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SageTV Media Extender Discussion related to any SageTV Media Extender used directly by SageTV. Questions, issues, problems, suggestions, etc. relating to a SageTV supported media extender should be posted here. Use the SageTV HD Theater - Media Player forum for issues related to using an HD Theater while not connected to a SageTV server. |
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#1
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Video Quality
I have an HD100 and the video quality is not impressive with analog programming from my cable box. I keep comparing it with a cable box I have directly hooked up to the TV, and the Sage quality looks like an old VHS tape. I am trying to improve picture quality, and I made it somewhat better by playing with the settings in the color calibration menu and my TV settings, but it is still not satisfactory....any suggestions?
Does it matter which codec I have installed on the server? |
#2
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Codecs on the server are irrelevant to the HD100 since the server streams the file to the HD100 and it uses it's own version of a codec to decode the video stream.
I'm certainly no expert, but one thing I found that improved my picture quality was to turn on native resolution output switching (if I'm remembering the name correctly) on the extender. As I understand it, that has the extender to dynamically change the output resolution to the one most closely matching the video you are playing. So an SD recording would be output at 480i, allowing the TV to do the upscaling of the picture. I found that my HDTV does a better job of upscaling the picture than the extender. I found the same to be true of an upscaling DVD player I recently bought. I liked the picture better when the DVD player was outputing SD than when it was upscaling to "HD." Of course, your mileage may vary, so it may not help in your situation... Edit: All this assumes that your TV is HD. If it's an SD set, then you might look at the recording quality you are using. In fact, you should consider it anyway, since the quality of the recording may be the most important factor in getting a playback picture. The extender can't play back a better picture that what it's given. Also, flaws due to a lower quality recording that aren't too noticable on an SD TV will be much more noticable on a larger HD TV. Hope that helps... Robert Last edited by RobertRathbone; 08-02-2008 at 03:43 PM. Reason: Upon further consideration... :) |
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Can anyone pipe in as to the quality on SD broadcasts originating from the HDPVR? |
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Sage Server: AMD Athlon II 630, Asrock 785G motherboard, 3GB of RAM, 500GB OS HD in RAID 1 and 2 - 750GB Recording Drives, HDHomerun, Avermedia HD Duet & 2-HDPVRs, and 9.0TB storage in RAID 5 via Dell Perc 5i for DVD storage Source: Clear QAM and OTA for locals, 2-DishNetwork VIP211's Clients: 2 Sage HD300's, 2 Sage HD200's, 2 Sage HD100's, 1 MediaMVP, and 1 Placeshifter |
#5
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S-Video
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__________________
Sage Server: AMD Athlon II 630, Asrock 785G motherboard, 3GB of RAM, 500GB OS HD in RAID 1 and 2 - 750GB Recording Drives, HDHomerun, Avermedia HD Duet & 2-HDPVRs, and 9.0TB storage in RAID 5 via Dell Perc 5i for DVD storage Source: Clear QAM and OTA for locals, 2-DishNetwork VIP211's Clients: 2 Sage HD300's, 2 Sage HD200's, 2 Sage HD100's, 1 MediaMVP, and 1 Placeshifter |
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If you select 480i, 720P and 1080i as video out options on the HD100, it will automatically switch to the "native" resolution of the video captured (when the HD100 plays a 480i recording, the HD100 switches its output to 480i, same for 720P and 1080i). The only annoyance is that you will lose video for a second while it switches its resolution when you switch between formats. The scaler in the HD100 is not the greatest (not horrible, but many newer tv's have better internal scalers).
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Sage Server: AMD Athlon II 630, Asrock 785G motherboard, 3GB of RAM, 500GB OS HD in RAID 1 and 2 - 750GB Recording Drives, HDHomerun, Avermedia HD Duet & 2-HDPVRs, and 9.0TB storage in RAID 5 via Dell Perc 5i for DVD storage Source: Clear QAM and OTA for locals, 2-DishNetwork VIP211's Clients: 2 Sage HD300's, 2 Sage HD200's, 2 Sage HD100's, 1 MediaMVP, and 1 Placeshifter |
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Thanks |
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Robert |
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Up the recording quality of the analog tuners until you don't notice a difference.
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Make sure your connection from you cable box is coming into the sage tuners via s-video and not the RF cable.
So it should be cable box - svideo out - to sage tuner svideo in. Then set your quality settings capture at the better or best quality, and this should help. I get a fantastic picture with DirecTV using this method with s-video. Hope this helps.
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SageTV HD100 Extender SageTV MVP Extender Media Server-WHS - 2GB Ram - 3TB storage - Windows 7 MC - My Movies Plugin for Win7MC "Life is a banquet and most people are starving to death!" |
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On my set (61" Samsung RPTV), I had unsatisfactory quality even at great, and it really didn't get much better until i got up to best or DVD Standard. This of course takes up more space, but the shows that I keep a lot of (mostly kids programs to pacify the kiddies) are all auto-compressed anyways, so I'd rather have the higher quality near-artifact-free recordings to begin with before the compression.
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Buy Fuzzy a beer! (Fuzzy likes beer) unRAID Server: i7-6700, 32GB RAM, Dual 128GB SSD cache and 13TB pool, with SageTVv9, openDCT, Logitech Media Server and Plex Media Server each in Dockers. Sources: HRHR Prime with Charter CableCard. HDHR-US for OTA. Primary Client: HD-300 through XBoxOne in Living Room, Samsung HLT-6189S Other Clients: Mi Box in Master Bedroom, HD-200 in kids room |
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Sharpness
Striving to better oft we mar that which is well.....
My SD broadcasts/recordings are now almost indistinguishable from those straight from the cable box. Prior setting up my HDTV with Sage, while viewing Sage via one of my MVP's attached to an SD TV I adjusted the sharpness way up on my PVR-150 and HVR-1600 tuners. As it did not seem to have much of an affect I left the settings high (200!). I was experiencing a lot of "grain" on SD on my SXRD4 and 32" Vizio with the HD100. I found by setting the sharpness down to zero on the tuners and increasing the sharpness on the HDTV sets the "grain" was almost eliminated while the sharpness remained satisfactory. That coupled with some mild noise adjustments on the sets has left me with what I belieive to be as good of an SD picture as can be expected. BTW, I'm recording at max video quality. Last edited by dadof4; 08-11-2008 at 11:21 AM. |
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