Video Card Recommendation

[kfecher]

Can anyone advise just how important the PC's video card is to running GBPVR? I can play a DVD regular on the HTPC I built and it looks fantastic on my 46" 1080P television, but the GBPVR is iffy at times. I only have an analog TV card, so I understand that issue, but the image doesn't seem to flow as smoothly as the DVD does. I messed with the decoders etc. and got it to smooth out, but it still doesn't seem to be as good as it could be.

The PC is a Dell P4 HyperThreader running 2.8 GHz, 3 GB of RAM with a Hauppauge HT1600 TV card and an NVidia 6200 128MB video card with DVI out put to the TV via DVI to HDMI cable.

Thanks to all who pipe in here.

[pBS]

i'd say it's the most important thing about running gbpvr or any video playback software..
the 6200 is a bit underpowered for hd, but it should do sd ok...
i would try different drivers...newest not necessarily being best..
what decoder? if you've got purevideo i'd give that a try, or ffdshow latest tryouts should help if set right..
tried using same codec for tv as dvd?

dvd is progressive, so doesn't require deinterlacing, which is probably where your card is failing..
[all analog tv is interlaced]
get ffdshow beta7 or better and set nv12 colorspace and check interlaced under that and should look good..

[mikeh49]

I think the 6200 is the problem. When I went from a SD CRT TV to a new 720p LCD TV, I could barely get acceptable quality with a 6200 using VMR9-FSE. Resolution for the CRT TV was 720X480, on the LCD 1366X768. I think there were just too many pixels for the card to handle. Perhaps Win7 and EVR would be OK, I just had XP at the time. It might also depend on which 6200 you have; some were 64 bit memory path while others were 128 bit, as I recall. The wider memory path was considered important back in the day. You might want to search the forum for posts by csy and Shining Dragon for past discussions on this. Older drivers were often better too, 94.xx and 97.xx were mentioned, I think.

I gave up and got a 9600 Pro on ebay and that handled SD just fine and HD OK with VMR9-FSE. Again, Win7 and EVR may be better.

[kfecher]

thanks to both of you who have responded. It has helped. I am nursing the old system through since I can't afford a new HTPC yet. This setup is different because prior to now I used a media distribution tool to our basic 36" CRT TV. Now on the 46" LCD I am running the PC straight to the monitor. I will try your recommendations.