Various Quality Issues

[235301]

Here's my setup:

P2.4GHz Pentium, 1G RAM
7600GS AGP Video
nVidia PureVideo
VRM9 FSE
PVR-150
HVR-1600(using QAM from cable for digital)

Overall things are working well except I am seeing some slight stuttering especially on the HD channels. It's just barely perceptable but annoying enough for me to want to fix it(it gets worse during sporting events). I see the same amt of stutter on the digital channels whether it's SD or HD. I can also playback recorded 720p and 1080i smooth as silk, no stuttering. Any tweaks that can be applied? Does turning on/off interlacing make any difference? Going to overlay didn't appear to help and just made the color much much worse. CPU is only loaded at about 50%, even when doing HD, so it wouldn't appear that the CPU is overloaded.

Slightly off topic: Any ideas on making analog look better on an LCD? I've gone straight through from my cable to the TV bypassing the PVR-150 and HVR-1600 and the video is roughly the same so it's not the encoding. However, it's the standard deal where analog video looks like crap on the LCD. Any tweaks that can be done to an LCD that can overcome the horrible coloring?

[pBS]

so you *are* using the -fse switch? overlay can't be set in pvrx2...so of course no diff. there...only choices with pvrx2 are vmr -fse and no -fse...[vmr custom]

your cpu is a bit underpowered for smooth hd...around 3ghz is sweet spot..
[dual cpu types or hyperthreading]
some parts of the HD,[mostly decryption] have to be done by cpu,except newest 2400/2600 ati and couple ultra high end cards which can offload all..
cheaper and more fringe benefits by getting slightly better cpu..

it may be your 3d settings, in nvidia control panel, set to minimum all quality stuff and see how it acts...if ok, start raising stuff till it drops off again..
ansiotropic filtering is a must have for good video, so try to keep that one high...the rest can be min'd out usually with little effect on picture...

remember, now the video is like a moving texture, being projected on a flat 3d 'wall'...so it's more like a 3d video game..2d settings affect it very little..

other than that i'd say make sure as little as possible is running in background....
maybe even try turning tray app off..
oh and be sure taskman is off.. it spikes cpu pretty bad on it's own..

[pBS]

oh, and wanna make analog look better? get a digital cable box and record the svideo outs...good as you'll get i'm afraid...should look closer to sd digital...

also, what kind of connect to tv is it? vga might help the color, as well as component [RGB]
[analog,but high-res]
i believe it's because it cuts the color up differently and you get separate pure red,green,blue instead of digitally reconstructed color...analog always seems more 'natural' color..

[235301]

Thank you for the ideas. I am using DVI out to the LCD so I would think that won't play into any issues.

[pBS]

that's what i was saying...sometimes the digital transistors don't mesh well, and give a brash, speckled color...and too much contrast..

where as analog handles color differently..easily...and looks more natural..
so sometimes going to a 'lower' quality connection can help if the input signal isn't that great in the first place.. a 'natural' filter in a way..

[stustunz]

lcd cannot stretch the picture like crt so using the native resolution of the screen is more important as tvs get better they will be able to do automatically in the future but this normally helps in making the picture sharper and the colours better
what is your lcd model etc?

[235301]

Does it make any sense to play with the PCI latency for the HVR-1600? Since I can play recorded video with no problem I was wondering if the stuttering is coming from a restriction in bandwidth from the HVR-1600.

[stustunz]

have you tried just pausing for a bit while watching then starting it again
you havent said what your settings are for watching live tv
last tab in config

[235301]

Update: Well turning off the task manager appears to have been the last push. HD live TV is smooth now. I can even replay 1080p content with no hesitation now(everything I read said you needed 3GHZ min for 1080p so I am pleased).

I do see a hesitation maybe once a minute or so in live TV but that could be due to signal integrity.

Anything else I can do to improve things?

The LCD is a Samsung LNT2642 so it's fairly decent quality:

http://www.americantv.com/itemDetail.do?...=009264209

Do the LCDs have any settings where you can minimize the lack of color depth?

[235301]

Oh and I don't have it recording live TV while I am viewing, was that what youy meant on the Misc tab?

Thanks again for all the help.