I need a new codec

[teookie]

I'm getting poor video quality live tv and recordings with both analog and QAM channels. Especially the SD TV, looks out of focus and the pillar bars on my TV don't look black, they are kinda gray. Since I was getting good video quality on the same hardware before I switched from XP to Vista, I'm confident it's a codec thing.

I'm running a FOXCONN 780G mobo w/ the onboard HD3200 graphics, and a HVR 1600. I have a decent processor, 5000+ BE and 2G of ram.

Questions:

1) With my fresh install of Vista Business, what codecs am I currently using? I have not installed anything on the computer except Vista, GBPVR, WinTV, Firefox, and a few other random -not-media-related- things.

2) For my hardware, what codecs will likely give the best results? I'm hoping someone with a similar setup can share there experience.

Let me mention that I don't enjoy trying to remove codecs once there isntalled. Seems like I can never fully remove them. Thats why I'm starting this thread before I even TRY a codec, I want to test the waters as much as I can before diving in.

With all that said, I'm currently leaning towards FFDSHOW or FFDSHOW tryouts, even though I did not like it on my XP machine (could never get the SPDIF out to work). But I am open to other options and everyones advice!

Thanks.

[carpeVideo]

I'd give FFDshow a try - you don't have to use it for audio if you don't want.

Install it with Koepi's codec pak it has many other options you can try and de-installs as well.

[Deusxmachina]

FFdshow is known to have a lousy mpeg2 decoder. It's good for everything else. I'd just grab Gabest MPV or Dscaler5 and see how you like one or both.

For SPDIF, top choices tend to be FFdshow or AC3filter. I've had both working, and both have many options if someone desires them, but the easiest setup was using Dscaler5. FF and AC3filter can have a lot more hoop jumping. So, maybe try Dscaler5 and see how you like it for both video AND SPDIF.

The only codec pack I'd bother with is CCCP. It's put together and recommended by a bunch of encoding groups, and is recommended by the guys who created mkv files.

[teookie]

I installed FFDSHOW, and HD TV looks worse. It's now choppy, and the sound is intermittent. This is a MPEG2 right? If so, then what I'm seeing goes along with what Deusxmachina is saying. SD TV still looks bad. Not that thats unusual I think it looks better using the TV's internal tuner though...

Next I will try CCCP, MPV, or Dscaler5 for MPEG2 depending on which one I like the most after a quick research session.

Thanks for the input so far!

[teookie]

How do I get 5.1 DD or DTS or PCM (depending on source) out via SPDIF w/ FFDSHOW? It's converting everything to 2 channel.

This is frustrating!