User experience with AMD 780G and MediaPortal

[KRA]

mironicus,

I have tried coreavc, unfortunately my cpu cannot handle both the tv-server and h.264 playback at the same time. If I don't watch it live it will work, but when the tv-server is working I get somewhere between 90-100% with resulting framedrops and audio out of sync.

2. Disabling Aero is not an option, as this introduce tearing. I think this just proves that there is a bad design/bandwidth problem with this IGP.
any idea when those 45 phenoms will arrive ?

3. I've experienced the exact same problem on another computer it had a nvidia 6150 integrated graphics, driving a 1080p tv it couldn't handle even sdtv with dxva turned on, it was dropping frames at a regular level. Turning dxva off and there was no problem at the cost of higher cpu usage.

4. Regarding a clean install.. I've had the problem since I first installed the card with catalyst 8.5, I don't remember the exact error message, but I think it's something with the vista recovering from a crash in the display driver.


disaster123,
Are you sure about PS disabling/problems with HA ? Because I know HA is working. And I remember when I had the problem with black screen and only sound on HD playback in MP, I tried using 720p res to see if it made any difference, and it didn't.

jmbillings,

Are you sure your HDTV is h.264 and not mpg2 ? I'm not 100% sure about this, but afaik you need EVR to do h.264 in hardware, however mpg2 HA is supported via wmr9. Can anyone confirm this ?

[mironicus]

I have no tearing at all with Aero disabled (look in my system - I have the same motherboard). Only VMR9 is usuable with Mediaportal - as long as the problems with the flicker are not solved. I also use XP-Antispy and Vista Manager and have closed all unneeded services.

CoreAVC is usable if you set deinterlacing to blend.

Btw. DVBViewer uses only 2% CPU if I decode a HDTV free to air channel (Anixe HD) with this motherboard using EVR and PowerDVD 8 H264-codec. No tearing, no stutter - smooth as silk. (all with Aero disabled and with better deinterlacing).

The 45nm phenoms will arrive at the end of the year.

[doornjoostje]

There is also a tweak for ati cards:
ATI HD Registry Tweaks

[KRA]

"the display driver stopped responding and has recovered" that is the exact message that pops up in the systray from time to time.

I ran the registry "hack"

Testing H.264 livetv 1080i 50hz with pdvd8 codec:

WMR9 with exclusive mode and Aero on, this resulted in
- no tearing
- both cpu cores @ about 90%
- bob deinterlace
- no framedrops (according to MP)
- framerate @ 12 fps !! (so basically it really drops half the frames)

Same test with Aero off
- no tearing
- both cpu cores @ about 95%
- NOT bob deinterlace
- no framedrops (according to MP)
- framerate @ 17 fps

EVR rendering Aero on
- no tearing
- both cpu cores @ about 50%
- bob deinterlace
- framedrops of 5-15 per second
- framerate @ about 40 fps average (dropping 10fps average)

EVR rendering and Aero off
- BAD tearing
- both cpu cores @ about 50%
- NOT bob deinterlace
- no framedrops
- framerate @ 50 fps



Obviously the last one is the great choice if I could get rid of the tearing, I don't know how you've done it mironicus

inn my quest to get rid of the tearing I tried setting the MP gui @ 50fps, and the display @ 1280x720x50hz this resulted in nearly tearfree rendering, but it also resulted in some framedrops, maybe 5 frames every 10 seconds or so. But when I ran 1360x768x50hz I got the full tearing again!?!?

[kiwijunglist]

I thought I would let you know my experience with the 780G Mobo, as I get hardware acceleration under XP Pro SP2. I am using the HVR 2200 TV Card

The only codecs i use are PDVD8 Ultra 1830 and the internal filters within MPC-HC.

My installation is as follows.

