Question about quality for both live TV & recording.

[smiddy10]

I still am somewhat of a newbie but I've spent hours now reading forums and trying things, and so I have a few questions.

Can the quality of live TV via GB-PVR, ever be as good as watching regular TV? I can't seem to get it so. Everytime I switch back to regular ol TV it's better. Same with recording TV shows. It just doesn't look as good as watching it on my TV via cable, live. I tried high quality and even custom recording.

Is this just a foregone conclusion that everyone knows and accepts or am I missing something. I don't notice it as much on CRT TV's or smaller TV's but I loaded GB-PVR on my brothers PC and hooked it up to his Panasonic Plasma 42" HDTV, and there is quite a drop in quality from live TV in GB-PVR versus live tv straight to the TV

I've tried 4 different decoders, I tried the Quartz fix, I tried Overlay, but the picture is never as good as regular TV. The decoders I have are Intervideo, Cyberlink, Nero, and Hauppauges. I'm using the Hauppauge 150MCE card with a GeForce 6200LE video card.

All I want is quality to be the same as regular TV. I'm sure if I can't get regular TV to match up, I can dream on about getting HDTV to be the same.

[sub]

CRT TVs do seem to be quite a bit more forgiving than LCD/Plasma TVs.

There is a couple of specific places quality can be reduced.

CAPTURE: With analog cards like the PVR150 etc, there will always be some quality lost during the encoding process, though with high enough bitrate this can be pretty minimal. Digital cards used for recording DVB and ATSC transmissions record a perfect signal with no quality loss (same signal a set top box would receive).

To see if capture is a quality problem for you, it might be worth recording a channel then burning to a DVD (without reencoding) and playing it in a regular DVD player on this tv. If the quality is good, then it indicates your problem is most likely related to playback.

PLAYBACK: Three main things affect the quality during playback. Video decoder, video renderer and video card. These can be pretty complex topics, so suggest you do a forum search. Its important to try to use the best quality connection to the TV (in order of preference HDMI/DVI, VGA, Component or RGB, svideo, composite).

[Ted the Penguin]

Its important to try to use the best quality connection to the TV (in order of preference HDMI/DVI, VGA, Component or RGB, svideo, composite).

I am going to nitpick in the spirit of discussing playback options

depending on the TV HDMI/DVI may not provide the best picture quality when used to connect to the TV. With some TVs you must use the standard HD resolutions over HDMI/DVI, which isnt a problem for TVs that are the exact resolution of a standard (1080p or 720p) but for those with LCD TVs that arent 1080p, they are usually 768x1366, which is no standard resolution, this means that the picture will either be stretched from 720p or you will have to send a 1080i stream, which means interlacing everything... which can look terrible.
The solution to this is using VGA, as TVs with a VGA input will allow the VGA input to drive the panel at its native resolution
/nitpick

cheers

[sub]

I am going to nitpick in the spirit of discussing playback options

depending on the TV HDMI/DVI may not provide the best picture quality when used to connect to the TV. With some TVs you must use the standard HD resolutions over HDMI/DVI, which isnt a problem for TVs that are the exact resolution of a standard (1080p or 720p) but for those with LCD TVs that arent 1080p, they are usually 768x1366, which is no standard resolution, this means that the picture will either be stretched from 720p or you will have to send a 1080i stream, which means interlacing everything... which can look terrible.

There may be some exceptions, but in general most plasma/lcd panels will accept their native resolution via HDMI/DVI. If your video card doesnt list 1366x768 as an available resolution, I'm sure you'd be able to use that custom resolution with powerstrip or similar tool.

[Ted the Penguin]

There may be some exceptions, but in general most plasma/lcd panels will accept their native resolution via HDMI/DVI. If your video card doesnt list 1366x768 as an available resolution, I'm sure you'd be able to use that custom resolution with powerstrip or similar tool.

you are right, I just wanted to add a bit more information, either way, VGA and HDMI/DVI have very similar quality over a short distance.

and FWIW I think every TV that has 768x1366 as its native resolution actually accepts 768x1360 when you hook it up to a computer and let it auto-negotiate the settings.

[sub]

There may be reasons why it wont work for a particular user in their setup, but I stand by my order of preference. HDMI/DVI then VGA then Component or RGB then svideo then composite. I'm not saying there is a huge variance between the high end options, but in theory HDMI/DVI is going to be slightly better than the other options given its digital and the PC can tell the TV exactly which dots to light up.

[stustunz]

1.Hauppauge tweak tool(change the sharpness and think the blur on the last panel)
2.nvidea pure video (decoder not free but you know there are cr........)for nvidia cards i think its the best option all the others you mentioned just didnt do it
3.increase bitrate of recordings under the medium/live tv(medium is the setting it uses for recordings from quick record) to 5000 and above (depends on how much hard drive you want to waste just try going up 1000s till you are happy)
4.connections i agree with sub plus you can add custom resolutions for nvidia card anyway( wont let you do them all but pretty close )
then if it is streched just edit config who cares if your windows desktop dont fit its main perpose is to watch/record tv on gbpvr not do open Excel word etc

[smiddy10]

Thanks for the input. Much Appreciated!!

I tried the Nvidia Pure Decoder and it does seem a bit better, but there are a ton of combinations to try on that decoders settings so I'm still playing with it. I also tired MPV decoder and thought that was better too.

Haven't tried the Hauppauge Tweak Tool yet. Is this easy to use?

Also Haven't tried subs suggestion of burning to DVD and then playing it back. Great idea. Probably should do this before dinking around so much with these decoders.

I will try both these this weekend.

Does anyone have a TV tuner Card they think does a better job than the Hau 150 as far as picture quality?

Thanks again for all the help.
This is truly a great forum for a great product!

[nitrogen_widget]

I'd say the best starting point for video cards is 9550 radeon or nvidia 6200.

I've got one of each though & i've learned that some TV's "like" nvidia better than 9550 & vice versa on the svideo output.

this is mostly concerning the cleanliness of the signal & level of interference.

I can't explain it & i have to say it is very annoying.

[LAGuy]

I'll second the NVIDIA Purevideo option. Works great. TEST: Make certain that in the driver settings for the card, the full frame video settings are set to default. In GB config, in decoder properties, leave hardware acceleration off, make sure the color profile is set to default and set everything to VMR9. Reboot and check quality.

I also record at 5500/9000 Variable. Seems to be a nice combination of drive space and picture quality.