Highest quality output to replace a PVR 350?

[sbrushey]

Hi,

I have been using the TV out on a PVR 350 but want to try and find some alternatives for when support for this is dropped. I have tried multiple combinations of decoders and inputs on my TV but can't get near the quality of the 350. The picture is always a little soft and is especially noticeable with sport.

I have a 20" LCD TV that has VGA (native at 640 x 480), SVideo, Component and SCART (I currently use this for my set top box) so I can be quite flexible with inputs.

The PC is a 3Ghz P4 with a Gig of RAM.

I have tried Intervideo, Intervideo NonCSS, Dscaler MPEG2 and Purevideo NVIDIA codecs.

My current graphics card is an old Matrox G400 and I have experimented with VGA and SVIDEO out with various dual head settings and also tried custom resolutions with PowerStrip.

To be honest, I have tried so many combinations that it's difficult to say which was the best but what I can definitely say is that none of them are as good as the 350.

I guess the weak point in my system is the graphics card so what would people suggest? Any other suggestions to get the best quality?

Many thanks
Simon

[stefan]

What you would want (probably) is a graphics card with hardware deinterlacing. But, to be honest, you will probably not find any output with the same quality as the pvr-350. Unless you get a card with hdmi-output and a nice flat screen

[dottore]

your matrox-card is known to have the best tv-out available. you won't find a better solution (my opinion). i have this dualhead card and must say, it has a really good tv-out.

but no graphics card can ever reach the tv-out of the 350 or x-card.

[stefan]

but no graphics card can ever reach the tv-out of the 350 or x-card.

...which is really weird... the demand for that should have gotten high enough for the graphics card makers to get their act together and create something that is more than just usable...

[sbrushey]

That is my thought exactly... I was sure I must have missed something! How can a £1000 PC with high end components not match a £100 card?

So is there no way to equal the quality of a PVR 350 using analog connections? I presumed that most people wouldn't be using hdmi or other digital inputs yet and so would have noticed the difference between the source signal and that played back through GBPVR.

I don't think I am being that picky but I really can tell the difference.

Any more thoughts?

[Haggis]

I've started investigating alternatives to my 350, and havn't yet got that far as im stuck without a svideo to composite converter for my ATI 9250. However if you're interested I found a thread which someone, csy i think, gives some damn good info on optimising tv out settings. See http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=16157

[stefan]

and so would have noticed the difference between the source signal and that played back through GBPVR

You are not alone... at least when you have seen the pvr-350's quality, you can really tell the difference. But I have not used the 350's out for such a long time, so I have pretty much gotten used to the low quality I get. And I get really low quality - the tv out on the epia is crap.

[Haggis]

And I get really low quality - the tv out on the epia is crap.

Im sure its been said in the forums before, but why on earth did Hauppauge not fix this, they advertised it on their website as the flagship PVR, until recently, when they have appeared to give up. Its gone down on UK online etailers by about £40. Maybe they found the same problems as sub did and werent prepared to do anything about it. Sigh.

[sbrushey]

Two more questions on this....

1) I have the same performance using the 640 x 480 VGA input on my LCD TV. This is meant to be its default resolution but is there some scaling going on to explain the slightly blurred output? To the other people here who can't get high quality output without using the 350... what is your quality like on a normal PC monitor?

2) What about something like this to convert (transcode?) to to component video which is meant to be the highest quality? http://www.crescendo-systems.com/transcoder.html

Thanks, Simon

[Jobi Wan Kenobi]

I love my Sigma Designs XCard!! I know it is an old dinosaur now, but I think it is still the only device out there that can equal the 350. Plus, hardware Divx is pretty cool.