Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles"

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blammo.doh at gmail

Nov 9, 2009, 11:42 AM

Post #1 of 25 (2396 views)
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Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles"

First things first.. thank you MythDev's for more great (free) work...
Thank you Axel for continued use of your Repo... and thank you Nvidia
for not ignoring the Linux community like others have..

Ok, now to the fun... long time Myth user, did the 0.22 upgrade this
weekend using ATRPMS repo.. everything went smoothly after a little
google-foo for QT4.4 on Centos.. Backend (Centos54-64-bit) flawless
upgrade, zero issues since. Frontend (Mythdora 10.21) little more
pain, but got it upgraded as well.

Backend: Tyan S28xx series, 2xOpteron 285, 8G ram, 3ware 9500 w/lotsa
drives, dual GIG-e to switch, 2xHDHR OTA
Frontend: MSI AM2, 6400BE [at] 3, 9600GT, HDMI to Sony TV

I've been using VDPAU with mplayer SVN + NVIDIA 180 drivers for a few
weeks, with zero issues. Picture is beautiful, smooth, crisp, and it's
a little spooky to see 10% CPU with 1080p playback active.

However, VDPAU in myth has me less impressed today. Over the weekend
watched probably 10+ hours of mixed HD playback, almost all recorded
from ATSC-air from HDHR's. Almost all of it had what I can best
describe as Horizontal fragments / bands / sparkles that would
randomly appear, almost like noise throughout playback. They would
stay on the screen less than 1 second each, but at times you could
have lots of them on the screen.

If I go back into "playback profiles" and set back to
CPU/CPU+/anything non VPDAU, same source, no noise. No change in the
"deinterlace profiles" under VDPAU changes the behavior.

qOther things I tried:

- 2 different video cards - 8500GT and 9600GT.
- 3 different driver revisions, 180, 185, and 190
- multiple different on-air sources, 480p, 720p, and 1080i
- liveTV seems to be worse than recorded, but not by much..

Again, non-VDPAU = no noise.

Playback of non-HDHR sources like H.264, VOB, etc,in mplayer produces
ZERO artifacting.

It doesn't appear to affect stability, but it's downright irritating..
and obviously a symptom of something broken.

the mythfrontend.log isn't giving up any help either, but perhaps I
don't have debug high enough.. I'm getting some NVP: prebuffering, and
WriteAudio: buffer underrun, but only every couple minutes.. nothing
to correlate to the constant sparkles..

Ideas?
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jarpublic at gmail

Nov 9, 2009, 11:51 AM

Post #2 of 25 (2365 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

> However, VDPAU in myth has me less impressed today. Over the weekend
> watched probably 10+ hours of mixed HD playback, almost all recorded
> from ATSC-air from HDHR's. Almost all of it had what I can best
> describe as Horizontal fragments / bands / sparkles that would
> randomly appear, almost like noise throughout playback. They would
> stay on the screen less than 1 second each, but at times you could
> have lots of them on the screen.

I had been using VDPAU fine for a while and then a month or two ago I
noticed minor tearing in a horizontal band across the screen similar
to what you describe. It was driving me crazy. I finally saw another
post on the list that mentioned adding this to your xorg.conf:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

I had that in my xorg.conf in the past but somewhere along the line it
got removed by me or some automated update. That fixed things for me.
Playback is flawless again now.
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freedenizen at gmail

Nov 9, 2009, 11:51 AM

Post #3 of 25 (2359 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

Do you have this set:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

in your xorg.conf?
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kbass at kenbass

Nov 9, 2009, 1:12 PM

Post #4 of 25 (2350 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

in my xorg.conf fixed this problem for me.

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blammo.doh at gmail

Nov 9, 2009, 1:13 PM

Post #5 of 25 (2363 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 11:51 AM, Johnny <jarpublic [at] gmail> wrote:
> I had been using VDPAU fine for a while and then a month or two ago I
> noticed minor tearing in a horizontal band across the screen similar
> to what you describe. It was driving me crazy. I finally saw another
> post on the list that mentioned adding this to your xorg.conf:
>
> Section "Extensions"
> Option "Composite" "Disable"
> EndSection

Yes, this section is present in my xorg.conf -- which I'm going to
attach to this thread.. (hope attachments work on the mailing list)

I'm also attaching "-v playback" with it turned up high. I didn't find
anything in there that complains while the pixalization is occuring. I
started LiveTV, let it run, watched it pixalize, then stopped it.

