DVB-T Stutter problem (MediaPortal)

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hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#20809 6-Apr-2008 15:27

System: Core 2 Duo E6420 @ 3GHZ
             2GB RAM
             nVidia 7600GT
             Cyberlink Powercinema h264 codec (PCM45)
             MediaPortal + TVE3 svn 17991

I am getting a slight break up / pixelation of the picture on DVB-T channels when watching live tv or watching recorded dvb-t.

This problem is the worst on TV1 TV3 and Freeview HD channels so mainly the HD channels, This happened even when i was at a house with perfect reception. Although current location shows 100% signal level on all transponders and Qualities of 80%(TVNZ) 90ish%(Kordia) 100% (Mediaworks). I am wondering if this is a codec problem or a MediaPortal problem. I am thinking of getting DVBViewer to test with that. But i cannot really afford to get PowerDVD v8 at US$100 for a better codec. I know it is possible to get proper recption with the Powecinema H264 codec as i have head others on this forum have done it.

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#121570 6-Apr-2008 17:52

I also get this every now and again, using DVBViewer, tried Powerdvd Deluxe 7 and 8 h264 codecs, seems to be more signal related, ie i will see it more pixelation if its windy / raining. I tried to redo all my aerial wiring but have actually made it worse somehow hah.

sbiddle

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#121583 6-Apr-2008 18:39

You need a new video card. H.264 hardware acceleration is required for decent viewing and the 7 series NVidia cards can't handle this. I would suggest a minimum of a NVidia 8500GT which will set you back a little over $100.

Mutly

250 posts

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#121614 6-Apr-2008 20:22

I have the same stuttering issue when running both MP and dvbviewer (with nVidia 7600GS) but only in VMR9. Whne running MP with EVR everything seems to smooth out.

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hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#121645 6-Apr-2008 22:02

Tried using both EVR and VMR9 and same issue with both, The hardware can't be an issue as the 3Ghz CPU should be able to handle it easy and is only using max of 40% when viewing TV. Although if you really think a better graphics card might help i could chuck an 8600GT in there out of another pc i have and see what happens.

geekiegeek

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#121674 7-Apr-2008 05:45

dan: I also get this every now and again, using DVBViewer, tried Powerdvd Deluxe 7 and 8 h264 codecs, seems to be more signal related, ie i will see it more pixelation if its windy / raining. I tried to redo all my aerial wiring but have actually made it worse somehow hah.

I see this sometimes -mainly just on TV1 and it does seem to be when the weather is bad - ie. it was quite pixelated on Saturday (heavy rain and wind) but no issues last night when it was calm.

I have hardware decode and cpu is at +/- 20-30%

sbiddle

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#121685 7-Apr-2008 07:54

hazza87: Tried using both EVR and VMR9 and same issue with both, The hardware can't be an issue as the 3Ghz CPU should be able to handle it easy and is only using max of 40% when viewing TV. Although if you really think a better graphics card might help i could chuck an 8600GT in there out of another pc i have and see what happens.

If you've got a 8600GT you can try I would. I'd almost certainly put money on this solving the problem.

It's not really an issue of the CPU speed, it's the fact that hardware based decoding does a far better job than software particularly with issues such as de-interlacing.

hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#121864 7-Apr-2008 17:40

I can confirm that it was not the Graphics card, stuck the 8600GT in installed the latest drivers and enabled EVR and still almost exactly the same stutter every 20 seconds or so. Also tested under VMR9 and the CPU use was up from 10% to 40% but no difference what so ever in picture quality.

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askelon

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#121875 7-Apr-2008 19:02

Try a different build of both the server & mp. I cant remember exactly what build Im using at the moment but I know its around 18395ish - I upgraded mine last week due to an error I was having. So far there hasnt been any perfect build but its slowly getting better..

Dingbatt

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#122006 8-Apr-2008 08:44

I get a similar sort of problem. I have an ASUS M2A-VM HDMI mobo (AMD64X2 5200) and had DVB-T running on mediaportal quite nicely using onboard graphics. But CPU usage was way up around 80-90% so I decided to fit a video card, chose an HIS HD3450 silence card (256Mb) and once installed the MP picture and sound went all to hell, pixellating and sound break up. The card blurb said it had "ATI Avivo HD video and display technology" and "Unified Video Decoder for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD at full 1080p". I assumed that this meant hardware acceleration and would improve things. I have ensured the drivers are up to date. But in the end I have un-installed the card and gone back to onboard graphics to make it watchable. Am I missing something here or do I need to take the card back to the vendor.

