How to connect SagePC

[webdb]

Hi

hope somebody can give me some advices. My current config in my living room is
- Pioneer Plasma 506XDE, HDMI, Component, SVHS, 1280x768
- HTPC with Win XP and a nVidia 7600 GT, DVI, VGA, Component and SVHS out
- Scaler DVDO iScan VP50

The current configuration is: HTPC -> DVI/HDMI to the Scaler and from the Scaler to the Plasma.

I'm just wondering if an other connection configuration would improve my image quality and I wont just try and try it again and again. I strongly believe that somebody has a similar configuration and can give me an advice.
For instance if I use SVHS from PC to Scaler instead of DVI I could use the DVDO deinterlacer which I believe it's much better than a PC deinterlacer

Thanks in advance
Danny

[traker1001]

Why the Scaler? The less processing the picture goes thru the better the picture is going to be.

For IE, Set your pc to the native resolution of your plasma and plug the dvi directly into your plasma and the picture should be pretty good.

[webdb]

Thanks, the Scaler is actually for all my other equipment like cable receiver and sattelite receiver, old video player and more.
For all the other equipment the Scaler improve the picture quality and even for the HTPC it almost eliminate all juddering.

I'm just wondering if the Scaler can improve also other factors of the HTPC.

Danny

p.s. the cable receiver and sattelite receiver have smart cards which I cannot run with Sage (unfortunately)

[Jesse]

Hi,

First, you should go with whatever looks best to your eyes.

I not an expert on this, but I have do have two plasmas and have been able to learn a bit while tinkering with them. Most HD sets can only accept a limited number of resolutions, which they then scale to their own resolution. For instance, my 42" Panasonic "consumer" plasma has a native resolution of 1024x768. It pretty much only wants an input of 480i, 480p, 720p or 1080i. It then scales them to fit the screen. This means that the tv is going to use it's internal scaler no matter what I feed it. For this set I use component and set the HTPC output to 720p in the nvidia control panel. I think feeding it 1080i looks just a bit better, but it seems my pc is just a little short on horsepower to get smooth 1080i.

My 50" "industrial" plasma will accept it's native resolution of 1366x768 via DVI or HDMI. When connecting via DVI I can specify 1366x768 in the nvidia control panel. This lets the scaling happen in the pc. In theory this should provide the best picture. FWIW I think the picture on both these sets is great.

What I am getting at is you should determine if your set will even accept it's native resolution. If it wont then you are always going to have some scaling done by the tv. If it will then I would try letting the pc feed it the native resolution via DVI and see how that compares to the picture coming through the DVDO.

HTH

Jesse

[CollinR]

I would try an MVP if you are considering SVHS connectivity. Worst case just use it somewhere else in your home.

I personally think my MVPs picture quality is better then that of the server's when full screen. If Sage is windowed on my desktop thats another story.



That scaler is sweet BTW...

[Jesse]

Hi,

I personally think my MVPs picture quality is better then that of the server's when full screen. If Sage is windowed on my desktop thats another story.

For SD playback I would certainly agree with this. But only when the mvp worked.

Jesse

[webdb]

My Pio plasma has a native resolution of 1280x768 but unfortunately if I set this as teh output resolution in the Scaler I only get a bad picture. I have to set the Scaler output to 720p instead.

Good idea to try a Placeshifter to proove the picture quality.

Thanks for the good ideas
Danny

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by webdb

My Pio plasma has a native resolution of 1280x768 but unfortunately if I set this as teh output resolution in the Scaler I only get a bad picture. I have to set the Scaler output to 720p instead.

Good idea to try a Placeshifter to proove the picture quality.

Thanks for the good ideas
Danny

I have a pioneer 50", the PDP503CMX. If you feed it the native res through the dvi or vga input, you have to give it the native refresh of the screen, which bizarrely is 70Hz. If you feed it anything else, it mangles the picture badly.

[Jesse]

Hi,

I have a pioneer 50", the PDP503CMX. If you feed it the native res through the dvi or vga input, you have to give it the native refresh of the screen, which bizarrely is 70Hz. If you feed it anything else, it mangles the picture badly.

Good info.

You may want to try it from the pc strait to the tv. Often the nvidia drivers will correctly determine the native resolution and refresh rate. Often being the key word.

