Switching between NTSC and PAL

[barakori]

Yes, you were actually very clear about that, but it was very late (my time-zone). Sorry about that. Obviously, you don't use these settings, as you don't use a MediaMVP. I bought the MVP since I didn't want the noise in my living room, and can't afford a silent PC at the moment.

In any case, I'll try to create a sample video (MPEG) and ask you to play it and see if it looks smooth.

[zehd]

I would use the Hauppauge software and switch to PAL and leave it.

The <MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLinePAL> and <MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLineNTSC> command lines dictate how the output will be formatted.

I had some trouble with having GB-PVR knowing which command to use in the beginning (I live in NTSC land, and GB-PVR always wanted to use the PAL command line)

I ended up writing my own Transcoder 'frontend' for FFmpeg, MEncoder and VLC: ZProcess. What I found was with basic settings all content was transcoded to the correct output settings. I was able to get all of my PAL content to display on NTSC no problem...

I have a pretty good eye, but have never been interested in the technobabble that videophiles use. To my eye, the pictures look as good as the original source.

Unfortunately a lot of the content available for download has been so heavily compressed with frame swapping and down sizing, even the originals I have, both PAL or NTSC, on any PC refresh rate, have some blemishes...

IMHO, of course

[mvallevand]

Question: Is there a way to switch between PAL and NTSC using GB-PVR and the MediaMVP? It would be best if I don't need to rstart the unit when doing so.

My wish: That the 'auto' option would work like a multisystem DVD player - when a 23.976 or 29.97 fps content is detected - the unit broadcasts it in NTSC, when a 25 fps content is detected, the unit broadcasts it in PAL. Some DVD players allow for on-the-fly conversion between PAL and NTSC but (for the reasons explained above), you loose quality in the process.

The flash settings in the mvp do allow for dual mode monitors and there is a way in the Hauppauge protocol for the server to specify the video standard. However since you can't change mvp settings or OSD display size with GBPVR while it runs, this wouldn't work the same way.

If you wanted to use the mvpmc alternate dongle, you can choose PAL or NTSC from the main menu rather then reloading a dongle and reconnecting doesn't take too long. If you want more information on this there is a sub forum on mvpmc here. This dongle is still not as stable as some of Hauppauge's but the gbpvr community is helping make it better.

Martin

[barakori]

I've put 3 test videos on my site at http://www.xmixdrix.com/video/ - the page itself includes a brief description of what I wanted to check. Can people please view the videos and tell me if it's just me or others also see the reduced quality when a 23.976 fps NTSC movie is played on a PAL system.

Oh, and I'm happy to see that the MVP supports (as it seems) switching between PAL and NTSC. I wish I had time to hack into this (but with a wife, two kids and a high mortage my hacking days are quite over...)

Note: please be patient when downloading the videos. They're about 4MB each, but my cheap web hosting is good, but not that fast...