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h.264 from THOR, pixelating


Curlo

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I have a problem with silver hd and history channel hd from THOR (canal digital). When I start one of these two, picture pixelates and doesn't stabilisize --> pixelating continues until I do rebuild graph, then it is ok. This pixelating starts with vmr9 and evr, but only with evr and HA acceleration with powerdvd/ati it doesn't end until I rebuild graph. All the other h.264 channels are ok, also from astra. These two are from same transponder and I have heard that people are having similar problems only with these two channels with Humax and other set top boxies. I am using s2-3200 and vista32b, I have now latest 5.0.0.15 drivers, no help. Could there be some solution or am I only one watching these. Solution would be to use software decoding and vmr9 (which somehow manages to stabilisize after tuning into channel) but I don't have enough cpu power. I think it is a problem with canal digital satellite transponder, which transponds non-standard stream. I didn't notice difference with Mbits/s between these two and other h.264 transponders.

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Hi, I live in Norway and I'm watching all HD channels from Canal Digital without any problem.

 

I did have problem not geting any good HD decoding. I had low framerate and high cpu usage (25-30%). I'm using FireDTV S2 tuner connected to a PC with quad core cpu and 2 video cards, nVidia 8800GTS and 8400GS. Also have PowerDVD Ultra (needed for hardware HD decoding). I got the second card for it's hardware HD decoding, but this didn't work on Vista-64 that I'm running.

 

Last saturday I downloaded the latest beta of DVBViewer and to my surprise HD hardware decoding worked :blush:

All HD channels Canal+ FILM HD, Canal+ Sport HD, Discovery HD, Nat Geo HD, History HD, Silver HD and Voom HD is smoot and cpu usage is down to 6-8% :(

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Clearly it is not DVBViewers fault because Windows Media Player has exactly same symptoms for recorded h.264 ts files for these silver hd & history hd programs. So it is powerdvd/ATI to blame, or maybe these channels send something non-standard stream, it plays fine but gets broken usually if I pause the stream or rewind. Then only solution is to stop stream and start over, however software decoding manages to play these streams completely fine even with EVR/Power DVD decoder as long as I don't select DXVA HA from powerdvd decoder settings.

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Just tested with Nvidia 8600GT. Using EVR/Power DVD h.264 decoder with DXVA on >> no pixelating problems like with ati card and hardware acceleration works fine. Drawbacks are: Some weird bug/restriction in nvidia drivers in EVR mode is that high resolution osd looks like mosaic with low colors, it depends on channel resolution so with hd channels it isn't as bad, but with SD channels osd looks awful. Doesn't happen with overlay mode (but not good for vista) and vmr9 (ok, but no HA with vista). Also with nvidia there is almost none noise reduction/sharpening/... as with ati AVIVO (I tested nvidia control panel options, ok they work as they say but in my opinion ati has more advanced algorithms in video modification, actually it has been that way for almost 10 years (Pure 3D Power=nvidia, Video Features=ati). So picture looks completely different with nvidia than with ati HD 2600xt. It is also a matter of personal taste because ati avivo tends sometimes to modifie a low bit rate SD picture too much so it looks a little bit more polished, plastic and "dead". Anyway I would recommend ati for video use.

 

Anyone there with 9000 series nvidia, is that high res osd/evr bug still there?

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  • 1 month later...

I found a solution for ati 2600 series for this problem. Turn off fast channel switching and trim DVBSource latency from 350ms-->50ms for better speed. This removes pixelating with Ati card and HA which goes on after channel change. However it won't help with playback/rewind with same problem (in all players), I have sent support message to Ati several months ago, nothing in drivers hasn't changed (just tested catalyst 8.5) or then it is hardware problem with 2600 series UVD.

Edited by Curlo
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  • 3 weeks later...

I just want to send a "Me too" for this problem you are having with pixelating.

 

Satelite: Thor (1dg. West)

DVB-S2 card: Terratec Cinergy DVB-S2 HD

GFX: Sapphire ATI HD3450 (with newest drivers as of 2008.06.08)

Codec: Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 h264 with DXVA enabled

 

I get these problems also after watching a HD channel for a while (Silver HD and History Channel HD), it doesn't go away unless I change the channel to something else and back again. Same pixelating effects can be seen if rewinding/skipping in PowerDVD. It goes away if I disable HW acceleration (AVIVO).

 

Seems like an AVIVO HD (codec) bug to me. I'm using ATI because I can't seem to get NVidia cards to do 50Hz on the HDTV component out cable.

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We could try sending more support requests to ati and put this thread url with it. I have sent some but haven't noticed any action, but if everyone who has ati and is watching these channels would make a support ticket at support.ati.com. And that solution by turning off fast channels switching is quite lame, because it slows down quite a bit and isn't really a solution at all.

 

post-44303-1213361627_thumb.jpg

Edited by Curlo
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  • 3 weeks later...

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