Please help me to stop this tearing+a couple of other issues (4 Viewers)

[kaliatech]

{Edit. I originally posted that I was having the same problem. However I just noticed that at some point I had unset the "Exclusive DirectX Mode". Resetting that fixed my problem.

Fwiw, I'm having the same problem. I'm not sure "tearing" is the abolute correct term for it, but exact same symptoms being posted throughout this thread. Mostly noticeable during significant screen movement in LiveTV, but I also notice it in time-shifted TV. (Using MP v0.2.0RC1).

I'm also using nVidia 6600GT. <-- I'm starting to wonder if that's part of the problem.

I've been trying just about every combination of codecs and settings I can think of. Same problem in all cases. As mentioned, I only notice this with MP, nothing else.

 

[KRA]

I'd like to point out a few things.

First off the tearing is not a MP issue but a WMR issue. Other programs have same problems in WMR mode.

The tearing was for me minimal in version 1.3.0, but in every cvs I've tried since, and in RC it's much worse, this is confusing me.

DirectX Exclusive mode fix the tearing for me. DirectX Exclusive mode does not work on LiveTV, if you turn on TS, DX Exclusive mode kicks in.

The DirectX Exclusive mode trick did not work when my refresh rate was 85Hz, but works at 60Hz.

In my testing I've concluded the following. The problem is VSYNC ON/OFF related. If my theory is correct, you should get tearing even in exclusive mode (with TS on) if you turn VSYNC OFF by default in you gfx driver. So exclusive mode isn't really the solution, just a bad cure.

The problem is Mediaportal does not care about the VSYNC option in the gfx driver until exclusive mode kicks in. My theory is Mediaportal is running with VSYNC off by default, but when exclusive mode kicks in, the gfx driver/setting is in charge, and VSYNC is turned on.

I am 99% sure if there was a way of running Mediaportal with VSYNC ON it would cure the problem. Since the tearing is there even in the menu (press !) even when there is noe video/tv playing.

EDIT:
I need to add one more thing, changing the FPS of mediaportal to the same as your Hz will minimize the tearing. If you use 60Hz, set mediaportal to run at 60 or 30 fps.

The reason imo that mediaportal is running VSYNC off is that I believe all consumer based gfx card have VSYNC off by default, because of the increased speed it gives in games and tests. What I don't understand is why the setting to force vsync on only affect mediaportal when it's in exclusive mode (as I pointed out earlier, mediaportal is only in exclusive mode when TS is on).

 

[voxmortis]

Now, I've set VSYNC to ON (ie. ON, not application controlled) in my Nvidia settings, AND set Exclusive in MP.

By the way, I can't use TS, cos it screws up my picture (it increases in size, and I lose the bottom 15% of the picture - will be the subject of another thread).

Now I reckon my picture IS better, with little to no tearing on MyTV - not tested DVD or Video yet.

Also, I'm in PAL land, and all my DVDs, Videos, TV etc are mainly 25fps (or 50i, at least) - and I can't set my Video adapter to 50Hz... maybe 75Hz is a good compromise?

Q - how do you 'set the fps of MediaPortal?'

 

[KRA]

Changing the hz to correspond with the framerate might help a little, but is in no way close to a fix. The framerate is fluctuating to much, if one could lock the framerate in mp it might help.

As for the fps in mediaportal, I'm using a norwegian so don't really know what the menus are called, I'm using RC 0.2 and there is a settings option on the main menu in mediaportal, then there is a monitor settingsmenu, and finally the scroll speed menu.

 

[Olodin]

I also had problems with tearing and horizontal flickering while watching DVD, but only in VMR9.

As suggested by KRA above I turned on "DirectX Exclusive mode" in Mediaportal and VSync on in my graphics card driver. (For details of my system see my signature link).

This helped a lot and made watching DVD a much better experience! The flickering is gone and the tearing is minimized to almost nothing.

 

[kalon]

Hi!

Well, almost this problem Ive had for several months. Ive seen it in other threads too. So I want to tell you my experience:

I have a 42" plasma (852x480 physic resolution) feed with an Nvidia Geforce 6600 and Twinhan DVB-t card and FloppyDTV. Everything OK when i watch DVD.

But when I watch DVB-T sports, newstickers, fast movie panorate I get almost seasick. Newsticker is the easiest way to see the problem. Looks like it scrolls 3 pixels at a time.
I tried it all (I think) with Vertical sync ON, every resolutions, freq:s, codeqs, graphicdrivers (including Omega) and so on..
BUT yesterday I had a breakthrough. I set the resolution to 720x576/50 (PAL res just like the DVB-T stream) and voila: Smooth scrolling newsticker, perfect quality when waatching LOST and so on..
The only problem then is that my plasma cuts the picture. But that was solved in Screenkalibration in MP.

The only question I have now is can anybode explaine why it is like this and can I newer run native 852x480?

 

[spoco2]

Also, I'm in PAL land, and all my DVDs, Videos, TV etc are mainly 25fps (or 50i, at least) - and I can't set my Video adapter to 50Hz... maybe 75Hz is a good compromise?

Yeah you can, it's just not obvious... make sure you have the latest Nvidia drivers and then go into the advanced drivers properties... then somewhere in there there is a place you can set the resolution/refresh to modes not listed usually... I think it's something that even warns you that you may break things etc... I can't remember exactly, I'm at work... but it's in there somewhere.

I have done this, set it to PAL res and PAL refresh, and have vsych turned on, and still have to turn on exclusive mode to remove tearing. The vsynch setting made zero difference actually.

I think the refresh rate and resolution makes things look better though, as there's no extra scaling required to view it on the tv.

 

[spoco2]

Does anyone else have an issue with exclusive mode causing the starting of a video file to be slow... like it seems to take a while to switch into exclusive mode?