[MJC]

I started this thread and now have an update.

For over six months, I've been endlessly tweaking an ATI 8500DV that feeds a Sony plasma TV. Always, always, there was a grainy background, especially with some of NBC's shows, which tend to be dark.

Buried way into the BTV Web admin menus (as discussed above) are the *En*coder options. The options are "Default" and "BTV Basic".

I've never examined these before and always used the former. The tweaking was endless for *De*coder (Intervideo variants, Sonic, etc.). I'm using 2 PVR 250s.

I changed the setting from Default (whatever the heck that is) to BTVBasic. Wow! Colors were brighter for Live TV and recordings. Even the sounds were better!

Only hardware interfacing was used in the past. Two software interfacing options were now available. I chose Progressive. While it used 10% more CPU, the tearing was minimized. 3d was chosen rather than overlay.

Check it out.

MJC