Focus Problem (blur/sharpness)

[torridpsu]

Athlon 2100+
512 Ram
Hauppauge PVR500
Ati AIW Radeon using tv out with a television (no moniotor)




I am currently having a problem with the new box i put together. Everything works as advertised except for this one minor thing that is driving me insane. I have a problem with live tv (no timeshift) with a weird focus problem. The problem happens when i watch programming that has little or no movement. Something in the setup is having difficulties dealing with this, and it makes parts of the image appear to jump in and out of focus. This is most prevalent with text, as I notice it the most often during sports games that have a score box in the corner. When the play stops and the camera stops moving, the sharpness of that box jumps all over and it is definately noticable.

I also noticed it with programs that have defined lines, like futurama. it goes from being real sharp to blurred to sharp. I don't know if its a problem with the MPEG decoding with the 500 or what. I've also tried to use different decoders, including the nvidia decoder, no difference. I used different programs and noticed the problem on both GBPBR and MediaPortal. I'm somewhat new to this PVR stuff so i'm not an expert by any means. I played around with the deinterlace settings as well as the hauppauge tweak settings, but i noticed no notable difference. Does anyone have any clue?

Thanks!

[stefan]

You have tried the things I would have suggested Maybe if you could try it with a monitor, to rule out the tv-out on your video card. New graphics drivers could help if that is the problem...

[MicroSark]

Have you tired different de-interlacing methods (e.g. encoder pass-thru, ffdshow etc.). This can cause the sort of things you describe, especially if the 'artifacts' you describe aren't showing in pre-recorded programmes or timeshiffted TV.

I get pretty good results with ffdshow, although it does hog a bit of CPU.

[torridpsu]

yes, trying with a monitor is definately next on my list. I have used the TV out before when i was using the TV functions from my AIW card successfully, and, additionally, i get no blurring with my desktop or anything else, just the TV. Secondly I have tried it with no deinterlacing and encoder pass through, but not with ffdshow, so I will have to try that. And I'm going to try again with all the different decoders to make sure its not a decoder problem. And lastly, although it doesn't seem like it, maybe my computer is just too slow? I was going to throw it in my new box that has a 3200 dual core with 2gb ram and see if i have the same problem.

Any other suggestions are appriciated

[torridpsu]

It is just odd because it seems like a complete opposite of the motion blur that others have described, this blur occurs when there is little, if anything going on.

[torridpsu]

I believe I figured out what my problem was, so I thought I'd post it for other poeple who may encounter the same problem

It appears that my signal coming from the cable was weak (which i knew) but appearently that threw the encoder through a loop causing video to fluxuate