Tweaking PVR-150 video for BTV

[chemgeek]

I just built an HTPC that utilizes a PVR-150 card for video input into BTV. Using default video input settings, recordings were quite dark and muddy. Changing the brightness and contrast on the graphics card is somewhat helpful, but adversely affects the display quality of the desktop and apps. What is required to solve this issue correctly is to adjust the video input of the PVR-150. Using the Web Admin tool in BTV, navigate to Video Inputs. Edit the appropriate input, and "Show more Options" to access the brightness, contrast, etc. settings. I found that tweaking the input brightness to 60% (50 default) and bumping the contrast slightly to 55% (default 50) results in better quality recordings. You may have to experiment with the settings a bet to get what you want. You can preview the effects of the settings by viewing live TV in BTV.

Cheers.

[emagin]

Here are some links that should help tweak the Hauppauge 150:
Hauppauge registry tricks
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The two things to change are sharpness to 7 and diasble auto gain control.
The tweak tool helps a lot: http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_tweak.html


Finally, I've found that starting BTVD3DShell.exe /displaymode exclusivefs at 800x600 or something like that can help as well.
Search for exclusivefs and you'll find a lot of info.

However, I'm still not pleased with the decoding off my built in video card nVidia Geforce 6500. The result is still muddy and lines appear when there is motion. Haven't been able to fix that.