MVPMCX2 and 576/PAL support on NMT

[OrakelJos]

As I have already previously indicated on the NMT forum the SD (PAL) picture quality of the NMT in my case is not as good as that from the MediaMVP. After further testing I noticed that when I play recordings directly from the NMT interface with 576 or PAL the quality is as good as on the MediaMVP while with 720P the picture is blurry/not sharp.
It seems that the upscaling from SD/PAL (720x576) on my Pioneer plasma TV is better then the NMT.
I have tried to use MVPMCX2 with GBPVR on 576 and PAL through the component connection but that does not work. I just get a black screen. Of course I have changed the the display settings in the GBPVR config settings but that does not seems to be the problem.
When looking into the binary file I see the command line options for both 576 and PAL but is it possible that those are not implemented?
Martin, can you shine some light on this problem?

[mvallevand]

PAL output only works through svideo and composite. If you set the PCH up to PAL on one of those ports mvpmcx2 will use it by default unless you have have modified startmeup.

Also you have to change config.xml to 640x576 to match.

Martin

[OrakelJos]

Is it not posiible to support 576 and/or PAL through component? The NMT supports both resolutions on component and it gives a much better quality on my tv-set then composite or s-video.
We have only analog SD (cable) available and I am capturing that with two PVR500 tuner cards (4 tuners in total) so this is rather important for me and my wife Your help is therefore very much appreciated
BTW: I already changed the config.xml file as indicated in my first message.

[mvallevand]

I will see what I can do. The quality of svideo should be about the same until then. I was thinking if you like to play HD material from time to time by changing the native settings, if you add --display 1280x720 to the command line, you can use the same config.xml settings for SD and HD.

Martin.

[mvallevand]

I just checked and mvpmcx2 already does send 576i 50Mhz over component if you select PAL component mode in the PCH setup.

Martin

[OrakelJos]

Thanks Martin, but what if I choose 576/50Hz on the NMT instead of PAL? Does it than still work? The reason that I am asking this is because this setting gives for me the best picture quality without resorting to native zoom and changes in aspect ratio.
I am sure that I tried PAL on component but got a black picture and had to reset the NMT. I had changed the config.xml to 720x576 because that is the standard resolution for 576 or PAL. Now you are advising 640x576. What is the reason for this different resolution and was that the reason for the black screen?

[mvallevand]

The standard setting that I use for PAL is 640x576, I find most monitors don't handle higher. That resolution setting is for the GBPVR menus anyway, the video decoding is done by the NMT.

The issue now seems to be you want 576p and not 576i so you do want the NMT to do some conversion for you. I will see if I can enable the edtv parameter for you.

Martin

[OrakelJos]

Martin, you are absolute right in your assumption
If both PAL and 576p are available on component there is nothing in the way that SD material can be displayed in the best way depending on the capabilities of the TV set.
If you have a good upscaling TV set (like mine) it is better to deliver the (almost) raw signal to the TV instead of relying on the not so good NMT upscaling capabilities from SD material to 720p or even 1080i. The last resolution I would never recommend
Thank you for your help. I hope that also others will benefit from your efforts!

[OrakelJos]

I just checked and mvpmcx2 already does send 576i 50Mhz over component if you select PAL component mode in the PCH setup.

Martin

I was unable to get this working (PAL on component). Have adjusted the config.xml file to 636x572 with both offsets set to 4.
Just get a black screen and have to reset the NMT to escape from this situation. The power off does not bring it back to gaya. Have mailed you privately the out.txt file.
Because you say that this should work I am obviously doing something wrong. Have first tried it without any command line paramters in the cgi file and also tried the -m pal option but without any result.
Can you please shine some light on this?

[mvallevand]

I a sent you a PM last night asking for your email address, I have a 576p version I want you to try. Leave the config.xml at 640 576 0 0 for know adjust for overscan later and don't use any command line parameters, do it all with the NMT software.'

Also I didn't get out.txt but if you are not beta testing things like the 576p I prefer support on the forums anyway.

Martin