Tearing in VMR9

[mangiov]

Not to take Snapstream side, but if you guys google for "VMR9 tearing", you'll see that the problem is related to the dx9 architecture and therefore every application that uses it has it. I pesonally have seen discussions about this problem for Sage, Zoom Player, Windvd etc. The directx newsgroups are plenty of posts of developers trying to fix tearing when using VMR9.

Most common solution suggested? The same as the one that the BTV team and other members of this forum have indicated:

1) use true full screen mode (critical!)

2) Improve the quality settings to Best if possible

3) get yourself a videocard which has excellent 3D performance and handles directx 9 via hardware

4) enable VSYNC to always ON

5) Use a decoder that can be hardware accellerated

6) enable DXVA (otherwise 5 is useless)


I followed all the suggestions above and instead of the tearing I was getting a wierd form of stuttering with video pausing every 2 or 3 seconds throwing the video out of sync with the audio.

It may seem strange but I fixed this last issue by stopping VNC viewer to remote control my BTV rig. I noticed that when a VNC session is active CPU levels go up to 80-90%.

In general the best quality seen with LiveTV is generated by using the Dscaler MPEG2 decoder. Too bad I cannot change channel when using it because everything freezes up for almost 30 seconds.

Vinny

[Camay]

how to use the true full screen with 3.5 ?

[mangiov]

Originally Posted by Camay

how to use the true full screen with 3.5 ?

Start BTV with the following command line:

"C:\Program Files\SnapStream Media\Beyond TV 3 BTVD3DShell.exe" /displaymode:exclusivefs

obviously if you installed BTV in a different path you must use your path.

Vinny

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by mangiov

Start BTV with the following command line:

"C:\Program Files\SnapStream Media\Beyond TV 3 BTVD3DShell.exe" /displaymode:exclusivefs

obviously if you installed BTV in a different path you must use your path.

Vinny

Remember to keep it lower case, or it won't work. If you intend to use fs mode with ATI remote wonder, you'll need to create a batch file and point one of the remote's programmable buttons to the batch file.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Bilar Crais

Remember to keep it lower case, or it won't work...

From one set of release notes this may not be the CASE anymore (for 3.5.1.anyway):

The Changes for Beyond TV 3.5.1

- New Trial Period
- Better Beyond Media Integration
- Support for the Hauppauge PVR150
- Support for the Hauppauge PVR150 IR Blaster
- Support for the Hauppauge PVR150 Remote Control
- Support for the ADS Remote Control and IR Blaster
- Disconnected Mapped drives at startup don’t get removed from Library
- Max # of shows works with Showsqueezed shows
- Added MCE remote to setup wizard
- Showsqueezing items to mapped drives will correctly read META data
- Setup Wizard now pauses long between channel changes during IR Blaster test
- Guide Updater optimizations (No more failed updates)
- Command line parameters are now case insensitive
- command line parameters will now wake BTV up from screen saver state
- Added first version of OEM support.
- Added support for WebUI source
- Fixed the bug between link and server that was causing a random hiccup in remote playback.

~Keith

[Edgarmoon]

How does one use true full screen and Beyond Media? It seems to jump out into windowed mode when I load beyond media. If I maximize Beyondtv, am I back in true fullscreen mode? It jumps into windowed mode when I alt-tab back to BM as well.

[mangiov]

Originally Posted by Edgarmoon

How does one use true full screen and Beyond Media? It seems to jump out into windowed mode when I load beyond media. If I maximize Beyondtv, am I back in true fullscreen mode? It jumps into windowed mode when I alt-tab back to BM as well.

You have to change the menu.xml file in the "documents and settings/all user/application data/snapstream/beyond media" path.
There are 2 tags, one for btv and the other for btv link.

I also removed the /beyonmedia switch because it would cause problems when getting out of btv

Vinny

[Edgarmoon]

Ok, That would launch btv in tru full screen, but what happens when you switch between btv and bm? Also, if I want to use BM to watch movies recorded in btv (say with the recorded shows plugin) how can I make sure bm doesn't have any tearing? is there an exclusivefs more for bm?

[Foulcloud]

The thing that seemed to help my tearing problem was selecting the appropriate display as "primary" that you are viewing. If I was watching on TV and had primary display set to anolog monitor, I would see tearing (and vica versa). If I have TV set as primary display and I am watching TV, tearing is gone. I tried a lot of the other more complex solutions, but this is the only thing that seems to make a real difference. I am using BTV link with nvidia card, 3d accelerated, and tv out. I believe this works because the screen update is pegged to the primary display, and if your analog monitor is at 75hz, your 60hz TV will not be able to have every frame synched correctly... Also, I keep my TV as primary display and change the "device settings, resolution" of my monitor to 75 hz so it is not at the flickery 60hz. I am not using the "true fullscreen" mode.

