New 780G HTPC live-hdtv issues

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160 posts

Master Geek

#228976 28-Jun-2009 17:29

Hey guys,

anyone had experience with windows 7 MC and the radeon HD 3200?
I'm trialing win7 MC but at the moment I'm getting issues decoding several channels (tvnz sport extra..).

what combination of drivers are people using? Currently I'm on ATI 9.6 drivers, no CCC installed.

chrisjwilliams

14 posts

Geek

#239497 27-Jul-2009 22:53

The now released 9.7 CCC fixes a lot of issues. I was having the same drama, until I used the 9.7's.
Still get occasional corruption, but could be a reception issue?

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#239909 28-Jul-2009 19:53

I have tried the new (as yet unofficial) 9.7 drivers and can report that
Yes - they now decode all interlaced channels properly (TVNZ6,&, Maori, TVNZ Sport Extra)
No - They are still not enough to handle decoding freeview on a HD3200

They stutter terribly, no channel is watchable, which is a surprise as the old non-working drivers (9.6 and before) handled TV1 and TV2 just fine, but stuttered on TV3. Now no channel works without serious stuttering constantly.
Buy a Nvidia, I cannot express how much stress this has taken off me, my Windows 7 machine works flawlessly now that it has an 8600 GTS in it. I understand even the $76 Nvidia 8400 GT cards work perfectly.
ATI couldn't write a decent driver if their lives depended on it.

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#239965 28-Jul-2009 22:09

MP 1.0 Final + 780G + ATI 8.12 + XP is fine for Freeview, no stutter if you have Phenom processor or Kuma core. If you don't then the shared memory is to slow unless you overclock the HT.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

chrisjwilliams

14 posts

Geek

#240250 29-Jul-2009 18:32

WOW smbunn, you must really dislike ATI. I'm a true blue nVidia / Wintel fan myself, but took the leap to an AMD 780G with the onboard ATI solely for a HTPC onboard low power solution. I have had heaps of grief from the start, but now have a working system. I am using WIN7 Ultimate 64bit (RC ver 7268).
I have a plain vanilla install with CCC 9.7 and all channels are perfectly watchable. I get the occasional glitch & am still working on the EPG, but watchable all the same :)

elkano

160 posts

Master Geek

#240279 29-Jul-2009 19:52

chrisjwilliams: The now released 9.7 CCC fixes a lot of issues. I was having the same drama, until I used the 9.7's.
Still get occasional corruption, but could be a reception issue?

9.7 has certainly made a difference on my PC as well. I'm running a dual system currently, XP and mediaPortal 1.01 and also Win 7 RC 7100 64bit. Both give me little glitches on TV3 but the other channles seem to be okay.

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#240313 29-Jul-2009 21:07

chrisjwilliams: WOW smbunn, you must really dislike ATI.

I used to be an ATI fan, I have enough of their cards over the years. However with almost two years of trying to get freeview working with Vista and ATI and then 4 months with Windows 7, I just had had enough. The ATI support forum not only would not answer my questions, they censored them by removing them whenever I posted. Now I can tell you I am a software professional myself, and was very polite but wanted answers on why the Nvidia driver could decode H.264 but ATI couldn't. I think mentioning Nvidia gets an automatic deletion of your post.

I haven't tried the official 9.7, can I be bothered now that I have it running so sweetly with my 8600 GTS. It's just so stressful when ATI glitches constantly, and so blissful when the Nvidia hasn't had the slightest hiccup. As I said the fact that my wife and four daughters all use it without a single comment to me, is proof that my MCE machine is now definitetly robust.

I bought the HD3200 motherboard with hi-spec CPU because I wanted a fanless, low power solution. My 8600 GTS is silent pipe, but takes two slots so I have lost my analog tuner card. The way I look at it is I have lost Prime but gained my sanity!

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julianz

118 posts

Master Geek

#240346 29-Jul-2009 22:27

I guess you must have had a run of bad luck then, smbunn. I may just be lucky but my 780G/3200 board is humming along here and records/plays back all Freeview channels just fine (Vista 32, MediaPortal not-quite-1.01-but-close). The only thing I've not been able to play back on this machine was an Audi promotional thing which was 720p H.264 at 60fps and some horrific data rate, and that won't play back on anything else I own either.

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#240514 30-Jul-2009 10:51

@smbunn - did u hav a phenom cpu with your HD3200

I dont think the problem relates to ATI directly.

