Setting up BTV

[MonsterHTPC]

OK I was installing a few systems this weekend and figured I would write down alot of the options I check, and/or adjust. Most are contained in many different places all over the boards and other locations. If any of these links become broken please post and I will correct and/or update them.

Note: These settings normally produce superb quality on ATI and PVR 250/150 combo and I would recomend a 1.8Ghz or above. Hopefully all the terminology is right, if not someone will be glad to correct me I am sure, or even add to this list. Before beginning you should defintially goto hauppauge's site if you haven't already and download their drivers, driver updates, and Intervideo NonCSS Decoders. Click on the product that applies to you, usually pvr250 or pvr150, make sure to do all 3 in order and follow their directions. You don't need to install their WinTV2000 app unless you want it for troubleshooting. Also Hurin has a step by step in this thread: Click Here

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First if you have not already, run the setup wizard from the start menu to make sure you get picture and sound. If not then you need to troubleshoot that aspect. Check cable connection, sound etc...

DISCLAIMER:

This is mainly a list of the most common settings I adjust when setting up a system. This by NO means is suggesting that this is the only good setup out there. Typically I use this setup in conjunction with PVR-250/150 and ATI video card. Also note not all of these settings are done in all circumstances or have to be done together.

Links used throughout this document:
Hauppauge's Site PVR250/150 Drivers
Step by Step Hauppauge Drivers
PVR 250 Tips and Tricks
Qualities by Cayars
BTV Help Files
Reg Hacks, Deinterlacing, Choppy Live TV problems etc..
Reg Hacks Deinterlacing Experimentation and user feedback.
Snapstream Community site. Great articles on everything.
ffdshow guide/How To with TT and/or Zoomplayer
ffdshow homepage.
Nvidia Decoders in BTV

Desktop Icon:
Desktop Icon for BTV is always useful, if you don't have one create one from the start -> All Programs menu, right click and choose create shortcut/send to desktop. The standard Icon will start BTV in its previous state, so if you exited the UI in window mode, it will start that way. If however you want to start in a particular mode all the time, use the below as a guide.
Right click Icon -> choose properties -> Then add your desired tag from below after the quotes. Example for starting in FullScreen Mode. "Location of snapstream here\BTVD3DShell.exe" /displaymode:fs

Other command line options:
/displaymode:fs - Full Screen Interface
/displaymode:windowed - Windowed Interface

Online Docs for command lines: Click Link -> Click Beyond TV 3 Help "on left" -> Configuring BTV -> For Adv Users -> Command Line Calls. Can also be reached via your local help file: Start -> All Programs -> Snapstream Media -> Beyond TV 3. That's if its still located there from the default install.
BTV Help Files

Web Admin
Since web admin has been masked from the start we need to enable it, if you desire to use it. The easiest way to do this is to open up internet explorer and type in "localhost" without the quotes into the address bar. This will bring up a screen that says "BTV redirector" Click on the link to take you to the web admin. If this doesn't work, type in the full address "http://localhost:8129/default.aspx" into the address bar.

Next step is to enable web admin access from the system tray icon for BTV. While we are in webadmin goto Settings -> Adv Settings -> Misc Settings and enable Launch Web Admin from Tray.

Note: Some have experienced problems getting to their web admin from outside the network, via the internet. If you are experiencing problems try this format:

http://xx.xxx.xxx.xxx:pppp/default.aspx

, where the x's represent your IP address and pppp is the port you are running the BTV web admin, defualt is 8129. Also if you have a router this port will have to be forward to the HTPC.

Recording Qualities:
This post has great info on this subject and I find I like these settings. Things have changed in 3.5 and I made the adjustments to the settings below. Still doing some testing and really its all preference on what you prefer. Make sure to click on the pull down menu that says "Show more options". The included Best (DVD Ready) is very similar to the 3.25 one below, just a tad lower video bitrate and DVD Stream instead of program stream. I don't notice much difference between the two, so give it a try before you go doing all the below typing. You can also just up the video bitrate on the Best (DVD Ready) setting, to 7250, max is 20000 just FYI.

