1080i playback choppy regardless of decoder

[johnsonx42]

Having re-formatted my GB-PVR box with XP Pro SP3 (was running Vista SP1, had problems too numerous to go into here), I am very close to having GB-PVR working pretty well.

However, I can't solve the one problem which is that any 1080i HD channel plays back very choppy (whether in LiveTV Preview mode or playing back a recording). 720p HD channels are smooth as silk, as are all SD channels.

Decoders I have tried:
- Cyberlink PDVD 8 (from k-lite)
- Cyberlink PDVD 6 (from a PDVD 6 install CD)
- ATI AVIVO (current version from website, released with Catalyst 8.11)
- Intervideo NonCSS decoder (from WinTV install on Hauppauge HVR-1250 CD)

All the decoders work the same; 720p perfect, 1080i choppy

System highlights:

GB-PVR 1.3.7
XP Pro w/SP3
AMD X2-5000+
1GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD4550 (Catalyst 8.11)

I'm running 720x480 via S-Video out, though I have tested other resolutions with the same results. I'm using VMR9 Custom, but have tested FSE and Overlay with the same results.

Tuners are Hauppauge HVR-1250 and K-World ATSC-340u. Using TS-Mux.

If I playback a 1080i .ts file in PowerDVD, it plays perfectly with 10% cpu utilization. Playing back the same exact file from PVRX2 is choppy, CPU utilization goes to 40%+.

If I watch a 720p channel, CPU is at 7-10%. As soon as I switch to a 1080i channel CPU use jumps to 40-45%.

The 40-45% utilization seems to be across both CPU's - it looks like the decoding process is single threaded, but it bounces across both CPU's. Setting the affinity to a single CPU puts 90% use on one core but doesn't otherwise change the results.

The above all seems to imply that PVRX2 is somehow preventing hardware acceleration from working with 1080i playback, while it works fine with 720p.

PowerDVD has no problem accelerating 1080i though, so it's not directly a limit of the driver or decoder.

I had no similar problem running Vista on the same hardware.

Logs attached showing a short run of PVRX2. After launch, I call up the guide, select a 720p channel (7.1 KABCDT), watch for a few moments, then switch directly to a 1080i channel (2.1 KBCSDT), watch that stutter for a bit and then exit.

Thanks for any help.

Dave

p.s. I did find this thread: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=34802 which seems to be a similar sort of problem. I've read quite a bit of that, but never came across a solution; it seems to have died out some months ago

[johnsonx42]

ok, I have found the MPV Decoder Filter is able to decode 1080i in software without being choppy. I don't think it's the greatest mpeg decoder in the world, but it'll do for now.

Obviously this does not fix the fundamental problem of HW acceleration not working in 1080i with the more advanced decoders, so I would still appreciate any help getting that fixed.

If nothing else, running MPV Decoder means my CPU will be running at full speed generating lots of heat all the time, rather than nearly idling while the GPU does all the work (yes, of course the GPU gets hot too, but I'd be willing to bet it draws less power decoding MPEG than the CPU does)

[pBS]

i get the same here with ati 4xxx cards...i don't think the driver is there yet...
powerdvd makes up for it by 'cheating' somewhat..[individual optimizations for specific cards]
possibly even bypassing some windows methods of accessing the hardware..
so powerdvd isn't a good comparison as it's not playing fair...

the 3xxx cards driver seems to be perfect [finally!] but i tried same driver with 4550 and got no accell like you...same exact problems the older drivers had for over a year with 3xxx hardware...with 8.11 anywhere i try them they work great...i bet yours works fine with vista...
they seem to work on vista first then worry about xp...
or try evr.. almost anything works with evr..[but use good codecs]

and since the 8.12 driver is supposed to be a major change, i'd wait and see if they don't fix it by then...[plus the transcoding acell, which could be a milestone event]

i'll stick with the 3450/3650's for now as they work perfectly and not lacking for pic quality..

[johnsonx42]

powerdvd makes up for it by 'cheating' somewhat..[individual optimizations for specific cards]
possibly even bypassing some windows methods of accessing the hardware..
so powerdvd isn't a good comparison as it's not playing fair...

That seems unexpected, since the PowerDVD version I tested (6) came out about 4 years before the HD4000 cards or 8.11 driver. I'll take your word for it though that PowerDVD has some magic.

or try evr.. almost anything works with evr..[but use good codecs]

I've got other reasons not to use EVR unfortunately.

It turns out also that the MPV Decoder has some strange issues with interlacing, so even that didn't bring any relief.

Hopefully the 8.12 driver will be out VERY soon and fixes this.

[Pob]

Well I have a HD3450 and I don't get good results using hardware acceleration, at least not on 1080i HD live TV or recordings.
And it is not just a problem with GBPVR, the same thing happens with media player, or MPC Home Cinema etc.
I am not saying HA does not work at all - it does - at least if Cyberlink PVD-8 (and the registry edited to support PVRX2), or the media player home cinema codecs are used (they have just been updated and 'now support interlaced H264 content';http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/ )
But the quality if HA is used is dire - in particular deinterlacing is terrible, with lines showing on any movement, and frequent judders or flashes of earlier frames.
This is very particular to 1080i HD - 720p or 1080p plays fine.
It amazes me the it is so hard to get this working acceptably. BTW when I tried Cyberlink Power DVD's own player, it did not suffer from the above symptoms - but the actually quality of the picture was awful, with mucho pixelisation on any moving object.
So I keep ending up back with CoreAVC and it's software decoding- why it works so well on all content, including 1080i HD, I don't know, but it does, and most importantly for me the image quality is the best. Why the video card makers can't just do the same as CoreAVC with their hardware is a mystery.

