testing decoders

[Smoker]

Greetings

I have

• InterVideo NonCSS Video Decoder for Hauppauge
  
• CyberLink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD7)
  
• NVIDIA Video Decoder
  

and read the following

GB-PVR doesnt do any playback of video itself. Instead it just asks Microsoft directshow to do the playback (then steps out of the way).

So my question is how do I test these decoders outside of gbpvr.

Reason I ask is that all my channels display fine except channel 2 (yes I posted about this before thinking it was interference but come to find out it's not).

Also, are there other decoders that are much better ? I don't want to load everything in the world but if I am missing one that is a "must have" then I'd like to know.

[sub]

So my question is how do I test these decoders outside of gbpvr.

You can use GraphEdit. From the menu select 'Insert Filters', expand the 'Directshow filters' category, and insert the decoder you wish to test. Next select 'File -> Render Media File' from the menu and select a .mpg recording you made earlier, then hit play.

[Smoker]

Thank You sub

[pastro]

How do you know it's not interference or low signal? I wouldn't think the decoder would make it look bad on one channel and not all.
Have you tried burning a DVD and watching on a DVD player? That would give you a very good playback engine, to decide whether your's is ok or not.

[Smoker]

Greetings pastro

I do remember your post

Get showburner from the utilities section of the wiki.

It adds on to the transcode menu in the video library plugin. Select a file and then press transcode and you should see new options to:

add for DVD burning
burn DVD
delete file from dvd burnlist
delete all from DVD burnlist
read dvd-que and total size.

It sets the chapters at the commercial skip markers if available.

The problem is that I don't have the those installed and I'd rather not add too many plugins at the moment. Being relatively new to gbpvr I don't want to over load myself.

Let me ask though... I have copied recorded mpegs (of channel 2 and another channel) to another computer and watched them. There was no difference in quality. Would this be about the same testing as your suggesting ?

[pastro]

Greetings pastro

I do remember your post


The problem is that I don't have the those installed and I'd rather not add too many plugins at the moment. Being relatively new to gbpvr I don't want to over load myself.

Let me ask though... I have copied recorded mpegs (of channel 2 and another channel) to another computer and watched them. There was no difference in quality. Would this be about the same testing as your suggesting ?

I can understand not wanted to get too many things going at once. Keep in mind that showburner is a utility. It adds on to the transcode menu that is already part of the distribution.

To me, if it works on one channel and looks crappy on another it seems like signal levels or interference since you already have proven that the system works ok on recordings on a good channel. Have you looked at the channel in the Hauppauge viewer? Maybe there is an issue with the tuning.

[Smoker]

Yes I have tried in win2000.

I've also viewed the recording in mplayer.

All indications (to me) are that the signal is good but for some reason when I view it through gbpvr it gets choppy and jerky.

[pastro]

Just to clarify, it's not a grainy issue, it's choppy and jerky?
Also confirm that the picture looks fine in Windows Media player and win2000.

[Smoker]

Yes it is "scattered" and "jerky".

I can see it clearly in win2000 and a recording of the channel can be seen clearly in media player.

[pastro]

Sounds like you are on the right track then, if the video doesn't play well in GBPVR but it does in windows media player. I think Wmp uses the overlay renderer so you might try that as a test.
If you play a recording and then stop it and bring up graphedit with lasgraph.grf, you can see the filters that are being used by gbpvr. I think it will play with the gb-pvr flow status filter but if not you can always remove it and connect around it between the demux and the video decoder. You can replace the video decoder with whichever one you want to test and compare.