HD Channels

[metec]

I have a problem with some h264 channels (All local HD channels as well). Some of them work fine and some of them are not full screen. They either have a black or green border around them. However if I record those channels they play fine. I use PureVideo codecs and CoreAVC for h264. Any help would be appreciated.

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[Dreamer]

Try to change some CoreAVC option, or other codec.

[gimme dvb]

All Genpix cards are having problems with the Dish mpeg-4(h264) channels. I am having choppiness. Dish changed something in their mpeg-4 HD channels recently which required a new Cyberlink h264 codec from Powerdvd 7.3, but it is choppy. I hope the guy at Genpix comes up with a fix, this was an expensive board. I would recommend you not buy a Genpix card if you want to watch Dish HD until a fix has come out.

[deltad]

There's nothing wrong with the genpix card. Decoding is done on your computer -- not the genpix card. So, it's either your H.264 codec and/or your CPU. It seems to lack the processing power for smooth H.264 (MPEG4) playback. Stop blaming Genpix.

You might try a new video card -- the Nvidia Geforce 8500GT is relatively inexpensive and can do full h.264 acceleration on the card in Vista 32-bit (beta drivers are available for WinXP but I'm not sure how the acceleration is yet).

[gimme dvb]

I've used the latest Cyberlink and CoreAVC codecs. Same problem when I turn to mpeg-4 channels. I have my machine specs under this message, are you gonna tell me it's not good enough? Used to work fine, and people on other message boards are saying Genpix isn't handling the new way Dish sends out mpeg-4 well. And yes it can be the Genpix card. I've already tried all options except upgrading my computer. I was thinking of upgrading it anyway, but it might not even help if the problem's not my comp's power.

[tryit]

I've used the latest Cyberlink and CoreAVC codecs. Same problem when I turn to mpeg-4 channels. I have my machine specs under this message, are you gonna tell me it's not good enough? Used to work fine, and people on other message boards are saying Genpix isn't handling the new way Dish sends out mpeg-4 well. And yes it can be the Genpix card. I've already tried all options except upgrading my computer. I was thinking of upgrading it anyway, but it might not even help if the problem's not my comp's power.

Other peoples comments about genpix simply reflects their own misunderstanding of how things work. Yes, your machine isn't good enough and your codecs aren't good enough. Genpix has nothing to do with decoding the datastream. Its the PC that does the decoding. That's why your pc needs plugins.

All the codecs around are early version of H.264 codec's as HDDVD or Blue Ray has not really arrived on the PC yet.

Maybe things would be easier to follow if you ran TSReader. SD transponders run 8, 10, 12 channels. You can watch the 40MB or so datastream arrive in the PC and get decoded into all those channels. You can record the entire MUX to a file and parse out the channels and all later. All this is occuring in the PC. All genpix is doing is delivering the MUX.

If someone is using a novel or non standard H.264 codec, your PC is what is parsing that from MUX and delivering it to the codec and attempting to put it on the screen.

I find that some H.264 signal sources work fine with ATI's AVIVO codec, others work better with CoreAvc's. Some channels will crash DVBDream with AVIVO, but not CoreAvc. Some codec's crash DVBDream when you tune to sd CNN, others do not. Its ALL in the PC.

The total bandwidth of one transponder is no different on the HD channels than it is on the SD ones. They can simply fit more channels into the bandwidth available.

What Genpix does that no one else does is demodulate turbo8psk modulation. This is in the radio and not in the PC. The modulation technique requires the radio to be able to demodulate it. For instance, its like try to listen FM on an AM radio, or, more extreme, watch a video signal on a radio instead of a TV.

[gimme dvb]

You keep saying it's all in the pc. I can only imagine you mean it's power. If the codecs a problem say codec, not the pc. It may be the codec, but Cybelink plays h-264 hd-dvd movies fine. All the codecs (Cyberlink, CoreAVC) may have a problem with the h.264 from Dish for some reason. I say Dvbdream or Mytheatre need to work on getting their programs to work with the Genpix, or the codecs right.

