PowerCinema DVB-T Hardware acceleration

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › PowerCinema DVB-T Hardware acceleration - GOT IT WORKING AT LAST

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297 posts

Ultimate Geek

#140047 23-Jun-2008 21:32

I was on the verge of replacing my current video card (8800GTS 320) with a 9600GT for better compatability with DVB-T hardware acceleration in PowerCinema. However I've made the changes as suggested in the first post and have had quite an improvement in CPU usage. About half what it was. Not full HA by any stretch but still. CPU temp has eased a bit as well. C2D E4500 at 3.0 GHz.

TV 1 and 2 ~20%

TV 3 ~35%
C4 ~10%

That's acceptable for now but will still check out Media Portal and in time replace the video card.

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Spong

1005 posts

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Trusted

#143335 6-Jul-2008 12:32

Have just installed a Nova T 500 with bundled PowerCinema 5.1 HD with AAC+ on my MCE 2005 box. All is well, except CPU utlisation is up around 22% on all channels. This is with an E8200 and Nvidia 8600GT so I'd expect it to be far lower if HW acceleration was fully utilised. Does anyone know what I need to do bearing in mind this is not Vista, but WinXP basically. Thanks.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

juliant

87 posts

Master Geek

#143366 6-Jul-2008 15:47

Is 22% not acceptable? I have a T500 and 8600GT but an AMD X2 4200 using power Cinema and I get about the same if not a bit higher....I reakon you are getting the most out of it.

Spong

1005 posts

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Trusted

#143416 6-Jul-2008 18:32

juliant: Is 22% not acceptable? I have a T500 and 8600GT but an AMD X2 4200 using power Cinema and I get about the same if not a bit higher....I reakon you are getting the most out of it.

Maybe 22% approx is OK, but some others in this thread (with Vista) have achieved far lower utilisation by ensuring all hardware acceleration is enabled on the EN8600GT. Also, I'd have hoped an E8200 shouldn't need to work that hard. I'm not sure what I need to do to maximise offloading to the graphics card with MCE 2005/XP.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

Spong

1005 posts

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Trusted

#143422 6-Jul-2008 18:39

BTW, I apologise if it's been covered elsewhere, but is there any way to get more than the "now and next" EPG data in PowerCinema 5.1. I'm assuming it's because it doesn't support MHEG-5? Are there any updates or fixes for this?

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

nav2u

42 posts

Geek

#143490 6-Jul-2008 21:03

Yes that is correct Power Cinema 5.1 currently does not support MHEG-5 and as far as I am aware they don't plan to add support for the same. As for full EPG support, I believe that the guys workig on PowerCinema for Hauppauge are aware that an XML based EPG solution is available and may add support for the same in the near future.

DS248

1691 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#143623 7-Jul-2008 10:22

Spong: ... Maybe 22% approx is OK, but some others in this thread (with Vista) have achieved far lower utilisation by ensuring all hardware acceleration is enabled on the EN8600GT. Also, I'd have hoped an E8200 shouldn't need to work that hard. I'm not sure what I need to do to maximise offloading to the graphics card with MCE 2005/XP.

Yes, much lower CPU usage is possible with Vista + HA but I think full HA may not be possible in XP, which does not support dxva2.

yatalok

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#144872 8-Jul-2008 19:03

Hi,
I would like to share some of my work with Power cinema 5.1 using ATI UVD, since I don't have the Power Cinema 5.1 .4222, this I cannot comment much on it. I've got the 5.1 3xxx, though I am not watching H264 DVB-S/DVB-T channels in Europe, I have DMB-T h264 channels in Hong Kong, but the different between them is just the transmission method, the actual data would still be ordinary video compressed in H264 720x576 25fps VBR or 1920x1080 25fps VBR.
Regardless of OS revision or ATI driver version, does not matter you are in XP or vista, old version of cyberlink H264/AVC video decoder does not support UVD properly, therefore causing DXVA being not able to turn on.
The current version that has proper functionality for ATI UVD is cyberlink PowerDVD8 + latest official power DVD patches; latest power DVD 7 + latest patch is still no good. Most people might think the PowerDVD7 works with ATI UVD straight from the installation CD and no patch needed, this is positive if you are looking for blue ray or HDDVD playback. For broadcast signal with unpredictable VBR stream, older cyberlink H264/AVC decoder is not specific made for UVD, you may experience screen lockup during channel switching.
By updating the H264 decoder files with the latest Power DVD 8 including all 264xxxx.dll and CL264dec.ax, copy them to replace those in your Power cinema 5.1 installation folder, Be aware that there they have two separate location and need to replace two sets of the files for the movie folder and TV folder
You might still have to change the registry value in Vista to turn on or turn off HWVA, if you are in XP there is no need to touch the registry or to touch any ATI driver update, just the H264/AVC decoder needed to be updated.
I don't have Powercinema 5.1 4XXX to do more test with, but I can tell not all version of cyberlink H264 player works with PowerDVD 8 newest H264/AVC decoder engine, have tried replacing PowerDVD7 H264/AVC decoder files with PowerDVD 8 decoder files set, I can't even get it to play video.