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sbiddle

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#122011 8-Apr-2008 08:57

Dingbatt: I get a similar sort of problem. I have an ASUS M2A-VM HDMI mobo (AMD64X2 5200) and had DVB-T running on mediaportal quite nicely using onboard graphics. But CPU usage was way up around 80-90% so I decided to fit a video card, chose an HIS HD3450 silence card (256Mb) and once installed the MP picture and sound went all to hell, pixellating and sound break up. The card blurb said it had "ATI Avivo HD video and display technology" and "Unified Video Decoder for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD at full 1080p". I assumed that this meant hardware acceleration and would improve things. I have ensured the drivers are up to date. But in the end I have un-installed the card and gone back to onboard graphics to make it watchable. Am I missing something here or do I need to take the card back to the vendor.

Take it back. ATI's drivers are broken and seem incapable of handling interlaced H.264 content properly and accelerating it.

I've disussed this in numerous other threads and it was the reason I got rid of my newly purchased ATI2600 - picture breakup occured and playback lost sync. This was something I replicated on several ATI based systems. ATI's tech support weren't really interested in knowing about it so I moved to NVidia. Right now using GB-PVR with a NVidia 8500 and PowerDVD8 I have a system working absolutely perfectly.

hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#122021 8-Apr-2008 09:21

Have tried numerous SVN's and all have almost exactly the same problem, tried one of the latest releases 18560 with the same results.

hazza87

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#122372 9-Apr-2008 18:15

I have sourced the cause of the stutter. It seems it is the long distance of cable from the spliiter to the pc (the 4 way splitter can't help much either), this can be quite confusing as the MP signal level and signal quality readings don't seem to be much use here. Was getting pretty much pefect for both Korida and Mediaworks and around 80% quality for TVNZ. But when i took the pc into the lounge and plugged it into the unsplit cable from the aerial the stutter went away and picture was perfect. I had tried this before but it seems the better signal and 8600GT card together did the trick.

geekiegeek

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#122436 9-Apr-2008 21:43

hazza87: I have sourced the cause of the stutter. It seems it is the long distance of cable from the spliiter to the pc (the 4 way splitter can't help much either), this can be quite confusing as the MP signal level and signal quality readings don't seem to be much use here. Was getting pretty much pefect for both Korida and Mediaworks and around 80% quality for TVNZ. But when i took the pc into the lounge and plugged it into the unsplit cable from the aerial the stutter went away and picture was perfect. I had tried this before but it seems the better signal and 8600GT card together did the trick.

Maybe thats it. I have a join in my cable and I have always had a suspician that it could be the problem. might be time to get a new cable down from the aerial to the HTPC with no joins - this solution with the join was just supposed to temp anyways.

mcraenz

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#122448 9-Apr-2008 23:42

MP signal level and signal quality readings don't seem

MP just reports signal/quality levels straight out of the BDA driver, different drivers report the levels differently, some might report signal level between -50 to 50 others might report 100 to 187. Sad but tru, you might use the original software that came with your card to determine better actual signal levels.

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huckster

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#122495 10-Apr-2008 11:18

Dingbatt: I get a similar sort of problem. I have an ASUS M2A-VM HDMI mobo (AMD64X2 5200) and had DVB-T running on mediaportal quite nicely using onboard graphics. But CPU usage was way up around 80-90% so I decided to fit a video card, chose an HIS HD3450 silence card (256Mb) and once installed the MP picture and sound went all to hell, pixellating and sound break up. The card blurb said it had "ATI Avivo HD video and display technology" and "Unified Video Decoder for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD at full 1080p". I assumed that this meant hardware acceleration and would improve things. I have ensured the drivers are up to date. But in the end I have un-installed the card and gone back to onboard graphics to make it watchable. Am I missing something here or do I need to take the card back to the vendor.

I've experienced a number of problems with my ATI integrated HD3200 but I've recently put on the latest Catalyst drivers (http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonxip-xp) and that makes TV3 look really nice. CPU usage dropped dramatically too.

Reception for TVNZ is a bit dodgy so I've got to nail that down, but until I put the 8.3 drivers on there, TV3 was not good.

Give them a go before you take it back. Make sure you uninstall the existing drivers first.

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