[Edgarmoon]

I never considered that, I'll try it tonight. I can't remember if my monitor is main and tv secodn, or if I rigged them both to be primary.

[nparker13]

What exactly is true full screen? I use a monitor + BM, so i switch back and forth a lot.

-nate

[Edgarmoon]

Ok, I looked at my config and I had both monitor and tv set as primary (so I could watch mpg videos on both, it does not display on the passive in other programs, but it does in Snapstream, go figure)

Anyway, for those I haven't confused, I switched tv to primary and monitor to secondary. Apparent improvement. I think I have tearing under control but I'll have to let you know, it's not consistent. Here are the things I've tried and how they fared:

Switched from 3d accelerated to overlay (use my pvr250 for livetv), some improvement

Exclusivefs - appeared to make improvements but after fixing everything else I don't see much of a difference anymore.

Recording quality - boosted it up, somewhere vbr up to 8000 or cbr 6000

Antivirus - switched it to programs only, don't download on this computer anyway, locked off most activex on IE, this helps with cpu while playing/livetv.

reduced resolution to 800x600 - I just switched to the next level up, seeing if there's any loss in quality

Ok, all these things in and I don't get tearing on high action, occasionally get one lost frame during starting of a video. Haven't played with livetv realtime, when I watch livetv I'm in the past, that works fine.

I can probably reduce recording quality since that was not an issue with other players, and older recordings don't cause me trouble anymore. But like I said, we'll see how it lasts.

Oh, I do still get a heavy cpu drain when btv is downloading listings or whatever, and this will affect playback and overall performance. If it really annoys me I cancel it and let it update on its own time.

[Edgarmoon]

Ok, watching the basketball game yesterday and on really demanding video I still see some tearing for these settings:
not true full screen (not exclusivefs), overlay, antivirus on program only, display on tv primary, monitor secondary, 1024x768 resolution. Pvr250 recording at about 6000kbs

I was able to get improvements by reducing resolution to 800x600, but not perfect.

I switched to exclusivefs, now I have clean video. I realized also that in exclusivefs you cannot select overlay mode. Also when you return from exclusivefs, it stays in 3d accel. I was gonna report this as a bug until I realized exclusivefs was making the change. I was also able to increase resolution back to 1024x768 without negatively affecting playback. I will play around with different recording settings to get optimal for high action sports and regular movies.

Now here is the problem, I have a pvr250 and my ATI AIW. I use the 250 whenever I can, but I want to keep the AIW to record shows when there is an overlap or conflict. However, YOU CANNOT WATCH LIVETV FROM AN AIW IN EXCLUSIVEFS, do not try, it locks up. My problem is that I have antenna coming through the coaxial on both cards and satelite coming through the s-video on both cards. If I am watching livetv on say channel 7 (antenna) on my pvr, and switch to a satelite channel, btv automatically switches cards to the AIW, bad things happen.

So, I'll put in a support request to address this. Does anyone have an idea on how to disable a card for livetv but leave it enabled for recordings? Then I can manually set only conflict recordings for the AIW (it of course needs to be enabled to do this, I wish there was a way to disable it but enable it in the GUI) and use the pvr for everything else, especially livetv.

Also, whenever switching from Btv to BM, it switches Btv to windowed mode, and does not automatically switch it back when I switch back, another fix opportunity.

[DonK]

Software cards are not supported in a Multituner configuration.

Support will give you the same answer. And your AIW vs Exclusive full screen is AIW-driver/hardware related, not BTV's fault.

Also, just a thought I'd interject to everyone:

When you are recording at 720x480 with a hardware card, why do you want to make your video card work harder than it really does (and produce artifacting, blurring, and other general video nastiness in the process) by making it interpolate up to 1024x768???

I have my video card set to 720x480, I record at that resolution, and everything is peachy.

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by DonK

When you are recording at 720x480 with a hardware card, why do you want to make your video card work harder than it really does (and produce artifacting, blurring, and other general video nastiness in the process) by making it interpolate up to 1024x768???

I have my video card set to 720x480, I record at that resolution, and everything is peachy.

I record at 720X480 and have my Exclusive Fullscreen Resolution set to 720X480, but If I set my video resolution to 720X480, I get black bars on the sides.