initial support for Hauppuage HD-PVR (1 Viewer)

[sjeffrey]

Has anyone installed 1.1.0 alpha yet?

 

[WileECoyote]

Has anyone installed 1.1.0 alpha yet?

I installed it on a Windows 7 (32 Bit) machine for testing. Other than reducing the PMT time (In the TV Server Config) and a few other tweeks, it seems to be running fairly well (as far as the HD-PVR is concerned.) I had to install the latest version of the TV3 Blaster software, but the Schedules direct plugin from 1.0.2 seemed to work okay for me.

 

[ixian]

I posted a SD version compiled against 1.1 in that thread if you want to try it. Some people were having issues with the old one and 1.1.

I have not yet moved to 1.1; even with the fixes to .tsreader I may hold off for a bit because frankly my setup has been working more or less without a problem for some time now I imagine I will try it out soon enough, I have the source already checked out.

Wile can you post what changes you made to reduce the PMT? I'd like to modify my source copy as well.

 

[Mithrandir]

Does someone actually have some suggested timings for all the capture card related settings in TV Server for the HD PVR?
I really have no clue concerning this.

 

[sjeffrey]

Has anyone installed 1.1.0 alpha yet?

I installed it on a Windows 7 (32 Bit) machine for testing. Other than reducing the PMT time and a few other tweeks, it seems to be running fairly well (as far as the HD-PVR is concerned.) I had to install the latest version of the TV3 Blaster software, but the Schedules direct plugin from 1.0.2 seemed to work okay for me.

I though one of the devs had committed a new short value for the PMT time?

 

[WileECoyote]

I posted a SD version compiled against 1.1 in that thread if you want to try it. Some people were having issues with the old one and 1.1.

I have not yet moved to 1.1; even with the fixes to .tsreader I may hold off for a bit because frankly my setup has been working more or less without a problem for some time now I imagine I will try it out soon enough, I have the source already checked out.

Wile can you post what changes you made to reduce the PMT? I'd like to modify my source copy as well.

Hey Ixian,
I just reduced the PMT time from 10 to 1 second in the config. I actually didnt even check it before I changed the value, so with my patch it may not make a difference

Has anyone installed 1.1.0 alpha yet?

I installed it on a Windows 7 (32 Bit) machine for testing. Other than reducing the PMT time and a few other tweeks, it seems to be running fairly well (as far as the HD-PVR is concerned.) I had to install the latest version of the TV3 Blaster software, but the Schedules direct plugin from 1.0.2 seemed to work okay for me.

I though one of the devs had committed a new short value for the PMT time?

Hey SJeffrey,
Yes, I did submit a revision that is in the 1.1.0 version. I just reduced the PMT time in the config from 10 seconds to 1 second (see my post above to Ixian.)

 

[DreadFury]

I have been using 1.1 with the HDPVR.

I still get massive stuttering on 720p... I don't know what else to tweak!

I have tried on so many different rigs, ranging from XP, 2gb ram, 128mb nvidia graphics, 1.8ghz dual core intel
to...
Vista 64, 4gb ram, 1GB 9800gtx, 2.8ghz quad core AMD.

and everything in between (litterally, I have 6 computers here i've tested on, all with different mixes of intel, amd, nvidia, and ati hardware)

every single one of these rigs can play blueray rips at full speed and have no problem with 1080p files (in other players like winamp or MPC)

it is driving me utterly insane, why does MePo have such a hard time with HD content!?

 

[WileECoyote]

I still get massive stuttering on 720p... I don't know what else to tweak!

I have tried on so many different rigs, ranging from XP, 2gb ram, 128mb nvidia graphics, 1.8ghz dual core intel
to...
Vista 64, 4gb ram, 1GB 9800gtx, 2.8ghz quad core AMD.

When you say you have tried muliple rigs, were they set up as clients to the same server? If the server is having an issue timeshifting/recording, all the clients will exibit the same behavior.

it is driving me utterly insane, why does MePo have such a hard time with HD content!?

I have 4 machines that have no issues with HD content in MP. It took me a while to find the right combination, but once I got it tuned in it runs without issue.

 

[ixian]

I have been using 1.1 with the HDPVR.

I still get massive stuttering on 720p... I don't know what else to tweak!

I have tried on so many different rigs, ranging from XP, 2gb ram, 128mb nvidia graphics, 1.8ghz dual core intel
to...
Vista 64, 4gb ram, 1GB 9800gtx, 2.8ghz quad core AMD.

and everything in between (litterally, I have 6 computers here i've tested on, all with different mixes of intel, amd, nvidia, and ati hardware)

every single one of these rigs can play blueray rips at full speed and have no problem with 1080p files (in other players like winamp or MPC)

it is driving me utterly insane, why does MePo have such a hard time with HD content!?

What are your bandwidth rate settings (constant or variable, how high, etc) for the HDPVR, and what codec are you using to play it? Also, believe it or not, those system specs may (may) be just a little too low to stream live HDTV from the HDPVR.

I know what you're thinking - BD, etc work fine, the HDPVR is h.264, so why not it? But it isn't the same thing. Here, we're talking about a live HD feed streaming in real time. I have two clients, one an AMD platform, one Intel, streaming from my TV server. The Intel client (2.5ghz P9500, dual core, 6mb, 4500HD video) has never had a problem. The AMD client (780g, 4850e 2.4ghz dual core) always had minor issues, stuttering, the occasional freeze, etc - I agree, it drives you nuts. The difference between the two is, the AMD has a faster video chipset but slower CPU.

