Blocky video with M780 and ClearQAM

[ChasW]

I am having an issue with blocky video in Windows 7 64 media center, Avermedia M780 tuners, specific combinations of video cards and drivers ONLY when watching live TV, or playing back recorded from live TV using the clear QAM tuners. If I play back older recordings that were recorded before this issue was first noticed, even with newer hardware and or drivers, the video looks fine. Please note that not every combination of video card and driver causes this problem, but what I need is a combination that has working HDMI audio and HDMI 3d along with the non-blocky live tv with clear QAM.
When the blocks reach severity the audio cuts out as well.
The PC is known to be good and stable.
Below are combinations and their various results.

Combination #1 (no blocky video)
Avermedia M780 w/2.5.64.32 drivers
Radeon HD5450 w/catalyst 14.9 (also, no blocky video with older drivers using this same card)
HDMI audio: NO (not stable, bsod)
HDMI 3d: NO

Combination #2 (blocky video)
If I raise the above combination #1 video driver to the latest catalyst 15.7.1 to fix the hdmi audio and hdmi 3d, blocky video occurs as described as above, plus the hdmi 3d is not great with this card and Power DVD 12.
Avermedia M780 w/2.5.64.32 drivers
Radeon HD5450 w/catalyst 15.7.1
HDMI audio: YES (long term stability not tested)
HDMI 3d: YES (quality not great with PDVD12. Extensive testing was not done since the issue with 7MC was present)

Combination #3 (blocky video)
Avermedia M780 w/2.5.64.32 drivers
GeForce 720 GT w/347.88 drivers (these drivers seem to be stable and have been for days where the newer 358.50 were a cacophony of driver not responding events- nearly constant with the opening and closing of any window)
HDMI audio: YES (stable and works well under windows 7 64)
HDMI 3d: YES (good quality, strong setup, works well with Power DVD 12)

I have always been partial to ATI for video editing and use in the windows media center, but to be honest, I am tired of watching their fans fail over and over resulting in a damaged card. This is why I switched to the fanless HD5450 and GT720 and use my own nearly silent ball bearing fans. I know these are lower end cards, but they are quiet and are rated to do what I need.

I am open to any suggestions regarding hardware and or driver change that would be expected to meet the criteria above, but since I think I have the hardware that should work, I will ask some specific questions as well.

How can I see the complete direct show filter chain that 7MC is using for everything?
Does 7MC have options regarding overlay modes?

I have graph edit and used to use it often enough, but I am not sure how to build the chain for the Avermedia tuners.
Particularly, I want to see what differences reside between the working combination #1 against #2 and #3.

I don't know what to suspect, but visually it seems to be the wrong overlay mode OR something is simply disrupting the stream from within the filter chain resulting in the blocks since the audio cuts out as well.
I recall a similar issue between older and new ATI cards, older ATI cards and nearly every NVIDIA card, with the canopus DV storm and adobe premiere pro. That solution turned out to be an overlay mode setting in an ini file- something I doubt that 7MC has, but perhaps in the registry there are options.

The fact that the latest ATI drivers cause this issue and older ones do not also indicate to me the possibility that their is a newer MS API / driver model somewhere that could be causing compatibility with the older M780s as well. If I didn't have 4 of these tuners already I wouldn't care as much, but they all do work and I'd like to use them if possible. All in all, I probably need to bite the bullet and start testing more modern tuner cards, but let's see if any gurus should lay gaze upon this thread and bestow their much needed optimism first

Thank you for tolerating the lengthy post.
Any assistance or useful suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Chas

[Crash2009]

Before you scrap the tuner, I would suggest older drivers for the 5450.

I had similar problems with the 6700, and the advice I got was to install the driver only.....No Hydro or Catalyst. I wasted a lot of time downloading and installing different versions with no success. What finally worked for me was to uninstall everything ATI, remove all ATI devices from Device manager, then run Windows Update and install the driver suggested by Microsoft. The driver Microsoft suggested for my 6700 was a fairly old driver from 4/19/2011 Version 8.850.0.0 (Runs fine with no problems)

[ChasW]

Hi crash,
When I put the 5450 back in, I will certainly try the Windows Update driver for it. I do recall that the Microsoft hdmi audio driver did work for the 5450, where the catalyst drivers often instantly bsod'd. I do not recall ever trying hdmi stereoscopic 3d with the MS driver and PowerDVD.

Maybe it's worth a try to see if the Windows Update driver works any better with the 720 gt.
Thank you for the reply.

[Crash2009]

What model 3D display are you trying to run?

[ChasW]

What model 3D display are you trying to run?

The 3D display is a Samsung 60" LED TV, UN60JU7100FXZA, which seems to work nicely with the 720 gt. I did manage to get 3d to work with the hd5450 and the catalyst 15.7.1 driver, but it was not consistent. Sometimes PowerDVD could put the TV into 3d mode an other times I would have to do it manually. When it did work, there was some visual shadowing that made the 3d not as good as it should be. This was the reason for trying the nvidia card to begin with. One thing I did notice is that the only driver I have seen so far out of ati w/catalyst or ati w/microsoft or nvidia w/microsoft that sees that there is a Samsung TV on the other end of the hdmi cable is the nvidia w/geforce driver. Although the microsoft hdmi audio driver with both the ati and the nvidia did seem to work, I just did not test them extensively in that configuration.

[Crash2009]

Sometimes PowerDVD could put the TV into 3d mode an other times I would have to do it manually. When it did work, there was some visual shadowing that made the 3d not as good as it should be.

You might be "Processing the video twice" once in the display software, and then again in the TV. Try setting PowerDVD to automatic, and let the TV do the processing.

As I recall, mine was doing the same as yours when I first got it. I always had to adjust the projector manually when I changed to/from the various 3D formats.

BTW, these screencaps are from TotalMediaTheater (TMT) not PowerDVD.