Help w/ Standard Def playback on HDTV

[the.it.dude]

Deusxmachina,

Thanks for the tip. Maybe, I'll go back and try ffdshow again.

stustunz,

I have a MSI NX8500GT (NVidia)

[stustunz]

good card
what driver version
on my 6800 any driver pre 100 is best im not sure this would apply for the 8xxx series as i think the later drivers probably work better with more advanced cards

can i ask exactly what are you trying to acheive ie sharper picture or what ?

[the.it.dude]

stustunz,

Off the top of my head, I don't know the driver version. MSI provides an auto update utility. I used that to update to the "latest" drivers (at least the latest that MSI provides)

Yes, I was trying to sharpen up the picture and lose the "static" looking effect. FYI, I use a MVP on a 50" standard def tv in a different room. That picture looked better. (As expected... Standard def never looks as good on a HDTV).

However, the combination of turning off the "stretch" mode that it was displaying in (I changed to Pillar Bar) and installing dscaler improved the picture greatly. (Good enough to make me happy, anyway)

[stustunz]

the problem with things like descaler etc alot of the time the hardware acceleration no longer is used when you use them so you are missing out on why you brought the good video card in the first place (im not saying this will be happening just something to look out for)

good to see you got it sorted

[the.it.dude]

Interesting,

I'll have to see what my cpu is doing and see if I can tell if I've lost out on hardware accelleration.

I guess another option is to buy the purevideo decoder. (It's not free, correct?)

[the.it.dude]

Well,

I may have spoken too soon. Actually sat down to watch a whole recording. With the dscaler decoder, the playback was choppy. Had to revert to the Intervideo decoder. It's a shame, because the quality was definitely better with the dscaler. Maybe I can tweak the settings of dscaler a bit to find a balance.

[stustunz]

to me that would indicate the hardware accel not working
have you tried turning the 3d setting up and down on your video card
and always make sure vertical sync is forced on this ties the refresh rate to the desktop which can help with smooth playback ie 60hz

[Deusxmachina]

I guess another option is to buy the purevideo decoder. (It's not free, correct?)

Not free, and hasn't been updated in a year and probably never will be, either. If I paid for a decoder, I might pay for BitControl. I like that one. Gabest MPV is still my go-to decoder, though.

If you mentioned what cpu you have, I missed it. If your computer is struggling with dscaler and non-HD, I wouldn't expect too much out of it. My Core2Duo is currently at 2.8ghz, and it can get hit pretty hard with just a few filters on.

[pBS]

change dscaler colorspace to NV12 to get hardware accelleration..
and yes, the card's 3d settings are pretty much the only relevant things here besides deinterlacing...
3d settings can dramatically improve details...or smooth them if need noise reduction...

[the.it.dude]

guys,

Thanks for all the input!

I had not looked at the 3D settings because I assumed that was for gaming and other 3d software applications. Didn't realize it would effect video playback.

I had seen reference to NV12 in a previous post and I believe that I had turned that on. (Will double check).

Wow, didn't realize the impacts of the filters on even a good CPU. I have a 2 GHz Dual Core Pentium. I guess I assumed my CPU could handle the playback even if the system wasn't using the graphics card hardware accelleration. My TV is a 720P. So I didn't think that I would be pushing the envelope like if it were 1080P. (I still haven't checked the CPU usage while doing any of my testing)