1080i woes (stuttering in SageTV) - Is my video card to blame?

[k1114]

First and foremost - Current HTPC setup:

A64 2800+ Newcastle (s754) w/xp-90
Aopen MK-89L (mATX nforce3-150)
2x256mb pc3200 @ 2700 (complicated - haven't hunted down why it only likes 166mhz)
128mb BBA 9600NP, all output through DVI->TV
Hauppauge PVR-500 connected directly to analog cable
Chaintech AV-710 (using the HQ 2 channel output jack)
2x160gb Maxtor (hitachi drive utilities used to adjust to run cool and quiet)
4x Toshiba dvd-r/w
Seasonic S12 350watt PSU, Coolermaster ATC-620 case
USB-UIRT and MX700 for control, no keyboard
Software: XP Pro, SageTV, SageTVClient (for my MediaMVP), Powerstrip, Xlink Kai 7

Now, the problem I have is related to my HDTV. I finally (after much work) found a 1080i powerstrip setting that it likes! Of course there is a little flickering on static desktop text, but there is pretty much none in any part of SageTV. I have found that contrary to popular beleif, there is a big difference between 1080i and 540p, even if they effectively have the same amount of lines displayed per second. The big issue is that TV (both live and recorded) stutters every 10 seconds or so in VMR9 mode. VMR7/windows default looks horrible, and while overlay looks ok, it has other issues. I didn't have any problems at 480p (720x480) but the quality dosen't compare to 1080i.

And the big question: Is my video card holding me back, or is the smaller ram size to blame? The memory always shows around 80mb available (obviously it's holding some for emergency use and using virtual memory for the rest) and there is no way that I know of to check GPU load. Also, I can't seem to do much with FFDShow - resizing to 1440x1080 (this is a 4:3 TV, that would be like 1920x1080 on a 16:9 set) is rather taxing and I can't get a smooth playback of out it with a TV stream, probably since it's a rather large resize - around 2.6x total the original. Just how crucial is the video card for FFDShow processing? I was under the impression that it was much more processor minded...

And of course one more thought - if the video card is to blame - what would be a good upgrade? Obviously heat is an issue, but the 9700/9800 series is VERY cheap right now in the used market (I saw a 9700 pro for $50 the other day). Having component and/or tv output means nothing to me since I run DVI straight to the TV. What about the 6600 vanilla?

 

[nst6563]

ffdshow is cpu dependant more than anything. try some different versions of ffdshow to see if that cures the problem.

my htpc is:
P4 3.0c
1Gb pc3200
1x40gb boot, 1x160gb storage
Sapphire 9600xt w/DVI->TV
DVICO HDTV5gold+

running ffdshow on analog TV input, DVD's, and every other visual media format w/resize 1920x1080i and chroma/luma sharpening lanzcos -3, sharpness -33, NR -18
never a stutter.

the thing with the htpc is it sometimes takes some time to get them "just right"...so what I did to get mine working right was do a clean install of windows and made an image of it with ghost...then started installing drivers and apps and verifying they worked smoothly - one at a time -.

to see if it's the cpu, you probably have some headroom in that XP to o/c a little. push it to a 3000+ or 3200+ speed and see if things improve. If they don't, try to o/c the video card. If that doesn't work, try a fresh install and ONLY have what you need on there to test out the ffdshow problems.

I don't recommend you o/c your htpc due to the heat, but it will at least give you an idea of if it's related to the cpu or vid card or maybe something else. When I first had stuttering problems, it was due to some other software that I had loaded on and I didn't figure it out until doing things and testing one at a time.

 

[djskankho]

I your cpu only running at 1.5ghz since your ram is clocked down? I know that's not really speedy as far as ffdshow goes. I'm not too sure why sage would be stuttering with vmr9. It seems like a 9600xt would be good enough.

What audio/video codec are you using with sage?

 

[Ryokurin]

I got a friend with a 9600xt and a HDTV wonder and it stuttered as well on dx9 but not in overlay on Sage. I just dont think it can handle it. a second issue he had was that it only saw the digital or analog tuner only but thats another thread.