HD-PVR and Directv Picture Quality Improvement

[Evil_Attorney]

I know there are a ton of threads on this topic, but thought I would share my own discovery in the hopes that it helps someone else.

I have two HD-PVR's connected to two Directv HD receivers. Like many, previously had both receivers set to 720p and used Cyberlink 8 codecs. These worked well together, however, I noticed that some channels looked better than others. I chalked this up to different quality feeds from Directv.

Finally, I decided to try setting the receivers to native output. Cyberlink couldn't reliable handle switching between resolutions or even 1080i on all of my clients. However, the Arcsoft codec did the trick. I noticed the previously "lesser quality" channels looked MUCH better. Turns out these were the 1080i channels. Also, the SD channels look much better too. I suspect that the Directv receivers do a crappy job of scaling and deinterlacing, but the computer/codecs do a much better job.

Anyway, in my experience native resolution and Arcsoft codecs result in the best picture quality so far.

[Beefcake550]

once you set the STBs to output native, you could also try modifying the "delay_to_wait" line for each HD-PVR tuner. Most people have this set to 4000 (for 4000ms or 4 sec) and it works great!

Glad to hear it looks better.

[Savage1701]

I think Beef is correct. the 4K ms delay solved my problems, and my crummy Charter STB's can't be set to descale/deinterlace/fix an output resolution.

They just kick out whatever Charter sends them. I have shows going back to back from 480i to 720p to 1080i and all over the place, and I have not been able to break/crash this unit in weeks. I am definitely switching from that other "snappy" brand of PVR software that could not handle the HD-PVR for more than half a day without requiring a full hardware reset.

[Beefcake550]

I have had Charter STBs in MA (3250 and 8300 DVR). both could be set to only output certain resolutions. It's in the TV setup. You have to tell it you only have a 720p capable TV. That would make it only output 720p. I used to have a 1080i TV (still have it) and this is what I had to do (tell it I only could display at 1080i).

-Brian