I did try one other theory.. I disabled "cpuspeed", forcing the CPU
back to max speed.. No change in behavior.

What next?

Attachments:

myth22-vdpau-xorg-110909.zip (0.89 KB)

myth22-vdpau-debug-playback-110909.zip (5.49 KB)

kbass at kenbass

Nov 9, 2009, 1:16 PM

Post #6 of 25 (2354 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

Oh, and I am also using the latest NVIDIA drivers (190.42) with that
composite setting.
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blammo.doh at gmail

Nov 14, 2009, 8:11 PM

Post #7 of 25 (2288 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 1:16 PM, Ken Bass <kbass [at] kenbass> wrote:
> Oh, and I am also using the latest NVIDIA drivers (190.42) with that
> composite setting.

I'm running 192.36 - latest available on Axels repo.. That setting
didn't make any difference for me.. Had to switch away from VDPAU for
Myth playback until this issue gets resolved.

I'm kinda hoping there's something in the -v playback log that makes
sense to someone else.....
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pratzlaff at cfa

Nov 14, 2009, 8:28 PM

Post #8 of 25 (2272 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

When I was playing with overclocking my 9400M, I noticed when the gpu
temps started rising that I would start seeing sporadic image corruption
similar to what you've seen. So it's a long shot, but do you have any
reason to suspect temperatures in the chassis have risen lately? Perhaps
a case fan has stopped working or something? Well it's just an idea. You
can check on the temp with

nvidia-settings -q GPUCoreTemp

and anything above, oh I don't know, maybe 70-80C at normal clock
settings might be cause for concern.
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blammo.doh at gmail

Nov 15, 2009, 11:55 PM

Post #9 of 25 (2226 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 8:28 PM, Pete Ratzlaff
<pratzlaff [at] cfa> wrote:
> When I was playing with overclocking my 9400M, I noticed when the gpu
> temps started rising that I would start seeing sporadic image corruption
> similar to what you've seen. So it's a long shot, but do you have any
> reason to suspect temperatures in the chassis have risen lately? Perhaps
> a case fan has stopped working or something? Well it's just an idea. You
> can check on the temp with
>
> nvidia-settings -q GPUCoreTemp
>
> and anything above, oh I don't know, maybe 70-80C at normal clock
> settings might be cause for concern.

I opened up a TRAC ticket, and in doing the research they asked for,
I've come to the conclusion it's ONLY MPEG2... H-264 VDPAU is
flawless, which you'd think works the GPU a lot harder than MPEG2.
we'll see where they want me to take it next...
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blammo.doh at gmail

Feb 4, 2010, 10:14 PM

Post #10 of 25 (1937 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 11:55 PM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:
> I opened up a TRAC ticket, and in doing the research they asked for,
> I've come to the conclusion it's ONLY MPEG2... H-264 VDPAU is
> flawless, which you'd think works the GPU a lot harder than MPEG2.
> we'll see where they want me to take it next...

Did a clean F12 install tonight, still seeing the issue.. Starting to
wonder if it's some sort of NVdriver freaking out due to the fact
there's a motherboard video chipset I have disabled (7150) in addition
to the main PCI-E card (9600GSO).
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kungfujesus06 at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 8:27 AM

Post #11 of 25 (1910 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

I had similar issues with my 9600 GT and it used to freak me out. I
couldn't find anything consistent with my settings and why it was doing
that. Then I replaced my DVI to HDMI adapter to HDMI cable setup for a
cable with built in DVI on one end and HDMI on the other. This cable also
had the luxury of a ferrite core on both ends. It turns out the issue was
digital interference. The symptoms you describe also sound a lot like
digital interference.