Masterpiece

247 posts

Master Geek

#145965 10-Jul-2008 10:05

I'm still setting up other parts of my mediabox, but last night I was playing around with the TV/freeview and had afew issues.

Mediaportal setup as per first post.

Turning on the EVR I found the low cpu use(7%) when running recorded HD material, no real issues.
But running freeview off the direct feed had the mediaportal flashing (ie the blue suround and txt of MP)
Turning on the windows software the flashing stopped, but the cpu ran at 65~85%.

So the real fault is the flashing MP system when using direct channel feed.

Me:"I'm not a robot!"

ET: "Maybe; you have some freewill, but you chose your path by arrangement"

Me "That sounds like a program with no freewill?"

ET: "We will catch up when you end this cycle"

Me: "Sounds like a 'KPI'!"

ET: "Did you read the terms and conditions?"

Me: .....

toaroa

11 posts

Geek

#148787 17-Jul-2008 10:57

Your opinions would be greatly welcomed - I've posted here because I'm thinking about switching to PowerCinema 5.1, as I have that on the hauppauge cd and those NZ updates are tempting.

I have a PIV 3.0 (hyperthreaded), with 2Gb ram, an AGP (Sapphire) 2400 pro on Vista (business) and a PCI Nova 500. I live in Pt Chev, with unrestricted paths to Waiatarua and signal strength/quality seem good. The UHF aerial came with the house and, while small, it picked up Prime ok before I switched the cable to the Nova.

At the moment, I've got the trial version of PowerDVD 8, catalyst CC 8.5 (agp hotfix) and mediaportal RC1. I've applied the registry tweaks at http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/ and I've also tried the Sapphire 8.6 (agp hotfix). The registry tweaks made no difference; CCC 8.6 seemed to be less stable, so I removed it with DriverCleaner and CCleaner before reinstalling up to 8.5.

CPU usage (according to the VFD, in any case) is 35-50% running TV3, which is smooth apart from a slight lipsyncing issue. Generally, it runs well but I have problems with C4, especially Maori and usually tv6, tv7 (though, notably, not when they are running programmes in widescreen). The problems with channels >C4 seem to be restricted to 576i materials and include a mixture of instability, blockiness, green flashes and sometimes freezes. Freeview HD, one and tv2 run fine. The guide is now working but the background to the guide flashes horribly. It seems that others have achieved this odd outcome too where the more power hungry 720p and 1080i work find but the 576i quality is low

Part of the problem may be that I don't know where/if to set interlacing - should that be in PowerDVD configuration (video/advanced), where I can set hardware-based interlacing, or in mediaportal or both. At the moment, I have it the most stable and its using no hardware interlacing in PowerDVD and is set to 'Auto' interlacing in mediaportal

All the right boxes in PowerDVD configuration, CCC and mediaportal suggest that harware acceleration is on, though - of course - the 35-50% readings suggest otherwise. Yet, with such an old machine and one which always revs the CPU even when web browsing, you'd expect 100%CPU usage on TV3, so perhaps it is working as well as can be expected for that box?

SHALL I TREAT THIS AS 'GOOD ENOUGH' FOR NOW, POSSIBLY AWAITING THE CCC 8.7 AGP HOTFIX, BETAS OF WHICH SEEM TO BE WORKING WELL OVERSEAS, OR SHOULD I GO DOWN THE POWERCINEMA 5.1 PATH?

Can powerdvd and powercinema coexist while I test this out or should I clear out powerdvd first?

Has anybody succeded with hardware acceleration in powercinema using an ATI/AGP card?

Are there other ways to better handle the 576i signals? (resolving those questions about interlacing may be the key, or perhaps signal strength is the problem... could it be that the flashes behind the guide suggest that some type of overlay function hasn't been turned on in CCC?)

