G400 and me pulling my hair out.

[flumpdumpy]

OK, let me give some background on what I'm trying to do so this will make sense. I have a Sony Wega 27" SDTV(NTSC) that I am trying to hook my PVR box up to. When I started this project I had a few goals as to what I expected my PVR to be able to do and I have managed to get all taken care of with one exception; I absolutly will not except de-interlaced output on my TV. In my mind, de-interlacing drops the quailty down so low as to make the project pointless.
Anyway, to acheive this goal I went out and got a Matrox G400 Dual-Head, which as far as I can tell is one of the very few cards that can output interlaced video correctly. I have tested just about every PVR software out there and GB-PVR is the closest thing I have found to letting me set this thing up the way I want it. I've gotten it so close, but there are just a couple of things that I can't get right.
Right now I have the G400 set-up in clone mode with the DVDMax feature turned on. In theory, what this should do is display the GB-PVR menu on both the montor and tv but when I go into any video mode, the DVDMax feature should kick in and display the video in a fullscreen-overscan mode, and I have had some success with this by setting the de-interlace mode on my decoder filter to weave.
Right now, Live Preview looks just like normal TV, Timeshifting mode looks "good enough" and DVDs are beautiful. However, when I go into the "recordings" or "videos" mode and try to play something, not only does the DVDMax feature not kick in, but the output is de-interlaced even though I've got the decoder filter set to weave. This seems to indicate that the "recordings" and "videos" mode build a separate filter graph without taking into account what is specified in the playback settings.
So I guess what my questing boils down to is: Is there any way to control how video is displayed in the the "recordings" and "videos" modes?

Here's some extra info: I've tested lots of different decoders, the one I'm using now is the Cyberlink decoder that comes with PowerDVD 6. I've turned de-interlacing off by going into the configuration menu in PowerDVD, and by changing the properties of the "Cyberlink Video/SP decoder" in GraphEdit to Weave.

Any type of solution or suggestion would be welcome. There really isn't much that is over my head.

[flumpdumpy]

Well, nevermind. I think I've managed to fix this. Problem was with the decoder filter I was using. It seems that it was doing what it wanted to no matter what I told it.

[mlanglois]

So, are you satisfied with your GBPVR + G400 combination?
Your opinion is important to me, because I've experienced the same frustrations with TV outputs from computers (black borders, blurry pictures...). I've tried several cards, including an All-in-Wonder 9800. I've been told that only the Matrox cards have excellent TV-out. Do you confirm that? i.e., when playing a DVD, is the quality the same as a standalone player?

Also, you talk about a special DVDMax mode. In what way is it different from a fullscreen clone? And can this mode be used when watching live or recorded TV? What about other file formats (DivX, WMV...)?

My other option is to purchase a Sigmatek XCard, because of its great TV-out and hardware decompression, but it doesn't handle newer formats such as WMV. What do you think?

[flumpdumpy]

Well, the answer is a little complicated, and the I've not fully completed my tweaking so I can't really say that I'm happy with it yet. What I will say is that yes, the G400 has the best tv out that I have ever seen and I have compared it directly to a GF-MX-440, GF-FX-5700, and an ATI radeon 9550.

But the G400 also has some pretty serious limitations. Namely, it is an old card with only 32megs of memory and is not directx 9 compliant. What that means as far as a PVR is concerned is that you have to be careful what decoders you use, as they may require DirectX 9. I can tell you for a fact that the Nvidia DVD decoder will not work with this card. Also, when I am viewing any type of video, be it TV, DivX, SVCD, etc, there is no OSD at all. I have just resigned myself to this fact.

What makes the G400 special is that in the DVDMax mode the timing and scanlines match up the same way a normal TV signal would. DVDMax is similar to ATI's "Theater Mode". Let's say you've got the monitor and TV set up in clone mode and have GB-PVR running in a window instead of full screen. When you're in the menu of GB-PVR you will see the exact same thing on both the TV and the monitor, but when you go to watch a video or TV, GB-PVR goes into overlay mode, which engages DVDMax. You would then see the video playing in the GB-PVR window on the desktop of the monitor, but on your TV the video would be blown up full screen(This is also why there is no OSD on my TV).

Now, is the right solution for you? That depends on the capabilities of the TV you will be hooking it up to. My tv is strictly standard definition, and if I had known before I started this project what I know now, I would have saved my money and just started putting it away for an HDTV. You see, it is much easier to get a nice picture from your PVR on an HDTV(even at standard TV resolutions) than it is on a SDTV.

So, what are the specs on your TV? Are you NTSC or PAL? Is your TV strictly Standard Def(SDTV)? Is it an HDTV(not likely, you probably wouldn't be asking this question if it were)? Or maybe you have a SDTV that has some extra features like component inputs with progressive scan?

If your TV has progressive scan then I think you may be in luck. The way I understand it(and you'll want to verify this), progressive scan basicly allows you to use the lowest HDTV resolution. If this is the case then you probably want to consider an ATI or Nvidia card with some kind of HDTV converter. The one that comes to mind would be an ATI Radeon with the HDTV component adapter. With this set-up you should be able to set-up your output to the full 60/50hz and then set your decoder filter up to use Bob/frame-rate-doubling which should eliminate all deinterlacing artifacts.

If you're like me and stuck with an SDTV, I wouldn't drop another dime on my PVR until I got an HDTV.

Anyway, hope that helps. Anyone else feel free to chime in here. Sub?

[mlanglois]

Thanks for the answer. Indeed, I only have a PAL non progressive SDTV. And it will be quite some time before I can buy my favorite 32" LCD HDTV ! Then I'll use a DVI cable and forever forget any interlaced analog signal!

In the meantime, I need good TV output, and you've just confirmed that only Matrox does provide such quality. But the lack of DirectX 9 support is a serious problem, so maybe the XCard is my best option for now. I'll check more recent Matrox cards, though.

Anyway, thanks again for the quick answer!

[Romain.H]

Hello, im buying the Matrox G550 because a lot if people says it's have a very good video output, and test with dualhead and DvdMax confirm the quality.
But I want use this card only with the TV video composite output connected, and here begins the problems, In dual head mode, the card bios doesnt boot when only one output connected. Have you make some experience in this domain?, the G400 and g550 are very similar.

Salutation, Romain.