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 1:14 AM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 11:55 PM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:
> > I opened up a TRAC ticket, and in doing the research they asked for,
> > I've come to the conclusion it's ONLY MPEG2... H-264 VDPAU is
> > flawless, which you'd think works the GPU a lot harder than MPEG2.
> > we'll see where they want me to take it next...
>
> Did a clean F12 install tonight, still seeing the issue.. Starting to
> wonder if it's some sort of NVdriver freaking out due to the fact
> there's a motherboard video chipset I have disabled (7150) in addition
> to the main PCI-E card (9600GSO).
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

blammo.doh at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 9:14 AM

Post #12 of 25 (1915 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 8:27 AM, Adam Stylinski <kungfujesus06 [at] gmail> wrote:
> I had similar issues with my 9600 GT and it used to freak me out. I
> couldn't find anything consistent with my settings and why it was doing
> that. Then I replaced my DVI to HDMI adapter to HDMI cable setup for a
> cable with built in DVI on one end and HDMI on the other. This cable also
> had the luxury of a ferrite core on both ends. It turns out the issue was
> digital interference. The symptoms you describe also sound a lot like
> digital interference.

I wish it was that easy.. I notice something new last night that
changes where I think the source of the issue is. (I tried updating my
TRAC ticket (#7571) but it appears closed.)

With superbowl coming up, I REALLY wanted to get this fixed, so last
night I put a new Hardrive in my frontend last night, and installed
F12-64bit from scratch. 190.50 drivers, mythtv-suite from atrpms..
Still sparkles.... with VDPAU on, and only for HDHR/MPEG2 off-air
content.

One thing NEW I noticed however, and this blew me away..... The
artifacting actually shows up with x11vnc as well, which tends to
remove things like video-drivers from the formula and point more
towards decoding...

I uploaded a couple of "VPDAU on/off" screenshots to my ticket:

ON: http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/vdpau-glitter-1.jpg
OFF: http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/cpuplusplus-no-glitter-1.jpg

I welcome ANY ideas... this is driving my out of my mind.....
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kungfujesus06 at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 9:16 AM

Post #13 of 25 (1911 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

I'm telling you it's digital noise. Try a different cable that is shield
better. Don't go crazy with monsters, but monoprice has some well shielded
cables that do DVI to HDMI. Locally may be your only option for this
weekend, though.

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:14 PM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 8:27 AM, Adam Stylinski <kungfujesus06 [at] gmail>
> wrote:
> > I had similar issues with my 9600 GT and it used to freak me out. I
> > couldn't find anything consistent with my settings and why it was doing
> > that. Then I replaced my DVI to HDMI adapter to HDMI cable setup for a
> > cable with built in DVI on one end and HDMI on the other. This cable
> also
> > had the luxury of a ferrite core on both ends. It turns out the issue
> was
> > digital interference. The symptoms you describe also sound a lot like
> > digital interference.
>
> I wish it was that easy.. I notice something new last night that
> changes where I think the source of the issue is. (I tried updating my
> TRAC ticket (#7571) but it appears closed.)
>
> With superbowl coming up, I REALLY wanted to get this fixed, so last
> night I put a new Hardrive in my frontend last night, and installed
> F12-64bit from scratch. 190.50 drivers, mythtv-suite from atrpms..
> Still sparkles.... with VDPAU on, and only for HDHR/MPEG2 off-air
> content.
>
> One thing NEW I noticed however, and this blew me away..... The
> artifacting actually shows up with x11vnc as well, which tends to
> remove things like video-drivers from the formula and point more
> towards decoding...
>
> I uploaded a couple of "VPDAU on/off" screenshots to my ticket:
>
> ON: http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/vdpau-glitter-1.jpg
> OFF:
> http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/cpuplusplus-no-glitter-1.jpg
>
> I welcome ANY ideas... this is driving my out of my mind.....
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

freedenizen at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 9:18 AM

Post #14 of 25 (1910 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 9:14 AM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:
> I uploaded a couple of "VPDAU on/off" screenshots to my ticket:
>
> ON: http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/vdpau-glitter-1.jpg
> OFF: http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/cpuplusplus-no-glitter-1.jpg
>
> I welcome ANY ideas... this is driving my out of my mind.....

That really just looks like a marginal signal, I know that for me
VDPAU is much more sensitive to errors in the stream then SW decoding.
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kungfujesus06 at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 9:20 AM

Post #15 of 25 (1910 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

I retract my statement, your screenshot definitely reflects a decoding error
of some sort. Sorry for not looking at that, I guess I missed it somehow.

