Stutter viewing SD but not HD mpeg2

[dgw80]

I have a strange problem on a BTV server that I am putting together.

I get SD mpeg2 video from a Hauppauge HVR 1600, connected to my satellite receiver via S-Video. I have mpeg2 quality set to Best (DVD). I also get HD via an OTA antenna. If I select the PureVideo decoder in Playback Options, I get a nice, stutter-free HD picture. But I get stutter on SD viewing. If I select the Snapstream decoder, I get stutter-free picture on both HD and SD sources. But the SD picture quality from the Snapstream decoder is not as good as the PureVideo decoder (outside of the stutter issues).

Now the curious thing is, I recently built a BTV Link box using essentially the same hardware and it has no stutter problems at all, HD or SD, regardless of which decoder I use.

Both server and link box use the same motherboard, same video hardware (6150 onboard graphics), same video driver, same PureVideo decoder. The server just has faster CPU (X2 5200+ vs. 2.4GHz single core Athlon), more RAM and a bigger hard drive. And of course, the tuner cards and BTV server vs. link.

Any clues? Maybe some setting difference in the Purevideo decoder that I have overlooked? (There aren't that many options; both have HW acceleration enabled.)

Dennis

[cartervt2k]

I have the same problem - I have two hvr 1600's in mine. I'm running an quad-core intel with onboard graphics. In overlay mode my ota hd looks great by my sd is choppy - as in borderline unwatchable bad. When I switch to hardware acceleration, my sd is fine but my hd feed gets kind of this wavy pixelation. I could go out and get a beefy video card and hope that takes care of the ota hd hardware acceleration, but I've already sunk a lot of money into this thing and the idea of buying yet another component doesn't sound too appealing. I'd like to think this could be resolved with a software solution - different decoder, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!