Pulling my hair out w/ DVD playback

[kny3twalker]

the AIW comes with a svideo to component adapter (dongle) this should give you comparable quality video to DVI
it does not have the bandwidth issues that svideo has

[chrispy]

KNY,

Thanks for the suggestion, but the suggestion was made that I get rid of the dongle and svideo in favor of a DVI cable.

Today I was able to use a RGB cable (HD-15 cable) to connect to the HDTV. All I can say is what a difference from the Svideo cable. Makes me start to wonder why anyone would even want to try to get DVD video out the PVR-350, as the difference from the svideo cable to the RGB cable was like night and day. Almost to the point that I think something was wrong with the ATI card when using the svideo connector.

Seeing that I have no true DVI connection on this card (ATI Radeon 9600) should I be fine with the RGB cable? Not sure that I could get any picture better than this.

Still I can only wish that I did not have to go through the ATI card at all, as then it kills my ability to RDP into the HTPC and control DVD playback. I can only hope that I can find a better solution. Like a digital output that is not killed when I RDP into the HTPC.

Chris

[stanger89]

VGA will get you 99% of what you'd see with DVI.

Out of curiosity, what resolution are you running the TV out at, and what decoders are you using?

[chrispy]

Stanger,
Thanks for the feedback. Seeing that I cannot get a DVI connection from the ATI RADEON card that I have I will assume that the VGA connection is fine?

I still think something is not right as the quality of the picture was dramatically improved when I switched the output connector. I cannot imagine that there is that much difference from svideo to a VGA connection while playing back a DVD.

Here is the current info requested.

I am running 1280 x 720 at 60hz for the DLP.
I am using the NVidia decoders for decoding and the default render (whatever that might be). Everything else set to default, DVD wise.

Anything that I might have amiss?

I still am not convinced that the picture quality would be that much of a change. If the difference is that much, I can only wonder why people are trying to get DVD "ripped" output to run over a PVR-350, as the picture quality is just that much better when you drop the Svideo.

For what it is worth, I nearly fell over when I saw the computer desktop come up on the DLP when connected to the VGA cable. I could barley read the names of the icons when connected with the svideo cable. Should I see this much of a difference?

Thanks again for all the help as this is a clearly a night and day differnce when watching music DVDs. I am watching a Led Zepplin DVD filmed in 1976. It amazes me that they had this quality of video recording eqipment back in '76. That is without any type of monitor calibration (AVIA DVD ordered today).

The question that arises from this observation: If a DVD can surpase the limitations of the SVIDEO connection, what will be my observations when I go to digital cable. Will that technology surpass the svideo cable as well?

Thanks again, (now if I could only get control of playback with the Airpanel).

Chris


PS also a huge Mustang fan that had the oppurtunity to hotrod a mustang in Germany. 158mph in a Mustnag is fun. Better yet is 117miles in one hour is even better.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by chrispy

Stanger,
Thanks for the feedback. Seeing that I cannot get a DVI connection from the ATI RADEON card that I have I will assume that the VGA connection is fine?

Like I said, VGA will get you most of the PQ of DVI. DVI would probably be better, but I don't think it alone would justify a new card...

I still think something is not right as the quality of the picture was dramatically improved when I switched the output connector. I cannot imagine that there is that much difference from svideo to a VGA connection while playing back a DVD.

Here is the current info requested.

I am running 1280 x 720 at 60hz for the DLP.
I am using the NVidia decoders for decoding and the default render (whatever that might be). Everything else set to default, DVD wise.

Looks good, wanted to make sure you were running the native resolution and with good decoders, otherwise there would be more PQ to be had

Anything that I might have amiss?

The only thing I'd consider is giving VMR9 a shot.

I still am not convinced that the picture quality would be that much of a change. If the difference is that much, I can only wonder why people are trying to get DVD "ripped" output to run over a PVR-350, as the picture quality is just that much better when you drop the Svideo.

Well you should be, but there's really two sides to that story. First upscaled DVD (what you see via VGA) is noticably better than S-Video. And second, the S-Video output on most video cards is rather poor, or more specifically the way it works can degrade image quality a great deal.

The 350 doesn't have the same issues, and would probably fall somewhere in between the Video card's S-Video and VGA.

For what it is worth, I nearly fell over when I saw the computer desktop come up on the DLP when connected to the VGA cable. I could barley read the names of the icons when connected with the svideo cable. Should I see this much of a difference?

Yup, it's that good.

Thanks again for all the help as this is a clearly a night and day differnce when watching music DVDs. I am watching a Led Zepplin DVD filmed in 1976. It amazes me that they had this quality of video recording eqipment back in '76. That is without any type of monitor calibration (AVIA DVD ordered today).

The question that arises from this observation: If a DVD can surpase the limitations of the SVIDEO connection, what will be my observations when I go to digital cable. Will that technology surpass the svideo cable as well?

DVDs probably, digital cable, probably not.

Thanks again, (now if I could only get control of playback with the Airpanel).

I don't suppose you can run VNC on there can you? Or, the convoluted way, you run RDP to a different machine, and the VNC on that

Chris


PS also a huge Mustang fan that had the oppurtunity to hotrod a mustang in Germany. 158mph in a Mustnag is fun. Better yet is 117miles in one hour is even better.

[chrispy]

If I use VMR9 it will crash the system. Anything other than the default overlay causes the ATI card to crash.

I have thought about VNC to solve the issues. This would only work from the laptop not from the Airpanel, as I have no way to load VNC onto the Airpanel. Although your idea to run VNC on another machine has me thinking. Clumsy, but it might work. I just want to keep it as clean as possible, as I have lucked out with using the Airpanel and the Nevo card (remote IR card) installed, and the seemless integration it provides. I use to be a big fan of VNC as an adminstator before RDP (or Terminal sevice) came along. I ownder if I could even RDP into the HTPC and have it VNC to itself (now I am dizzy).

Although your meniton that the Svideo would be better coming out of the PVR-350, leads me to think that I should give a try, once again, at getting the ripped DVDs to appear on the PVR-350. From what I can definatley tell you is the Svideo coming from the ATI Radeon card, should be an embarassment to ATI. I just sent the TV out it and compared it to the PVR-350, and it is like night and day.

Chris