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:18 PM, freedenizen <freedenizen [at] gmail> wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 9:14 AM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:
> > I uploaded a couple of "VPDAU on/off" screenshots to my ticket:
> >
> > ON:
> http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/vdpau-glitter-1.jpg
> > OFF:
> http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/cpuplusplus-no-glitter-1.jpg
> >
> > I welcome ANY ideas... this is driving my out of my mind.....
>
> That really just looks like a marginal signal, I know that for me
> VDPAU is much more sensitive to errors in the stream then SW decoding.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

robert.mcnamara at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 9:23 AM

Post #16 of 25 (1910 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 9:16 AM, Adam Stylinski <kungfujesus06 [at] gmail> wrote:
> I'm telling you it's digital noise. Try a different cable that is shield
> better. Don't go crazy with monsters, but monoprice has some well shielded
> cables that do DVI to HDMI. Locally may be your only option for this
> weekend, though.
>
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:14 PM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 8:27 AM, Adam Stylinski <kungfujesus06 [at] gmail>
>> wrote:
>> > I had similar issues with my 9600 GT and it used to freak me out. I
>> > couldn't find anything consistent with my settings and why it was doing
>> > that. Then I replaced my DVI to HDMI adapter to HDMI cable setup for a
>> > cable with built in DVI on one end and HDMI on the other. This cable
>> > also
>> > had the luxury of a ferrite core on both ends. It turns out the issue
>> > was
>> > digital interference. The symptoms you describe also sound a lot like
>> > digital interference.
>>
>> I wish it was that easy.. I notice something new last night that
>> changes where I think the source of the issue is. (I tried updating my
>> TRAC ticket (#7571) but it appears closed.)
>>
>> With superbowl coming up, I REALLY wanted to get this fixed, so last
>> night I put a new Hardrive in my frontend last night, and installed
>> F12-64bit from scratch. 190.50 drivers, mythtv-suite from atrpms..
>> Still sparkles.... with VDPAU on, and only for HDHR/MPEG2 off-air
>> content.
>>
>> One thing NEW I noticed however, and this blew me away..... The
>> artifacting actually shows up with x11vnc as well, which tends to
>> remove things like video-drivers from the formula and point more
>> towards decoding...
>>
>> I uploaded a couple of "VPDAU on/off" screenshots to my ticket:
>>
>> ON: http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/vdpau-glitter-1.jpg
>> OFF:
>> http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/cpuplusplus-no-glitter-1.jpg
>>
>> I welcome ANY ideas... this is driving my out of my mind.....

This is not a cable issue, the OP mentioned that it appears in a VNC
window as well. He rightly concludes that this is a decoding issue.
VDPAU is *much* less tolerant to signal error than software decode,
and this is strongly indicated here. I would try removing splits,
adding amplification when necessary, and retuning antenna aim where
applicable and seeing how that helps-- suspect one or all of the above
will fix the issue.

Robert
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peter at rogers

Feb 5, 2010, 10:25 AM

Post #17 of 25 (1909 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv] On Behalf Of Robert McNamara
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 12:24 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles"

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 9:16 AM, Adam Stylinski <kungfujesus06 [at] gmail>
wrote:
> I'm telling you it's digital noise. Try a different cable that is shield
> better. Don't go crazy with monsters, but monoprice has some well
shielded
> cables that do DVI to HDMI. Locally may be your only option for this
> weekend, though.
>
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:14 PM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 8:27 AM, Adam Stylinski <kungfujesus06 [at] gmail>
>> wrote:
>> > I had similar issues with my 9600 GT and it used to freak me out. I
>> > couldn't find anything consistent with my settings and why it was doing
>> > that. Then I replaced my DVI to HDMI adapter to HDMI cable setup for a
>> > cable with built in DVI on one end and HDMI on the other. This cable
>> > also
>> > had the luxury of a ferrite core on both ends. It turns out the issue
>> > was
>> > digital interference. The symptoms you describe also sound a lot like
>> > digital interference.
>>
>> I wish it was that easy.. I notice something new last night that
>> changes where I think the source of the issue is. (I tried updating my
>> TRAC ticket (#7571) but it appears closed.)
>>
>> With superbowl coming up, I REALLY wanted to get this fixed, so last
>> night I put a new Hardrive in my frontend last night, and installed
>> F12-64bit from scratch. 190.50 drivers, mythtv-suite from atrpms..
>> Still sparkles.... with VDPAU on, and only for HDHR/MPEG2 off-air
>> content.
>>
>> One thing NEW I noticed however, and this blew me away..... The
>> artifacting actually shows up with x11vnc as well, which tends to
>> remove things like video-drivers from the formula and point more
>> towards decoding...
>>
>> I uploaded a couple of "VPDAU on/off" screenshots to my ticket:
>>
>> ON: http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/vdpau-glitter-1.jpg
>> OFF:
>>
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/attachment/ticket/7571/cpuplusplus-no-glitter-1.j
pg
>>
>> I welcome ANY ideas... this is driving my out of my mind.....

