Cyberlink H.264 codec bundled with PowerCinema?

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dolsen

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#20744 4-Apr-2008 15:37

Hi All,

I’ve just brought a Hauppauge Nova T 500HD card for my HTPC. On the box there is a sticker with HD, MPEG -2/-4, HDTV Ready on it. Included in the packet is an install cd for Cyberlink PowerCinema version 5.1. Does anyone know if this version includes the necessary codec to allow for hardware acceleration of H.264 content? I won’t be able to install this for over a week, but I want to know if this might include the codec (or, there is a cheaper upgrade available – perhaps just the codec if you have this installed), or, am I still up for a purchase of the full Ultra.

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#121107 4-Apr-2008 15:45

I use the powercinema h264 codec on my computer and it definetly works but the picture isnt perfect some stutter not sure if it is the codec though, could be a multitude of other things.
I don't think it is the same codec as the PowerDVD one, my one says (PCM45) at the end of it.
Not sure if this codec enables hardware decoding or not as my cpu usage is pretty low during watching, but i only have a 7600GT and not always using EVR under Vista so who knows, i do have a fairly powerful CPU though so it doesnt matter to me much (Core 2 Duo 3GHZ)

DS248

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#121117 4-Apr-2008 16:27

Cyberlink H.264 codec bundled with PowerCinema 5.1 works fine with the HVR-4000 tuner & 8600gts video card. With a good signal, we get stutter free viewing on all channels, including the HD demo (feed off Kaukau). Hard to imagine better broadcast quality currently possible than the HD demo displayed via hdmi link to a 1080p tv.

1080i on TV3 also stutter free, but so far have only viewed that on a 1600x1200 CRT PC monitor. Looked fine.

Stutter may be a signal strength / cabling issue ? We get "stutter" at times from some wall sockets that are at the end of long cable runs (~75m !) containing a 2way + 4 way splitter in series.

hazza87

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#121525 6-Apr-2008 15:06

DS248 what program are you using? Mediaportal DVBviewer? I am using MediaPortal and am thinking this may be the cause of the stutter as it seems to happen wherever i am current location 80% signal quality or other locations with perfect reception.

cranz

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#121531 6-Apr-2008 15:31

hazza87 is it stuttering on all channels?

ie is it only happening on the interlaced channels? (everything bar Tv One and Tv2)

hazza87

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#121532 6-Apr-2008 15:34

No it seems to be the HD channels TVONE TV2 TV3 Freeview HD

DS248

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#121627 6-Apr-2008 21:00

hazza87: DS248 what program are you using? Mediaportal DVBviewer? ...

Have only tried PowerCinema itself so far since it works very well with my HVR-4000 for viewing TV.

Just have to sort the lack of audio when replaying recorded TV. Possibly an audio codec issue?

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nav2u

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#124815 18-Apr-2008 17:32

@ DS248: I have a very similar setup as yours with a HVR4000 and a 8600GT but am not able to get sound on FreeviewHD. Do you have audio, did you have to do anything in specific to get the audio to work? From what i have been reading i understand that Powercinema is missing the HE AAC codec.

Overall Video works fine but Powercinema crashes after about 10 minutes of usage on vista 32.

DS248

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#124845 18-Apr-2008 20:38

nav2u: ... with a HVR4000 and a 8600GT but am not able to get sound on FreeviewHD. Do you have audio, did you have to do anything in specific to get the audio to work? From what i have been reading i understand that Powercinema is missing the HE AAC codec.

Overall Video works fine but Powercinema crashes after about 10 minutes of usage on vista 32.

1. I get audio on all DVB-T channels when playing TV live. Ditto with time-shifted viewing ("pause > play"). The Kordia HD clips do have audio, but mostly just music.

It is only recorded DVB-T that has no sound (on playback).

I have been told by Hauppauge (Singapore) that they are currently working on an update to PowerCinema "which will fully support the DVB-T in NZ" (est ETA ~1 week?). This has been backed up by posts in the Hauppauge (UK) forums - both semi-officially (UK_Support "There will be an updated version of Powercinema availble to fix issues in New Zealand DVB-T") and a post by someone currently testing a beta of the update.

Because of the above, I have not pursued the recorded TV audio issue further at this point.

2. Yes PowerCinema generally works fine. I have had crashes. Only very occaisional though and not in any apparent pattern. Have had PowerCinema running (TV) for several hours without problem.

Apart from the the recorded TV audio issue, my main issue is that there appears to be no way to enable hardware acceleration of H.264 decoding. Hence watching DVB-T consumes ~25% CPU. Not a major because I do not watch that much TV & the CPU is not being pushed anyway. But that is a lot of CPU horsepower being used, given it is a QX9650.

Would love to know how to enable it but given several other posts I have seen, it does not appear possible. Seems strange though since some Cyberlink documentation has comments like "... if hardware acceleration is enabled ...". Also, I understand that PowerCinema 5.1 includes the necessary codec.

mentalinc

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#124853 18-Apr-2008 21:36

Im not at home now so cant test the CPU usage but from doing some registry monitoring enabling and disabling the hardware accelleration tickbox changes the below setting (1 = on 0= off). It changes a few others as well but this seems to be the key one others seem to be the colour profiles
.
Not sure if this is checked by the codec or not but worth a try?

