Mpeg 2 Decoders for HDTV

[Modular]

What are you using?

I have the nVidia decoders and the Intervideo decoders. The nVidia ones are causing choppy live HDTV while the Intervideo ones seem to be much smoother, although not perfect. The Intervideo decoders also result in very high CPU usage (80-99%) while watching live HDTV. So sometimes the video will stutter. What decoders are you using for HDTV?

[Koenie]

I think not so much the decoders but the videocard are the problem. As far as I know a 6600 is hardly able to accelerate HD decoding taxing your CPU to the max. I use an ATI X1800 GTO which works much better than the Nvidia 6600 or ATI 9600 I tried before. Currently I would buy an ATI HD2600 pro (search for some HD video playback reviews to convice yourselves).

[Modular]

Well, it could be that when the card is using the nVidia decoders it isn't powerful enough to run the decoder. But the CPU usage when using the nVidia decoder is only about 30%. It's the Intervideo one that causes the high CPU usage, but has relatively smooth playback.

[bigbus01]

I have an MSI HD2600XT and have tried a number of decoders.

I have ATI, Intervideo, NVidia, Cyberlink, Nero, MPV, and HCW. The best one I have tried is the MPV decoder. It gives me the smoothest video on 1080i with a fairly low CPU usage (25%). ATI, Nvidia, and Nero give me the choppiest video and use the most CPU. Cyberlink is the best wrt smoothness but has problems with mosaics during scene changes. Intervideo is very good but has some stuttering/picture tearing on panning scenes.

I was using the motherboard's Nvidia card and when I switched to the MSI, I noticed a 40 degree F drop in CPU temperature (with an external thermistor probe on the CPU). The new card didn't help my video stutter that much although it did allow me to get much better Live TV playback.

Back to your question, I would try the MPV decoder.

Bigbus

[Squid]

I have a ATI 1300 on a Athlon 2300xp with a HVR-1600. I exclusively record/watch OTA HD and it does a decent job. It by no means is perfect, but it is very watchable. I use the ATI Cyberlink decoder that in theory is using the hardware acceleration on the 1300. My cpu load watching ( and recording, not that recording really matters ) is 30-40% in overlay mode. The trick for me is .dvr-ms and overlay mode. The setup doesn't work in VMR9 or using cyberlink or any other mux.

I am about to rebuild my gb-pvr computer with a athlon64 3200. Hopefully with a little more CPU horsepower I can maybe run vmr9 and therefore pvrx2.


Squid

[wtg]

I'm using the NVidia PureVideo decoder with an ATI x1600 Pro. The two combined give me smoother playback and lower CPU usage than anything I've tried from ATI or NVidia alone.

For your 6600, what DirectX acceleration mode are you seeing in the Video Decoder properties? I was only able to get mode A with my 6200, but mode C with the ATI card.

[Modular]

For your 6600, what DirectX acceleration mode are you seeing in the Video Decoder properties? I was only able to get mode A with my 6200, but mode C with the ATI card.

I'm getting Mode A with my 6600. I'm betting that's what the issue is. I guess this card just doesn't have the power to actually decode HD. Looks like I may have to upgrade. One thing that has helped HD playback was changing the config to VMR9 as opposed to VMR9Exclusive or the other VMR9 mode (the name of which is escaping me now). I'm assuming that my card is the bottleneck. I'll have to check what mode my 6600gt in my other computer runs the decoder in as that computer seemed to play the recorded HD files back without any problem.

[bigbus01]

Where do you find the listing for the Mode for the card? Is it under dxdiag? Can't seem to find it.

Bigbus

[wtg]

Where do you find the listing for the Mode for the card? Is it under dxdiag? Can't seem to find it.

Within gbpvr's config where you choose the video decoder, click the decoder properties button.

[aiacel]

Dear Modular,
I've worked till now on the same your problem. The results are.
1)nVidia 6600 AGP can't acelerate any WMV,VC1,H264, but only HD-MPEG2 with PUREVIDIDEO HD
2)nVidia 6600 PCI-E can acelerate everythings with PUREVIDEO HD.

Ufficialy nVidia removed aceleration due audio video-sincronyzation issue since FORCEWARE 83(or so). But I think they removed to force people tu buy a new one.
If you have an AGP card (like me), you can try oldest drivers: I've tried a couple with no success