MSI finally released an update for my AMD motherboard supporting Phenom II's, which in addition to being faster CPU's also support Hyperthreading 3.0, which offers significantly improved memory bandwidth. After updating it I popped a faster CPU in to the box and my issues disappeared. In my experience, HDPVR streams in MePo benefit greatly from CPU power, far more so than video.

Codecs play a big role too. With MePo 1.02 and below, there's really only two choices - the Arcsoft TMT codecs, or PowerDVD 8.0 (9.0 doesn't work). You can read earlier in this thread about getting and installing the latter. I found the PDVD 8 h.264 codec provided a superior picture and less stuttering than the Arcsoft. CoreAVC works as well as a codec but I had major issues with lip-sync using that one - however I have an ATI video chipset, since you are using nVidia you may be able to use CUDA since CoreAVC supports it, which I hear offers incredible performance gains.

MePo 1.1 may or may not have fixed the tsreader bug that among other things caused other codecs, like MPC, to not show up under TV options, but I haven't tried it yet.

Finally, there's refresh rates - you may want to give the Dynamic Refresh Rate setting in MePo a try. I recommend visiting this thread: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...eshrate-changer-44338/index62.html#post407252 , use the Excel spreadsheet he posted - it's very easy, he set everything up so all you have to do is enter the refresh rates your display supports and it will pop out the settings to paste in to MePo - and see if that helps. I got rid of some minor stuttering that appeared on some channels by doing that (plus my regular videos play smoother, it really helps a lot depending on your display).


So to sum all that up:

Check your codecs and try a different one.
Use the dynamic refresh rate changer (it's in the MePo config under General)
If all else fails, throw more hardware at it in the form of a faster CPU.

 

[DreadFury]

What are your bandwidth rate settings (constant or variable, how high, etc) for the HDPVR,

I have tried every combination for bitrate settings, it doesn't seem to change anything, i assumed it wasn't supported for the HD-PVR.

and what codec are you using to play it?

I have tried FFDS (massive FPS issues), CoreAVC (Horrid audio sync issues), Arcsoft (studdering), Cyberlink (Studdering, especially after channel changes or after 30 seconds of smooth playback)

Also, believe it or not, those system specs may (may) be just a little too low to stream live HDTV from the HDPVR.
I know what you're thinking - BD, etc work fine, the HDPVR is h.264, so why not it? But it isn't the same thing. Here, we're talking about a live HD feed streaming in real time.

I would agree, accept I have tried recordings copied to the clients local hard drive and get identical results, playing the file in an external player (WMC and WinAMP for example) results in perfect playback, as long as the codecs are there

I tried playing other files that work flawless on all computers in any other video player just to have it studder in MePo.

I have two clients, one an AMD platform, one Intel, streaming from my TV server. The Intel client (2.5ghz P9500, dual core, 6mb, 4500HD video) has never had a problem. The AMD client (780g, 4850e 2.4ghz dual core) always had minor issues, stuttering, the occasional freeze, etc - I agree, it drives you nuts. The difference between the two is, the AMD has a faster video chipset but slower CPU.

my server is lower quality all around compared to my beefy gaming rig, and my gaming rig actually studders more than the server...

I could understand if we were talking 1080p super HD and if the computers we're barely on-par, but all these computers have plenty of juice for sure to play 720p...

This isn't a network issue, I've tried local files, NDraft wireless, and 1gb LAN.
I can stream 8gb movies over wireless and have it play flawlessly on my weakest rig at an insane bitrate, so I'm sure the bandwidth is fine.

MSI finally released an update for my AMD motherboard supporting Phenom II's, which in addition to being faster CPU's also support Hyperthreading 3.0, which offers significantly improved memory bandwidth. After updating it I popped a faster CPU in to the box and my issues disappeared. In my experience, HDPVR streams in MePo benefit greatly from CPU power, far more so than video.

Codecs play a big role too. With MePo 1.02 and below, there's really only two choices - the Arcsoft TMT codecs, or PowerDVD 8.0 (9.0 doesn't work). You can read earlier in this thread about getting and installing the latter. I found the PDVD 8 h.264 codec provided a superior picture and less stuttering than the Arcsoft. CoreAVC works as well as a codec but I had major issues with lip-sync using that one - however I have an ATI video chipset, since you are using nVidia you may be able to use CUDA since CoreAVC supports it, which I hear offers incredible performance gains.

I actually seem to get better results turning Hardware acceleration off on ALL rigs, two of which are sporting high end 1gb cards...

MePo 1.1 may or may not have fixed the tsreader bug that among other things caused other codecs, like MPC, to not show up under TV options, but I haven't tried it yet.

Finally, there's refresh rates - you may want to give the Dynamic Refresh Rate setting in MePo a try. I recommend visiting this thread: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...eshrate-changer-44338/index62.html#post407252 , use the Excel spreadsheet he posted - it's very easy, he set everything up so all you have to do is enter the refresh rates your display supports and it will pop out the settings to paste in to MePo - and see if that helps. I got rid of some minor stuttering that appeared on some channels by doing that (plus my regular videos play smoother, it really helps a lot depending on your display).

I tried the refresh rate changer already, the problem is I can't keep a contant FPS, it's always jumping all over the place.

So to sum all that up:

Check your codecs and try a different one.
Use the dynamic refresh rate changer (it's in the MePo config under General)
If all else fails, throw more hardware at it in the form of a faster CPU.

There is no way I should need even crazier hardware to play some 'dinky' 720p files lol
I don't wanna sound coy, but believe me when I say I battled this for WEEKS before breaking down and saying anything in the forums.

I have searched, read this forum up and down several times, and all I can really find is tons of others in the same boat, and a few select 'lucky chucks' who either turn it on and have it work (Grrrr) or after fighting the good fight for a long while, finally get it to barely function acceptably.

It is just so darn picky!