Low video Quality and a bit laggy

[swraman]

Hi,

I am trying to run GBPVR on a quite old PC:
P4 1.3Ghz
384MB RD RAM
Wndows XP Pro

The capture card is a Hauppage PVR-150.

The program lags a lot when I do thinks like pause or rewind, is this because the computer I am using is very slow?

Also, the recording quality is not good at all...it is very poor. I have tried to change the capture settings to High, but can someone give me good settings to record in good quality? Ive read that this card has good recording quality and I ope to make use of it. (I am recording for computer playback, so it should be slightly better than TV quality recording, if thats possible).

I am currenty formatting that computer to re-instal the newest version of GBPVR and see if it makes a difference, although I dont think it will. I will try to post screens when I do that also if that helps.

Thanks!

Raman

[sub]

The videocard and the video decoder you're using are responsible for decoding the image and displaying it. If your resulting image quality issues are probably caused by one or both of these. If you think it could be the quality of the PVR150 recording, you could try burning a recording to a DVD and playing it back in a set top DVD player to check the quality.

You machine is a little on the slow side, which is the most likely reason for any lack of responsiveness.

Neither of these are the type of thing is typically fixed by reinstalling GB-PVR.

[swraman]

I was reinstaling incase anything else is on that computer slowing it down

It isnt the display that s ming the recording quality bad, it is bad when I transfer it directly to another computer as well.

Any recomendations on the encoding settings? DOes using the Coax in opposed to the AV in make a difference? From what i can see the coax in is heavily interlaced and hte AV in isnt...but the quality is still fairly poor on both.

[sub]

The quality of resulting file is always going to be a little worse the original signal since some of the detail is thrown away during the encoding processing. Most people are quite happy with the quality of the PVR150 encoder, but we do get the occasional user who just doesnt like it. Maybe you are one of these?

Any recomendations on the encoding settings?

The app defaults are pretty much the recommended encoder settings. Very few people tweak them.

Can you post a screenshot that shows the problem?

[wtg]

As your machine is low end, make sure you configure it to use the Overlay renderer during playback. Your machine just doesn't have enough beef for VMR use. Also, your memory is really low for XP Pro. Make sure you disable unnecessary services to free up as much as you can.

Finally, if the playback only screws up after FF or rewinding, you might also be suffering from Microsoft's quartz.dll bug. They're released a patch to fix it, but it doesn't work for many people (like me) and the only relief I got was to downgrade the quartz.dll file to the one from directx 9.0b. Search the forums for quartz.dll to find more than you probably wanted to know about it.

[swraman]

The quality of resulting file is always going to be a little worse the original signal since some of the detail is thrown away during the encoding processing. Most people are quite happy with the quality of the PVR150 encoder, but we do get the occasional user who just doesnt like it. Maybe you are one of these?

The app defaults are pretty much the recommended encoder settings. Very few people tweak them.

Can you post a screenshot that shows the problem?

Yea, with using composite inputs, the interlacing seems to be gone, so it is much more watchable...
And i guess I am just getting spoiled by HD video, b/c now looking at this it doesn't look too bad. I guess I am one of the picky ones.

@wtg, I will look for the quartz.dll problem, I do get the problem mostly when I fast forward or rewind. The machine I am using is only used for gbpvr, so ill disable everthing else and see if it goes any faster.

[swraman]

Just thought Id let you guys know, I can now record in very good quality and I am pleased with the 150.

The biggest change I made was the source, if I use a downscaled HD source the picture quaity is extremely good ont he recordings.

I also use Svideo cables from the Cable/satellite box to the computer, that helps a bit too.

Thanks

[swraman]

Thought id give a final update, I got a new lcd tv and now use a vga cable, and the playback quality is amazing for sdtv.

Thanks GBPVR TEAM for all the help and support!!!