I'll post working solutions when I've found them. Generally, THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE POSTED ON THIS THREAD AND ALL OTHER GEEKZONE/DVB-T THREADS.... YOUR COLLECTIVE WISDOM IS AMAZINGLY HELPFUL!

linw

2834 posts

Uber Geek

#150622 23-Jul-2008 12:58

Thanks for all the great info in this thread. I run GBPVR and am about to get a 8600GT video card. I also have a HVR2200 with latest dvr. I can receive Freeview-HD but with varying degrees of lip-sync errors depending on what mux I select within GBPVR ( choice is:-MS DVR-MS, Cyberlink, TS Mux and Full TS). Should I install the Power Cinema (5.1 HD with AAC+) for the codec?

toaroa

11 posts

Geek

#150653 23-Jul-2008 14:36

Hi. I wouldn't have expected problems with your particular card, no matter what route you took for hardware acceleration. I can confirm though, that installing PowerCinema 5.1 (as long as its version CD-PCM-5.1-HD-AAC-V1.1 see the thread at http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=15245) and making the .ini tweaks mentioned at the beginning of this thread has enabled hardware acceleration with my lowly 2400 pro AGP on a PIV system. Even better, the cyberlink codec from PowerCinema can then used to accelerate h.264 in mediaportal. Before that, I couldn't get the trial version of powerdvd to do that; yet, now I have a fully legal/registered and free version of PowerCinema doing a good job - it came free with my Haupaugge tv card. Most people on this forum have achieved hardware acceleration using the PowerDVD codec and have no obvious difficulties using trial or full versions (though it seems ambiguous as to whether your need to manually regsvr32 to .ax if using the trial version), but that wasn't my experience. Given that your card is listed as a good option for hardware acceleration at http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=83&TopicId=20310 I'd suggest using the conventional route of PowerDVD first.

Sound might be more of an issue than video: Although the new versions of PowerCinema supposedly supports the AAC in our h.264 broadcasts, I couldn't get PowerCinema to produce any sound, no matter what I did. However, that doesn't matter - I only needed it for video acceleration in mediaportal and mediaportal has inbuilt support for AAC. Hence, I choose the PowerCinema codec for video acceleration and LATM-AAC codec for audio decoding. I don't use your TV frontend/software, so don't know whether you can do the same.

Best of luck! Brad.

linw

2834 posts

Uber Geek

#150840 24-Jul-2008 09:09

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply, Brad. And, yes, we do need an element of luck in this business!

My 8600 should arrive today, if the courier gets through the crap weather conditions, so I will go for the HA. I notice that lip sync is fine watching the channel directly but is out if I record it. I will try to get an answer to this on the GBPVR forum.

Cheers,
Lindsay.

jahbronie

36 posts

Geek

#152770 30-Jul-2008 18:54

For TV viewing (mpeg4 H.264) in VISTA

1. C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\PowerCinema\TVSetting.ini (XXXX = user name)
I had previously added the lines (these were left in place)
enable_dxva2_vista = True
enable_dxva_vista = True

EDIT: These lines should be added into the [TV] block in the .ini file (is the first block in the file).

& changed "default_videorender_vista = VMR9"
to "default_videorender_vista = EVR"
EDIT: This line is further down the .ini file
EDIT2: ArchPrime has reported (below) that changing the default to EVR appeared to cause problems on his system, which has an Ati Radeon HD 2900XT video card. EVR is needed for full HW acceleration, so these instructions may not work for ATI cards.

New mods that did the trick (still need the others, though):

2. C:\Program Files (x86)\Cyberlink\PowerCinema\Customizations\Cyberlink\TVSetting.ini
Have now added the lines (previously did not know about this file):
[TV]
enable_dxva_vista = True
enable_dxva2_vista = True

EDIT: I added these lines at the top of the .ini file followed by a blank line to separate the new [TV] block from the existing [TV_Default] block

NB: Have to run edit program with admin privileges.

should you also change the default_videorender_vista = EVR" in C:\Program Files\Cyberlink\PowerCinema\Customizations\Cyberlink cos I noticed that line is in there as well.

HTPCnewbie

57 posts

Master Geek

#157068 14-Aug-2008 22:15

DS248:
dxp: ... Do you have a link for the "New Zealand updates"? Someone else said it was on the Hauppauge site but I have looked on that and also the CyberLink site and can't find it.

First it may pay to check http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/support/support_driversonly.html & if necessary apply the latest driver for your card.

The "NZ updates" are available from http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/support/support_satellite.html. Scroll down to "Satellite via PowerCinema"(!). There are 5 patches. You only need the last two if you are wanting DVB-S (also).

I'm not certain if the order of applying the patches matters, but the order I applied them in was:
   + PowerCinema 5.1 Software Upgrade CD v1.0 (build 4222) to CD v1.4 (build 4410)
   + PowerCinema 5.1 Software Patch, Transponder list update for New Zealand FTA channels
   + PowerCinema HD edition with AAC+ No Audio Patch
The last of these should fix the "no audio" problem when replaying recorded TV.

Steve's post has covered the DMA2200.

The Hauppauge website listed above no longer has: "PowerCinema HD edition with AAC+ No Audio Patch"

Any ideas why it got taken off? and where I can find it now?

Thanks.

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