Jerky live TV in vista media centre

[Flewis]

Set up a media centre for my parents and when watching live tv the playback is extremely jerky and unwatchable. Not really sure what's causing it. Went through the setup and found all the channels, just playback is poor.

System specs:
E4300 @2.15GHz
BlackGold 3540 tv tuner
ATI 4670 graphics card
4GB RAM
Vista Home Premium x64

Hope someone can help

[Flewis]

Downloaded another media centre software (SesamTV) and it gives smooth playback with the same mpeg-2 decoder. Playback in vista media centre is still choppy tho. Any ideas on this? Or can anyone recommend a good piece of media centre software vista 64 compatible.

[Funkstar]

MediaPortal

MP 1.0.0 has just been released, I'll be updating my system in the next week or so when I get time.

[s_kinton]

Can't see any reason why it wouldn't give smooth playback.

What mobo are you using? Try the onboard vga if it has one.
Is that Blackgold officially supported in Vista?

[Flewis]

the blackgold is vista certified and has 64bit drivers. The problem seems to be signal strength related, on BBC the picture is smooth but if i move to ITV it goes all jerky. Same thing with all media centres (was using channel 4 on Vista MC and BBC on others). Going to get a signal amplifier and see what happens.

[Funkstar]

Actually thats probably right.

I had this on one of my Nova-T 500s on some mux's until i added a booster.

[dogsday]

the blackgold is vista certified and has 64bit drivers. The problem seems to be signal strength related, on BBC the picture is smooth but if i move to ITV it goes all jerky. Same thing with all media centres (was using channel 4 on Vista MC and BBC on others). Going to get a signal amplifier and see what happens.

Hi Flewis - Did you ever overcome this jerky issue? I have the exact same problem with a Blackgold 3540.

[GoNz0]

i finally found my issue on the nvidia 9400 chipset, it doesnt like HDMI and has been perfect since swapping to VGA cable

[dogsday]

i finally found my issue on the nvidia 9400 chipset, it doesnt like HDMI and has been perfect since swapping to VGA cable

Thanks GoNz0 - I'm running a ATI 3850 - but I'll give anything a go.

[GoNz0]

there does seem to be known handshake issues with pc's to tv's, it helped in my case.

[Shooty*]

Hmmmmm... I was about to start a new thread saying that I've got issues with Xvid coded avis being very choppy. DivX, MPEGS, VOBs are all OK, just xvid causing a problem.

I did wonder if it was a pc/tv handshake, but it works fine for "normal" computer use (folder navigation, web browsing, etc) (except that I cannot place icons in the lower right of the screen, and updates (i.e. nod32 update warning) appear about halway up the screen, as if it's uncomfortable being at 1080p and wants to be at 1280 x 720). I'm going to uninstall Power DVD and all codecs this evening and reinstall just Xvid, DivX and AC3 filter, and see what that does.

[Will404]

Hey, I am pretty sure that it is your GPU, I had some issues whit VMC playing DVD's all choppy, while windows medic center would play them fine. The solution was to turn off all the video effects in catalyst controll center (afank it was pulldown detection in the basic quality in the avivo video section.

Hope it helps

[Shooty*]

I shall try that... thanks. I don't like Catalyst. Give me Nvidia anyway. But it's onboard. I'm stuck with it

[dogsday]

Hmmmmm... I was about to start a new thread saying that I've got issues with Xvid coded avis being very choppy. DivX, MPEGS, VOBs are all OK, just xvid causing a problem.

I did wonder if it was a pc/tv handshake, but it works fine for "normal" computer use (folder navigation, web browsing, etc) (except that I cannot place icons in the lower right of the screen, and updates (i.e. nod32 update warning) appear about halway up the screen, as if it's uncomfortable being at 1080p and wants to be at 1280 x 720). I'm going to uninstall Power DVD and all codecs this evening and reinstall just Xvid, DivX and AC3 filter, and see what that does.

Did some more testing last night:

Repeatable Issue:
VMC: With recorded TV I get show stopping jerky / stutter / loop if I FF or RW and then press play. – sound continues but picture freezes between 2-3 frames and loops.

Solution / workaround:“Restore down” if in full screen mode or if already in a small window “maximise” to full screen – the screen goes blank for a ½ sec then picture come right and all is good until I next FF or RW again.

Possible explanation:
HTPC to TV sync?

I have not yet tried going from HDMI to component – don’t really want to lose picture quality as I browse the web a lot on the HTPC and need the resolution.

64bit Vista, 40 inch LCD Sony TV with an ATI 4850 Vid card , Blackgold 3540 TV card.

Cheers

[GoNz0]

try installing the cccp codec pack, it sorted out some of my codec issues with mediaportal.

[Agent]

Installing a codec pack when you're already having codec issues is crazy