Media Portal, mdapi and acamd - HD pixelation on moving images

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Benoire

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#99496 20-Mar-2012 13:54

Hi,

I recently created a thread about WMC7 and Acamd/DVBLink and the fact that HD channels had a problem with the screen not being clear (see image below).

I've now got MediaPortal working with Sky, and it suffers from the same problem... However I've now noticed that the SD channels also aren't quite smooth.

The hardware should be strong enough to cope with SD, let alone a single HD channel yet I'm getting image distortion and I don't know how to deal with it!

I've currently installed the K-Lite codec pack to see if ffdshow filters would perform better but it still there.... Are there issues with HD channels and Radeon HD5450s?

Any help would be great!

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#597729 20-Mar-2012 14:58

whats your codec setup in Mediaportal for the tv section?

Benoire

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#597739 20-Mar-2012 15:09

Should be ffdshow as I was having the same problem with WMC7 and TVSource so spent a day or two trying to get media portal to work with mdapi.... It just seems to produce the image distortion no matter what I do.

dan

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#597740 20-Mar-2012 15:11

Should be?

why wouldnt you check and make sure?

ffdshow is pretty crap for live tv, use microsoft deocders or powerdvd v11 +

Benoire

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#597742 20-Mar-2012 15:13

Thanks.

FFDShow was installed after I couldn't get WMC7 working smoothly using the MS decoders. I will have a go with the PowerDVD 11 decoders later on at home.

gpnz

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#597963 20-Mar-2012 22:12

This could be a complete nonsense reply so forgive me in advance - with that said...

I've run media portal for a while and have never had much success with ATI video cards - they work, but I get what I would describe as "interlacing" problems on certain (well the interlaced) channels. I have never been able to sort it out and have given up as I'm now used to it :) I have another media portal box (client to my main box with the ATI card) that has an Nvidia card in it and I've never had the same problems with it - they are running the same versions of everything, OS, MP, Codecs - just obviously the video drivers are different.

I only mention it as the screen shot you posted seems similar to the effect I get.

seenit

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#597984 20-Mar-2012 23:08

Heya,

I've been using Mediaportal for FreevieHD for years and have just started using it for Sky (only sd though) and I've found the most stable method of running the tv is using shark007 codec pack. Every now and then I try to go the minimalist codec route but then keep reverting back to the codec pack. I set everything in Mediaportal to LAV filter (comes with shark007) and it works flawlessly with everything (sdtv/hdtv/1080p mkv). I've got an HD 6450 so not too different from yours. When watching tv though pushing Shft+1 tells me the video is using the miscrosoft tv codec even though it's set to LAV in configuration. What ever's going on there I'm ok with because it just works so damn well. But do give LAV filters a shot and see if that makes any difference.

Hope this is of some use,

Chris

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Benoire

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#598043 21-Mar-2012 08:51

Thanks for the replies people.

Just to clarify, the image appears fine on static shots but as soon as there is movement, it appears that only half the frames are being drawn correctly, and the other half are lagging behind.

I have toyed with the idea that it might be the 5450HD, but I've never had any trouble in the past with Radeon based cards... But I do know that nVidia seemed better on the HTPC front from what I have read.

I'm puzzled though by the whole issue though. HD MKVs etc play fine without hassle and skipped/lost frames from any media program but streaming HD seemed to be a hassle... Even SD seems to skip the odd frame and look a bit 'strange'.

Chris

askelon

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#598058 21-Mar-2012 09:08

I use the SAF codec pack (found in the MP forums somewhere). Works very well - I use PDVD for my playback.

mm1352000

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#598121 21-Mar-2012 11:14

Hi everyone

First let me say that you don't need a bloated codec pack to get the LAV filters. If you're using MP 1.2.2 then just use the MPEI (MP Extension Installer) to install it. The shortcut is either on your desktop or in the Team-MediaPortal folder in your start menu. I strongly advise staying away from codec packs.

Secondly, an HD 5450 is a relatively low power GPU. It can only *just* handle h.264 decoding acceleration with vector adaptive deinterlacing at a max resolution of 1920x1200 with ***zero*** post-processing effects. I would suggest you upgrade to the latest Catalyst driver then open up CCC and ensure:
1. All the post-processing effects (denoise, dynamic contrast etc.) are disabled.
2. Manual deinterlacing selection with vector-adaptive deinterlacing is chosen.
3. Enforce smooth video playback is ***unticked***.

For background on the 5450 capabilities, see http://www.anandtech.com/show/3601/the-final-word-on-the-best-radeon-htpc-card

@Benoire: if you have problems with SD Sky channels then it suggests additional issues. Please press shift+1 (ie. exclamation mark !) when in full screen TV to show the decoding stats and post a screenshot showing the problems. We need to check whether frames are being dropped or the video is just not being deinterlaced or something like that.

mm
PS: I will not provide any support or comments about M***I in adherence with the policy on the MediaPortal forum. I would prefer if you could try to reproduce the issues with free channels.

Benoire

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#598131 21-Mar-2012 11:32

mm1352000: Hi everyone

First let me say that you don't need a bloated codec pack to get the LAV filters. If you're using MP 1.2.2 then just use the MPEI (MP Extension Installer) to install it. The shortcut is either on your desktop or in the Team-MediaPortal folder in your start menu. I strongly advise staying away from codec packs.

