HQV Benchmark DVD

[stanger89]

I see the question a lot: "What's the best decoder?", or "How do I get the best PQ?"

And the answer is usually, well there's usually a lot of them, and they're usually contradictory, and based on complete subjectivity. Well there seems to finally be a tool that will mitigate those issues. The HQV Benchmark DVD. First I'll admit that I'm a geek through and through, I'll jump at about any test DVD, as long as the price is reasonable (no AVIA Pro ), so I ordered this disk without hardly a second though. Not sure what I expected, but whatever my expectations were they were surpassed.

It's great, it's got tests for about every artifact that's seen in video playback, and comes with a scorecard and instructions for scoring them. So if you go through the excercise, you end up with a pretty objective score of that playback system.

Now, what good is a benchmark if there's no data to compare, so with that in mind I started a thread on AVS Forum.

So, if you've got the disk, help out and score your playback system and post the results. If you don't have a disk, well get one and help out. And if you don't and are looking for which decoders to use, check out the thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=559736

If you don't want to register there, feel free to post results here, I may migrate them there too.

[mlbdude]

I ordered mine earlier this week. Will post some results when I get them. I have seen results on the AVS forums from DVD players and some on the TT forums. I must say the test is pretty brutal and most do really bad at it. I guess in fairness decoders/players generally don't get used like that in real life but it is still fun .

[stanger89]

Yeah, on my desktop, I have nVidias .150 decoders and my Radeon 9500, and it got 22 of 130. Bascially completely failed a good chunk of the tests.

[SHS]

I how the well a Hardware Decoder would do
mlbdude check your PM

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by SHS

I how the well a Hardware Decoder would do

Have you actually tried one (with this DVD I mean)? It's brutal, I'd have guessed the setup I tested would have been at least 60.

FWIW, I'm planning to try my MyHD MDP-130 (hardware decoder), and Geforce 6800 tonight, I hope to add my results to the other thread. I'll probably even try my Pioneer Elite DV-C36 progressive DVD player too, although that may not be tonight.

It would be interesting to see what the Xcard does. I'm also quite curious if ffdshow helps/harms and what some of the other decoders do.

[mlbdude]

Yeah, I plan on testing a few decoders both with DXVA and without. Also it would be good to try and throw in ffdshow and the NVPP too to see how they help/hurt. I would predict that any post processors may help in some categories but hurt in others, but who knows .

stanger89, how long did it take between your order and recieving it?

[Crashless]

I just ordered it. Last day of the deal! Hehe, it's your fault stanger.

Will post results upon reciept. I'll probably do pretty bad...

[mlbdude]

Here is a thread I saw on this earlier in the week.

http://www.theatertek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7745

While it seems that HTPC's may not do well, there are some DVD players that have actually done well. Again, just a riminder that not all of these tests actually would apply to day to day usage.

[stanger89]

I'm going to post-bomb because I don't feel like editing (typing on my HTPC)

Originally Posted by mlbdude

Yeah, I plan on testing a few decoders both with DXVA and without. Also it would be good to try and throw in ffdshow and the NVPP too to see how they help/hurt. I would predict that any post processors may help in some categories but hurt in others, but who knows .

Yeah, it depends, running Denoise 3D would bump the scores probably close to 20 points since that's delegated to noise reduction. However it would probably drop you a good number on the 3:2 and cadence tests.

stanger89, how long did it take between your order and recieving it?

My invoice had the 12th for both order and ship date, so 3 days it looks like. I'm in the middle of the country though.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Crashless

I just ordered it. Last day of the deal! Hehe, it's your fault stanger.

I do what I can

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mlbdude

While it seems that HTPC's may not do well, there are some DVD players that have actually done well.

Don't be so sure, check out the AVS thread, I've got results from my 6800 (DXVA) and my MyHD. To sumarrize, the 6800 setup scored 93, and the MyHD 35. I'd really like a couple of more results from "PureVideo" setups, because it seems to do about everything they advertise, and there's finally a bit of proof of that. FWIW, I've been trying to be equally hard on everything.

Again, just a riminder that not all of these tests actually would apply to day to day usage.

Not all but many, they obviously put some thought into it. Of course that's also why I've been posting the scores for each test, because it's possible for two things to perform very differently but have the similar scores. Just like most benchmarks, the overal number only tells you so much.

This thing is actually fun (man I'm a geek ), I'm going to have to try out my Pioneer Elite in progressive, and (using it in Interlaced) the Faroudja FL2310 in my Toshiba MT700.

[mlbdude]

Those 6800 tests seem to contradict some of the results others are getting on the TT forums where the poster suggested a score of 30. What player did you use? I sure hope the results can be more clinical so we see more common results.

[Kanati]

ooh... I'd expect that faroudja to score pretty well. I wanna know the results of that.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mlbdude

Those 6800 tests seem to contradict some of the results others are getting on the TT forums where the poster suggested a score of 30. What player did you use? I sure hope the results can be more clinical so we see more common results.

Why SageTV of course

I can't find any thread's on the TT forums, is there a specific thread, or are there just spiratic comments? Do they specify how they're running? 30 wouldn't really surprise me if they're running ffdshow.

[mlbdude]

Check out my post #8. User is using nVidia 6800, DXVA, drivers 72.14, latest TT with its NVDVD decoder. I asked them to try software mode and other players too to see what they get.

I have a strong feeling that resolution, display, and output method will greatly affect this as well. It would be nice though if we could all put together some results that users with similar hardware/display's should be able to duplicate.

[stanger89]

Hm, wonder if you could pause it and take a picture, and not skew the results. Ooh, well I could printscreen some of these. A few of them would be pretty easy to do, the Cadence ones would be tricky. Kind of wish I could go through this disk with an "expert" on some "perfect" hardware so I know what I'm actually supposed to be seeing.

mlb, what decoders is TT running now? The .145 decoders fixed some post processing issues.

[mlbdude]

They seem to be 4.1.53. I think once some more users do tests we can get to the bottom of the details that make the differences. For example, he is using 71.24 drivers for MCE. I think 2:2 was not released until 77.x drivers.