Ok.. All is good.. but: Picture Quality?

[Gemini1706]

I do not know, maybe I am paranoid, but looks like the picture quality of the GB-PVR LiveTV is noticebly less than actual LiveTV? Is this the case for everyone? Is this as good as HTPC can do?

The picture looks a 'little bit' blury.. hmmm.. maybe fuzzy... something like that... Even in slow scenes...let alone fast motion scenes..


1- I am using the codecs that came with the PVR250 card (InterVideo blah blah codec). Could this be my problem? Which codec you guys recommend and give GB-PVR best results? I heard that with SageTV the Sonic codec gives much better picture. I do not wanna pay many times for many codecs till I find which is best..

2- Will increasing the video rate in the LiveTV profile improve things noticebly? What are you guys gettings? Excelllent picture undistinquishable from actual LiveTV? Or is it a limitation of HTPC stuff?
What a good rate to use? 8000kbps?

3- I heard that GB-PVR does not do VBR (whatever THAT means.. lool).
Could this be the problem? Or maybe VBR is not a video thing?


If I did not find my self convinced about the picture quality of HTPC, I will only use it then to record shows offline (not Live), and use actual LiveTV for my daily viewing (hence, it is gonna be kinda like a VCR, no timeshifting ...etc.).

By the way: I am using a Radeon 7500 PCI. Is this limiting me in picture quality? I highly doubt that, since I am only watching stuff at 640x480 resolution.

What do you guys think?

Any suggestions wil be helpful...

Cheers...

[sub]

1/ I've never seen software playback as good as TV. By far the best output is via the hardware decoders - XCard, PVR350, MVP. These look as good as real TV, and things look very natural, but come at the price of flexibility. I'm personally using my XCard in my HTPC currently.

Software playback quality can vary significantly between the different MPEG2 decoders. Which one should you use? religous wars have been started over the questions in the past. Everyone has their own favorites. This has been discussed a few times in the Sage forums, so that may good place to go reading.

2/ High bitrates do help, but I suspect you're more likely observing playback issues. Software playback on a PC always looks a little artifical to me. Many people claim that the right decoders + tweaking can get a picture close to the quality of hardware decoder, but I've personally not spent that much time trying.

3/ No, this would not make much difference.

[Gemini1706]

Quote[/b] (sub @ Aug. 23 2004,22:16)]2/ High bitrates do help, but I suspect you're more likely observing playback issues. Software playback on a PC always looks a little artifical to me.  Many people claim that the right decoders + tweaking can get a picture close to the quality of hardware decoder, but I've personally not spent that much time trying.

Thanks sub for the reply..

I do not think I am experiencing playback issues (like sttutering, slowness ..etc. I resolved those already).

What I am seeing is actual blur... Very tiny.. but I SEE IT. My wife does not see it. I wish I was not that critical.

I guess as you said, software decoding will always look artificial ...etc.

I guess no Time Shifting for me.. No big deal..

I am very crtitical about quality all the time (not that Standard TV is that high quality anyway) so I can NOT accept any degradation in quality just as a compromise for a feature (like timeshifting).

I will use this HTPC for recording shows off-line. I do not mind watching stuff recodred with lesser quality, since that is what I get with VCR anyway

I guess I am a bit dissappointed, since I had high hopes for this HTPC.

Thank god I did not spend that much money on it. Already had the P-III machine laying around. I am also using your great and wonderful free software (But I will make sure that I donate. I forgot last time )..

sub/anybody with other thoughts?

Cheers...

[Guest]

Hi,

you may want to look at the Matrox Millenium G550 dual head card. I havn't tried it yet, but a number of people have claimed the TV out is as good as the PVR-350, without the disadavantage of the OSD being useless.

Cheers

Mark

[dottore]

the matrox g400 is even better, though older. you can get this card at ebay. anyway, the quality of software-live-tv will never reach hardware-live-tv.

if you are that critical, try using a hardware-encoder-card (pvr250) WITH a hardware-decoder-card (xcard) -> i think, this is the way, sub does it.

[Gemini1706]

and how hardware decoding compares to regular LiveTV?
I want the HTPC to be seamless in the sense that I can NOT tell that the signal is going through some processing before going into the TV.

Is Hardware decoding = Direct TV Signal quality?

Cheers...

[colin]

Hi Gemini1706,

Did you experiment with the bitrate settings for live tv? I think its defaults to about 4500 (or something like that) but you could ramp this up a few thousand to see if this helps. Its worth trying.

The joy of video is what looks good to one person does not look good to someone else and the more you play with video on a computer the more critical you get.

Plus depending on the quality of your source, this will greatly effect your recordings. I was wondering why some of my recordings had lip sync problems until i realised the shows being broadcast (over VHF) where the actual problem and not the PVR 250.

Cheers,
Colin.