You can add these qualities by going to:
Web admin -> configure -> Adv Settings -> Qualities -> Create New Quality

Name: 3.25GB/Hour DVD Standard Play
Type: MPEG-2
Audio Frequency: 48000
Audio Bitrate: 224000
Frames per second: 29.970
Dimensions (pixels): Custom 720 x 480
Video Bitrate: 7250
Variable Bitrate Encoding Enable: Not Checked
MPEG2 Stream Type: Program Stream
Bidirectional (Interpolative) Frames Per Group: 2
Predictive Frames Per Group: 4

Click the "Create New Quality" again and enter:
Name: 2.5GB/Hour DVD Long Play
Type: MPEG-2
Audio Frequency: 48000
Audio Bitrate: 224000
Frames per second: 29.970
Dimensions (pixels): Custom 720 x 480
Video Bitrate: 5750
Variable Bitrate Encoding Enable: Not Checked
MPEG2 Stream Type: Program Stream
Bidirectional (Interpolative) Frames Per Group: 2
Predictive Frames Per Group: 4

Click the "Create New Quality" again and enter:
Name: 1.8GB/Hour DVD Extra Long Play
Type: MPEG-2
Audio Frequency: 48000
Audio Bitrate: 224000
Frames per second: 29.970
Dimensions (pixels): Custom 720 x 480
Video Bitrate: 4125
Variable Bitrate Encoding Enable: Not Checked
MPEG2 Stream Type: Program Stream
Bidirectional (Interpolative) Frames Per Group: 2
Predictive Frames Per Group: 4

Sharpness Adjustment:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Globespan \ Parameters \ ivac15 \ Driver \ SharpnessValue

Or just do a search in the registry for SharpnessValue this should be the first one in the list. Max setting is 7 from what I hear. Worth adjusting to see if it helps.

May not be available on the PVR150

MPEG Decoder:
Note: you must have installed the decoder from Hauppauge's site:
hcwsmd04.exe
Web Admin -> Configure -> Adv Settings -> Player Settings ->
Under preferred MPEG-2 Decoder choose Intervideo NonCSS

Third party decoder article.

I typically recomend TheaterTek2.0 for our systems, they use the new Nvidia decoders and they are very nice. To be able to use these 3rd party decoders you will either have to have TT2.0 installed or purchase the Decoders from Nvidia for $20. Here is how to get them working as well.

First goto the directory C:\ Documents and Settings \ All Users \ Application Data \ SnapStream \ Beyond TV\ ensure you can see hidden files and folders or you won't get here. Next open the file CustomSettings.xml by right clicking and choosing open with notepad. If you want make a backup of this file before proceeding. Just under the 3rd line which should read <Type>Decoder</Type> cut and copy the following:

<Item>
<PropertyCollection>
<Property>
<Name>Guid</Name>
<Value>71E4616A-DB5E-452B-8CA5-71D9CC7805E9</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Filter Name</Name>
<Value>NVIDIA Video Decoder</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>DMO</Name>
<Value>FALSE</Value>
</Property>
</PropertyCollection>
</Item>

Make sure it meshes well with the rest of the document, IE the formatting. Next go into web admin or BTV playback settings and choose this as the new decoder. If you have any problems or want more information here are links to two threads on this matter, there are many more, and a quick search will produce them.

HTPCNews Post
BTV Forums Post

Startup:
I like to change it to so only the taskbar icon loads at startup since most of my customers will load into BTV from an interface like MyHTPC
Web Admin -> Settings -> Adv Settings -> Misc Settings
Change Default Beyond TV Interface to Start Beyond TV in Background.

Recording Preferences:
Web Admin -> Settings -> Recording Preferences
I change the Default Quality to 3.25GB/Hour setting.
If you have shows that you don't want this high of a quality, then you can edit them individually via:
Web Admin -> Setup Recordings -> Then click edit on whichever show you wish to edit the settings for.

Time Shifting:
Since we are using a much higher default recording quality, we should change the time shifting buffer. The default is 512 which is only about 9 minutes at the 3.25GB/Hour setting. I usually change to 1536 (512x3) I just like round multiples like that, its right at 30 minutes too.
Web Admin -> Settings -> Adv Settings -> Time shifting Buffer

Deinterlacing and such:
Here is a great site for Hauppauge Tips and Tricks
"Click on 250 Tips and Tricks on the left from the link above"
Found in this thread, which has Great Info.
Another good thread with lots of experimentation by the users.

To gain access to your registry: Click start -> run -> type "regedit" and press enter. When you find the value that pertains to you. Right click, Edit, and then enter a 1. It will fill in all the other info.

