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[jmone]

I've got a G33 based Shuttle running Vista Ultimate as my HTPC and the playback of 1080p is perfect over HDMI for my 60" Kuro however I get tearing on my Video / TV after a while which I "think" is related to using S3 Sleep mode but who knows  .  I like Sleep mode as it gives me instant(ish) On/Off from the remote just like all the other AV equipment.  Once I reboot it is perfect again...Any ideas on what to try?

Thanks
Nathan.

[Matt]

I love S3 standby.

Unfortunately, I can't get it to work right with Vista at home.  I almost switched back to XP for this reason alone, since it worked fine with the same hardware.

I have seen some flaky video driver stuff (like instant reboots when accelerating a video) after resuming from S3.

[jmone]

Mine works perfectly except for the tearing!  It really increased the level of WAF for all this tech.  I was hopping for the magic "reset" command or hidden checkbox option that would fix this 
Guess I'm dreamin'
Nathan

[glynor]

Since your SFF box would be such a low-power (and likely low-noise) device anyway, why do you need to send it to sleep AT ALL?  Just run it all the time, and set it to sleep the display (and maybe park the hard drives and whatnot).  Waking from S3 is certainly fast, but already ON is even faster!

At least until drivers improve to fix the common "glitchy-ness"...  I know it's not "right" but "works is right" is my motto.

[jmone]

Good point Glynor - it was just the general in bred nature that you should turn stuff off (and no one in the familly seems to do that well).  I'll try it out for the next week and at least see if that fixes the tearing problem.

[glynor]

it was just the general in bred nature that you should turn stuff off

If only we had that bred into us here Stateside.... 

The truth of the matter is that most small CE devices are terrible in their power usage when "turned off".  I recently bought a nifty Power Usage meter and wandered around my house testing devices.  You'd be shocked by what you see...

Some things I noted:

• My VCR, Bookshelf Stereo, Toaster Oven, and one Computer Speaker set (a nice 5.1 Boston Acoustics one from before Creative bought them out) all used basically exactly the same wattage when "turned off" as when "turned on".  If they were plugged in, they were drawing the same power.  My Toaster Oven actually used significantly MORE power than any of those other devices.  We've since drop-kicked the toaster oven to the curb and bought a new, little regular toaster which only gets taken out of the cupboard when in use.
  
• My TV used about 2/3 of the power level when "off" as "on".
• Most of my monitors (especially the older ones) used about 1/2 the power off as on.
• My computers' power loads are incredibly variable.  Even on my "server" boxes (lots of hard drives and lots of near-constant network activity), the power usage fluctuated heavily.  Idle machines or minimally busy machines (sitting at the desktop with a web page open) typically used far less power than those in use for anything with a 3D interface (running Theater View but idle for example).  I'm assuming this is due to fairly high-end video cards which kick into high gear when ANY Direct3D application is running.
  
• Quite often, when all machines were idle, my VCR (turned off) was drawing a higher load than my computer.  I hadn't used my VCR in probably 2 years.  It is now in a box on a shelf.
• Those 6-plug Power Strips with the Rocker Switch are incredibly effective at killing ALL power usage.  We bought a bunch of them and installed them on most of our CE devices.  When we "turn off" our TV, it's via the Power Strip now, not the "TV" power button.  It takes 2-3 seconds longer to power up now, but I can live with that.

[jmone]

More good points!

[glynor]

When I was walking around I kept wondering if I was going to find a device that drew more power off than on.  I didn't, but after finding so many where there was little or no difference, it made you wonder...!

[Matt]

Everyone should have a Kill-a-Watt.

[jmone]

Actually there could be three (or more) things that cause it (trying to now narrow it down):
1) Sleep Mode
2) Turn Monitor Off in Power Savings
3) Screen Saver (I notice it changes the resolution output which is very interesting....)

Of course it could also be "just because"

I also noticed that when I just upgraded MC12 to the latest beta it stoped tearing, so maybe it is something else....

Thanks
Nathan

[ThoBar]

I know it's not "right" but "works is right" is my motto.

Quoted for truth. (QFT)

[jmone]

Intel support said they don't see & have not had the problem with tearing from returning from S3 reported but I may have found the problem.

In the Shuttle's BIOS under S3 config you can select to reload the Video BIOS - both on Auto (default) and On you get tearing, but so far on "OFF" it appears to be going into and out of S3 sleep without tearing appearing (note: early days as only tested for the last few days but looking great!)

Thanks
Nathan

[Doof]

Started using S3 Standby at home on my Vista based HTPC (AMD), and haven't noticed any video tearing at all.

Now I want to get a Kill A Watt to see how much it really helps. I gotta say it's nice to at least have it go dead silent when not in use. It's not overly loud to begin with until the CPU starts to heat up, but now when I'm not actively using my home theater, there's nothing but silence.