Two more questions

[pawn]

1. Does Sage provide stereo sound?

2. It seems that shortly after watching a channel, the picture brightness self adjusts. I.e., if the the channel is two bright, it tones down a little and vice versa.

Am I imagining this? Is it Sage? Is it the PVR 250 hardware or drivers? I don't remember any of the decoder filters I've tested with Sage doing this before (i.e., with ZoomPlayer, etc.).

BTW, it's pretty cool and really improves on one of the biggest complaints I've always had about ATI's MMC: some channels too bright, others too dark.

[Mark Lamutt]

I get stereo sound out with my PVR-350 on all stereo channels. At least that's what my receiver and my ears tell me. :)

And I've never seen a brightness shift while watching a program with my PVR-350 card or the Provideo card. I don't have a 250, so I can't comment on that. But, in 8 months of use, I've never seen what you describe on my system.

[JasonJoel]

I've seen the brightness shift happen. And it only happens in SageTV, not WinTV or WinXP MCE.

Not sure why it happens, but it does happen occassionally on my system too (using PVR250 card).

Not an issue, and it is only occassionally so I don't consider it a big deal.

Jason


Originally posted by Mark Lamutt
I get stereo sound out with my PVR-350 on all stereo channels. At least that's what my receiver and my ears tell me. :)

And I've never seen a brightness shift while watching a program with my PVR-350 card or the Provideo card. I don't have a 250, so I can't comment on that. But, in 8 months of use, I've never seen what you describe on my system.

[robogeek]

It's a very nice feature, and it is SageTv that is changing your brightness...you'll find the setting here:

SageTV-->Setup-->Detailed Setup-->Multimedia-->Video Capture Settings (Advanced)-->Video Proc Amp :D

--robogeek

[comprat]

Yes, I too have seen the brightness shift on my system. I am using the PVR-350 on WinXP. Not sure what is causing it though. It is not too annoying, so I just ignore it, but it may be something to look into.


Originally posted by robogeek
It's a very nice feature, and it is SageTv that is changing your brightness...you'll find the setting here:

SageTV-->Setup-->Detailed Setup-->Multimedia-->Video Capture Settings (Advanced)-->Video Proc Amp :D

--robogeek

In response to the above, I believe those settings simply allow you to adjust such things as brightness, contrast, hue, etc, but the problem here is that the brightness will change in the middle of viewing a program for no reason.

[robogeek]

In the Video Proc Amp, a check mark in any of the boxes tells the software (or driver?) to automatically adjust the setting for you while you are watching TV. If the software detects an increase in picture brightness during a program it will darken the picture and if it gets too dark it will brighten it up.

If the change is too dramatic, try unchecking the brightness box and possibly the contrast box and setting the slider controls manually. If it still changes, it may be that the input signal to your tuner card is weak or the cable/connecters are bad or loose...otherwise I would say it is a driver or Sage bug. I had an old (real old) ATI AIW card and the coax connector on the card was flakey...whenever the computer or the cable was bumped the picture would shift brighter or darker.

--robogeek

[comprat]

Originally posted by robogeek
In the Video Proc Amp, a check mark in any of the boxes tells the software (or driver?) to automatically adjust the setting for you while you are watching TV. If the software detects an increase in picture brightness during a program it will darken the picture and if it gets too dark it will brighten it up.

--robogeek

Actually, none of the boxes have a check mark in them, and I can't even put a check mark in them since they appear to be disabled. I am currently running ver1.3.4 of SageTV. I was running the release version(1.2.8?) before trying this one. It's not that big of a deal. Just wondered why. ;)

[robogeek]

I believe the Sage software reads what settings the hardware supports. If the hardware and driver supports them, they should be configurable. I would then have to say that either your hardware or drivers don't support those settings or possibly Jeff hasn't 'hooked' into them yet with the Sage software.

Jeff or Dan, any thoughts? Does the Video Proc Amp settings control the hardware to alter the mpeg stream before it leaves the tuner card, or does SageTV actually do on-the-fly processing of the stream through the rendering filter? Or am I completely way off on this? :)

--robogeek

[pawn]

I think you're bang on. I too have no control over those check boxes, but the brightness adjustment happens often enough that I have no doubt either Sage or the Hauppage drivers is/are intentionally dimming bright images and brightening dim images.

Not really a problem, and it actually does help, but it can be distracting.

[Narflex]

Those controls affect the Video Analog->Digital convertor and the color settings used in this. The Hauppauge drivers control that dialog window you see in Sage.