This applies only to powerdvd 8 - but someone might be able to dig around in the registry (remember this is dangerous so have a backup!) and see if they can see a similar setting "UIUseHVA".

click start - run then type "regedit" click find and type in "UIUseHVA" if this is found note its value and if it is 0 change it to 1 and see if that solves your problems?

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyberlink\PowerDVD8]
"UIUseHVA"=dword:00000001

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DS248

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#124872 18-Apr-2008 23:10

mentalinc: ... click start - run then type "regedit" click find and type in "UIUseHVA" if this is found note its value and if it is 0 change it to 1 and see if that solves your problems?

Thanks for the suggestion. Followed up & found posts on other sites indicating that this was the the key involved.

I searched Registry & found 4 instances - 2 under " ... \CyberLink\COMMON\CLVSD" and 2 under " ... \CyberLink\PowerCinema\MyMovie". All were "0" & I set them all to "1".

Restarted PowerCinema but found that the Registry changes made no difference to the CPU usage.

Re-checked Registry & found that the two " ... \CyberLink\COMMON\CLVSD" instances had been reset to "0".

Obviously there is a setting in PowerCinema (exposed or not) that sets the values of the keys on a per usage basis. Possibly the other two were not reset because I did not use the "Movie" facility, just the TV.

For the moment I have reset all to "0" since it was not making a difference.

But thanks for the suggestion. Will re-look at the issue once the new "NZ update" of PowerCinema comes out.

mentalinc

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#124885 19-Apr-2008 07:18

Thats interesting the setting is there.
Did you go into the options at all once you had set them to 1?
It appears on powerdvd that it dumps all settings to the registry on close wondering if PowerCinema does the same.

So if you set it to 1 then opened powercinema then opened its options, then closedthem that may have caused the "turning off"

Give that a whirl otherwise i guess just wait until the NZ update comes out.

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nav2u

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#126117 24-Apr-2008 13:18

Ok guys, I've managed to get a copy of the beta DVB-T NZ compatible software from Hauppauge. I have been testing it since last evening and it seems to be working...great (mostly).

Observations:
1. The Audio and Video work fine with ocassional error in picture
2. Recording Works fine with full audio playback. The recording is in the same resolution as the channels broadcast resolution. Trying to play the video in a different player (Media Player classic) has no audio. Recorded videos are in H.264 codec!
3. EPG works but only a few hours ahead.
4. Scheduled recording works perfectly but limited by the small amount of EPG imformation available at any time
5. CPU usage varies between 45 to 65%, i did try changing the values of "UIUseHVA" in the registry and found that the value under "\CLVSD" had changed back to 0 but the value under "\MyMovie" did not change and stayed at 1. Anyways this change did not make any change to the CPU usage.
6. Pressing the power button on the remote turns Power cinema OFF, pressing the Power button again launches the "Windoes Media Centre" app.

OS: Vista 23 Ultimate
Hardware: 4000X2, 1GB RAM, 256MB 8600GT & HVR4000!

MikeyJ

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#126142 24-Apr-2008 14:50

Hey Guys,

Im running the Hvr-4000 on my computer too and have had no problems. At least in Powercinema you dont have to change the processor affinity to stop the stutter (in mediaportal and Vista MCE I had to). If you are getting a stutter in mediaportal and have more than 1 CPU, all you have to do it set Mediaportal to use 1 CPU core and it solves that.

I must admit I get CPU of around 5% on my cores (Q6600) which is not really noticable at all. I am also using an 8800GTX which may help there.

Powercinema worked really well after downloading the update (from the CD version to about build 4410) from the UK website, waiting now for the NZ update which will be very warmly welcomed.

Anyone know of any way to get a proper EPG on Powercinema?

DS248

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#126168 24-Apr-2008 16:04

"nav2u" - how did you manage to get the beta?

Not exactly full compatibility with NZ Freeview though:
- hardware acceleration not enabled (45 to 65% CPU usage)?
- no MHEG-5 for 7 day EPG

I hope it gets better than that.

re: "ocassional error in picture": Possibly related to lack of hardware acceleration. I see that, be very rarely (typically 20 - 25% CPU usage across 4 cores of a QX9650).

"MikeyJ". Interesting that your CPU usage is only 5%, especially as the 8800GTX supposedly doesn't support Freeview hardware playback (http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=83&TopicId=20310&page_no=4).

Did you do anything specific to enable hardware acceleration?
Do you have any other stuff such as "ffdshow" on your system that may explain the difference?

I have yet to find instructions for enabling hardware acceleration in PowerCinema. Lots of posts about the same problem.

MikeyJ

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#126175 24-Apr-2008 16:34

DS248 - I cant confirm 5% right now, but i will grab a screen shot later on tonight when im back at home.

I do hope i'm not telling fibs.

"Even my old 7900GTX had h264 hw decoding. The 8800GTX has the same PureVideo engine (Nvidia VP1). In the 8500/8600, nVidia introduced the Nvidia VP2.

There're 4 stages to decode h264/vc1 video: Bitstream Processing/Entropy Descode, Frequency Transform, Píxel Predition y Deblocking. The VP1 only does the last 2 by hardware. The VP2 does all the stages on hw (except the 1st stage for VC1, which is implemented in hw on the VP3: 8800GT)." - From http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=104020

I guess that would account for a bit of CPU usage, i'll check it out.

I use the following codecs, ffdshow, the cyberlink one that came with powercinema and the Nvidia Purevideo. This combination seems to work really well for me with no worries playing anything.

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