Easy Performance Increase for Hauppauge Users

[Scott]

your suggestion worked. the picture looked better, but not as crisp as when I use ffdshow as the video decoder (http://cutka.szm.sk/ffdshow)

With ffdshow, the picture is almost dvd quality, but the motion is a bit jumpy (I'm trying to figure out how to correct this by playing around with different settings)

Even though the motion is a little jumpy at times (very minor, but noticable), the crispness of the picture is so much better that it's still worth putting up with.

The trick with ffdshow is to leave the de-interlacing box un-checked (even though I've read posts that said you must use this feature to get the correct effects). I've attached a jpeg with the some of the settings I now use.

I'm not sure if there's any downside to using ffdshow, or even how it works - but the picture clarity is unbelievable.

Scott

[Scott]

oops, here is the ffdshow jpeg

[Scott]

Well, trying to proove my thesis that ffdshow is much better then the new regedit settings, I think I actually prooved that ffsdshow is only somewhat superior in picture quality - but - like I said earlier - ffdsow also has some motion smoothness issues.

Maybe I'll stick with the new intervideo for Hauppauge settings after all.

To see for yourself here are two screen shots of the exact same scene (MR. Deeds - a great movie, as an aside) using both the new regedit settings for intervideo for hauppauge and for ffdshow...

since I can oly attache one file per message, here is the ffdshow one ...

[Scott]

here is the same shot with the new intervideo for hauppauge settings...

open them both up in slideshow and you can go back and forth to see the difference...

[kny3twalker]

scott they were for use presentation interval not the hauppauge decoder
one turns on vertical sync and the other turns it off
it is on by default and you need to reboot to see any difference
It was just to show you what stops the tearing with VMR9
also if you turn it off you can use overlay with 3 d acceleration and have no UI lag
the UI lags with 3d acceleration and useprestationinterval set to 1
I just get stuttering with it on and small annoying tears with it on
but most games do it as well if I do not turn it on

if you want good picture quality find a better decoder than intervideo or hauppauge intervideo
(cough, sonic cineplayer)
did this topic start off about ram drives or something

[Scott]

ok, so what u r saying is that the regedit changes affect both the intervideo and ffdshow decoders, right? I am trying to get the best possible picture trying a variety of settins/decoders. I don't use the machine for games, only for internet surfinng, e-mail, and -of course- watching TV.

I'll keep on experimenting and please post any good-finds to this board.

thanks,

Scott

[kny3twalker]

scott that is not truely what I was saying
the registry key I posted was for sageTV and it should not matter what decoder you use

what I was suggesting was that you try out other decoders
ffdshow is not a decoder also it uses your system default decoder and ffdshow is more like a postprocessor
if you only have intervideo decoder installed on your system it will be the default but you can always check by going in windows media player to options then DVD then advanced
what ever pops up will be the system's default decoder


You should look in other decoders though seriously
hauppauge intervideo decoder does not produce the best picture quality with ffdshow or without
with vertical sync or without
with 3d acceleration or without

to add a decoder to your list you will need to get a DVD program
like Sonic cineplayer
do not look at winDVD cause it is the same as the one you have already
it uses intervideo video/audio decoder(WinDVD does)

I am suggesting though cineplayer (I should be there sales rep)
it has nice picture quality with overlay and VMR9 video rendering
and the sound quality is nice as well

there is two options when looking at cineplayer
there is the surround cineplayer which gives you extra sound options
and the sonic DVD decoder pack for windows media center(sage in this case not windows media center)

I would go with the sonic DVD decoder pack for windows media center
is installs without its own application it comes simply with a control panel which will be in the control panel for windows

after you restart sage it will appear in your list and you can choose it
it is only 15 dollars compared to the surround cineplayer which has its own application and the extra audio options band is 50


Finally scott I am simply making a reference to something else that uses vertical sync (usepresentationinterval in sage) when I talked about games

I do play games on my box but that is besides the point and does not matter

when you turn off vertical sync alots of times you get tearing where the top of the screen will match up perfectly with the bottom
it happens in video games and with just video like we are doing
it does not affect the video itself but rather what we see
when rendering video with overlay in sage it does not tear when vertical sync is off but when you render with VMR9(video mixing rendering directx9) and turn off vertical sync you will see that the top of the video does not always match the bottom
most of the time the tearing is small but there can be a large amount of space where the top and bottom are off

if you want good picture quality I would just leave usepresentationinterval on

it is no secret and frey's have it set that way by default

If you have any questions feel free to ask

[Scott]

kny3twalker, that was a really helpful post - thank you. I guess I was getting confused, becuase the SageTV video attributes menu shows "ffdshow" as a "decoder" when you select it. Maybe that's a bit of a misnomer. In any event I've learned a lot over the last couple of days of experimenting and posting to this board.