From amontillado's site:

Explanation of deinterlacing, overscan, dxva and hwmc setting

The software mpeg decoder Hauppauge uses (intervideo) by default de-interlaces the mpeg stream using the bob method, which is fine if you plan on viewing it on a non-interlaced display like your pc monitor. If you only plan on viewing it on a regular tv set you might want to consider using the weave setting. This will allow you to get a proper interlaced picture which gives a higher quality picture on your tv set. You will probably also need to set the overscan settings to 0.
By far the best tv out for this usage is on the Matrox (550), you can get a perfect picture, just a good as what you get from the tv?s own internal tuner.
These tricks unfortunately don?t always work, some graphics card?s tv out are just not suitable for it, or can be tricky to setup correct . I never got it to properly work with any Nvidia based card, Ati was a bit better but that to was very troublesome. The main problem seems to be that the scan lines just don't align properly.
The point to all this is : Just try it, it might work for you even if you have a different card, maybe nvidia / ati work better on NTSC system, I don't know, just test it, cause it is definitely worth trying.
Some things you might need to change: the (vertical) resolution (has to be the same as your tv-standard, so Pal 576 and NTSC 480, horizontal matters less), overscan/underscan, shift 1 line, dxva/hwmc. Stuff like that

Dxva and Hwmc can be very useful in reducing the amount of cpu needed to deinterlace and can produce a far better picture quality. I say Can because I never got it to work in conjunction with wintv2k, for some reason it just doesn't. But on the other hand, the same registry adjustments do work for sagetv / sagerecorder so it might be just a flaw in my system. Also note that some users have reported the DXVA only works in VMR mode, but other users reported that using the intervideo codecs that come with windvd only work with overlay. So, just try both if it doesn't work at first try.


Enable weave deinterlacing of intervideocodec , and/or enable Dxva / Hwmc
useful for watching wintv2k on a tv set, and/or reducing cpu time / improving picture quality, might also be necessary to change the overscan setting of wintv2k, see below)
Note : It might be necessary to use vmr instead of overlay, or just the opposite, since some users report that it only seems to work with one of those.

For decoder version 3
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ InterVideo \ Custom \ Hauppauge \ VideoDec]
"BOBWEAVE"=dword:00000002
"Dxva"=dword:00000001
"Hwmc"=dword:00000001

For decoder version 4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ IviSDK4Hauppauge \ Common \ VideoDec]
"BOBWEAVE"=dword:00000002
"Dxva"=dword:00000001
"Hwmc"=dword:00000001
Those of you that want to use SageTV or Snapstream with a different intervideo codec (eg the one that comes with windvd5) need to manually change the registry setting. I?m not really sure wich key all the different versions use but here are a couple of locations where you can find them. I never got around to test it since I don?t own windvd5 so just try it yourself.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ InterVideo \ DVD5]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ InterVideo \ Common \ VideoDec]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ InterVideo \ Common \ VideoDec]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ InterVideo \ DVD5]

From MerryPig below:
On BOBWEAVE Setting
0 - Auto
1 - On
2 - Off

I have had good results from just changing the Dxva and Hwmc settings and not adding the BOBWEAVE. I would say try them all and see if it makes a difference. If it Does NOT then change them back.

I also go into BTV -> Settings -> General Settings and choose Hardware for the Deinterlace Mode.

ffdshow
ffdshow setup is quite simple, you can follow the guide here but that is mainly for setting ffdshow up with TheaterTek or Zoomplayer for post processing on DVD's. All you really need to do is download ffdshow and install and click the next button alot. I used the version dated 1 May 04 that was available at that time; however, with snapstream I believe any should work. Keep in mind as of now ffdshow doesn't "Officialy" support, or is not currently working with mpeg2 so you are NOT supposed to be able to apply ffdshow post processing to LiveTV or other Mpeg2 recorded streams. If you showsqueeze to WMV or DivX then you will be able to use ffdshow on those images to really create some superb PQ.