[Pob]

Found a year-old post I made about similar issues;
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=2...stcount=43
Funny, in an insane, hysterical sort of way, that I still can't get it working acceptably after replacing ALL my hardware

[pBS]

same here, couldn't get my 3450 working quite right for over a year, so i put it away and went with an Intel 965 MB that worked great...but was missing my audio thru hdmi so thought i'd see how the new drivers were coming along and set it up and viola! worked great right off..
so then i tried it in old system i had so much trouble with before, and it worked perfectly there also! all i did was change to the new 8.11 driver...

so that makes me think it's all about the driver..last one i tried before giving up was 8.9 i believe..so it's new that they've gotten the 3xxx cards working only very recently...

one thing i notice, the 'wait for vertical refresh' doesn't do ANYTHING...
[it used to work correctly, but not for video,only 3d apps]
now it's like it's forced on permanently...[on is how we need it]
but it'd be nice to be able to set it 'off' for games, tho i don't personally care, as i don't play much..for video it needs to be on..so i'm good as it is.


one note, with hardware accell on, i get stutters...[go figure]
with pdvd 8 in gbpvr i get stutters...
only ati avivo and ffdshow work smoothly...
avivo seems to be doing full accell, but not ffdshow,even tho they both work perfectly..
[about 20% more cpu with ffdshow than avivo at around 10%]

mpv codec is not evr capable, and most other open source codecs aren't either..
ffdshow does seem to work fine with evr tho it isn't either..
mpv codec doesn't do deinterlacing right,it tries to handle it itself instead of passing to card hardware...it's an excellent software codec, but can't match hardware deinterlacing...

did some bluray rips the other day and they look fabulous..
i probably won't upgrade the drivers now till i have proof new ones actually work..
just glad we finally have something to fall back on that does work..
[plus they rarely add anything new to video playback features]

also, i find it interesting that they rewrote the core and came out with UVD2, so soon after coming out with the first one..
[3xxx cards were UVD1]
made me think there was a problem they couldn't fix in the original one..lol

just wishing i could find a beta of that 8.12 driver..

we should start a class action lawsuit to sue over the 'vaporware' they keep selling us with false promises..
i bet there would be a lot of takers...lol [everyone who ever tried to get one working based on the requirements given]
if they can't tell us what hardware it works on exactly and whats required to get it to work properly, then it's like buying tires they say will work with 10psi but obviously don't, and getting away with it..leaving us to figure it all out by trial and error..

i know it's hard to guarantee things with all the possible combinations out there, but from what i read, no one anywhere can get some of this stuff working ever, or like me, had to wait a year and a half...and it's clearly the drivers, i can replicate it easily...
no matter the card maker, no matter the bus speed,memory speed, gpu speed, OS version, service pack level, or motherboard..
i've tried it with a wide variety of setups...same exact results everytime..[at least with XP-pro,XPMCE,XP-Home]

but it seems par for the course among all makers..
Intel g45 only works for Vista, new drivers won't install on older mbs, Nvidia routinely puts out stuff that doesn't work, and ATI no better..
the cards are almost obsolete! by the time the drivers are fully mature..

blame some of it on MS because of the poor dxva implementation, but mostly on the card makers...
[Vista seems like it gets all the attention even tho most htpc's are xp based..]

[johnsonx42]

As pBS mentioned, I'm getting interlacing weirdness with MPV Codec. Sometimes it seems to work great, but it will just switch to garbage after a few seconds or minutes (usually on a camera angle or scene change).

I now have ffdshow installed, but I'm not able to verify it's really working - when it's selected, the output looks EXACTLY like MPV Decoder (including the interlacing problem), which sure makes me think it's somehow falling back to MPV. It does work for playing the movie trailers in the cinema listings plugin, but that's quicktime rather than mpeg-2.

I gather though we're giving GB-PVR/PVRX2 a pass on this, this is all out of sub's hands?

Pob, I'm taking it I should give CoreAVC a try? Any tips, or just install and go?

[Pob]

To the OP - have tried the registry patch to get PDVD decoder working with GBPVR - some details here: http://forums.gbpvr.com//showthread.php?t=35842
To pBS - some really good points. I was'nt going to bother with the 8.11 drivers but now I am tempted to try them just to see if anything works better...

[Pob]

I gather though we're giving GB-PVR/PVRX2 a pass on this, this is all out of sub's hands?

Pob, I'm taking it I should give CoreAVC a try? Any tips, or just install and go?

I don't think it is anything to do with GBPVR - just remember that the choice of H264 decoder in the GBPVR config screen does not actually mean the decoder chosen will be used - you have to use tools like DirectShow Filter Manager (DSFMgr) to change decoder merits.

Certainly worth trying CoreAVC - it's a very simple app without many options; mine attached. But like you, I would love to get hardware acceleration working, due to lower heat and noise. I use cool 'n quiet, and most of the time my PC ambles along at 900Mhz with the CPU fan sometimes not spinning at all. Play any HD video and it goes straight to 2.9Ghz and the fans all on full!