Newbe question regarding nVidia 6100 vs 7300 vs 7600

[jelizalde]

Hi all,

Just putting together my first PVR. I've installed a ATI theatrix tuner with GBPVR and works fine.

Now regarding the video:

I've got an integrated nVidia 6100 in the motherboard w/shared memory. After some tweakings, I've made it work (quality is not great though). So I'm evaluating getting a new card. I've seen 2 models that may work (I'm in Mexico, so availability is not great)
- nVidia-based 7300 (w/128MB memory), heat-sink cooled
- nVidia-based 7600 (w/512MB memory), fan cooled, also includes hardware decoder for Mpeg-2 & H.264

Questions:
1) Will the 7300 give me a significant improvement vs the integrated 6100?
2) Is the 7600 worth the price difference (u$ 150 vs u$s 60 of the 7300)?

I have a AMD 64x2 4200+ computer, and use mostly regular TV (not HDTV) and DVDs.

Any answers appreciated. Thanks!

[gEd]

Are you sure that it is the the 6100 at fault and not the quality of the recordings? (try watching the recording on a pc screen)
[edit] I guess if DVD's are bad also, then this rules out the tv tuner.

What's wrong with the picture?

What decoder are you using?

Try switching the renderer in config.exe between VMR/VMR custom and overlay.

Are you using a good quality cable from the card to the tv? (this can cure noise and diagonal banding)

I have not used the 6100 chip but I would have expected it to be perfectly capable of delivering a decent tv image.

[jelizalde]

The issue is more that the picture sometimes get black, or I cannot see the overlays (e.g. channel info, remote buttons, etc.).

Maybe something is not compatible. I tried with the different modes (overlay, etc.) and it seems I have something that works (although a little unstable).

Thanks for the reply. Regards,

Juan

[stustunz]

just needs some fine tuning to get the menus to show in the config file
when you say black where is it black ?
is the picture smooth when paning or jumpy ?
what are the colours like ?
are the edges of people/cars etc sharp?

make sure you use single display for setup makes things easier

[jelizalde]

just needs some fine tuning to get the menus to show in the config file

when you say black where is it black ?

-> sometimes all the screen, sometimes part of it (e.g. the left half, and maybe with some strange artifacts)

is the picture smooth when paning or jumpy ?

-> is is a little bit jumpy. However, I was browsing the forum and find some ideas to test (de-interlacing settings, etc.)

what are the colours like ?

-> colors are fine

are the edges of people/cars etc sharp?

-> not very sharp, but they seem ok for a TV source or DVD (I have no basis for comparison)

make sure you use single display for setup makes things easier

-> For now, I'm using a 19'' widescreen LCD (1440 x 900 resolution), and looking forward to get a 32'' or 37'' inch LCD (I believe it is 1366 x 768)

Thanks!

[stefan]

If you do a search for posts made by csy, he has done quite a few comparisons and analyses of cards, both nvidia and ati. I think his conclusion is that ati seems to perform a little bit better in an HTPC environment.

[stustunz]

can you list what your settings are
gbpvr playback settings
video card settings
check you have the latest drivers for your video im guessing they would be different than the motherboard
i reckon you should be able to get a pretty good picture my laptop has less specs than that and video playback is perfect
how much ram do you have?
operating system?
give us all the info you can ,very hard to offer help on what you have given

[jelizalde]

Thanks for your help. I'm doing quite a lot of reading, and as for now, I'm getting it to work. Also checked csy's posts, and got some tweak ideas.