The Genpix card was sold with Dvbdream and TSReader as the only programs that worked with it, so I expect it to be supported well by DVBDream. I'm gonna go see how TSReader handles it but that programs a bit more complicated. I wish you would stop defending Genpix so arduously, it makes me think you could be a plant or something. The fact is either Genpix isn't working right with DVBDream and/or the codecs, or DVBDream and/or the codecs aren't working right with Genpix. I expect it to get fixed soon. And I'll be trying the ATI codec but I don't expect different results.

[tryit]

I don't mean just power, its much more complex than that. Does your video card do hardware acceleration of h.264? Probably not.

Why do you expect a free program like DVBDream to be "supported well"?

I am neither a plant (paranoia?) nor am I defending Genpix, I am just pointing out that you do not appear to really understand how things work and without that understanding you can not MAKE things work.

Read this thread over at DVNB, http://dvbn.happysat.org/viewtopic.php?t=40498

I am just trying to point you in the right direction. I give up.

[FredB]

I have a computer with same processor and same video card, and it appears to be not powerfull enough to decode H.264 HD (1080i) channels.

Did you set CoreAVC to skip all deblocking ?!?

@JimA : GeForce 6600GT can do hardware acceleration of H.264 but it only works fine for 720i.

The Genpix card was sold with Dvbdream and TSReader as the only programs that worked with it, so I expect it to be supported well by DVBDream.

There's no commercial relation between Genpix and DVB Dream. Genpix only mention that this product is compatible with DVB Dream but does not provide it with their product.

Supported Software

• TSReader™ (evaluation version is available from COOL.STF web-site)
• DVB Dream (freeware, available from dbvdream.org web-site)
• MyTheatre (available from MyTheatre web-site)
• VDR and MythTV (Linux)

If you have any claim about this product, you should contact Genpix-Electronics : support@genpix-electronics.com

[gimme dvb]

The cd that came with my Genpix card included DVBDream and a "lite" version of TSReader. Of course it has to work with some program or else it's good for nothing. That's why I say Genpix has to fix this problem. My claim is it's not working right and other people who know much more about codecs and the h264 stream have told me so too.

So I am trying to let people know about this, or else they're gonna get suckered into buying a card that doesn't work right with any programs. Besides once I wrote to Genpix for some help at his support e-mail and didn't get any reply. What better way is there to get them to fix it than talk about it publicly on a forum? As for it working right with a more powerful card and cpu, well that is something we'll have to see.

[deltad]

You're bashing the Genpix card because you don't seem to have the understanding as to what it does. It provides the sat stream of a transponder to your PC through the USB port. It's the only card except for the dvbtech one being sold which will work with Dish Network's 8psk turbo fec modulation. It does what it's designed to do. Genpix did not guarantee you free TV.

JimA explained it pretty well but you still seem to think Genpix has something to "fix" -- he doesn't. The device works as designed but apparently the rest of your system can't provide you with what you want for "free TV".

H.264 decoding is one of the most CPU intensive things you can do with your PC. Dvbdream complicates things a bit too in that it forces you to use only one CPU core. That may be a reason you can watch h.264 recordings correctly but not the live video. CPU manufacturer's have been increasing power of the PC's by adding CPU cores (AMD's X2 and Intel's Core Duo/quad core) rather than increasing the raw speed of a single core. The fastest AMD chip you can buy is 3ghz but it gets advertised as 6ghz because it's dual core. I'm running an older Opteron 165 at 2.48ghz but only using 1 core of it due to the dvbdream limitation. I find the speed generally acceptable but it's probably because i use an ATI X1800's H2.64's acceleration on the channel's that coreavc has problems with.

The best upcoming solution appears to be the Geforce 8500/8600 graphics cards with the H.264 acceleration. XP performance still has to be judged but Vista 32-bit seems to be working. The software codecs might get better to reduce CPU utilization but I suspect that will be a very incremental improvement. We really need multiple CPU support from dvbdream or hardware driver support for a program that does (like dvbviewer). Until then, you need the fastest CPU available in raw megahertz and/or a graphics card which can offload as much of the h.264 decoding as possible.