Jesse

[stanger89]

The absolute best picture you're going to get out of a PC is to use DVI/HDMI (or VGA/Component) and have it set to the native resolution of the display.

The scaler won't help because scalers rely on being fed raw/native/unprocessed video, and PCs, for all intents and purposes, can't output video unprocessed.

But don't fret, PC's video processing these days is very good, especially with the hardware you have.

Some suggestions:

• Give the nVidia decoders a try (if you're not using them already).
• Use VMR9 with FSE enabled in Sage.
• Calibrate your display to the PC (which with DVI/HDMI and VMR9 should be the same as all your other digital sources).
• Either bypass the scaler and run the PC direct to the TV, or set the scaler to simply pass the PC through.
• And, as noted by PhillJones, make sure to set the PC to the native resolution of the display.

[traker1001]

Lot of repetition in this thread

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hi,



Good info.

You may want to try it from the pc strait to the tv. Often the nvidia drivers will correctly determine the native resolution and refresh rate. Often being the key word.

Jesse

Not with my Pioneer it doesn't. nVIDIA thinks the native refresh is 60Hz. There was actually quite a kerfuffle over this at the AVSforums. Pioneer were blaming the scaler manufacturers and the scaler people were blaming pioneer. I can't find the original thread right now but there was talk of hacked firmware and allsorts. The bizarre thing is that it only has these reclocking problems when it's working at native res.

Another thing to consider is that 1280x768 /= 16:9. In other words, the pixels aren't square.
http://www.htpcnews.com/forums/index...pic=14293&st=0

[traker1001]

I don't understand, Why dont you just change the refresh rate manually on the pc to the correct one? And its my understanding that actual native resolution of most plasmas is actually 1280x720, The firmware just forces 1024x768 becuase thats the max resolution most older lower powered video cards can do, And its a standard resolution in the pc world, The plasma then takes that 1024x768 and uses its internal scaler to scale it up to 1280x720.

Try this just for kicks, Dont use the DVI, Hook up the TV to the PC directly using the Component inputs instead, Set you pc's video out to 1280x720 and set the refresh to 60, I have found most of the times the Component inputs dont need to fine tune the resolution, But if you do use the Nvidia tweak program that comes with the drivers.

As far as the square pixels, My bedroom plasma has this problem, What I do is adjust for the slight overscan of the desktop on the pc, Then use the Great overscan tool in sage to compensate, The picture on my plasma is great even though it is only an older EDTV POS gateway plasma.

[PhillJones]

Originally Posted by traker1001

I don't understand, Why dont you just change the refresh rate manually on the pc to the correct one? And its my understanding that actual native resolution of most plasmas is actually 1280x720, The firmware just forces 1024x768 becuase thats the max resolution most older lower powered video cards can do, And its a standard resolution in the pc world, The plasma then takes that 1024x768 and uses its internal scaler to scale it up to 1280x720.

Try this just for kicks, Dont use the DVI, Hook up the TV to the PC directly using the Component inputs instead, Set you pc's video out to 1280x720 and set the refresh to 60, I have found most of the times the Component inputs dont need to fine tune the resolution, But if you do use the Nvidia tweak program that comes with the drivers.

As far as the square pixels, My bedroom plasma has this problem, What I do is adjust for the slight overscan of the desktop on the pc, Then use the Great overscan tool in sage to compensate, The picture on my plasma is great even though it is only an older EDTV POS gateway plasma.

I think you may be confusing me with the OP? I don't have a problem, I was explaining why the pioneer gives a poor picture when you feed it it's native resolution at the native refresh that it claims to have. As you say, the way to solve the problem is to force the graphics card to output at the real native refresh of the plasma which is 70Hz and then you get a fantastic picture, far better than feeding it a 1280x720 image.

Pioneer plasmas actually have a design 'feature' that means that they look awful and tear badly if you feed them their native res at the wrong refresh. They look just fine if you give them something like a 720p image. I think this is because the scaler takes care of reclocking but if you feed it the native res, it bypasses the scalers and subsequently doesn't sort out any missmatch between frame rate it's being fed and the native refresh. There's an attempt to explain this in the manual but the writer of the manual apparently didn't understand the issue properly and the paragraph makes no sense.

The link that I gave explains how to fix the non-square pixel issue.

[traker1001]

Oops! My bad PhillJones, Keep up the good work..