This is not a cable issue, the OP mentioned that it appears in a VNC
window as well. He rightly concludes that this is a decoding issue.
VDPAU is *much* less tolerant to signal error than software decode,
and this is strongly indicated here. I would try removing splits,
adding amplification when necessary, and retuning antenna aim where
applicable and seeing how that helps-- suspect one or all of the above
will fix the issue.

Robert
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I think the OP is correct in blaming this on his onboard chipset. A number
of users have reported similar issues playing back MPEG2 video with VDPAU,
and the chipset appears to be the common element:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=136817&page=3

In my case, the sparkles or artifacts began appearing when I upgraded my
video card to a 9500GT. I can largely eliminate the problem by playing the
same recording using mplayer (with VDPAU) rather than mythtv's internal
player.

The good news is that NVIDIA has replicated the problem and is working on a
fix.

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fmerrill1 at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 10:51 AM

Post #18 of 25 (1906 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Peter Laengert <peter [at] rogers> wrote:
>
> I think the OP is correct in blaming this on his onboard chipset. A number
> of users have reported similar issues playing back MPEG2 video with VDPAU,
> and the chipset appears to be the common element:
>
> http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=136817&page=3
>
> In my case, the sparkles or artifacts began appearing when I upgraded my
> video card to a 9500GT. I can largely eliminate the problem by playing the
> same recording using mplayer (with VDPAU) rather than mythtv's internal
> player.
>
> The good news is that NVIDIA has replicated the problem and is working on a
> fix.
>

I had to go back and search for the OP's first post about this, and
see what was tried, and had the same issues with both an 8500GT and a
9500GT.
Both of those cards only do VDPAU feature set A.
Feature set A is partial MPEG1 and 2 acceleration, but full H.264
acceleration. (and he indicates no issue with H.264)
On a related note, I don't see the same issue on a lowly 8400GS which
does Feature set B which is Full MPEG1 and 2 and H.264 acceleration.
(this is an 8400GS using the G98 GPU, not an 8400S using a G86 GPU)

One other thing is I wonder about the VDPAU buffers with the Internal
player and what they are set at.
It can be changed using a custom filter setting of
'vdpaubuffersize=xx' where I would set that to at least 24, but I'm
not certain as to whether the VDPAU buffers are being set
automatically now by the VDPAU code in Myth.

I believe he reported that it did not show the symptom with same MPEG2
recordings played back in mplayer using VDPAU, and if I am not
mistaken, mplayer does set the VDPAU buffer sizes depending upon the
video codec (decoder) being used.

All speculation on my part, but if it's apples to apples, and mplayer
is using both vo=vdpau of vc=ffmpeg12vdpau without issues, then this
should also be able to be accomplished without blocking artifacts with
the internal player in Myth using the right configuration.

Frank
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blammo.doh at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 1:09 PM

Post #19 of 25 (1900 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:25 AM, Peter Laengert <peter [at] rogers> wrote:
> I think the OP is correct in blaming this on his onboard chipset. A number
> of users have reported similar issues playing back MPEG2 video with VDPAU,
> and the chipset appears to be the common element:
>
> http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=136817&page=3
>
> In my case, the sparkles or artifacts began appearing when I upgraded my
> video card to a 9500GT. I can largely eliminate the problem by playing the
> same recording using mplayer (with VDPAU) rather than mythtv's internal
> player.

