Live TV Quality

[cdefrain]

I think I have a pretty decent pc, vid car, tv card, lcd monitor and am using BTV 3.7. The quality of live tv is very mediocre. I guess I was expecting a picture at least as good as a regular tv. Channel surfing is also painfully slow. Am I missing something or are my expectations just too high? My setup. I have tried the tips on deinterlacing and sharpness and the picture is still pretty poor (not choppy, just looks like a really old tv show or tv set). Would appreciate any input. Thanks

Pentium 4 2.8 gig
1 Gb RAM
geforce 6800 128 mb
Hauppauge 350
Dell 24 in wide lcd with DVI input
Set top digital cable box
Firefly and USB-UIRT

[nanook105]

How are you connecting to your Dell LCD ?
What recording settings are you using ?
What decoders have you tried ?
Is the picture any better if you take the cable going into the 350 and connect it directly to a TV ?

[cdefrain]

Thanks for the quick reply. I connect to the dell via my dvi out on the video card directly to my dvi in on the monitor. I use the dvd ready (best) setting for recording. I have tried the snapstream basic, Snapstream/ sp, intervideo noncss, nero dvd, and cyberlink decoders. I don't have a television to try your last suggestion. I could try to connect my 350 to my monitor from the s-video out, but how would I tell BTV to use that output instead?? Thanks.

[nanook105]

My interest on that connection is that it almost sounds like you have a signal strength issue, which can happen if you have old cable, a weak signal from the street, or too many splits.

What driver are you using for the 6600 (77.72 is the latest) ? Also, since you have a nvidia 6600, you should download/try the nvidia decoder:

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_do...150-trial.html

[cdefrain]

Whoa. I didn't realize the nvidia decoder would make such a difference. Updating the driver didn't change the quality much but that decoder works great. The color or the picture was ver high contrast with just video overlay, but when I switched to 3d acceleration and hardware deinterlacing the picture looks pretty good. Should I be using the 3d acc and deinterlacing? Thanks for the tips. Should have posted a month ago. Now if I can just get the channels to change faster.

[cdefrain]

One more thing. Since I have a widescreen display, I get a black vertical strip on both sides. Would powerstrip get rid of this? Thanks.

[nanook105]

To get of the bars, in Options, Aspect Ratios, try the different settings. I kinda like stretch.

The nvidia decoder rocks. There are two settings that I change in the nvidia properties (it shows up in the task bar when you watch BTV in windows mode). 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.

[cdefrain]

If I use just the overlay, I get lots of funny pink color tones. I only get a good output from the 3d acceleration. Is that wierd? Am I missing something? Thanks.

[cdefrain]

Also, where can I find the options for adjusting the aspect ratio? Is that in BTV or the nvidia? Where is it listed? That's just what I'm looking for. Thanks.

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by cdefrain

Also, where can I find the options for adjusting the aspect ratio? Is that in BTV or the nvidia? Where is it listed? That's just what I'm looking for. Thanks.

This is in BTV. "O" on the keyboard or Options on the Firefly

If I use just the overlay, I get lots of funny pink color tones. I only get a good output from the 3d acceleration. Is that wierd? Am I missing something? Thanks

Yes that is wierd. What driver are you using for the 350 ? Maybe some of the tweaks that you described in your first post are impacting overlay. I'd change everything back to the defaults and adjust from there now that you seem to have a good picture. On the other hand, if 3D works for you, then you may just want to leave it alone. I watch a lot of sports, and the high action is always a little jerky in 3D (it is perfect in overlay for me).

[cdefrain]

Sweeeet. Thanks for all the help. I'm going to try to get overlay to work as I find it very frustrating. Take care.

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by cdefrain

Sweeeet. Thanks for all the help. I'm going to try to get overlay to work as I find it very frustrating. Take care.

If you have an Nvidia MX440 or below, don't use drivers past 57.72 WQHL. While 61.77 works okay with these cards, it uses almost 30% more CPU to render video. I found that anything beyond 61.77 exhibits funky problems with overlay (pink or green). If you indeed have an old Geforce card, your problems should go away if you revert to 56.72.

[cdefrain]

That' interesting. I have the funky color problems with the overlay but I have a pretty new card (6800). Maybe I'll try the older driver then. Thanks.

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by cdefrain

That' interesting. I have the funky color problems with the overlay but I have a pretty new card (6800). Maybe I'll try the older driver then. Thanks.

The advice I gave above only applies to Geforce 4 cards or below. As a matter of fact, I don't think the 6800 had even been introduced when 56.72 came out.

If you have a 6800, then I'd guess you are using the new 77.72 WHQL? Now that I remember, when I had 77.72 installed, 3D mode was fine, but overlay mode was wacked. That driver has a gamma bug, that has since been addressed by 77.76 Forceware beta. I've installed it, and it works perfectly!

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_do..._2k_77.76.html

[fester]

live TV quality is an issue for every human being using hardware mpeg encoder with any tv / PVR software (MCE2005, BTV, SAGE, ETC) which provides mpeg2 encode-->decode. Quality can be improved greatly with good codec, and good silicon (ati theater550, etc) but:

only ATI MMC running ATI Tuner (AIW) in my experience provides ULTRA LOW CPU utilization 2-5%, super fast response times, and just better quality - and we're talkin only in live tv mode and only using MMC software app. ATI uses a sw encoder but the MMC app + ati hardware provides some hardware assist...

For all other apps - BTV + good mpeg2 hardware provides good live tv - but its really disappointing if compared to standard live tv (y'know like from a TV) or ATI MMC + ati aiw.\\

I have a box using just hardware encoders - no ATI AIW - and I have 4 different cards i've tested (pvr150, aver m150's, ati theater550, pvr-500) and there's no comparison.

This problem (my opinion) is due to the fact that a SD or HD signal is first encoded --> then decoded (which causes delay) and current standard pc hardware is just not fast enough!!!

Yonah (dual core pentiumM) + SATA300 + some custom codec are recommended for next release of MCE2006. yawn.