pq troubleshooting

[billeR]

I have 4 days left in my free-trial and want to spend some quality time this weekend figuring out if I'm going to be able to live with the picture quality that I am getting from SageTV. I'd really appreciate it if some of you experienced users could help me troubleshoot or otherwise make suggestions that would help me get the best quality playback of LiveTV and previously encoded material in SageTV.

First, a quick summary of my setup:

2.8ghz Pentium (800mhz fsb) w/1024mb RAM on ASUS P4C800E-dlx.
Radeon 9600 Pro (Sapphire Ultimate = fanless)
1 Seagate Barracuda IV drive w/separate media partion (64mb sectors) for Sage recordings
PVR-250 getting s-video in from my Samsung ts-160 Directv HD receiver.
DVI out to my Pioneer 433cmx (43" plasma - 1024x768 native - tweaked w/PS 71.927 refresh rate which seems to give smoother video playback).

I have already spent a great deal of time tweaking the Hauppauge encoder settings for things like brightness, contrast, hue, etc. and have been able to get pretty close to the component input from my Directv receiver into the plasma. I have done the registry tweaks suggested in the sticky. I have downloaded and used the elecard filter w/just about every combination of dscaler plug-ins available. I've played all using VMR vs Overlay (although I don't know what they mean).

So far, what I have found is that the Intervideo (not the noncss version from hauppauge, but the one I got from the demo of Windvd4 ?) works best, providing the smoothest playback and fewest artifacts.

The Noncss version from hauppage is second, but is much less smooth (really shows on cnn crawl) and the elecard w/dscaler is the worst (this surprised me & is what makes me think I could definitely tweak something to do better). I've observed that no livetv offers perfectly smooth playback (like I get from D* receiver), regular shows like nypd blue, west wing, etc look pretty decent, but sports (nfl sunday ticket, golf, etc.) look really bad. I notice a jerky kind of playback, for example when watching a golf show - a putt looks like it sort of staggers/lurches towards the hole with a funny kind of white-ball-trail instead of a smooth roll. Generally speaking, my main problem is that playback is not smooth for anything - it's almost as good on regular tv, but its bothersome and pretty much unwatchable (overused expression) with any kind of fast motion. I hardly ever get >5% CPU usage no matter what.

I know that this isn't what others are experiencing or Sage wouldn't get such rave reviews here & on AVS Forum, so I really hope I can get some help from this group. I have probably spent 50 hours cumulatively since I installed the demo, but feel like I've run out of ideas and am now running out of time.

Sorry for very long post - any help is much appreciated.

Bill

[fasttech]

I personally get the best picture quality with the PowerDVD codec. I tried Elecard and WinDVD, and for me and my system, PowerDVD is hands down the best.

[billeR]

I should have mentioned that I have tried PowerDVD codec as well.

[mlbdude]

When you are using the Elececard\DScaler combo try disableing the Elecard deinterlace in the registry. It may be doing it twice. The key is SoftwareDeinterlace. Set it to 0. After that, I like DScaler\Weave best but others are good too.

[robertmcox]

i have been through this hell, too. i have tried sonic, windvd, powerdvd, ati dvd, nvdvd, but i only get an acceptable quality using intervideo non-css (reghacked for dxva) with vmr. and to define acceptable means the video doesn't skip, jump, or wobble. i observed that powerdvd hands down has the clearest picture - no contest, and absolutely no blurring or ghosting during a screen pan, but on my sagetv system it "wobbles".

now, i have sage client on another machine and powerdvd looks awesome there - absolutely stunning and no "wobbles"

my conclusion is that i need a new video card for my sage tv machine - presently using an ati aiw 128pro vs the geforce4 mx440 on the client. i plan to order a radeon 9600 dual-head (vga+dvi) with s-video out monday for about $80.

i did observe that with the ati aiw 128pro card that all the decoders liked the overlay better, excepting the intervideo non-css. strange that the intervideo windvd liked the overlay better. i also observed that mpeg acceleration modes a+c work, but not b or d. and leaving the mpeg acceleration at default works the best, just wanted to see...

-Bert
Columbus, OH

[mlbdude]

robertmcox, Are both of those machines displaying on a monitor? Or is one on a TV?

[billeR]

hmmm...looking for the elecard software decoding in the registry and can't find it. Can you point me in the righ direction. Thanks!

[mlbdude]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOftware\Elecard\MEPEG2 Video Decoder

Key SfwareDeinterlace 1=on, 0=off

[billeR]

Hey mlbdude - that made a noticable difference. I found that when I turn off the elecard software deniterlace, that the dscaler interlacing is much cleaner. I have experimented a bunch with the varios dscaler options and found that double frame rate checked with the greedy2frame seems to look the best so far.

This is a definite improvement. I think that Dan & the boys should try to point this out to any of the elecard/dscaler users, because it looks tlike there is some kind of double deniterlace happening if you don't change this registry setting & the difference is quite noticably better. THANK YOU.

Bill

[mlbdude]

No problem. Not sure if I have tried that combination myself. I will try it too.

[billeR]

decided that videoweave with double refresh rate checked was best fo fotball. Fairly smooth playback. tks

[Narflex]

What's that exact reg key? I already do that automatically in Sage, but it looks like they might be using a new reg key in the latest version because what you list isn't what I'm using.

[mlbdude]

Narflex, I think they did change it. Here is what I use now...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Elecard\MPEG2 Video Decoder\SoftwareDeinterlace

it is either 0 or 1.

[robertmcox]

Originally posted by mlbdude
robertmcox, Are both of those machines displaying on a monitor? Or is one on a TV?

mlbdude,

the ati card that "wobbles" was outputting svideo to my 36" panasonic sdtv. the mx440 was going to a standard crt.

i have since replaced the ati aiw with an fx5200 dual-head (vga+dvi) w/ svideo out <-- heards lots of good things about this card on the forums here and caught a good deal on one.

first off, the svideo out on the fx5200 is DEFINITELY a par above the ati 128pro. much clearer, even the wife made a comment.

with this new video card i've found that powerdvd locks up a bit -- tried uninstalling and reinstalling powerdvd (maybe the installation looks at the video drivers), but that didn't help. the intervideo noncss were still as stable as ever and still as low-quality as ever. i downloaded a trial of nvdvd, and whola! i would say it's a hair less quality than powerdvd, but works like a champ and justified my $100 expdenditure on the new card.

i would say we are ALMOST at the quality of the original feed from the cable company. (recording dvd std via pvr-250 on p3/800 w/ 512mb ram <-- i see no sense in using my faster equipment for this machine)

-Bert