release FSE mode for external task?

[johnsonx42]

I'm still having a heck of a time getting smooth playback, either for recordings or live tv. I've been round and round with different video cards and different codecs with no perfect solution. The only thing that gets really close is to use FSE, but using that precludes use of any external tasks (I depend on Hulu & Netflix (via a media browser called Zinc) to fill in the gaps in my OTA channel lineup) . I see alot of others around here run FSE as well, presumably for the same reasons.

I'm sure it's been asked before, but is there any way that GB-PVR can be made to run in FSE mode, but release the screen to an external task when called? I admit I have no idea how the renderers work, but it seems logical that a program should be able to release the screen and then re-initialize it when it gets control back?

[sub]

I spent some time in the past trying to get it to do exactly that, but I wasnt able to make it behave the way I wanted it to. It's still on my list of stuff I'd like to be able to do in the future, but if I were you - I'd be looking for some alternative rather than waiting for me to find a fix for this one.

[Satori]

I would try Vista/EVR (or Windows 7 these days). I realize it will be a pain to upgrade, but it might solve your playback issues. I have smooth playback with a setup similar to yours and use a custom task to run Hulu Desktop.

[TonyXL]

You could setup an external task that calls a batch file. The batch file would:

1. kill pvrx2 (use taskkill)
2. start zinc
3. start pvrx2

[pBS]

yea, i use taskkill /f /im pvrx2.exe then run external app, then reload pvrx2...
works great..

[johnsonx42]

Thanks sub, I understand how the broad strokes sound easy enough, but the devil's in the details. No worries.

I've thought about using a batch file or maybe an Eventghost macro to do exactly what TonyXL and pBS are suggesting. It's nice to know it does work reasonably well. I think I'll implement that method for now.

I will be upgrading to Windows 7 sometime soon... unfortunately I can't use EVR on my setup (I need a couple of Aspect Ratio Modes with negative numbers, which aren't supported with EVR), and I've seen nothing to tell me VMR9 is any better on Win7 than XP; that said I'm sure AMD/ATI's driver dev work focuses on Vista & Win7 more than XP these days.