pBS]

After re-installing os and bgpvr [several versions of each] to get rid of an annoying stutter [about every 8 secs or so,otherwise perfect][i had been using only MVP exclusively] i found some interesting things out...seems the best/most efficient VMR9 decoding for me has been the Nvidia purevideo codecs, with interlacing set to 'encoder passthrough'.
[note:overlay mode looks slightly better, and requires much much less cpu, but can't be resized on tv on any cards i've tried, and no transparent osd]
With Cyberlink PowerDVD codecs, you have to set the interlacing options to 'none' or livetv will look weird,and even then it pales compared to Nvidia's picture quality... both are DXVA accelerated and i've tried both Nvidia and ATI cards and except for the 6200+ nvidia's, the ati's beat them out by having more accelerated finctions..[notice DXVA mode a for nvidia, but even ancient ati cards do mode c] tho the ati cars tv out is rediculous..[black bars at bottom]
all other codecs i've tried seem to offer no hardware acceleration..or don't have properly working de-interlacing parts.

Anyways, the fix i found..
after trying all this i still got a Slight skip! [watch Fox news channel for a steady example of smooth motion banners over video]
my cpu is at about 30% so it's not that, the video is otherwise as sharp as tv and motion smooth as silk...apparently there's some service or gbpvr itself that is dominating enough to interrupt the smooth flow..
so i set the GBPVR.EXE process to 'high' and Viola! smooth without hiccups!
so i restored my original os and setup and tried it and it worked there too
but how to automate it? i wrote a small app that will watch for GBPVR.exe and set it to high whenever found and it seems to make the MVP a little heartier too... if there's any interest i'll post it..[tiny auto-it script .exe]
i thought maybe because the recording service was set to high, but nope, set it to normal and it still did it without the fix..tried different cpu's..1800 and 2400mhz no difference...cpu time has ample headroom...
they were fresh install of WinXP sp1 and sp2...no diff.
[so not related to directx,tho i did notice performance improvements with dx9b] tried gbpvr 93.10b - 95.16.....93.10 is fast! but oh the features..lol
so far having it high hasn't affected anything else..tried 'above-normal',but problem still existed..
cpu while decoding livetv is 30-70% for some reason, while decoding pre-recordings was always down under 40% [on an 1800-P4]
both decoders showed similar cpu results on 'recorded' media..
oh and don't set your recording drive or timeshift drive to a network path, even if local it will bog you down significantly..
if you've got a hyperthreading cpu or heavy-duty videocard you might not have these problems but i'm interested in hearing if that's the case..
with this setup i can make a really slow pc work very well..[900mhz+]

anyone else getting different results?

[j3flight]

There's a switch in the config file to automatically launch gbpvr in "above normal" priority. (search around, i can't remember) That's probably better than the app you're using to monitor it if you want to give it a shot. Above normal should have the equivalent effect unless you're running OTHER above normal processes.

Also, try killing other apps to discover waht the stutter is coming from. Anti-virus reading the video file during playback possibly? There's no reason to have hiccups with your fast cpu unless you're hurting for memory or you have a suck video card. Slower processors might be a different story.

[sub]

I actually had some reasonably serious stuttering going on my new machine, and changing quartz.dll or video decoders didnt help at all.

My new CPU is an AMD X2 4400+ with dual cores. It turns out many of the directshow components dont behave well will multiple CPUs or cores. I had to add an option in config.xml to force the processor affinity to one CPU. This fixed it, and things are running very smoothly now. This setting will be included in the next release for others that may need it.

[Frag1]

Hi all,
I am new to the this world on WinTV and have the stutter to on my PVR 350 using WinTV2000.

I was going to try and replace this dll but can not find it to download anywhere

I also tried the Rest DX9c fix mentioned on this site but the file did not istall.

If you have a link to quartz.dll 6.5.1.902 pls post .

Thanks all.

[smeghead]

There is a link to this version on the first page somewhere I think

[capone]

I just started getting very slight frame issue, but some tearing at the top 1/5 of the screen, too.

I was going to try the this fix, but I wasn't sure if anyone had this, and had it fixed w/ the quartz fix. Last time I tried it, it seems to make the skip ff/rw slower, but I was troubleshooting a different issue then.

Also, has anyone tried going from VMR9 to VMR7? I'm currious what difference that would make, on performance vs. quality.

I'm also hoping the tearing is just from having the TV used more over the holidays w/ eveyone home more often and less tv downtime.

[maxxgraphix]

Ok, now I'm trying to solve this too. I have a GeFX5200 128mb with DVI out. When connected only to VGA input on the 37" LCD it plays fine, but the picture quality suffers even at 1360 x 768. If you conect the DVI and use the Dual monitor support, DVI looks better but stutters. I have DirectX9c. I've been trying all the popular codecs. Nvidia wouldn't scale correctly. Cyberlink and Intervideo both stutter. Maybe the this system just isn't fast enough to do a 1080i display on HD.

This s a Athalon 2100XP with MSI board and 1gig ram. ATA hard drives. The TV is a 37" Vizio LCD.

Perhaps some of the problems stated here are not due to same issues. I guess it takes a $400 video card and $1000 system to view a video on a HD TV with WinXP.

So, if your stating you have this problem please specify VGA or DVI or Svid

[maxxgraphix]

Update!

I am running DirectX 9c. I did not change the quartz.dll. I did apply the latest patch from Bill Gates. I installed the NVidia Pure Video codecs again to check them out in detail. Well worth it. Of course you should have a Nvidia card.

Now I have a GeForce FX 128mb. This card comes in many flavors. I found that you can overclock these cards. It went from 250mhz to 375mhz. All I I can say is WOW! I did add a cooling fan to the heat sink. I can now play DVD's without problems @ 720i on my HD with a dvi cable. Before it sucked and stuttered. It seems that many Geforce cards are sold underclocked. You only need to add cooling/heatsink to run them up to DVI quality.

Almost Forgot: Happy New Year!

Thanks Sub for a Great product.

[valkokir]

I started having all kinds of problems after the most recent release. Turns out I broke the cardinal rule of not changing more than one thing at a time. I run a pretty old system and thought that maybe GBPVR just started needing more resources than my pc could handle.

I had found a 256mb stick of PC133 Kingston ValueRAM sitting around and figured I might as well just fill up my ram slots. Bad idea. I started getting skipping every 30 seconds like others mentioned. I removed that stick and all my problems were gone. That says something for spending a bit of money on decent ram.

[pwborders]

I actually had some reasonably serious stuttering going on my new machine, and changing quartz.dll or video decoders didnt help at all.

My new CPU is an AMD X2 4400+ with dual cores. It turns out many of the directshow components dont behave well will multiple CPUs or cores. I had to add an option in config.xml to force the processor affinity to one CPU. This fixed it, and things are running very smoothly now. This setting will be included in the next release for others that may need it.

For anyone with a similar issue before the new version comes out here is a link to a little program to set affinity when starting a program.

http://www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.php

This is another one that I have used myself in the paste (not for gb-pvr though):

http://www.mlin.net/SMPSeesaw.shtml