ATI 550 setup for maximum quality

[csy]

My ATI 550 delivers very sharp clear picture. I have recently purchased a 30" LCD TV and in combination with the ATI 550 produces a picture that is sharper and clearer than my Sony Wega 29" CRT TV. The quality is very close to matching DVD's.

I did 2 things to achieve this quality on my ATI 550:
1) In the ATI TV Configuration (control panel), set the Noise Reduction Filter to 'none'
2) Installed a mast-head RF amplifier to boost the RF signal going into the ATI 550.

Generally speaking, all analogue TV capture cards require a very strong RF signal input otherwise you tend to get grainy picture. By default the TV capture card compensates for this by applying a noise filter which deliberately blurs the picture to obscure the grainy look. This of course makes the picture appear fuzzy and out of focus.

The best approach is to feed a strong high-quality signal into the card, then you don't need noise filtering, and by disabling noise filtering you will end-up with a sharp clear picture.

The encoding bit-rate obviously also plays an important part. In my experience 5Mb/s CBR produces sharp clear picture if the picture content is low (eg animated video, or news where there is a face filling half the screen and plain background), and/or slow scene movements. But high picture content and med/fast scene movement @5Mb/s CBR results in loss of picture quality (becomes fuzzy and blured). 8Mb/s CBR produces sharp clear picture quality under all circumstances for me. 9Mb/s and higher on the ATI 550 causes picture degraduation on my system. VBR on the ATI 550 causes blockiness on fast scene movements, so I do not recommend it.

In the GBPVR I configured 'LiveTV Quality' to 8Mb/s CBR, and then in GBPVR direct.ini duplicated those settings to 'encoder pass-through'. This results in LiveTV (preview mode and timeshift mode) producing 8Mb/s CBR quality to the TV.

I generally record @5Mb/s CBR as a trade-off between quality and file-size.

Picture quaility output to the TV is of course also dependant on video decoder and video card capabilities and configuration. I use the Purevideo decoder (configured for DXVA and hardware de-interlacing), and a video card that supports the decoder configuration.

With respect to video decoders, I personally find the Cyberlink, Intervideo, and Purevideo decoders all produce very similiar picture quality, however IMO the Purevideo decoder has the best timing synchronisation (smoothest movement of horizontally-scrolling ticker tapes).

If you are using a SDTV (normal CRT TV), the best quality picture is obtained by setting screen resolution to 720x480(NTSC) or 720x576(PAL), and disable all scaling and overscan correction settings on the video card, decoder, and GBPVR. you also need to disable (or reduce to zero) the TV-out anti-flicker.

[Jarobata]

My ATI 550 delivers very sharp clear picture. I have recently purchased a 30" LCD TV and in combination with the ATI 550 produces a picture that is sharper and clearer than my Sony Wega 29" CRT TV. The quality is very close to matching DVD's.

I did 2 things to achieve this quality on my ATI 550:
1) In the ATI TV Configuration (control panel), set the Noise Reduction Filter to 'none'
2) Installed a mast-head RF amplifier to boost the RF signal going into the ATI 550.

Generally speaking, all analogue TV capture cards require a very strong RF signal input otherwise you tend to get grainy picture. By default the TV capture card compensates for this by applying a noise filter which deliberately blurs the picture to obscure the grainy look. This of course makes the picture appear fuzzy and out of focus.

The best approach is to feed a strong high-quality signal into the card, then you don't need noise filtering, and by disabling noise filtering you will end-up with a sharp clear picture.

The encoding bit-rate obviously also plays an important part. In my experience 5Mb/s CBR produces sharp clear picture if the picture content is low (eg animated video, or news where there is a face filling half the screen and plain background), and/or slow scene movements. But high picture content and med/fast scene movement @5Mb/s CBR results in loss of picture quality (becomes fuzzy and blured). 8Mb/s CBR produces sharp clear picture quality under all circumstances for me. 9Mb/s and higher on the ATI 550 causes picture degraduation on my system. VBR on the ATI 550 causes blockiness on fast scene movements, so I do not recommend it.

In the GBPVR I configured 'LiveTV Quality' to 8Mb/s CBR, and then in GBPVR direct.ini duplicated those settings to 'encoder pass-through'. This results in LiveTV (preview mode and timeshift mode) producing 8Mb/s CBR quality to the TV.

I generally record @5Mb/s CBR as a trade-off between quality and file-size.

Picture quaility output to the TV is of course also dependant on video decoder and video card capabilities and configuration. I use the Purevideo decoder (configured for DXVA and hardware de-interlacing), and a video card that supports the decoder configuration.

With respect to video decoders, I personally find the Cyberlink, Intervideo, and Purevideo decoders all produce very similiar picture quality, however IMO the Purevideo decoder has the best timing synchronisation (smoothest movement of horizontally-scrolling ticker tapes).

If you are using a SDTV (normal CRT TV), the best quality picture is obtained by setting screen resolution to 720x480(NTSC) or 720x576(PAL), and disable all scaling and overscan correction settings on the video card, decoder, and GBPVR. you also need to disable (or reduce to zero) the TV-out anti-flicker.

Thank you for your very in depth response. Now I have 2 questions, 1. do you have a recommendation for an rf amplifier and 2. where can I access the ATI TV configuration?

[csy]

1. do you have a recommendation for an rf amplifier

The reference TV RF signal level is 60dB micro-volts (1 milli-volt) input into domestic TV electronics.

Each TV channel will be transmitting at its own signal level, and in order to select the correct level of amplification, you really need to measure the signal level of each channel using a RF signal-strength meter, however for DIY purposes you can generally get away with simply amplifying the whole RF signal by "x" dB. However you have to be carefull not to over-amplify the signal because that will distort the RF signal or overload the input to the TV/capture card.

As a general rule of thumb, most off-the-shelf RF amplifiers boost (gain) by 10 to 20dB across the entire RF range (VHF and UHF), and in most cases will work very well. Better still are amplifiers that provide separate gain adjustments of VHF and UHF because generally speaking UHF frequencies require high boost but VHF only require little boost and risk overload. It is important to locate the amplifier as close as possible to the aerial, in order to obtain the best possible signal-to-noise ratio. I actually use a amplifier/splitter located very close to the aerial. I highly recommend shielded amplifiers and splitters with 'F' connectors, to minimise noise and provide best possible impedance matching.

Aerial condition also plays an important part. It is important all electrical terminations on the aerial are corrosion-free, and I use silicone paste to prevent future corrosion. The balun also needs to be in excellent condition with corrosion-free electrical terminations.

High quality low-loss coaxial cable is also very important. I highly recmmend RG6 type coax.

In conclusion, crap signal input = crap TV picture quality. The only way to obtain good picture quality on the ATI 550 is to have good quality signal input from your aerial.

2. where can I access the ATI TV configuration?

Download and install the ATI 550 Control Panel that is available with the latest drivers on the ATI website. Once installed, go into Windows Control Panel and you will see it in there.