Thank you for sharing this... the discussions on that thread sound
SPOT on to the problem I'm having.. the bugger is that the only fix
for me, TODAY, is replacement hardware.. ;(

It is both encouraging and disappointing that other people are also
experiencing the same thing ONLY in MythTV, and that applications like
MPLAYER and XINE are working fine... That leaves us in a situation
where the onus is on Myth Developers to try to figure out where
something they thought they were doing RIGHT poked something nasty in
the NVIDIA drivers.
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ylee at pobox

Feb 5, 2010, 1:19 PM

Post #20 of 25 (1895 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

Frank Merrill <fmerrill1 [at] gmail> says:
> On a related note, I don't see the same issue on a lowly 8400GS
> which does Feature set B which is Full MPEG1 and 2 and H.264
> acceleration.

Same here. I agree that VDPAU playback is more delicate (as in
mythfrontend dying) regarding corrupt video streams, but I can't
recall seeing the aforementioned sparkles on my 8400GS in a year of
VDPAU use.

--
Frontend/backend: P4 3.0GHz, 1.5TB software RAID 5 array
Backend: Quad-core Xeon 1.6GHz, 6.6TB sw RAID 6
Video inputs: Four high-definition over FireWire/OTA
Accessories: 47" 1080p LCD, 5.1 digital, and MX-600
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tortise at paradise

Feb 5, 2010, 1:35 PM

Post #21 of 25 (1895 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Blammo" <blammo.doh [at] gmail>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users [at] mythtv>
Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles"

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:25 AM, Peter Laengert <peter [at] rogers> wrote:
> I think the OP is correct in blaming this on his onboard chipset. A number
> of users have reported similar issues playing back MPEG2 video with VDPAU,
> and the chipset appears to be the common element:
>
> http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=136817&page=3
>
> In my case, the sparkles or artifacts began appearing when I upgraded my
> video card to a 9500GT. I can largely eliminate the problem by playing the
> same recording using mplayer (with VDPAU) rather than mythtv's internal
> player.

>Thank you for sharing this... the discussions on that thread sound
SPOT on to the problem I'm having.. the bugger is that the only fix
for me, TODAY, is replacement hardware.. ;(

>It is both encouraging and disappointing that other people are also
experiencing the same thing ONLY in MythTV, and that applications like
MPLAYER and XINE are working fine... That leaves us in a situation
where the onus is on Myth Developers to try to figure out where
something they thought they were doing RIGHT poked something nasty in
the NVIDIA drivers.
_______________________________________________

I do not support this offer for the MythTV Devs, having been the first person on record to question the chipset many months ago I've
been watching this topic with interest, given the pain it caused me....

The main opportunity seems to be with NVIDIA who are supporting a subset of motherboard chipsets and not all. See my previous posts
on this.

It might have been more helpful if NVIDIA and its vendors made compatibility information more prominent and specific.

If we are lucky NVIDIA will incorporate driver support for these other chipsets in newer drivers.

It is encouraging that NVIDIA now have a test rig that is failing. Another chipset they had reports of issues with but never got to
test it, to my knowledge, although they may have got some of the way.

If you do not want to take a punt and wait, get a compatible motherboard. (Sorry, I've been there too!)

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blammo.doh at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 1:59 PM

Post #22 of 25 (1896 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Frank Merrill <fmerrill1 [at] gmail> wrote:
> One other thing is I wonder about the VDPAU buffers with the Internal
> player and what they are set at.
> It can be changed using a custom filter setting of
> 'vdpaubuffersize=xx' where I would set that to at least 24, but I'm
> not certain as to whether the VDPAU buffers are being set
> automatically now by the VDPAU code in Myth.
>
> I believe he reported that it did not show the symptom with same MPEG2
> recordings played back in mplayer using VDPAU, and if I am not
> mistaken, mplayer does set the VDPAU buffer sizes depending upon the
> video codec (decoder) being used.

Gave me a good idea....

I went in and change the DECODER to "STANDARD" and left the "RENDERER"
to VDPAU and from what I can see -- the decoding artifacts are gone...
I'll have to wait till I'm home in front of the machine, not relying
on x11vnc, but they appear to be gone... and when I switch back to
VDPAU decoder, they come back.