Fresh Install XP Pro SP2
Turn off automatic updates and don't update anything
Only use the official drivers that support 780G on gigabyte.com
Install Realtek audio driver from gigabyte.com
Install LAN driver from gigabyte.com
Install ATI Display driver and ATI South bridge driver from gigabyte.com
Install Microsoft .NET 2 Framework
Reboot
This next step is necessary to disable overscan
- Goto ATI.com / choose to download display drivers.
- Select XP / Integrated Mobo / HD3200
- Select old drivers
- Download the control centre for 8.3
- Choose custom install, only install the control centre, don't install any drivers
Reboot
Go into control centre choose 0% overscan, change the resolution to support your display. Don't change anything else.
Install MPC-HC; Mediaplayer Classic Home Cinema (X86) version - Latest generic stable 32bit build
Load MPC-HC, open a H264 media file, you should see about 3-5% cpu useage
Install HVR2200 Driver, use the latest version from the UK Hauppague website
Next step is to install PDVD8 Ultra build 1830
Now install Windows Media Player 11
Now install Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) - This may not be necessary if you have PDVD8, as this is installed with the package
Install Microsoft Installer 3.1 v2 Redistributable XP
Install videoplayback flicker hotfix for XP
Install dvbfix
Reboot
Run the Mediaportal RC2 installer
Run TV-Server configuration and setup your channels
Run mediaportal Configuration. Enable advanced mode (Top right corner)
- Check under television -> H264 Codec -> Choose "Cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD8)"
- Check under television -> MPEG2 Video decoder -> Choose "Cyberlink Video/SP BD-HD Decoder (PDVD8)"
- Leave all the other options as default settings
- Check under Direct Show Filter Control -> PowerDVD Decoder Settings
- Check that Hardware accleration is enabled in both boxes
- Leave the rest of the settings under direct show filter control as default (ie use the default VRM9 renderer)
Reboot

This setup gives me 0-5% CPU useage when play 1080P mkv video files using MPC-HC
I get around 10-20% with live TV in mediaportal

It is important to turn off auto updates, as when i upgraded to SP3 i had problems.
Hence there must be something in updates after SP2 that stuffs things up with this mobo.
Only use the drivers off the gigabyte website.
Don't try Catalyst Suite 8.7 Display driver as this makes XP crash if you have this motherboard.

If you don't have PDVD8 you can still get hardware accleration for 1080P mkv movie files using MPC-HC.
Unfortunately MPC-HC can't seem to play .ts files on my system, however you could change the tv-server recording options and record as mpeg2, i havn't tried this but it may work.

If you don't have PDVD8 you could install FFDShow instead. You will still get hardware accleration of mkv movie files, but your cpu useage will be 60-90% while watching live TV.

FYI - My Hardware

Silverstone LC16-M & iMon Remote | Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G with Onboard ATI HD3200 | AMD X2 4200+ CPU | Adata 2GB RAM | 750GB HDD | HVR 2200 | Samsung LA46N81BX 46" 1080P LCD | Samsung HT-TX35T 5.1 SPDIF Receiver

[KRA]

Thanks for you input, though it doesn't help me since I use vista, it might help others !

One thing though, how can you say you still get HA when your cpu usage jumps from 10-20% to 60-90% ??

[kiwijunglist]

Originally Posted by Kiwijunglist

This setup gives me 0-5% CPU useage when play 1080P mkv video files using MPC-HC
I get around 10-20% with live TV in mediaportal

If you don't have PDVD8 you could install FFDShow instead. You will still get hardware accleration of mkv movie files, but your cpu useage will be 60-90% while watching live TV.

Originally Posted by KRA

Thanks for you input, though it doesn't help me since I use vista, it might help others !

One thing though, how can you say you still get HA when your cpu usage jumps from 10-20% to 60-90% ??

If you read more carefully... =)

PDVD8 = H.A. = 10-20%

FFDSHOW = S.A. = 60-90%

[canarygsr]

Do I need PDVD8 Ultra, can I just get "HD264 Pack for WMP High-Definition Video Playback" is that just the codec?

My system runs at about 60-70%, but im just running the standard MP codecs and In australia HD doesn't use the 264, so will this help anyway?

[disaster123]

In my Opinion this is also a bad solution, cause no vector adaptive deinterlacing is avilable :-(

[kszabo]

Originally Posted by mironicus

1. Flickering gui is a unique Mediaportal problem...

2. Disable Aero and you have 4 deinterlacing options up to 1280x720 and 3 up to 1920x1080. If you have a Phenom processor you'll have 5 deinterlacing option for all resolutions (I wait for low-power 45nm Phenoms).

3. I have no problem with HDTV channels (using Vista Ultimate x64). Have you tried CoreAVC as decoder? It is fast enough to soft decode HDTV channels on a AMD Dual core without stutter.

4. Make a clean install of Catalyst drivers. Use Driver Cleaner to delete all stuff related to older drivers. That might help.

to 1. with the ATi MPG2 decoder no flickering (but no DXVA acceleration). I guess Phenom would solve this also
to 2. deinterlacing of HDTV is very instable with X2 CPUs (cannot switch from HDTV to SD channels and back or skip fwd or rev in a HD 1080i file). More than Bob is not really possible without Phenom (it is the same what CCC says, it won´t work for 1080i)
to 3. no way. My X2 BE-2400 was not enough with CoreAVC (simplest settings) for 1080i 50Hz (720p 50Hz nearly managed)
to 4. the only driver which works OK for 780G/HD3200 is the Catalyst 8.5 - make a clean install, very important