HARDWARE ACCELERATION (H264/AVC) for the GA-MA78GM-S2H (780G Mobo) / Win XP Pro SP2

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kiwijunglist

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#24816 3-Aug-2008 21:04

Yay! =)

Finally achieved hardware acceleration (H.A.) after spending days and days of trying.
I tried powerdvd 8 ultra 1830 / kmplayer / zoomplayer / evr / evr (c/a)
Spent ages getting things set up
In the end I was unable to get H.A. going reliably in vista because EVR would crash.
A lot of my 1080P movies wouldn't play well or had 60-80% cpu useage.
When H.A. was working i still had about 20-30% cpu useage.

In the end the method to get it going was very simple

1. Fresh install of Win XP Pro SP2
2. Don't install any updates - Turn automatic updates off!
3. Install Realtek Audio Driver from gigabyte.com
4. Install LAN Driver from gigabyte.com
5. Install ATI Chipset drivers (v8.457) from gigabyte.com
- Install the SB Driver first
- Then install the ATI Catalyst Driver 8.457
6. REBOOT
7. Install ATI CCC (Catalyst Control Centre)
- Use version 8.3 from the AMD site
- Goto www.amd.com , access drivers for XP / Integrated Video / HD 3200
- Then goto driver archieve to get the 8.3 driver
- I needed the CCC so i could set overdrive to 0% for my 1080P LCD TV
- I found the newer version of CCC didn't work with the 8.457 Display driver
8. Install MPHC (Media Player Classic Home Cinema) - X86 version for XP
REBOOT

I didn't need to to adjust anything in MPC HC
I didn't install any additional codecs

Now I seem to be able to play all 1080P, and CPU useage averages about 0-2% on taskmgr!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOTE: I can't remember if i had to install wmp v11 or not, but i'm pretty sure i got H.A. going without this, but since have installed it because it is needed for mediaportal

Hope this helps someone because getting H.A. working was a real BIT*C*H!!

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

kiwijunglist

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#154084 4-Aug-2008 18:23

Installed Mediaportal RC2
I can also add that hardware acceleration is also working in mediaportal
I get about 10% cpu useage in taskmgr, when viewing TV3 in a windowed session of mediaportal

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lost11

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#154173 5-Aug-2008 04:04

I'm really, really, really grateful for you writeup :), I also lost incredible amount of time on this stuff and still couldn't get this stuff to work properly...

You don't mention if you installed PowerDVD (and which version) in the end? If you didn't install it, where did you get codecs which know how to decode using hardware acceleration (I thought only PowerDVD's and Nero's codecs know how to do it...)?

Thanks a lot again :)

hashbrown

463 posts

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#154275 5-Aug-2008 12:28

kiwijunglist: Installed Mediaportal RC2
I can also add that hardware acceleration is also working in mediaportal
I get about 10% cpu useage in taskmgr, when viewing TV3 in a windowed session of mediaportal

Ditto, but I get an annoying flickering of the menus in Media Portal with that setup. Have gone back to CoreAVC Pro until I can find a fix.

kiwijunglist

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#154445 5-Aug-2008 20:12

Hi

I didn't have to install powerdvd to get hardware accleration of movie files.
MPC HC has internal codecs built into the player software that can use hardware acceleration on the onboard ati hd3200

However after getting hardware acceleration working with MPC-HC i have subsequently installed powerdvd8 ultra (build 1830) and mediaportal RC2. Hardware accleration is working with TV1,2,3 and HD-Demo.

However i get garbled picture with C4,TVNZ6,TVNZ7 anyone know why???

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

kiwiNZL

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#155326 8-Aug-2008 21:32

I just registered to say ---- thank you!!!

I have struggled for hours and tried it all MediaPortal,MythTV(managed to get it working with the newest patches, obviously without hardware accel though), GBPVR, etc... No real luck with hardware accel, and I have definitely been unable to get TV3 going. Unfortunately I have no real option to move to vista so I was pretty stuck.

At one point I had TV1 and 2 going for LOST season through PowerCinema, but no hardware accel alas.

That aside I have a few comments
- you do need to install several windows updates, .net2(not sure if that counts) and the requirements listed in the media portal page (including windows installer). Just thought I would clear that up for those possibly confused.

I also can report that the following channels work (TV1, TV2, TV3, Freeview | HD Test Channel (audio is emitting a suttle high pitched sound on my setup however for the test channel)).

The rest are green and blocky. I'll investigate this - If I manage to find the solution to the other channels I will post here. Thanks for your help mate.

kiwijunglist

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#155329 8-Aug-2008 21:51

kiwiNZL: I just registered to say ---- thank you!!!

I have struggled for hours and tried it all MediaPortal,MythTV(managed to get it working with the newest patches, obviously without hardware accel though), GBPVR, etc... No real luck with hardware accel, and I have definitely been unable to get TV3 going. Unfortunately I have no real option to move to vista so I was pretty stuck.

At one point I had TV1 and 2 going for LOST season through PowerCinema, but no hardware accel alas.

That aside I have a few comments
- you do need to install several windows updates, .net2(not sure if that counts) and the requirements listed in the media portal page (including windows installer). Just thought I would clear that up for those possibly confused.

I also can report that the following channels work (TV1, TV2, TV3, Freeview | HD Test Channel (audio is emitting a suttle high pitched sound on my setup however for the test channel)).

The rest are green and blocky. I'll investigate this - If I manage to find the solution to the other channels I will post here. Thanks for your help mate.

If you turn off hardware accleration in PDVD8 settings under Mediaportal config, then you will find that C4,TVNZ6,TVNZ7 start working.

Yes you do need to install some updates, but i find it's better to do it manually.

This post lists all the updates i had to manually install.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

freitasm

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#155332 8-Aug-2008 21:58

kiwiNZL: The rest are green and blocky. I'll investigate this - If I manage to find the solution to the other channels I will post here. Thanks for your help mate.

Have a look around the forum some more - there are some discussions about driver updates to fix this. If you are using an ATI card this seems to be known.

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kiwijunglist

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#156320 12-Aug-2008 16:24

freitasm:
kiwiNZL: The rest are green and blocky. I'll investigate this - If I manage to find the solution to the other channels I will post here. Thanks for your help mate.

Have a look around the forum some more - there are some discussions about driver updates to fix this. If you are using an ATI card this seems to be known.

If you turn off DXA / Hardware deinterlacing, the green + blocky problem resolves. I think upgrading the Catalyst drivers only servers to break the DXA which in turn results in you getting a picture on the other channels. Someone who claimed that upgrading the drivers fixes the problem, subsequently realised that they no longer had hardware acceleration working post upgrade of drivers.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.