Is there a way to fine-tuning image quality

[DavidB]

Thanks to great help I've received from folks on this board, I have nPVR working well now, with the program guide set up and the remote working.

Now, I'd like to see if I can get a slightly better picture. I'm using ffdshow as the codec with U.S. OTA broadcasts. When there is little motion in the scene the picture is absolutely beautiful: detailed, vivid, crisp. But when something moves quickly, the edges of the moving object or person get heavily pixelated, and if the whole scene is moving (during a fast pan, for example) the image sometimes breaks up and then re-stabilizes when the image is no longer moving so much.

Another issue is that on some TV channels, I get video noise right at the top border of the active video area, basically a line of flashing junk just a few pixels wide. These seems to vary; a problem on some stations not others. More likely to be a problem on a dark background.

The other decoders (besides FFDSHOW) that show up in my installation are nanocosmos, main concept, arcsoft, and intervideo nonCSS. None of these really work.

Are there other decoders that could be better? Where do I find them? Is there anything in my configuration other than the decoder that could be causing the image degradation related to motion. I do understand a bit about MPEG and I know that when things are moving the bit rate can go up -- so perhaps the issue not with the decoder but with bottlenecks elsewhere in the set up??? My faster graphics card is on order but hasn't come yet.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
David

[sub]

Is the Radeon 9600 upto HDTV? Its a pretty old card now.

I'm not sure when it comes to ATI cards, but I remember nvidia cards from the would struggle unless you went for the more up-spec modesl (like Nvidia 6600GT being for 1080i/720p, wheras Nvidia 6200 wasnt up to the task). With some of these slower cards they didnt have the memory bandwidth to pass all the HDTV pixels required per second.

[sub]

When there is little motion in the scene the picture is absolutely beautiful: detailed, vivid, crisp. But when something moves quickly, the edges of the moving object or person get heavily pixelated, and if the whole scene is moving (during a fast pan, for example) the image sometimes breaks up and then re-stabilizes when the image is no longer moving so much.

This sounds like you might need to turn on Deinterlacing in the ffdshow settings.

[Reddwarf]

This sounds like you might need to turn on Deinterlacing in the ffdshow settings.

Definitly yes. I'd also recommend trying the decoders in SD Pack and HD Pack (download from dvbsupport.net), I had success with the Cyberlink decoders and ATI cards.

[DavidB]

This sounds like you might need to turn on Deinterlacing in the ffdshow settings.

There are more than a dozen different deinterlacing options. Any particular one that you recommend?

Regarding the card, I have a Radeon HD 3650 on order, so we'll see in a few days if that does noticeably better.

Thanks,
David

[sub]

There are more than a dozen different deinterlacing options. Any particular one that you recommend?

I dont have the ffdshow decoder installed at the moment, and cant remember the various options. Any of them should work though. Try bob first, and try others if you need to.

Regarding the card, I have a Radeon HD 3650 on order, so we'll see in a few days if that does noticeably better.

I think this will help.

[johnsonx42]

once you get the 3650, download the ati AVIVO pack. that will install the ATI MPEG-2 Decoder, which I've found works pretty well. You'll also find various video playback settings, including de-interlacing, in the Catalyst Control Center.

[Reddwarf]

once you get the 3650, download the ati AVIVO pack. that will install the ATI MPEG-2 Decoder, which I've found works pretty well. You'll also find various video playback settings, including de-interlacing, in the Catalyst Control Center.

And remember to get the 10a version of catalyst.

[DavidB]

I just switched on de-interlacing and it makes a huge difference. Thanks.

[johnsonx42]

And remember to get the 10a version of catalyst.

actually the current agp driver is 10.11 hotfix: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pag...otfix.aspx