What's the best MPEG-2 decoder to use?

[bawker]

Right now I'm using nVidia's Purevideo for my MPEG-2 television viewing.

I'm running two nVidia 256MB 7600 GS's in SLI, but wondering if there's anything better out there, with price not really being an object.

Thanks.

[merrypig]

"Better" would really depend on what you think is wrong with the present solution you have ...

[bawker]

Originally Posted by merrypig

"Better" would really depend on what you think is wrong with the present solution you have ...

Compared to the regular signal, the NVidia decoder gives a lot of "softness" in the picture.

Edges are fuzzy, and with some sporting events, there's a lot of what looks like frame drops...where the players and action don't stutter per se, but it's not quite moving at the correct speed, and makes watching the event unbearable. I'm not sure what to term it exactly.

I'm using a VistaView Dual Saber 2020 if that helps narrow anything down. All drivers (both for the video card and the tuner card) are current. The signal itself is coming from an S-Video connection from my Dish Network box to the S-Video input on the Vista View.

[hoglander]

What settings are you using in PureVid?

[bawker]

Originally Posted by hoglander

What settings are you using in PureVid?

I'm at work right now, so I can't look...bit I think everything is set to defaults.

I know I had initially experimented with the interlacing and other settings, but seemed to get the best results from changing everything back to default.

I realize I'm probably being fairly picky here, but I'm in the process of getting rid of my TiVo for good, and really want to finish up tweaking this so it can gain the all important wife approval rating.

[MagnumRT]

have you tried adjusting the flicker (if you're using a regular crt TV)? Also, there is another sharpness adjustment in the nvidia control panel.

I had a 7600GS shortly and switched to 7600GT. There's no difference between them when viewing videos. So far though, I tweaked my nivida control enough to where picture quality is very close to the original source when I switch the TV back and forth from video and regular channel.