Better picture quality on MVP

[garyellis]

I have 2 MVP's installed and and of course 1 main system. I have (1) Hauppauge 150 and (1) Hauppage 500.

the picture quality on the main system to the TV is worse than the PQ on the MVP's to much lower quality TV's. Especially on action/sports scene's. This is true on Live TV or recorded TV.

I always thought poor picture quality was caused by the PVR cards, but now and wondering if it is something else.

comments?

Gary Ellis

[GbrNole]

do you see why we all want HD capable extenders now?

[stanger89]

Is the "main" TV an HDTV?

[bcjenkins]

I am not sure I followed the wording. Is the issue that PQ is worse on TV with PC than TV with MVP? I just added my third MVP to an LCD TV (EDTV I think) and the PQ on that is much worse than MVP on tube TV (SDTV)

B

[garyellis]

Main TV is HD capable,but not using HD through Sage.

The issue is that the picture quality is worse without the MVP than it is using the MVP.

One would think that the PQ would be the same, given the Hauppauge card input is the same.

[Opus4]

That's because the MVP has a hardware decoder that is intended to output the video to an SD TV instead of a computer monitor. The Xcard has great output for SD for the same reason.

Someone else will have to explain the details of why a video card has a harder time doing SD output to a TV...

- Andy

[stanger89]

Short answer is you really want to connect your PC to your TV using an HD connection if possible (DVI, VGA, Component, HDMI).

[garyellis]

Thanks..now that made sense...

Now,the question is,what do I do with what I now know.

This may not be the area to keep this thread in, but I'll keep asking...

I bought the cheap video card for my HTPC, just to make sure things worked.

I have the Nvidia 6200...It does have component output and S-video. I've only used S-video. Initially I tried the component output, but my TV is 4:3(HD ready) and when I play anything to it through component, it comes out as 16:9. I could never figure out how to get it to come out as 4:3 through component, so I gave up, to come back a later date.

So, the first question is, how do I get 4:3 through component on my TV? Stranger,I read your post on aspect ratios and there looks like there is some hope in there.

If I can get pointed in the right direction, I can go from there...

Thanks,

Gary

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by garyellis

I have the Nvidia 6200...It does have component output and S-video. I've only used S-video. Initially I tried the component output, but my TV is 4:3(HD ready) and when I play anything to it through component, it comes out as 16:9. I could never figure out how to get it to come out as 4:3 through component, so I gave up, to come back a later date.

So, the first question is, how do I get 4:3 through component on my TV? Stranger,I read your post on aspect ratios and there looks like there is some hope in there.

If your TV behaves the same as my Sony 4:3 HD ready set, then you might be able to get full screen by sending 480p via the component input. (Mine only changes to 16:9 when I try to send 1080i, which is its only supported HD resolution) It's not HD but it should look much better than Svideo.

Aloha,
Mike

[garyellis]

I'll try that tonight..thanks...I think I have only tried 1080 on mine...

I'm still hoping there is a way to get 1080 in 4:3...

Gary

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by garyellis

So, the first question is, how do I get 4:3 through component on my TV? Stranger,I read your post on aspect ratios and there looks like there is some hope in there.

Unfortunately I think that's a TV "problem", it's trying to do you a favor by squeazing what it thinks should be 16:9 (usually >=480p). I can't really help you with that one, I've never had a display that does that.