I will try your suggestions. If anything, I've discovered ffdshow does not really do anything for the picture quality and I will probably stop using it altogether.

thanks again,
Scott

[stanger89]

It's kind of a compromise, we've been asking for native ffdshow support for a while, and when one of the members (mlbdude) discoverd that you could select it as a "decoder" Jeff added it to the list.

[SteveP]

I recently built a HTPC with a Roslyn card and Sage 2. The included MPEG decoder works and misses a frame here and there, especially on scene changes. I added the Sonic DVD decoder to check out the quality difference and the video became unwatchable because of extreme stuttering. I went back to the Intervideo decoder and made the two registry changes outlined at the beginning of this thread. Instead of improving things, it made the Intervideo decoder drop so many frames it became unwatchable. It seems like my CPU usage went up instead of down. Any ideas on why things got worse instead of better?

I am running a MSI based board with a 1.1G AMD Duron, 512M memory, XP Pro, new S60 Diamond Stealth video card (ATI 7000 chipset),...

[kny3twalker]

the two registry edits are for Hardware acceleration of the your video card and DirectX video Acceleration as I remember
thats why your processor usage went up cause of your old hardware

try sonic again but disable DXVA

[Ryokurin]

Im running WinDVD 6 codecs and these options are in the registry but I also see a new option for VMR People running this may want to look at that option as well as with me it stopped an issue where I had a visable vsync problem even after messing with sage's DXVA settings on a 9600. Processor usage is still averageing 28% on a Athlon 2100.

[Datalux]

Originally Posted by kny3twalker

what I was suggesting was that you try out other decoders ffdshow is not a decoder also it uses your system default decoder and ffdshow is more like a postprocessor if you only have intervideo decoder installed on your system it will be the default but you can always check by going in windows media player to options then DVD then advanced
what ever pops up will be the system's default decoder.

I have selected the Nvidia decoders that came with TheaterTek 2.0 for SageTV playback. When I look at MP10>DVD>ADVANCED the FFDShow configuration screen pops up. What does this mean? Is FFDShow in the chain when using the Nvidia decoders in SageTV?? It does not appear that it is when using TheaterTek or SageTV for playback of SageTV recordings. CPU usage is 30% for MPEG2 video vs. 90% for DVD and the FFDShow OSD does not display when playing back MPEG2 video.

[kny3twalker]

Datalux
just use radlight filter manager and reduce the merit of ffdshow audio decoder (what you saw) and video mpeg4 video decoder

then adjust the merit of nvidia video decoder to preferred merit

and reboot

that should make the correct decoder be present in WMP10

[MSquid]

What's that law of unintended consequences called?

I've followed out this Easy Performance Increase thread because that's the sort of thing I do. Especially if it's called Easy. It took about six dozen steps (don't forget to reboot when nothing seems to work any more), but I have accomplished them all. I hope things are better, I'm not sure, everything seems to work. Almost. One thing is certainly worse:

My Hauppauge remote, which used to control Sage, doesn't work now. Do I just need to reboot a couple of more times, or what?

I've tried rebooting; it still doesn't work.

Basically, all I have done is upgrade the Hauppauge software and made the registry tweaks suggested in this thread. I figure it's not the tweaks, but the software upgrades. Anyone have an idea how I can make the remote work again?

Thanks!
Joe

[kny3twalker]

simplest way would be to shut down SageTV all the way
and uninstall it from the add/remove programs list
(do not delete the program folder though)
and reinstall SageTV, this time check the box for the hauppauge remote

and make sure you have not disabled the remote from starting at boot-up

[Opus4]

Actually, the simplest thing for getting the Hauppauge remote to work with SageTV again is to check the links in my sig lines, go to #1 (Basics) and download the attachment in post #3. Put the new irremote.ini file in your Windows directory. When you reinstalled the Hauppauge IR software, you ended up overwriting the existing ini file and clearing out the SageTV settings. Keep a backup of your ini file, especially if you customize it.

- Andy

[Sarlac]

ok so back on topic,

I have a pvr150 and a geforce4ti4200, i'm using it's tv out and tvtool for overscan
the reg tweaks were already done when i went to do them sooo, i just changed the filter mode to noncss for hauppauge to see whats what. I did doublecheck settings in windvd5 they seem correct.

vmr9 and default filter 90% cpu and choppy
vmr9 and noncss filter 75% cpu and choppy
overlay and default filter 13% and smooth (my normal settings)
overlay and noncss filter 13% and audio only

What might be causing my loss of video with overlay and noncss, or my terrible choppyness and cpu load while in vmr9?

my system specs are in my sig, any input is appreciated

Thanks

[dcampano]

I am wondering if these tweaks will help me. I am running SageTV with a PVR-500, but I don't play any shows on the computer monitor. I strictly use the MediaMVP to watch live tv, and watch recorded shows. Will this register tweak improve my performance in live tv??? Thanks for any help!

[stanger89]

No, it only applies to those using the Intervideo NonCSS decoder.