Beginners Question?

Steve52 · #1 01-23-2006, 09:38 AM

Just getting SageTv setup on my computer. I have an SD card PVR-150 and an HD card VBOX DTA-150 so some viewing will be HD and some SD. What do you set the resolution in XP at? My TV will do 480i/480P 1080i. You cannot really use windows XP in 1080i you have to set it to 480 to be able to read anything. How does the screen resolution get set for SD vs HD? Does it matter what the desktop resolution is set to?

shawncochran · #2 01-23-2006, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve52

Just getting SageTv setup on my computer. I have an SD card PVR-150 and an HD card VBOX DTA-150 so some viewing will be HD and some SD. What do you set the resolution in XP at? My TV will do 480i/480P 1080i. You cannot really use windows XP in 1080i you have to set it to 480 to be able to read anything. How does the screen resolution get set for SD vs HD? Does it matter what the desktop resolution is set to?

1280 x 720 will give you 16:9 -- is that what you wanted? Is your screen 4:3 or 16:9?

bcjenkins · #3 01-23-2006, 10:14 AM

Hi Steve,

Do you plan on trying to use your PC as a PC without a monitor and only on a TV? If so, it won't be easy on the eyes unless you are running a progressively scanned resolution. The best resolution you will manage will be a custom one running powerstrip. Try looking for 540P timings on google. I am in the same situation with my set which won't do 720P, but I only use the TV as a TV output with Sage, I don't try to run web browsers, etc. Sage does really well with 1080i once you adjust the overscan. And for this type of output, make sure you have a good video card that supports DXVA.

B

Steve52 · #4 01-23-2006, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Hi Steve,

Do you plan on trying to use your PC as a PC without a monitor and only on a TV? If so, it won't be easy on the eyes unless you are running a progressively scanned resolution. The best resolution you will manage will be a custom one running powerstrip. Try looking for 540P timings on google. I am in the same situation with my set which won't do 720P, but I only use the TV as a TV output with Sage, I don't try to run web browsers, etc. Sage does really well with 1080i once you adjust the overscan. And for this type of output, make sure you have a good video card that supports DXVA.

B

My System:

Dedicated HTPC No Gaming No Surfing
Motherboard: MSI K8NGM2-FID V3.13 BIOS(NVIDIA 6150)(Realtek ALC880 Audio)
Video: On Board 6150 set to 128Mb
Processor: AMD 3700+
Memory: Corsair 1 Gig(two 512 sticks dual channel) DDR 400 PC3200 CL2
System HDD: 40 GIG SATA II
Video HDD: 320 GB SATA II formated with 64K clusters
IR: USB-UIRT
SD Tuner: Hauppauge PVR-150 s-video connection from STB Hughes HTL-HD
HD Tuner: VBOX DTA-150 Connection COAX RG-6 to OTA Antenna outdoor

HDTV: Mitsubishi WS-55313 HDTV 16:9
AV Receiver: Onkyo TX-DS595

Component Video connection; SPDIF audio connection

I don't have a dual monitor setup just HTPC connected to HDTV. I can connect from another home computer on my home network using UltraVNC. I don't plan to use power strip. Using latest Nvidia 80 series driver.

I just got everything working and tested the video with sage this weekend. I am sure I will have lots of questions, but I am trying to keep my questions simple in the beginning. The first thing I need is to know what to set my windows desktop to. I can set it at 480 or 1080i (without powerstrip and just using the Nvidia driver), but I don't know how sage works. Does sage automatically set the computer to 1080i for HD and back to 480 for SD? My Tv is a 16:9 HDTV RPTV 55".

stanger89 · #5 01-23-2006, 01:27 PM

Sage doesn't change your resolution.

bcjenkins · #6 01-23-2006, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve52

I don't have a dual monitor setup just HTPC connected to HDTV. I can connect from another home computer on my home network using UltraVNC. I don't plan to use power strip. Using latest Nvidia 80 series driver.

I just got everything working and tested the video with sage this weekend. I am sure I will have lots of questions, but I am trying to keep my questions simple in the beginning. The first thing I need is to know what to set my windows desktop to. I can set it at 480 or 1080i (without powerstrip and just using the Nvidia driver), but I don't know how sage works. Does sage automatically set the computer to 1080i for HD and back to 480 for SD? My Tv is a 16:9 HDTV RPTV 55".

