Poor Quality Recording

[Keeper]

I have been using gbpvr for about a year now but i still cannot get some tv shows to record with good enough quality. I am not sure if it is setup, hardware or drivers, i am hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Most programs that don't include any quick movements are fine but but sports especially hockey games record in such poor quality that it is unwatchable. (Yes i am Canadian)

I am using a Asus p5p800 board, P4 3.0Ghz, 2 GB of Ram, ATI 9600 SE 256meg (latest ATI drivers) and two Hauppauge Wintv Pvr 150 capture cards. I have tried the DirectX fix that was posted on this forum with little to no changes in quality.

I am thinking that the Hauppauge Wintv Pvr 150 card is not good enough to capture the quick movements of a hockey game.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[chud]

is it a stuttering that you see (say every second or so) or more like a "ghosting" everytime there is movement or panning? if it is the second, it sounds like you are not deinterlacing.

what decoders are you using?

[Keeper]

I would saying its more ghosting basically its out of focus and takes a second or two for it to catch up. I am not sure how to check if i am deinterlacing or not.

As for decoders if i go to the Playback tab of the gbpvr config:

Hardware decoders device: None - use software decorder
(Options avail: Hauppauge pvr350, Sigma Designs Xcard)

Software MPEG-2 Playback:
Video Decoder: System default (options: Intervideo NonCSS Video Decoder, Nero Video Decoder)

Audio Decoder: System default (options: MPEG Audio Decoder, Intervideo NonCSS Audio Decoder)

Audio Renderer: System default (options: M-Audio Revolution, Default Directsound Device, Default Waveout Device, Directsound M-Audio Revolution )

VM9
Minimal OSD During Playback
Force minimal OSD for MVP

[chud]

it has been awhile since i have seen the intervideo video decoder control panel (in fact, if memory serves, there isn't one!).

are you outputting to a monitor or a TV? if a TV, is it old skool composite/svideo or vga/dvi/hdmi?

here is a good read on deinterlacing, and possibly some example files:
http://www.100fps.com/

if you still think it is deinterlacing i would try download the Dscaler5 mpeg2 decoders:
http://www.dscaler.org/phpBB/viewtopic.p...eb22e39753

and specify that GBPVR uses them. in the ATI CCC there are video settings and in one section you can specify deinterlacing. if you set the dscaler video decoder to automatic deinterlacing and set the colour output to YUY2 (i believe), set the ATI deinterlacing to adaptive, stand on one leg and hold your finger to your nose, you can get the graphics card to do the deinterlacing in hardware.

i think you will also need to change the deinterlacing setting located in the last tab of the GBPVR configuration tool to "encoder passthrough".

[Keeper]

I could not find a control panel for the intervideo, i think it came with my dvd writer.

I am outputting via S video to my sony TV but the video is also poor via on the computer monitor as well.

I will read the article you mentioned and try the mpeg2 decoder as well.

I will look again in the ATI ccc to find deinterlacing settings.

I want to say thank you for helping me out on this. There is a hockey game in about an hour and 1/2 from now so i will try out your suggestions. I will let you know how it goes.

[chud]

no problem. us canucks got to stick together, eh.

since you are outputting to a tv, i am not sure that you even want/need to deinterlace the video. someone with more knowledge and/or a similar setup maybe be able to help you out more, but if it also looks bad on your monitor then something is up.

[Keeper]

I actually wasn't using the ATI ccc i used the control panel drivers instead and i could not find the interlace options. I uninstalled them and installed catalyst and found the interlace options but for some reason i cannot get the second display to work. It was easy in the control panel drivers but not in catalyst.

[gEd]

IIFC, you should only deinterlace if you are viewing on a computer, projector, LCD or plasma. A CRT TV uses interlacing.

I also see ghosting on the few occasions that I watch football (soccer!) games.

Perhaps try turning up the min and max bitrates for the live tv setting and see if that helps.

Your ATI card is not ideal - too much (slow) graphics memory and (possibly) not enough horsepower.

Can the pvr-150 capture sport without blurring - don;t know. There is bound to be someone on this board who records sport with this card so maybe they can advise on whether you can achieve HQ, fast moving action.

Funny thing is, cricket looks ok............:-)

[Keeper]

I installed the dscaler and configured gbpvr to use as well as installing the latest ATI ccc. I was using an older version and the control panel version of it.

I recorded a hockey game last night and the changes did help. I only problem i have now is on the TV screen and not on the computer monitor. Not sure how to explain it but the TV screen sometimes has a correction line half way up the screen which is really noticeable when they skate past center ice.

It doesn' happen all the time but always occurs in the middle of the screen. Its like the TV takes one picture of the play and cuts it in half and doesn't like it up properly offsetting the top half from the bottom half a 1/2 inch of so.
Other then that the rest of the picture is in focus and is fine.

Any suggestions?

[gEd]

This might be a de-interlacing problem. The picture to your TV should be interlaced but that to your monitor shouldn;t, which possibly leaves you with a dilemma if you want to use both screens to view TV.

If the image improved on the monitor, this may be because you have now enabled de-interlacing. Try (temporarily) disabling dscaler and see if:-

It fixes the "correction line" problem on the TV
Affects image quality for better or worse
Whether the ATI driver update alone has improved the picture.