# DirecTV2PC Pixelation Problems



## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

I'm having a problem with DirecTV2PC and I'm hoping the guru's in here can help. Here is the 10,000ft overview:

Everything worked perfectly with a new Quadra from nVidia, things are now not working with my XFX Radeon 6850.

There is at least 1 other user in the same boat with this card model. Given my troubleshooting steps I feel that there must be some issue with the way the DTV2PC app is trying to communicate to the card.

Is there any way to modify or tweak the DTV2PC app that I could try?
Has anyone had to tweak their cataylst drivers to get them to work?

I tried a thread over an DTV but didn't achieve success. There is alot of background and techincal info on my setup and troubleshooting steps here if you're interested, I didn't want to flood my post with data.

http://forums.directv.com/pe/action...PostID=10867815&channelID=1&portalPageId=1002

Thanks in advance!

Snewo


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

I have the HD5770 and encountered similar problems, there were two downloads from the AMD site under support/drivers that cured the trouble instantly.


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## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

davring said:


> I have the HD5770 and encountered similar problems, there were two downloads from the AMD site under support/drivers that cured the trouble instantly.


Awesome, I'll go there and see if I can find any for my card. I thought I grabbed everything that was connected to mine. Do you happen to remember what they were? Were they the ATI equivalent of hotfixes?

Snewo


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

snewo said:


> Awesome, I'll go there and see if I can find any for my card. I thought I grabbed everything that was connected to mine. Do you happen to remember what they were? Were they the ATI equivalent of hotfixes?
> 
> Snewo


Been a few weeks, there were actually several available, I took only the two listed as important, the others were optional. I don't remember what they were called, sorry.


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## deanconst96 (Jul 16, 2008)

Mine hasn't worked forever and I can't use the key code again


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## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

davring nailed it.


Go to the AMD site, I had already downloaded the full catalyst package, but it seems to run DirecTV2PC properly you must also need the optional "AMD Media Codec Package". Once I downloaded that everything seems to be working now. Thanks for the fast help...as I've said in the past, this forum rocks.


Snewo


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## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

It turns out that I gave credit too quickly. I work now...for HD programs only. All of my Standard Def programs pixelate and look like garbage. I guess next time I'll have to learn to try more of a mix of programs when testing. Any other ideas?


Snewo


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

snewo said:


> It turns out that I gave credit too quickly. I work now...for HD programs only. All of my Standard Def programs pixelate and look like garbage. I guess next time I'll have to learn to try more of a mix of programs when testing. Any other ideas?
> 
> Snewo


SD is MPEG-2 and this decoding is done solely by the CPU.
While the loading shouldn't be a problem, this is the only difference between SD & HD, where the MPEG-4 decoding is passed off to the GPU.


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## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

Maybe i just don't have a good MPEG-2 Codec on my Windows 7 box. Anyone have a recommended one? I'm off to go see if I can find one that will work....thanks...wish me luck.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

snewo said:


> Maybe i just don't have a good MPEG-2 Codec on my Windows 7 box. Anyone have a recommended one? I'm off to go see if I can find one that will work....thanks...wish me luck.


I've never found any additional Codec to work any better than what DirecTV2PC uses.
In fact, when I was "playing" in the early days and using Vista, "Free codec pack" completely hosed DirecTV2PC to the point where uninstalling what I'd done, didn't help and I had to start with a fresh Vista install, to get DirecTV2PC working again.
Since this, I haven't repeated this mistake again, and keep my codec"es" down to what comes with what I've got.


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## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

I can't help but wonder if this is an issue that is not being caught in the Cutting Edge program. I think you're a member in there, so that's why I'm asking this.....is there a list of configurations of the members that is given to DirecTV? I wonder if anyone is using my card. If we can just nail this down as a legit issue (and not my stupidity or lack of driver/codec from ATI) I'll gladly join Cutting Edge to help resolve it. 

Any idea how we get there from here?


Thanks!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

snewo said:


> I can't help but wonder if this is an issue that is not being caught in the Cutting Edge program. I think you're a member in there, so that's why I'm asking this.....is there a list of configurations of the members that is given to DirecTV? I wonder if anyone is using my card. If we can just nail this down as a legit issue (and not my stupidity or lack of driver/codec from ATI) I'll gladly join Cutting Edge to help resolve it.
> 
> Any idea how we get there from here?
> 
> Thanks!