As stated by Stanger, Sage doesn't switch resolutions. What you need to do is set your output to 1080i. You can use nvidia's underscan compensation to resize the desktop if you want it all to fit on the screen. If you don't care, Sage has a great overscan tool that will resize the sage interface to match your screen. I think I noticed it did better with the SD videos than it did with the HD stuff in that setup. The HD stuff didn't seemed to stay confined to the Sage playback area. At the end of the day, I used Nvidia's underscan to shrink the whole desktop down.

fwiw you are upconverting all content playback to the resolution of the graphics card.

B

bcjenkins · #7 01-23-2006, 01:43 PM

Oh and fair warning... You can't play back protected DVDs from a PC to a component signal over 480P due to MPAA restrictions.

Steve52 · #8 01-23-2006, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

As stated by Stanger, Sage doesn't switch resolutions. What you need to do is set your output to 1080i. You can use nvidia's underscan compensation to resize the desktop if you want it all to fit on the screen. If you don't care, Sage has a great overscan tool that will resize the sage interface to match your screen. I think I noticed it did better with the SD videos than it did with the HD stuff in that setup. The HD stuff didn't seemed to stay confined to the Sage playback area. At the end of the day, I used Nvidia's underscan to shrink the whole desktop down.

fwiw you are upconverting all content playback to the resolution of the graphics card.

B

Thanks! It may be a simple thing to longtime users, but I didn't know what to set the desktop to. I will set the desktop to 1080i, and if I understand right when playing SD content it will upconvert to 1080i without my doing anything. I will have to check and see if I have a problem with overscan or underscan later.

Steve52 · #9 01-24-2006, 09:57 PM

Well I have the desktop set to 1080i now. TheNvidia driver is set to native but it is too large for the screen so I used the sage resize tool and now have it just right for the screen. Many other problems though:
1)ABC and Fox HD(DTA-150)will play with a hickup about every 15 seconds. Sometimes the sage icon will pop up in the middle of the screen.
2)NBC and CBS HD(DTA-150)are unwatchable with freezes every second.
3)PQ is not as good as STB even on ABC and Fox. Colors don't seem right. It is kind of odd the channels that work best are the 720P ones. The 1080i channels, which is what I am running on the destop and what my Tv has native, were unwatchable. Only looked at the SD stuff from the PVR-150 a little it seemed fair but has a few hickups as well but not as bad as HD channels, but still bad enough to be disappointing.
3)No DD5 .1 on the HD channels only stereo and volume is too low at that. I think I saw somewhere that you can adjust that? Not sure what handles the DD 5.1 sage sent me an e-mail saying they don't support DD5.1 directly. So how do you get it?
4)Guide freezes and is very slow.

I removed SageTv and reinstalled per the instructions in the users manual, but the manual says to uninstall with control panel and then delete the Fry Technologies folder. I could find no such folder. I deleted all the sage folders I could find. I suspect it did not really get rid of everything because it never ask me for a Key code. All of the above happened after the reinstall. I am using version 4.1.3.67. Another thing I noticed was that nowhere in the quality settings did I find any HD quality settings only SD and DVD settings.

Any help would be appreciated.
Steve

stanger89 · #10 01-25-2006, 06:42 AM

What's your hardware?

Steve52 · #11 01-25-2006, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanger89

What's your hardware?

My System:

Dedicated HTPC No Gaming No Surfing
Motherboard: MSI K8NGM2-FID V3.13 BIOS(NVIDIA 6150)(Realtek ALC880 Audio)
Video: On Board 6150 set to 128Mb
Processor: AMD 3700+ Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCU Cooler Artic Silver Ceramique
Memory: Corsair 1 Gig(two 512 sticks dual channel) DDR 400 PC3200 CL2
System HDD: 40 GIG SATA II
Video HDD: 320 GB SATA II formated with 64K clusters
IR: USB-UIRT
SD Tuner: Hauppauge PVR-150 s-video connection from STB Hughes HTL-HD
HD Tuner: VBOX DTA-150 Connection COAX RG-6 to OTA Antenna outdoor
Nexus 80mm & 92mm case fans Seasonic S12-380 PS In-Win V564T Case
Gyration GC1105CKM Cordless Keyboard & Air Mouse
HDTV: Mitsubishi WS-55313 HDTV 16:9 Capable of 480i/480P 1080i
AV Receiver: Onkyo TX-DS595

Component Video connection; SPDIF audio connection

SageTv 4.1.3.67

stanger89 · #12 01-25-2006, 07:52 AM

The 6150 may well be the problem, it seems like I remember complaints about it's handling of HD on AVS. What decoders are you using? What video renderer?

