FF/RW Directx 9.0c Bug

[wheemer]

I would like to see how many people are affected by this bug in Beyond TV. I've been told it's not that common, but I'm not so sure.

The bug I am speaking of only appears if you have Directx 9.0c installed, using 3d Acceleration mode for playback. It shows up If you skip ahead or skip back, pause, change channels, ect...

It looks as if the feild order gets mixed up, something like the deinterlacing is corrupt. Kind of jerky playback, drop frames, hard to describe.

The problem comes and goes while navigating the video stream.

Thanks For your input!

[flavius]

Haven't been able to reproduce that.

[raistlin_m]

Yeah I've noticed this for awhile. Been ignoring it since 3d accel works well otherwise for me. Its more frequent if I skip ahead or back alot. I haven't updated yet tho. It's something I don't notice that much.

[BankZ]

I can't use 3D Acel because of this!

[Ellerbestyle]

I have noticed this for a while, but doesnt really bother me because I just stop the recording and restart it. IF there is a fix I would love to know of it though.

[wheemer]

There is a fix, it's downgrading back to Directx 9.0b. Since I'm running Windows XP, this is how I did it:

Download Directx Happy Uninstall from here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4347

Then download the Directx 9.0b redistributable: http://www.activewin.com/directx/d9redist.shtml

Install Directx Happy Uninstall and reboot in safe mode (Important!). Once Windows fully loads into safe mode, run Directx Happy Uninstall. Choose the Backup/Repair option, then choose Restore Directx 8.1 from CD. Make sure your Windows XP SP1 cd is in the drive and choose the i386 folder.

It'll do it's thing and automatically restart windows, once it loads in normal mode you'll notice with dxdiag that you are back to Directx 8.1

Now execute the Directx 9.0b redistributable, once that is complete it should restart.

Now you'll see with dxdiag that you are back to Directx 9.0b, and Beyond TV will be cristal clear without this VERY frustrating bug.

**Of course none of this should be required to get good playback in Beyond TV, whatever needs to be changed to address this issue should be a priority of Snapstream's even if, as it seems, nobody is overly concerned about it**

BTW thanks goes to Bilar Crais for making me aware of the fact that it was indeed a problem with Directx 9.0c and that downgrading was the solution.

EDIT: I've discovered there were apparently two versions of Directx 9.0b. I had linked to the first, now I've discovered a link for the newer one, which I've confirmed still works perfectly. I've updated the link above.

[Ellerbestyle]

Cool thanks I will try it and see what happens.

[Ellerbestyle]

It worked, woohooo.

Thanks for the info.

[wheemer]

I can't believe that there isn't more people affected by this. Maybe my description of the problem is too vague. Or perhaps nobody uses anything but overlay.

From what I've found out it only happens if you have SP2 installed with Directx 9.0c and are using 3d Acceleration with Hardware decoding. Apparently you don't see this with SP1 and Directx 9.0c, but I haven't confirmed this.

Any comments welcome.

[raistlin_m]

Wheemer I'm still running SP1, Its there. It's just not very noticable and if i didn't know better i would think it was normal. Overlay looks fuzzy to my eyes so I live with it.

[wheemer]

The thing is though, we are all going to have to "live with it" for a long time unless Snapstream sees that this problem warrants some immediate attention. Keep in mind we are all paying customers, and it's not like snapstream's products are cheap! We should not have to live with anything not working properly.

You people need to stop holding in your insightful reports of bugs and errors. This is why the new customers freak out sometimes, beacause there are a bunch of tiny unimportant problems.

I am personally very disatisfied with all the developement focus that was drawn away from Beyond TV to go towards the release of Beyond Media. It's not like they had a deadline for completing it. And there are still some fixes 3.5 requires to be a real peice of software. As far as I'm concerned 3.5 is no where near GOLD. There are so many things you have to tweak like xmls you've got to edit, old video drivers that must be installed, and you're forced to use overlay if you can accept this directx bug.

[nanook105]

I don't completely disagree with you, but....

I don't edit XMLs
I use old Nvidia Drivers, but I can't tell if this is a SS problem or an Nvidia problem
I've use overlay because 3D Accelerated has always been a little jerky and PQ is not close to overlay.
Given all of the different drivers and codecs potentially involved here, I don't expect that any release of this SW will be 100% (if that is your definition of Gold)

I think that the real issue here is communication from SS. On issues like this and the Nvidia overlay issue, it would be nice if there was a separate forum/site to go to that was periodically updated with progress on known bugs. I am sure that it would be perceived as "dirty laundry", but the majority of vendors that I deal with in the real world have public bug reporting forums where you can search for your problem, create a new one if it doesn't exist, and keep track of progress because the developers post with progress. To a degree, the beta testers get this during the beta test cycles, but that is mostly gone once it goes gold.

[StephaneM]

Hello All,

Was previously running AIW 7500 on a XP SP2 + DX09c + 3D Accel + Sonic decoder with DXVA : no deinterlace bug.

Switched to : ATI 9550 + PVR 150 on the same machine : I got the bug now. That is when you first launch LiveTV, picture is perfect but if I change channel then I got a very strange effect (stroboscopic is what's describe it the best).

So it seems that this bug is also dependant on the graphic card used (7500 in not DX9, but the 9550 is)...

So I have switched to overlay to avoid this (anyway the global picture quality is better in overlay than in 3d accel : more smooth, more crisp and so on.. 3D accel is near perfect, but there is always a little something that disturb your eyes).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[raistlin_m]

oh I agree with you wheemer, I'm just not going to waste anymore of my time on snapstreams lousy support. Honestly if I didn't have so much money and time invested in this and didnt' actually like most of the program I would have driven to texas and thrown my boxed copy thru their front window. 3.5 was by no means ready to be released. It needed at least another couple weeks of testing and bug fixing.

[wheemer]

Well I don't think I'd resort to a violent approach.. but all of the complaining asside, they should at least be working on these issues right now. As far as I know they all huddle around the monitor pointing and laughing at all these annoying issues and how they seem to push us cutomers over the edge sometimes.

I just want to hear, yes, we are calling our hookup at Nvidia and letting them know that our customers want you to fix your drivers. If I was working at Snapstream I'd would be ALL OVER Nvidia's ass about this!!!!!

And of course the same could be said about this directx 9.0c issue. If it is in fact Microsofts problem then tell them to fix the darn thing!

Saying that these issues are not Snapstreams problem is just rediculous. Any and every single thing that takes away from the full functionality of their software is DIRECTLY there responsibility. Do you think any of the larger software companies would just sit back and pawn off their problems?? NO WAY!

I can't tell you how much this pisses me off. It seems for me that this love/hate relationship I have with Snapstream is so very close to always being on the love side of things... But evertime I see a new video card driver that I can't upgrade to, or something that requires Directx 9.0c (such as WMVHD playback) it firmly secures me back to the negative opinion.