Live TV Quality

[merrypig]

Interesting. 77.76 release notes also refer to a "All GPUs: Fixed a memory allocation issue that caused general instability in a variety of games."

Wonder if BTV could be described as a 'game' or if this means it's in the 3d acceleration calls, not the mostly 2d stuff btv uses (in overlay at least)

[cdefrain]

Very good. Sounds like my expectations are a little high, but I think I'll be happy once I get the 77.76 driver so I can use overlay. Thanks again for all the help.

[pdaughe]

Fester,

If I understood your last post correctly, I strongly disagree. My wife and I USED to debate which was better, Live (Beyond) TV or real TV. In recent weeks, the debate has ended. Live TV is BETTER than real TV, we both agree. The colors are vivid and the picture is absolutely smooth and clear. In my opinion, it's simply amazing, and in my case, a digital tuner with 3D comb filter, the 550 PRO MPEG2 compressor with artifact removal and noise elimination, Pure Video display technology, and hyperthreading perform synergistically to deliver an absolutely incredible picture. No one in our home has watched real TV in months. I am being absolutely honest. It's quite a statement because I'm a perfectionists by nature and would never sacrifice quality -- that is, I wouldn't watch Live TV if it wasn't at least as good as real TV.

If you wonder if all this technology really works, you should see how home videos taken ten years (with the technology of that day) ago look. It's incredible.

[nanook105]

I agree with pdaughe. I have two HDTVs, one connected to my BTV server and one conected to a link (I have 6600GTs on both). In both cases, the PQ is better with BTV than straight cable (coax) into the TVs. I connect with HDMI from BTV on the link and with component from the server. I've also played a little with OTA HD, and the PQ from my PC (via the 6600GT) is every bit as crisp as my HD signal from my cable box directly connected to the TV (via component)

[geoffstewart]

Originally Posted by nanook105

In Display type, I use Anamorphic/Raw Aspect, and in Enhanced Nview Support, I select VMR9. Also have HW Acceleration checked.

I don't use 3D - I always use overlay, although it has been a while since I've given 3D a try.

A little off topic, but nanook105, why do you set "Prefer VMR9" if you always use Overlay... isn't that contradictory? I've been playing around with the Nvidia decoder without much luck. I can get a decent picture but it jumps every 10 seconds (randomly) where the Snapstream or Cyberlink is not quite as crisp, but doesn't skip.


Geoff

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by geoffstewart

A little off topic, but nanook105, why do you set "Prefer VMR9" if you always use Overlay... isn't that contradictory? I've been playing around with the Nvidia decoder without much luck. I can get a decent picture but it jumps every 10 seconds (randomly) where the Snapstream or Cyberlink is not quite as crisp, but doesn't skip.


Geoff

Yeah, been wondering the same thing myself for some time now. Does someone have a satisfactory answer? If 3D mode is VMR9, what does it mean if you set the Nvidia decoder to VMR9? Or what about the situation mentioned above?

Geoff:

Are you getting the jumping in 3D Mode? On news tickers, I notice that it pauses slightly every few seconds, unless I have Hardware Deinterlace enabled, in which case it is utterly smooth.

[geoffstewart]

Oh, right. I'm talking about overlay mostly... I dable once in a while with 3d accel but always revert back to overlay... exclusivefs does a good job with 3d, but I use BeyondMedia too and the switching back and forth doesn't work with exclusivefs.

I'll try some tickers... my jumping is maybe better described as a stutter...like the decoder isn't getting the data fast enough, but it does not exist with other decoders... i've tried with zoomplayer, bm, etc. to make sure and the results are consistent with nvidia 150 trial decoder in all these apps for me.... it just stutters/jumps randomly... seems to be quite good for sometimes up to 5 minutes and then it happens... doesn't appear to happen in fast motion scenes or anything.

I have a FX5200 128MB connected via vga to a Samsung 43" DLP. Perhaps this card is just too close to the bottom of the class to really support the PureVideo decoder.

Thanks for the reply.

Geoff

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by geoffstewart

A little off topic, but nanook105, why do you set "Prefer VMR9" if you always use Overlay... isn't that contradictory? I've been playing around with the Nvidia decoder without much luck. I can get a decent picture but it jumps every 10 seconds (randomly) where the Snapstream or Cyberlink is not quite as crisp, but doesn't skip.


Geoff

That is a good question, and I really don't have a good answer. I guess I was searching for the "holy grail" of PQ, and one day I sat around and tried every combination of settings. For some reason, this combination seemed to work best. After thinking (and reading) about it, I'm not sure if that setting is doing anything for me. I'll have to play a little tonight to see if I notice any differences.

Also, except for an occasional skip when I change channels in live TV, I get zero skips/jumps in live TV and playback.