Secondly, an HD 5450 is a relatively low power GPU. It can only *just* handle h.264 decoding acceleration with vector adaptive deinterlacing at a max resolution of 1920x1200 with ***zero*** post-processing effects. I would suggest you upgrade to the latest Catalyst driver then open up CCC and ensure:
1. All the post-processing effects (denoise, dynamic contrast etc.) are disabled.
2. Manual deinterlacing selection with vector-adaptive deinterlacing is chosen.
3. Enforce smooth video playback is ***unticked***.

For background on the 5450 capabilities, see http://www.anandtech.com/show/3601/the-final-word-on-the-best-radeon-htpc-card

@Benoire: if you have problems with SD Sky channels then it suggests additional issues. Please press shift+1 (ie. exclamation mark !) when in full screen TV to show the decoding stats and post a screenshot showing the problems. We need to check whether frames are being dropped or the video is just not being deinterlaced or something like that.

mm
PS: I will not provide any support or comments about M***I in adherence with the policy on the MediaPortal forum. I would prefer if you could try to reproduce the issues with free channels.

Hi mm1352000!

Thank you for the good information. I've got a 5770 in my main PC which I will try tonight and see if it is simply a GPU horsepower problem.

Re: Mdapi - I have no problems with this so this will not form part of the conversation; this biggest problem is that I do not have any HD channels without Sky as I've only got a satellite dish and Freeview over satallite is not in HD.

SD is fine in WMC7, just in MP it seemed a little 'off'. I will do as you have asked with the SD channels and see what the output is like.

Thanks!

Benoire

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#598492 22-Mar-2012 08:42

Right thanks guys, full re-install followed by Acamd/Mdapi and it works fine... However I've now got 2 new problems. One is that decoding using Acamd/Mdapi means that my hardware in the HTPC is not powerful enough. I connected a client on my more powerful machine (tri core phenom II) and it was flawless a dropped less than a 100 frames over 12000... the HTPC is dropping 30% of all frames on HD channels and around 10% on SD channels.... new hardware needed and new thread coming up!

Second issue is sound... It was playing fine but now its all but quiet... Windows sound is at 100%... Is there a hidden sound option in mediaportal that I haven't seen?

Thanks for all the help guys!

Dyson

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mm1352000

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#598510 22-Mar-2012 09:24

Hi again

Try hitting the 'm' key to toggle mute on/off. Otherwise try the +/= and -/_ keys to adjust volume.

mm

Benoire

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#598517 22-Mar-2012 09:42

Thanks mm most helpful. Will have a go when I get home!

mm1352000

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#598554 22-Mar-2012 10:27

About the hardware limitations thing: not having used M***I before means I have no idea how much CPU it uses, but a Core 2 2.16 GHz *might* be powerful enough to do h.264 decoding by itself. My 2.4 G Core 2 (e6600 first gen) can do Freeview HD decoding for TV One, TV 2 and TV 3 using between 60 and 80 % CPU. Not an ideal use of GPU resources, I know but still. The other thing you might try is changing the deinterlacing algorithm in CCC to a less intensive approach (maybe motion adaptive or BOB).

I guess what I'm saying is that I wouldn't necessarily give up so fast on your current hardware. Doubtless, new hardware would help, but your system isn't *that* underpowered. Dropping frames with SD Sky is strange because the GPU shouldn't be stressed. It might be your CPU that is the issue. It would be interesting to know what your CPU and GPU % utilisations are with SD FTA, SD Sky and HD Sky....

mm

Benoire

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#598565 22-Mar-2012 10:41

mm1352000: About the hardware limitations thing: not having used M***I before means I have no idea how much CPU it uses, but a Core 2 2.16 GHz *might* be powerful enough to do h.264 decoding by itself. My 2.4 G Core 2 (e6600 first gen) can do Freeview HD decoding for TV One, TV 2 and TV 3 using between 60 and 80 % CPU. Not an ideal use of GPU resources, I know but still. The other thing you might try is changing the deinterlacing algorithm in CCC to a less intensive approach (maybe motion adaptive or BOB).

I guess what I'm saying is that I wouldn't necessarily give up so fast on your current hardware. Doubtless, new hardware would help, but your system isn't *that* underpowered. Dropping frames with SD Sky is strange because the GPU shouldn't be stressed. It might be your CPU that is the issue. It would be interesting to know what your CPU and GPU % utilisations are with SD FTA, SD Sky and HD Sky....

mm

It is quite interesting regarding usage. The CPU under SD channels, both FTA and Sky are fine, and hover around 40% but with dropped frames. It is only when I go to the HD channels does the cpu spike a lot... often both cores will go to full utilisation before dropping to 70%.... but the FPS remains fairly low on complex scenes... I think it was around 17fps.

the office pc never went below 49fps no matter the channel it was dealing with, which is why I think ACamd is using a lot of horespower which traditionally you could use elsewhere.

The GPU has everything turned off, simply since you suggested it might not be as powerful as I originally thought for tv work.

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