GeForce4MX not good enough?

[danIrl]

I have playing around with numerous different codecs and various version of the hauppauge drivers for my PVR-150, but whilst standard TV programs look okay, playback of fast moving programs is dreadful. (e.g. a football match). If the camera stands still, the quality is fine, but as soon as it pans, the quality is poor . The pitch looks unrealistic and the quality is slightly blurry/grainy and out of focus. It is as if the bitrate is too low. But I have tried various bitrates settings, from high VBR to CBR. none of which have improved things. A VHS recording would be much better.

It is probably time for a full clean install of XP but I am wondering should I buy a newer graphics card like a GeForce 6200. How much of a part does the graphics card have in the quality of fast moving MPEG playback? If it is primarily the CPU then I am wasting my time buying the card, if however this card coupled with the nvidia purevideo decoder would make a big difference, then it would be worth it, otherwise I shall have to use my trusty VHS recorder for sport... which makes my big black dedicated PVR machine seem like a unslightly waste of money!

[sub]

Is this viewing on your PC monitor or TV out on the video card?

[danIrl]

Yes I should have mentioned this. It is via the TV out on the card to an old SDTV.

I have tried both composite and s-video.

Setting video mode to overlay seems to give better quality for standard recording than VMR9. (dark backgrounds became slightly pixelated with VMR9)

[sub]

If you view it on your PC, is the quality much better? If yes, then it sounds like a poor quality tv out on your video. If no, then I'd suggestion trying other decoders.

Some video cards do have a really crap tv out, but I dont know if the GeForce4MX is in that bucket or not.

[danIrl]

From reading reviews, apparently the GeForce4MX has a decent TV out. I cant remember last time I tried viewing a recorded mpeg on my PC, I have played around with virtually every setting at this stage. I am travelling at the moment so will try this when I get back. Just thought I would post the question and order a card if necessary, so that it would be ready to install on my return.

So from what you say sub, then it must be a decoder problem... however I have tried windvd, cyberlink, dscaler and others to no avail. I think the default hauppauge decoder gives the best quality of all of them... but seriously below par for fast moving recordings. I noticed a post where someone upgraded to a geforece 6xxx card with nvidia decoder and they had a vast improvement in quality.

The problem with PC architecture, is that is there are too many combinations of hardware and software...and people seem to get different results with the same hardware/software combos. So it really is just a case of trial&error. So I suppose I could just buy this card and hope for the best...

Mind you, I am not entirely convinced from any posts in this forum (and others) that the hauppauge PVR-150 card is up to the task of producing decent quality digital capture of fast moving video.

[Torque]

The embedded Geforce4 MX on my motherboard did the exact thing you describe (using S-video). I popped in my 6800GT from my other system to see if the quality improved without changing the drivers or codecs. The picture was 100x better and stutter/blurry free. I ended up buying a Geforce 6600 and I'm extremely happy with the video quality while watching sports. It's even better now that I'm using the DVI connection to my TV.

[daphatty]

You know, this thread has inspired me to replace my 9600 pro with my GF6200. Maybe using an nVidia video card on a mobo with an nforce chipset will make things run smoother...

[danIrl]

Torque: glad to know that this upgrade worked.

TipStir: Thanks for the links, but I have some questions.
My card is a Gainward GeForce4MX 440-8X AGP card 64MB RAM (VIVO). This seems almost the same as your card, apart from the memory difference. I see you use this card with an MVP. Does this account for why you have no problems with picture quality.. or is it just the memory difference?

According to that webpage, the memory bus and bandwidth of my card is almost the same as a GeForce6200 card. Obviously the FillRate is much higher and it suports DirextX v9, but I presume this does not have any impact on tv out quality. It could use a different tv encoder chip I suppose as the architecture is different.

I noticed on one webpage that GeForce MX cards with VIVO capability, supposedly use a philips TV encoder chip as opposed to the nvidia one. Perhaps this also accounts for the difference?

[-stattik-]

I have a Geforce4 420MX and I use the s-video out to a 56in SDTV and it looks great. Originally I had interlacing problems that were very apparent with fast moving pans. Tweaking with ffdshow fixed them. Now the quality is better than my Tivo.

[danIrl]

Stattik: Can you provide some more detail about the tweaking you made with ffdshow? When I have turned this on with the default settings, quality always seemed worse.