Sorry to keep rehashing what's already been said but you keep bashing the Genpix -- the blame lies elsewhere. To prove this to yourself -- record something and try playing it back. If you can -- it's definitely not the card. If you can't -- copy it to DVD/CD or upload it and see if somebody else can play it. Check your CPU utilization via Performance Monitor on each core while trying to view live and/or record. There's always a chance the problem lies at the USB port too if you don't get a clean recording.

The cd that came with my Genpix card included DVBDream and a "lite" version of TSReader. Of course it has to work with some program or else it's good for nothing. That's why I say Genpix has to fix this problem. My claim is it's not working right and other people who know much more about codecs and the h264 stream have told me so too.

So I am trying to let people know about this, or else they're gonna get suckered into buying a card that doesn't work right with any programs. Besides once I wrote to Genpix for some help at his support e-mail and didn't get any reply. What better way is there to get them to fix it than talk about it publicly on a forum? As for it working right with a more powerful card and cpu, well that is something we'll have to see.

[gimme dvb]

I don't have time to read all your rhetoric. You seem to be Genpix's spin doctor. I always see him responding to people here. I wonder why he hasn't addressed this issue here and posted about it? I payed a lot of money for the card so I don't want you explaining anything to me. If anyone's gonna say anything to me it better be Genpix himself.

Oh and no I can't record the mpeg-4 stream. When I try opening the file I get some error message of it not recording the stream or something.

[genpix]

two things:
1) you must to be color blind (if you don't see red letters on my web-site):
This hardware/software/firmware does NOT do any decryption. It's for clear/unencrypted signal ONLY.
I never promised and I will never provide help for illegal signal reception!

2) Show me the place in the specs where you see "MPEG-x decoding in hardware".
This is DVB-s card, and as all DVB-s card it provides Transport Stream to PC. It's up to PC to decide what to do with TS content.
Did you own any DVB-s card before? How many DVB-s cards do you know which can do hardware HD mpeg-2 decoding (I don't even mention mpeg-4)?

Didn't it occur to you that any DVB-s card which does hardware MPEG-x decoding should have video output. Do you see any video output on genpix devices?

[gimme dvb]

Finally a response. Too bad you seem to be taking a defensive stand instead of a helpful one, and you have no good points to make.

1st Who told you it was encrypted data? Just because some idiot on this thread said that? I am talking about unencrypted mpeg-2/mpeg-4. Either way, you know you're selling the card to people who are looking to get encrypted signals too, so don't play dumb with us. You sell the Dish Network 8PSK module so Dish's signals will work with your card.

2nd I never said your card has to do hardware decoding of mpeg-2/mpeg-4 signals, but it should do the software decoding right at least! I even upgraded my system to the specs below my message so mpeg-2 and mpeg-4 would play back smoothly. When I bought the card mpeg-2 AND mpeg-4 were working. I had asked around before I bought it and they told me to get this card because it did both. But now the card's not so hot in doing it anymore. Why? Because you don't seem interested in fixing it.

I will be letting people in other forums know that this card does mpeg-4(h264) decoding with choppy playback, and not bother with it if that's what they're looking for, because more and more channels are changing to mpeg-4 and this card will be useless soon. And it's expensive hardware at that too with the Dish Network 8PSK module.

Also please don't try to tell me it's the codec and not you're card, or it's dvbdream and not your card. Your card works with nothing except dvbdream and Mytheatre, so I expect anything wrong to be your responsibiity, and for you to work on fixing it either yourself or with dvbdream. You seem to not want to take responsibility for anything.

[deltad]

Hope you're happy since Genpix himself responded to you.

You should be recording in TS mode (record format =ts in preferences) and using Render-less mode under Channels. This will take minimal CPU resources since the PC is simply recording the H.264 stream rather than trying to decode it. You should be trying to diagnose that problem rather than going on a 1-man crusade against the hardware developer about something that is obviously not the fault of his product.

If anyone's gonna say anything to me it better be Genpix himself.
...
Oh and no I can't record the mpeg-4 stream. When I try opening the file I get some error message of it not recording the stream or something.