DirecTV2PC hasn't been anywhere near the CE group for over a year.
I was in the first group to pretest it, so I post here because of what I learned throughout the testing.
"Frankly", since you have HD working, your problem isn't [or I sure don't think it is] from the video card and/or drivers.
SD [which is MPEG-2] "should be" a no brainer.
MPEG-2 has no decoding being done by the video card, which points whatever the problem is to the PC itself.
Do you have other codec installed?
What other video software do you have?
The problem I posted about with using other codec, was in the very early days, when there wasn't any MPEG-4 support from the video card, making everything CPU intensive, but it's been a couple of years since MPEG-4 support with video cards has been added.


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## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

This is a pretty new machine, so there's nothing too crazy on it. It does support Windows Media Center. The demo video in Media Center under TV called landscapes plays fine and appears to be SD. I don't use it otherwise. The only other video related item is the Catalyst Control Center.

The formatting of this isn't great, but this is the two video codec sections from Media Player -> About Media Player -> Technical Support Information


Video Codecs
Type Name Format Binary Version 
ICM Microsoft RLE MRLE msrle32.dll 6.1.7601.17514 
ICM Microsoft Video 1 MSVC msvidc32.dll 6.1.7601.17514 
ICM Microsoft YUV UYVY msyuv.dll 6.1.7601.17514 
ICM Intel IYUV codec IYUV iyuv_32.dll 6.1.7601.17514 
ICM Toshiba YUV Codec Y411 tsbyuv.dll 6.1.7601.17514 
ICM Cinepak Codec by Radius cvid iccvid.dll 1.10.0.13 
DMO Mpeg4s Decoder DMO mp4s, MP4S, m4s2, M4S2, MP4V, mp4v, XVID, xvid, DIVX, DX50 mp4sdecd.dll 6.1.7600.16385 
DMO WMV Screen decoder DMO MSS1, MSS2 wmvsdecd.dll 6.1.7601.17514 
DMO WMVideo Decoder DMO WMV1, WMV2, WMV3, WMVA, WVC1, WMVP, WVP2 wmvdecod.dll 6.1.7601.17514 
DMO Mpeg43 Decoder DMO mp43, MP43 mp43decd.dll 6.1.7600.16385 
DMO Mpeg4 Decoder DMO MPG4, mpg4, mp42, MP42 mpg4decd.dll 6.1.7600.16385 

MPEG/DVD Filters
Type Name Binary Version 
video ATI MPEG Video Decoder atimpenc.dll 11.6.0.50930 
video Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder msmpeg2vdec.dll 6.1.7140.0 
video CyberLink SAC Video Decoder clvsd.ax 8.4.0.917 
audio Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder msmpeg2adec.dll 6.1.7140.0


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

I don't see anything too strange there.
Here's what mine shows [nVidia card instead of ATI]:









Not sure any of this is actually what DirecTV2PC is using, though.

Windows can be so strange that I'm not quite sure where/what to do here.

Maybe someone else has an idea. :shrug:

Having HD play well and not SD is "just backwards" to all the troubleshooting that has gone on before.


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## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

I suspect that the Cyberlink is the one used by DirecTV2PC because that company is spelled out if you go to: Menu->System Setup->About in DirecTV2PC. We also both have that one. Maybe my ATI one is getting in the way, you only have 3 under the MPEG heading and I have 4. 

Soooo anyone have any ideas? Right now I'd like to uninstall the ATI codec somehow, but I have no idea the consequences. I would also suspect a reinstall of the Cyberlink one might be in order.


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## tbolt (Aug 22, 2009)

snewo said:


> Everything worked perfectly with a new Quadra from nVidia, things are now not working with my XFX Radeon 6850.


So, you installed a new video card and it stopped working.
Can you go back to the nvidia card and get it to work again?

Here is what I would try: 
With the XFX Radeon Card installed in the system and all of the latest drivers installed.
Now --> re-install the Directv2PC application.

Report back on results please.


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## snewo (Sep 30, 2006)

Going back isn't an option, that card wasn't mine. Believe me i thought of that too.

As for the reinstall....yeah i did that already....no luck. That was actually the first thing I tried.


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## tbolt (Aug 22, 2009)

snewo said:


> That was actually the first thing I tried.


...and that was before you found the updated drivers "AMD Media Codec Package". Right?

I reccommend you try to re-install the DTV2PC app one more time as you have changed
drivers and codecs (after the re-install, ...the first thing you tried).

*You aren't the first one to change the Graphics Card and break DTV2PC*, I've seen this many times
on this board. It has happened to me as well. Once broken, the results vary. For some it is a total crash 
of the software, for others it has been extreme pixalization rendering the app useless to the user, the 
list goes on.

IMHO
While we don't have the details of how the Install Sheild operates, my speculation is that the Install Sheild
looks at what hardware (and possibly the drivers/codecs) that are currently installed in the system and tailors the
install based upon those findings.

Bottom Line: Try the re-install of the App one more time.


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