2005-11-22, 03:46 PM
I just set up my PVR last week. My hardware is fairly powerful - 3ghz Northwood, 512mb Ram - 80GB 8mb cache 7200 HDD (OS & Programs), 200GB 8mb cache 7200 HDD (media storage), ASUS P4PE board, etc. Running XPSP2.
Up until last night I was running on a POS Sapphire ATI board with S-Video out that was a couple years old - the system worked fairly well, video quality was watchable but left a bit to be desired, especially for sports events. I was also using the built in sound board, worked OK, but nothing special.
First, I installed an M-Audio Delta 410 card several days ago --- Wow, I expected better sound, but not this much better. Smooth installation... Highly recommended - check newegg..
Enter Gigabyte 6600GT card. Colors better, images a bit sharper - motion on screen still fairly poor, especially noticible with sports footage.
Enter nVidia purevideo decoder --- WOW, video quality is now noticibly *better* than even my direct cable feed running into my traditional components, feeding the TV with a composite signal (for GBPVR I'm using S-Video to the TV) -- but here's where the frustration starts...
Many times, after starting live TV the Purevideo decoder studders or jitters - it's not like a studder you'd see if the processor couldn't keep up or frames dropping, it's different, and it only affects fast movement on the screen and is regular in frequency. It can sometimes be resolved by changing channels and changing back. This did not occur at all with the previous decoders I've tried, although they also did not produce nearly the quality that the nVidia decoder provides.
It will also affect some of my recordings - when I first built this system, I recorded a couple shows to my 80GB OS & Program drive --- these shows consistantly show the same "jittery-ness", while ones to the 200GB generally won't. Odd, both are high performance drives and are on the same IDE controller... None do it with the other decoders I've used (which also yield significantly poorer picture quality).
Also - this seems to only be a problem in GBPVR -- I've played the same recorded video in WMP with none of the studdering/jitters.
Next problem - when I installed the nVidia drivers, I lost my sound. Got it back by adjusting my sound properties in the control panel, however, later in the evening I found that I still had no sound for DVDs - only in GBPVR - WMP still plays sound for DVDs using the Purevideo decoder and all other sound still works as does WinDVD (using it's own decoder). Again, Purevideo makes DVDs look a lot more like a standalone player so I'd like to use it if at all possible. I tried different audio decoders and renderers in GBPVR config, to no avail -- can't remember if I switched back to a different video decoder to see if that made any difference in sound output.
Last oddity I've noticed so far with the 6600GT is that at the top of the screen on some channels there is a line or two of noise that I didn't experience with my junk ATI card.... Not a big deal, but still annoying that my high end card does this and my low end card does not.
Lastly -- Firefly remote - I've finally got it configured halfway decently, but it's range seems to be extremely poor -- I have a fairly small living room and it struggles reaching from the couch to the TV (where the receiver is placed) - which is probably somewhere on the order of 15' or so (definitely not more than 20). I tried moving the RF receiver around with little luck. Also tried fresh batteries. Anyone else experienced poor reception with the firefly? I bought it because of the luck I've had with other RF remotes in the past...
Up until last night I was running on a POS Sapphire ATI board with S-Video out that was a couple years old - the system worked fairly well, video quality was watchable but left a bit to be desired, especially for sports events. I was also using the built in sound board, worked OK, but nothing special.
First, I installed an M-Audio Delta 410 card several days ago --- Wow, I expected better sound, but not this much better. Smooth installation... Highly recommended - check newegg..
Enter Gigabyte 6600GT card. Colors better, images a bit sharper - motion on screen still fairly poor, especially noticible with sports footage.
Enter nVidia purevideo decoder --- WOW, video quality is now noticibly *better* than even my direct cable feed running into my traditional components, feeding the TV with a composite signal (for GBPVR I'm using S-Video to the TV) -- but here's where the frustration starts...
Many times, after starting live TV the Purevideo decoder studders or jitters - it's not like a studder you'd see if the processor couldn't keep up or frames dropping, it's different, and it only affects fast movement on the screen and is regular in frequency. It can sometimes be resolved by changing channels and changing back. This did not occur at all with the previous decoders I've tried, although they also did not produce nearly the quality that the nVidia decoder provides.
It will also affect some of my recordings - when I first built this system, I recorded a couple shows to my 80GB OS & Program drive --- these shows consistantly show the same "jittery-ness", while ones to the 200GB generally won't. Odd, both are high performance drives and are on the same IDE controller... None do it with the other decoders I've used (which also yield significantly poorer picture quality).
Also - this seems to only be a problem in GBPVR -- I've played the same recorded video in WMP with none of the studdering/jitters.
Next problem - when I installed the nVidia drivers, I lost my sound. Got it back by adjusting my sound properties in the control panel, however, later in the evening I found that I still had no sound for DVDs - only in GBPVR - WMP still plays sound for DVDs using the Purevideo decoder and all other sound still works as does WinDVD (using it's own decoder). Again, Purevideo makes DVDs look a lot more like a standalone player so I'd like to use it if at all possible. I tried different audio decoders and renderers in GBPVR config, to no avail -- can't remember if I switched back to a different video decoder to see if that made any difference in sound output.
Last oddity I've noticed so far with the 6600GT is that at the top of the screen on some channels there is a line or two of noise that I didn't experience with my junk ATI card.... Not a big deal, but still annoying that my high end card does this and my low end card does not.
Lastly -- Firefly remote - I've finally got it configured halfway decently, but it's range seems to be extremely poor -- I have a fairly small living room and it struggles reaching from the couch to the TV (where the receiver is placed) - which is probably somewhere on the order of 15' or so (definitely not more than 20). I tried moving the RF receiver around with little luck. Also tried fresh batteries. Anyone else experienced poor reception with the firefly? I bought it because of the luck I've had with other RF remotes in the past...
etPlaybackRate(1.000000)