-Download ffdshow and install.
-Open up the ffdshow configuration screen.
-Check the OSD box, this is just a display so you know ffdshow is working, turn off when done testing.
-Go into the codec area and ensure the following codecs you wish to support are checked.
Raw Video - DVD's
DivX - Showsqueezed stuff to DivX
XVid - Another compression like DivX used in progs like Gordian Knot.
WMV - Showsqueezed stuff to WMV
MPEG2 - Straight recording off the Hauppauge card and LiveTV at least it should be but in ffdshow it says "broken" IE this isn't working hopefully future versions will support it.
-I won't go into every setting in ffdshow as that would be a whole other beast. HTPC News has a great guide I linked above and it talks about alot of the settings. If not AVS Forums are a great resource along with the ffdshow FAQ thread. One tip however, I prefer to resize the image to the desktop resolution

Work around for ffdshow with LiveTV

Basically you follow the above setup method for BTV, what I had to do, to get ffdshow working is the following. Enable "Raw Video" in the codec list in ffdshow, its last at the bottom of the list, change it to "all supported" Then in BTV itself goto settings -> player settings -> Video renderer and ensure it says "overlay" and not "3D accelerated" 3D accelerated gives you the pretty see through menu's while overlay does not; however, with overlay you get ffdshow working. It's also a good idea to turn on the OSD in ffdshow so you know when it is on, at least for the testing phase.
Versions of ffdshow this has worked with:
20040828
20040520

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow
AVS Forum FAQ on ffdshow, LONG read but good for anyone getting into ffdshow.

Search: Choppy, Live, Picture, Quality, Fuzzy, Ticker, Nvidia, Decoders, TheaterTek, TT, 2.0

[Brett]

Excellent suggestions.

Although some of the characters did not copy and paste correctly in the thread.

And did you not mention the PVR250 Reg Hacks?

Registry hacking always fun,
-Brett

[Eric3a]

That needs to become a sticky...
Good post.
Eric

[MonsterHTPC]

Which characters didn't copy correctly, let me know so i can correct them and such.

Yes the registry stuff is in there, but only the stuff I mess with by default, but put links to the posts and sites with more extensive settings that some of us like to muck around with.

[Brett]

Originally posted by MonsterHTPC
Which characters didn't copy correctly, let me know so i can correct them and such.

Uhh...I must be going crazy, cause they are fixed now...

If you have a descent videocard and a pvr250 this hack will lower your viewing cpu utilization to below 20% on average.

-Brett

[MonsterHTPC]

Hmmm I did some editing to clear up some mispelled words and such, might have been it.

That reg hack is in there, just a more detailed and longer drawn out wordage Great link though forgot about that one, nice and clean easy to read

Thanks for adding some info and links. Hopefully this stuff will help out people setting up BTV in the future.

[merrypig]

btw, I found setting BOBWEAVE to '1' worked best for me. Leavingit at auto (0) didn't turn on the deinterlacing in btv I found. (and 2 turns it off period).

[MonsterHTPC]

Good info, Thanks MerryPig. Will edit and add cause I know most of us can't keep track of which flag means on/off/auto etc..

Anyone else has any tips let me know and will add them to the first post.

[MonsterHTPC]

grr hit Quote instead of edit

[mttjcksn]

I am running decoder version 3 and am able to do the following with no problem:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ InterVideo \ Custom \ Hauppauge \ VideoDec]
"Dxva"=dword:00000001
"Hwmc"=dword:00000001

What I cannot find though, is the BOBWEAVE key to play with the following:
"BOBWEAVE"=dword:00000002

Should I CREATE a new key with these values? the others were present and only needed modifying. Should I create and add the bobweave key?

thanks!

[MonsterHTPC]

Yes that is correct you have to create the bobweave key.

[mttjcksn]

Okay, I'm still playing with the bobweave settings, but I still have two questions...

1) Can someone spell out for me where the interlacing/dxvga/hwmc plays into the process? i.e., in the encoding process, or decoding? If, given a pre-recorded MPEG-2 stream, should I notice a difference in playback, given changes in these settings?

2) Registry settings aside, now that we're given that I'm using the intervideo codecs, what should my setting in beyondtv be set to? (none/software/software progressive/hardware)? I've heard some conflicting messages regarding btv/registry settings cancelling each other out, etc. Can someone clear this up for me?

Thanks for all of your help and patience while I'm learning.

Thanks guys!

[MonsterHTPC]

1) I have my theory's on where it comes into play; however, there are some more knowledgeable and will let them explain it as they can probably do it much better. However reading over the explanation from the "Tips and Tricks" site they seem to say these settings are geared toward improving quality and performance during plaback. So upon that I would say it definitially effects the decoding aspect.

2) I use Hardware

[MonsterHTPC]

Added ffdshow information.

[Eric3a]

FFDShow has a 20th May 2004 version that I am using just fine with BTV.
See it at http://www.afterdawn.com/software/vi...rs/ffdshow.cfm
Eric