jerky/jumpy video recording with software codec

[Lee_O]

Since my purchase of a MSI MEGA-180 barebone I am using Mediaportal as a pvr software. My hardware configuration in detail is as follows:

MSI MEGA-180 de luxe (nVidia nForce2 chipset)
AMD Sempron 2500 socket-A
512 MB ddr-333
Maxtor 160GB IDE
LiteOn DVD+/-RW dual layer
Leadtek WinTV 2000 XP Expert

I almost have everything working now (still struggling with xmltv), but one thing I really dislike is that the recorded video seems to hold/freeze every second during playback with either mediaportal or ms-mediaplayer. Watching TV works like a charm and during recording the CPU load amounts less than 50%, so I don't think the cpu is the bottleneck here. The audio is recorded as uncompressed PCM, because any compression like mp3 gives too much cpu load. I am using a software codec for video capture (what else which is picVideo MJPEG by Pegasus software, which gave very good results on a Duron 700 MHz pc using virtualdub when capturing from cvbs input. What I find very strange is that when I look at the properties in explorer of a .avi file recorded with mediaportal I see that the framerate equals 24 frames/second, where I would expect it to be 25 frames/second because the source is PAL-BG. Is there anybody who had a similar problem and/or knows how to tackle this phenomenon?
:shock:

Thanks in advance, Leo

[Lee_O]

Originally Posted by Lee_O

I am using a software codec for video capture (what else which is picVideo MJPEG by Pegasus software, which gave very good results on a Duron 700 MHz pc using virtualdub when capturing from cvbs input.

I captured video with virtualdub and the pegasus codec on the new msi mega 180 barebone yesterday and this went very smoothly. Please note that this is the same hardware on which M.P. gives me the jerky result!

[Callifo]

That may be so, but MP is a directx application which requires cpu time itself.

Taking MCE2005 for example, they specify the minimum requirement for running MCE and recording with a software card at the same time is a P4 3.2Ghz. A sempron unfortunately lacks the grunt to keep up with a P4 for video encoding so I can see where the problem lies.

Since MP uses the same rendering system as MCE, it also has the same requirements. You might get away with a different codec but I cant suggest anything more than that. (Primarily why software support was removed, simply because few of the software users had the extra hardware to run it. Hell even my games machine doesnt have that power.)

[Lee_O]

Originally Posted by Callifo

A sempron unfortunately lacks the grunt to keep up with a P4 for video encoding so I can see where the problem lies.

Thanks mate, that explains it I suppose. It seems that I need a hauppauge pvr card to run M.P. properly, rather than waste time on tweaking. Though I could try to recording uncompressed video. To be continued. Once again, thank you for your reply.

[Lee_O]

to whom it may concern:

By pressing '!' you can read out the frame rate and number of dropped frames while watching tv or recording. During recording I saw the frame rate drop to below 49 where it should stay 50. I have tried different codecs without success. It seems like I have two options left:
- Buy a hardware mpeg encoding tv-card, e.g. hauppauge pvr-150 or 350.
- Use home theater software that supports s/w tv-cards.

Last weekend I have installed a trial version of Intervideo Home Theater 2 and this gave me no recording problems whatsoever. I think I'll go for Intervideo, since I have a wife who's getting tired of my tweaking (does this sound familiar?). Thanks to Callifo for the response on my posting.

Leo

[Lee_O]

A few months ago I changed the TV card, so my hardware looks like this:

MSI MEGA-180 de luxe (nVidia nForce2 chipset)
AMD Sempron 2500 socket-A
512 MB ddr-333
Maxtor 160GB IDE
LiteOn DVD+/-RW dual layer
Leadtek WinTV 2000 XP Expert -> Replaced by Hauppaauge PVR-150

I have installed 0.0.2.0-RC4 yesterday and this seems to work like charm Even the program guide is easy to set up now with WebEPG and MP looks more stable now. My Hauppauge remote works out of the box Great progress, guys!

I am using the Intervideo for Hauppauge codecs now, they seem to be the right ones. If anyone can recommend a better alternative, please respond.

Cheers, Leo

[FlipGer]

Hi,

I am using MPV / MPA codecs (formerly MPEG2Dec). I have the feeling that they deliver a far better image quality. And they are much more up to date. Those from Hauppauge are based on WinDVD 4....

Other report very good picture quality with nVidias PureVideo. But there also seem to be some issues.

HTH, Flip.

[Lee_O]

Danke schon, I tried it and it looks slightly better! 8)

Cheers, Leo