Overlay Vs VMR

[spapesh]

I am curious about a few things....

1. What is the difference between Overlay and VMR? ie Deinterlacing, Color Etc.

2. Which one generally gives the best picture on a standard NTSC TV set?


THANKS!

[stefan]

To answer your question #2: In theory VMR is much, much better. But if your computer speed isn't up to it, Overlay is much, much better (because with VMR you'd get a lot of studdering if your computer lacks horse power).

[Ted the Penguin]

lol ok here is a summary of what I have learned in list of attributes format

Overlay

• converts Video color levels to PC color levels, this means loss of sub picture information and also could cause artifacts etc. due to color conversion
  
• much easier on the CPU, will generally get rid of tearing problems
  
• only one OSD stream allowed
  
• no OSD transparency
  
• auto aspect ratio detection does not work
  

VMR

• Passes the original color information including sub picture BtB and WtW (Black to black.. you get the idea)
  
• higher CPU load
  
• allows multiple OSD streams
  
• allows OSD transparency, makes everything look prettier
  
• auto aspect ratio detection works
  
• allows aspect ratios to be off the screen, eg. remove letterbox
  

about video levels, on the computer scale of color (0-255): pc levels for black is 0 white is 255, however in video black is 16 and white is 239(I think). the reason for this is that you can put information in those unused color levels (or something like that, its been a while since I read up on it)


Hope this helps

[ww4397]

Overaly/VMR setting has no bearing on MVP playback, correct?

Thanks.

[pBS]

true...mvp gets the video as-is...and displays it using it's own renderer that isn't changable...gbpvr setting has no effect on that...

[kayak4ever]

I started using cyberlink decoder (instead of default) when I upgraded my TV and began to get stuttering problems. When I use VMT, the actual recordings show on both the computer and the TV (but not when I am looking at the menus) but if I use overlay, I get the recordings just on the TV (which is what I want).