TV + Nvidia Decoder + Postprocessing = Crash (+ other problems) (1 Viewer)

[Wonderm00n]

TV-Server Version:
MediaPortal Version: 0.2.3.0 RC2
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Two Wide
Windows Version: Win XP Pro SP2 + All updates
CPU Type: Intel P4 3.0 SKT478
HDD: 80Gb IDE + 120Gb SATA
Memory: 2048Mb DDR400
Motherboard: Asus P4-P800-E Deluxe
Motherboard Chipset: Intel
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT 512Mb
Video Card Driver: 6.14.11.6218
Sound Card: Realtek onBoard
Sound Card AC3: optical out
Sound Card Driver: 5.10.0.5440
1. TV Card: Hauppauge Win-TV-PVR-500
1. TV Card Type: Analog
1. TV Card Driver: 2.0.48.25037
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: MPV Decoder Filter
MPEG2 Audio Codec: MPA Decoder Filter
Satelite/CableTV Provider: TV Cabo Portugal (Analog cable)
HTPC Case: 3RSYSTEM MSTATION HT-1100
Cooling:
Power Supply: Eurotech 400Wt
Remote: iMON PAD
TV: LCD 37'' LG LZ37 RZ55
TV - HTPC Connection: Sub-D

Hi there,

I'm using ffdshow20051115 to post process TV (It's the only version I was able to put to work without a HUGE cpu consumption and with fairly great results).

FFDSHOW settings:
- OSD ON (for now... for debugging)
- CROP: left 16, right 8, top 8, bottom 8 (to cut off some TV "noise" around the picture and get a nice separation from black)
- PICTURE PROPERTIES: contrast 151, brightness -21, saturation 75, the rest is default
- BLUR & NR: everything off except denoise3d, luma 0.58, chroma 0.58, time 5.00, HQ on
- SHARPEN: msharpen, high quality, strength 60, threshold 25
- RESIZE & ASPECT: resize new size 1360x768 (the resolution of Windows and LCD), resize always, keep original aspect ratio

Problem #1:
The picture quality is good but it "tears" on every vertical movement (interlacing?). I've tried to activate deinterlace on ffdshow -> No success! I'm using MPV Decoder.

Problem #2:
To try to solve this problem I tried to replace MPV with Nvidia PureVideo Decoder (04.02-196) which makes MP crash everytime I start TV (with postprocessing activated). If I de-activate postprocessing it won't crash, but it's quite unstable.

So... For my TV to look good I really need post processing (believe me...) but I'm getting that annoying tearing...

Problem #3:
DVD looks better with NVIDIA than with MPV (and no "tearing", like the TV has, on DVD playback), but I still wanted to postprocess-it to make it a bit sharper and resize . I activate ffdshow postprocessing for DVD and it simple doesn't work (I have OSD active for debugging), not with any MPEG2 decoder (NVIDIA, MPV, ...). No little green changing letters on the top left of the screen Any ideas?

The Movies (DivX, etc...) playback is GREAT with the ffdshow settings

Please, help this newbie soul to have a (nice) working MediaPortal

Greetings from Portugal,
Marco aka Wonderm00n

 

[FlipGer]

Hi.

For the tearing problem:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Fr...head-4138da6862d8f01565f940f3abdce422d496d64f

And for Postprocessing:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Postprocessing

NVIDIA and latest ffdshow tryout works on my system within TV and DVD without problems.

HTH,
Flip.

 

[Wonderm00n]

FlipGer,

You're THE MAN!

Installed ffdshow tryout and:
- Tearing no longer happens
- DVD now accepts post-processing (WOW... The resize really gives another spectacularly to DVDs...)
- No crash for NVIDIA+ffdshow

Now.. a new problem... this ffdshow seems to eat up more CPU and the image jumps/stutters a bit (specially on TV).
The CPU usage is:
- On TV: 50 to 65% (jumps noticeable, both image and sound)
- On DVD: 45 to 60% (jumps noticeable, just image)
- On a XviD/AC3 AVI: 30 to 45% (no noticeable jumping)

Anyone can point me a way to reduce this jumping? I'm using the settings on the first post of this thread... (That i really didn't wanted to change a lot because the image quality is very good now...)

Please be open minded to any kind of sugestions (mp settings, codec settings, ffdshow settings, os tweaking, hardware...)

Thanks in advance,
Marco aka Wonderm00n

PS: Am I blind?? I run over the configuration > general settings and can't find the exclusive directx mode...

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

PS: Am I blind?? I run over the configuration > general settings and can't find the exclusive directx mode

Under Directshow filter control\vmr settings.

 

[Wonderm00n]

Thanks Paranoid Delusion (nice nick btw ),

Any info/help you can give me on the other issue? (The jumping/stutter video)

 

[FlipGer]

Hi,

I can understand, that you do not want to change your settings, they are very nice.

1) Well, already turned off the OSD? That also can consume quite a bit CPU.
2) Just try turning off one setting of ffdshow after the other, just to see which one has the most impact.
3) Do the above settings show the current order? You could try to change it, although it looks good as it is now
4) What resize algorithm do you use? Lancos is the best, but consumes most CPU. You might try bilinear or bicubic

That comes to my mind so far...

HTH,
Flip.

 

[Wonderm00n]

FlipGer,

I now declare you my personal guru

Yes, OSD was already off for the results I have previously mentioned.
And yes, the settings show the current order.

I've tried to turn off, ffdshow setting by setting, and de-activating BLUR & NR solved the problem. Of course I would like to have it ON, but the difference in quality is not that big. And I'm still using lanczos!

Maybe I'll try to overclock the CPU a bit and try to turn it on, but I surely will have a louder fan noise.

Anyway, everything on my MP is getting close to perfect, thanks to the very nice people on this forum.

Cheers,
Marco aka Wonderm00n

 

[Wonderm00n]

UPDATE: Although there's no stutter in the image, the scrolling texts on news channels are still a bit strange...

I really think I must do something about hardware... Is there a better P4 CPU than the 3.0? And do you think that would solve the problem?

 

[FlipGer]

Hi Marco,

well tickers on news channels are one of the most nifty things. With those you often "detect" playback issues. Also sports like soccer with fast camera panning can be a pain.

Small stutters or hiccups may not be issued by too little CPU power. This can also have its reason within an unoptimized setup between video source frame rate, rendering frame rate and refresh rate of your monitor.
For example PAL has a frame rate of 25fps, so you should set the rendering frame rate and the refresh rate of your monitor to the same value or a multiple of it eg. 50fps and 75Hz refresh rate.

Using NTSC it would be 30fps and 60Hz.

HD makes it even more complicated because it is using 24fps. If you have not state of the art technology you will even get hiccups within HD environment, because only latest LCDs support 24Hz (or multiple).

To your question: Sure there are better CPUs.
But I fear if you would like to make an upgrade you also have to buy a new motherboard. ffdshow directly benefits from multiple cores, because it computes the resize on the different cores.

Flip.

 

[Wonderm00n]

"Is there a better P4 CPU than the 3.0?" -> A better P4 / SKT478 I mean... I won't change motherboard...

Anyway... The image it's quite OK, and I'm going to leave it as is!

Thanks everybody!