Non-HD Broadcasts: PlaceShifter Poor Rez, Client Good Rez

[PeteCress]

Why is that?

For HD, Shifter does a much better job.

But for non-HD, Shifter comes off a poor second to Client.


(Under-powered Atom 1.1 ghz laptop over WiFi-N)

[reggie14]

Is that both on the 1.1Ghz Atom powered laptop? I really wouldn't think a 1.1Ghz Atom could handle HD mpeg2. The server probably transcodes it to something more manageable for the Placeshifter client. But, the 1.1GHz processor shouldn't have a problem with SDTV. In general the client should produce better results, as it generally has access to more advanced decoders and filters. So, in the SD case the client looks better.

That's my guess at least.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Is that both on the 1.1Ghz Atom powered laptop? I really wouldn't think a 1.1Ghz Atom could handle HD mpeg2. The server probably transcodes it to something more manageable for the Placeshifter client. But, the 1.1GHz processor shouldn't have a problem with SDTV. In general the client should produce better results, as it generally has access to more advanced decoders and filters. So, in the SD case the client looks better.

Transcoding seems tb what's going on with HD via PlaceShifter.

My experience supports what you suspect: that there is no way the 1.1Ghz Atom processor can handle real HD.

But with Shifter apparently transcoding on-the-fly, it's not that bad: somewhat pixelated - especially rapidly-changing scenes - but the sound is steady and the picture is smooth.

What's puzzles me is that PlaceShifter doesn't do a better job with non-HD; whereas Client renders non-HD very well indeed.

It's like PlaceShifter doesn't distinguish between HD and non-HD and sends a similar stream for both (at least the two streams render in a similar fashion - which is viewable, but far from what Client puts up for non-HD.

[gplasky]

If you have Placeshifter set to dynamically change the bandwidth try manually choosing the speed. My guess is on HD it is transcoding and throttling down but with SD there is no trasncoding but it's trying it at a higher speed and not doing very well.

Gerry