"fuzzy" picture with pvr250??

[berfsicle]

when watching video on my tv from the pvr250, its very "fuzzy"...thats the only way i can describe it...everything has a weird haze to it...and movement is awful...

r there any optimizations required that i didnt do?

edit: and for the record, other video is fine (downloaded tv shows and home movies from my cam)...its just the 250 video

[fidget]

Originally posted by berfsicle
when watching video on my tv from the pvr250, its very "fuzzy"...thats the only way i can describe it...everything has a weird haze to it...and movement is awful...

r[sic] there any optimizations required that i didnt[sic] do?

edit: and for the record, other video is fine (downloaded tv shows and home movies from my cam)...its just the 250 video

I would blame your MPEG decode software and not the PVR-250 (unless you burnt the MPEG to DVD and then played it back via a stand-alone DVD player). I find that all software based MPEG decoders look "soft," especially when viewed at full screen.

[SHS]

Yup that 100% ture there fidget

[mlbdude]

Try turning off or modifying deinterlacing. That is that part required by your PC that removes some of the sharpness.

[berfsicle]

Originally posted by fidget
I would blame your MPEG decode software and not the PVR-250 (unless you burnt the MPEG to DVD and then played it back via a stand-alone DVD player). I find that all software based MPEG decoders look "soft," especially when viewed at full screen.

hm...burning to dvd is 1 thing i forgot to try...

what would u suggest i use as a decoder?

[berfsicle]

Originally posted by mlbdude
Try turning off or modifying deinterlacing. That is that part required by your PC that removes some of the sharpness.

tried every different setting i could find for it and it stays exactly the same

[mlbdude]

Keep in mind that most settings for your decoder are done in the decoder itself and NOT Sage.

What decoder are you using?

[berfsicle]

Originally posted by mlbdude
Keep in mind that most settings for your decoder are done in the decoder itself and NOT Sage.

What decoder are you using?

i've tried the intervideo video decoder and the intervideo non-css video decoder for hauppauge

where are the settings "in the decoder"?

[mlbdude]

The settings for Happuauge Intervideo are in the Registry.

Have you done this yet?

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...=&threadid=284

[berfsicle]

Originally posted by mlbdude
The settings for Happuauge Intervideo are in the Registry.

Have you done this yet?

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...=&threadid=284

yea i did that...doesnt appear to have an effect...do i have to make a fresh recording with the new settings to see changes?

[mlbdude]

Nope. Those will kick in right away. Make sure you have all settings in Sage as far as DXVA set to default. Depending on your video card it will have varying effects.

Are you watching these video's on a TV or PC monitor?

[berfsicle]

Originally posted by mlbdude
Nope. Those will kick in right away. Make sure you have all settings in Sage as far as DXVA set to default. Depending on your video card it will have varying effects.

Are you watching these video's on a TV or PC monitor?

i've watched em on both...the effect is really hard to describe...it just makes everything really weird lookin...nowhere near as sharp as the source or even with the tivo...and like i said, movement is just really "off"...

for example something that gets really bad is the clarity of ppl's faces...when when someone turns their head its just unbearable

[berfsicle]

i just converted a clip to mpeg-4 and its doin pretty much the same

[Opus4]

I'm not sure if I followed this thread closely enough... What recording rate are you using on the 250 through SageTV? i.e.: how many GB/sec are you using for your recordings? (In Detailed Setup -> Multimedia -> Recording Quality)

- Andy

[berfsicle]

Originally posted by Opus4
I'm not sure if I followed this thread closely enough... What recording rate are you using on the 250 through SageTV? i.e.: how many GB/sec are you using for your recordings? (In Detailed Setup -> Multimedia -> Recording Quality)

- Andy

dvd standard quality

[mlbdude]

Check for problems in your connections. Also, see if you can post a couple of second clip somewhere so we can see it.

[danward79]

Hi

I must say, I would not call the video quality I get perfect or very good, I did have a play with the tv out on the 350 yesterday, and it is the first time i can say the quality has been good for sagetv.

The problem is that the tv out is totally unpractical if you are using your htpc for anything else as well as sage tv, because you can not see the desktop etc thru it.

I have played with all the settings as well, played with registry settings recording qualities, dvxa, overlay, vmr, deinterlacing, brightness, contrast,etc, etc.... it has never been very good.

Dan

[mandrews44]

berfsicle,

Try this, at least some of the softness will go away. Hauppauge products default at 170 for "Softness", you can put it on "255" in sage. (New to SageTV v2.0)

Start sage and go to Setup menu and then Setup Wizard.

Select the Soft 250

Select "Color Calibration" (Not just for color )

Change the Sharpness settings to a higher number. Remeber it takes 2 seconds before your changes will be seen in the video.

For me, The 350 TV Out is every bit as high quality as what is coming out of my digital cable box. Just as sharp and clear and one would expect. I have artifacts when I overcompress but if that bothers you, stop it. Compress at a higher rate and use VBR.

Regards,

Mark

[berfsicle]

Originally posted by mandrews44
berfsicle,

Try this, at least some of the softness will go away. Hauppauge products default at 170 for "Softness", you can put it on "255" in sage. (New to SageTV v2.0)

Start sage and go to Setup menu and then Setup Wizard.

Select the Soft 250

Select "Color Calibration" (Not just for color )

Change the Sharpness settings to a higher number. Remeber it takes 2 seconds before your changes will be seen in the video.

For me, The 350 TV Out is every bit as high quality as what is coming out of my digital cable box. Just as sharp and clear and one would expect. I have artifacts when I overcompress but if that bothers you, stop it. Compress at a higher rate and use VBR.

Regards,

Mark

perhaps its a placebo effect, but it seems to have had at least a minimal effect on perfectly clean sources...

however...it did absolutely nothing for the movement issues...its not like im getting huge blocky artifacts, its like for instance when a tv character turns her head, her face gets all smeared and its just plain hard on the eyes

[kny3twalker]

this may be a problem with the recording
try higher bit levels and make sure to run the newest drivers for the card
also hauppauge normally has new drivers very often until recenty these often improve the quality
you can also tweak the quality yourself
frey has list how to setup the recording qualities and all the tweaks and what they do
if you make a nice one that you like and post it I will try it

here's a link to some I made
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...0&pagenumber=2
just so you know mine are just adding some variable bit rates and another recording quality in between best and max


here the frey setup for recoring qualities
http://www.freytechnologies.com/2_papers/HPquality.txt