Running about 38-40% CPU playing 1080i NFL football
Changing back to VDPAU decode is 12% CPU, but artifacting.

maybe a compromise, just in time for superbowl.....
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fmerrill1 at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 2:50 PM

Post #23 of 25 (1882 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Blammo <blammo.doh [at] gmail> wrote:
>
> I went in and change the DECODER to "STANDARD" and left the "RENDERER"
> to VDPAU and from what I can see -- the decoding artifacts are gone...
> I'll have to wait till I'm home in front of the machine, not relying
> on x11vnc, but they appear to be gone... and when I switch back to
> VDPAU decoder, they come back.
>
> Running about 38-40% CPU playing 1080i NFL football
> Changing back to VDPAU decode is 12% CPU, but artifacting.
>
> maybe a compromise, just in time for superbowl.....
>

If it doesn't show artifacts now, then maybe you should also try
turning back on the vdpau decoder and trying a few filter settings,
like the one I mentioned earlier (vdpaubuffersize=xx) and see if your
results change. I do not follow the dev list, but bufferzsize
allocation may now be automatic, but it doesn't hurt to try.
I admit that I didn't see any VDPAU buffer error messages in the log
you posted, but, it can't hurt to test a few things.
so, a custom filter line may look something like:
vdpauskipchroma, vdpaubuffersize=32
or
vdpauskipchroma, vdpaucolorspace=0, vdpaubuffersize=24
or other combinations, etc

If none of that makes it any better, then at least you have a
'back-up' plan for watching those MPEG2 recordings without artifacts.

One last thing, if this is only a frontend machine, and it is only
outputting to one display, and is not doing anything else when
watching a recording, then having the CPU doing the decoding isn't a
bad thing. And if you are happy with the de-interlacing when not
using vdpau decode, then there isn't any loss as long as playback
meets your requirements.
Offloading such to the GPU is certainly nice, but if the CPU isn't
being used for anything else anyway, and it works for you, there's no
harm in using it's power to do what you need done.

Frank
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peter at rogers

Feb 8, 2010, 4:45 PM

Post #24 of 25 (1634 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv] On Behalf Of Blammo
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 4:59 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles"

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Frank Merrill <fmerrill1 [at] gmail> wrote:
> One other thing is I wonder about the VDPAU buffers with the Internal
> player and what they are set at.
> It can be changed using a custom filter setting of
> 'vdpaubuffersize=xx' where I would set that to at least 24, but I'm
> not certain as to whether the VDPAU buffers are being set
> automatically now by the VDPAU code in Myth.
>
> I believe he reported that it did not show the symptom with same MPEG2
> recordings played back in mplayer using VDPAU, and if I am not
> mistaken, mplayer does set the VDPAU buffer sizes depending upon the
> video codec (decoder) being used.

Gave me a good idea....

I went in and change the DECODER to "STANDARD" and left the "RENDERER"
to VDPAU and from what I can see -- the decoding artifacts are gone...
I'll have to wait till I'm home in front of the machine, not relying
on x11vnc, but they appear to be gone... and when I switch back to
VDPAU decoder, they come back.

Running about 38-40% CPU playing 1080i NFL football
Changing back to VDPAU decode is 12% CPU, but artifacting.

maybe a compromise, just in time for superbowl.....

---------------------------

NVIDIA has now posted a workaround for this issue. As far as I can tell so
far, it seems to totally resolve the sparkle problem for me. Of course,
YMMV.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=136817&page=4

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blammo.doh at gmail

Feb 9, 2010, 10:25 AM

Post #25 of 25 (1582 views)
Permalink

Re: Myth 0.22 / VDPAU / Horizontal "noise/sparkles" [In reply to]

On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 4:45 PM, Peter Laengert <peter [at] rogers> wrote:
> NVIDIA has now posted a workaround for this issue. As far as I can tell so
> far, it seems to totally resolve the sparkle problem for me. Of course,
> YMMV.

I'll be curious to see not only what the root cause turns out to be,
but how/when it progresses into a usable format for both 32-bit and
64-bit users.

My faith in NVidia continues to be proven worthwhile...
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