Steve52 · #13 01-25-2006, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanger89

The 6150 may well be the problem, it seems like I remember complaints about it's handling of HD on AVS. What decoders are you using? What video renderer?

Using Nvidia Purevideo that came with SageTv. Tried VMR9 and Overlay no difference in either.

shawncochran · #14 01-25-2006, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve52

Using Nvidia Purevideo that came with SageTv. Tried VMR9 and Overlay no difference in either.

I think that AC3 Filter is what comes with SageTV, and that the Purevideo is a separate download from nVidia. FWIW, I think it works well. Platinum version gives you DTS and DD5.1

I don't know if this helps, but I've had to change to Overlay instead of VRM9 to get consistently good HDTV from both 720p and 1080i sources.
In the audio/video area of setup, you'll want to select nVidia for the decoder for audio & video and leave the audio renderer at default. Make sure that the nVidia is selected as the system default -- you can go through WMP10 to access the setup portion of this to ensure decoder is nVidia and output is for SPIDF & etc. There's a thread on configuring nVidia Purevideo for SageTV somewhere deeper in here...

stanger89 · #15 01-25-2006, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shawncochran

Platinum version gives you DTS and DD5.1

Not in SageTV, unless they (nVidia/Dolby) have drastically changed their policy.

shawncochran · #16 01-25-2006, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanger89

Not in SageTV, unless they (nVidia/Dolby) have drastically changed their policy.

I'm lost. Not to stray from the original subject here, but I use nVidia Platinum for audio/video and DVD in SageTV, and my DVD playback allows & presents DTS if I select that option in the DVD menu.

Is there something I'm missing? Is it not supposed to do that?

stanger89 · #17 01-25-2006, 12:06 PM

The Platinum version adds DD/DTS decoding, but only works in WMP or MCE. All versions support DD/DTS passthrough (S/PDIF).

shawncochran · #18 01-25-2006, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanger89

The Platinum version adds DD/DTS decoding, but only works in WMP or MCE. All versions support DD/DTS passthrough (S/PDIF).

Gotcha. In this case, he is using SPDIF so he should be good to go.

Steve52 · #19 01-25-2006, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shawncochran

I think that AC3 Filter is what comes with SageTV, and that the Purevideo is a separate download from nVidia. FWIW, I think it works well. Platinum version gives you DTS and DD5.1

I don't know if this helps, but I've had to change to Overlay instead of VRM9 to get consistently good HDTV from both 720p and 1080i sources.
In the audio/video area of setup, you'll want to select nVidia for the decoder for audio & video and leave the audio renderer at default. Make sure that the nVidia is selected as the system default -- you can go through WMP10 to access the setup portion of this to ensure decoder is nVidia and output is for SPIDF & etc. There's a thread on configuring nVidia Purevideo for SageTV somewhere deeper in here...

I got purevideo bronze in a bundle with a PVR-150 from pcalchemy. I got on the Nvidia site and saw that purevideo comes in three flavors the only difference being DD 5.1 & DTS, but the DD 5.1 & DTS addon for Gold and Platinum editions only come into play if you are not using SPDIF. I am using SPDIF so as far as I can see the bronze edition has everything in it I need. I am however not getting DD5.1 sound from SageTv. SageTv sent me an e-mail saying that they don't directly support DD 5.1. Well DD 5.1 is "the" sound standard for HD so how can you support HD and not support DD 5.1. I don't understand? What or you guys doing to get DD5.1? Anyway unless I can get my video working the sound is a mute point anyway. BTY I tried overlay and most of the other settings that were available. Overlay did not help and Sage would not run with most of the other options except default. It just gives an error message. I will try again tonight but I suspect I have other problems as well.

shawncochran · #20 01-25-2006, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve52

I am using SPDIF so as far as I can see the bronze edition has everything in it I need. I am however not getting DD5.1 sound from SageTv.

I just want to make sure you've configured 'everything' that needs it. Have you gone into WMP10 into the advanced area and selected "prefer other" so you're using the nVidia decoders and not the AC3?

I'm setup just like you -- using nVidia for audio/video & DVD w/ SPIDF output and I get DD5.1 from my HDTV bcasts OTA. For the record: not all HDTV programming sends 5.1 -- I've noticed that some shows are bcast in HD but the audio is 2.1 WFIW. There's also a configuration I had to make in the nStantMedia area before my output was 5.1 -- because there's some kind of default setting in there for the output VIA SPIDF to be 2 channel rather than 5.1

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