780G uses shared memory, if you don't have phenom/kuma core then the access to the shared memory is slower, which makes the gpu not fast enough to cope with 1080i. Remember that this GPU was designed for Bluray/HDDVD and not freeview h264 1080i. LiveTV Freeview 1080i H264 is very new + rare format, and was probably not around when they started designing the 780G with onboard HD3200. The issue is complicated by the fact that some 780G have sideport 128mb video memory. This is a lot faster, but if the 128mb is used up it spills over into the slower shared memory.

IMHO - 780G is great for 1080P. 780G + Phenom/Kuma (HT3) is *just*/should be ok for 1080i Freeview. 780G + Dual Core will struggle with 1080i and is not a good decision.

I have 780G + No sideport + Dual Core CPU (4200). Stock setup is a bit slow for 1080i in MP1.0 However when i overclock the FSB (which increases the HT to 1375Mhz from 1000Mhz) 1080i TV3 runs fine (No jitter/droped frames). Increasing the HT gives a 37.5% boost in shared memory access, i also overclock the core to 600 (from 500Mhz). I'm planning on replacing the 780G with HD4670 this week.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#240780 30-Jul-2009 23:03

I have a core 2 Duo running at 3.0 Ghz. I tried the new 9.7 driver, unwatchable all channels. Stutters like crazy. Tried upping the GPU from 500 MHz to 600MHz, stable but only slight improvement on stuttering. Pushed the CPU up to 3.125 GHz, blue-screen of death during boot into Windows 7.
Re-installed Nvidia....ahhhh ... bliss
Why did I even try!

ShaneT

62 posts

Master Geek

#240874 31-Jul-2009 10:39

Hi All,

I have been involved in the 'ATI vs nVidia-NZ freeview-H.264-1080i-hardware accell' saga for quite some time, eventually settling on a passive Asus 9400GT.

However, I purchased the GA-MA78GPM-UD2 mobo a while back and for the past few weeks have had it running 100% superbly using on board HD3200, decoding TV3 (1080i) at 8-10% CPU (Athlon64 7750). I am running Windows 7 RC, and the install was completely hassle free. It has been running like this since the 9.6 catalyst release, and I'm now running 9.7...

So, the 780G/HD3200 definitely get a big thumbs up from me!

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#240881 31-Jul-2009 11:01

smbunn: I have a core 2 Duo running at 3.0 Ghz. I tried the new 9.7 driver, unwatchable all channels. Stutters like crazy. Tried upping the GPU from 500 MHz to 600MHz, stable but only slight improvement on stuttering. Pushed the CPU up to 3.125 GHz, blue-screen of death during boot into Windows 7.
Re-installed Nvidia....ahhhh ... bliss
Why did I even try!

yeah your probably is dual core is HT2 = 1000Mhz, increasing the CPU clock wont help. You need to increase the HT frequency. Increasing the core has minimal effect, most effect is by increasing the HT.

Basically you up the FSB and reduce the CPU multiplier, this will increase the HT, changing the FSB will also change your ram timings. Alternatively get a CPU that is HT3 ie Phenom/Kuma core, or use an addon video card.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

chrisjwilliams

14 posts

Geek

#241050 31-Jul-2009 18:00

I'm gonna try some HT overclocking. New experience for me as an Wintel fanboy. Sorry to hear it still suck for you smbunn :(
I'm also gonna ty the RTM 7600 this weekend. Clean install and just 9.7, audio and tuner drivers. Lets see what happens...

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#241190 1-Aug-2009 12:39

I was thinking of a clean Windows 7 install as well. I have tried so many combinations of registry settings and drivers there may be some remnants left in the registry. Also I can move on from 7100 to the latest RTM version. By the way I oreder the Windows 7 pre-release, it was on US$50 and gets delivered on October 22.

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#241569 2-Aug-2009 21:05

OK, so spent last four hours on my HTPC.

Reformatted HD, clean install of Windows 7 x64, RTM version. Clean install of 9.7 drivers. Clean install of BSE, TMT3 platinum, My Movies 2, Elby Clone Drive and Anydvd HD.
Result, it works, can now see all channels using my onboard HD3200. The stutter I saw last time was present, but turned out to be "cool 'n quiet' on the CPU turning the CPU clock up and down.

Seems to work well on all channels except TV3. Regular as clockwork every 33 seconds there is a 'glitch' and the sceen shows some scene from quite a few seconds earlier, all blocky and pixelated. Then it continues nicely for another 33 seconds.

Any ideas what this could be? It's a clean install, I don't even have anti-virus installed yet.

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