Quality problems - recent only

[fpdave]

recently (within a few months I think), the quality of both live and recordings seems to have been reduced.

If I play LIVE TV then i can see compression artifiacts (eg around text titles on a plain background)

Also, why has ffdshow suddenly started to be displayed in my notification icon area, and to be used to (I'm guessing) decompress recordings, with subsequent delays in playback in many cases.

I have a Hauppauge HD 1300.

log attached of LIVE TV (started at 22:04:03)

[sub]

You're relying on the 'system default' decoders to do playback, which means the system will pick some decoder it things will do the job. You have most likely installed or uninstalled some application which has changed the default decoder.

Its much better to explicitly select the decoders rather than relying on 'system default'.

Also, why has ffdshow suddenly started to be displayed in my notification icon area, and to be used to (I'm guessing) decompress recordings, with subsequent delays in playback in many cases.

According to your logs, ffdshow is now you systems default audio decoder, which is why its being used.

[fpdave]

ahhh, much thanks.