Please help with PQ issues

[gman4nj]

Here are my specs

Dell 8400 PC
p4 2.8 ghz processor
1 gig of ram
Hauppauge 150
Radeon x1300 PCIE
Directv H20 HD Receiver
Mitsu WS-B55 HDTV
NVIDIA Pure Video Plat. Decoder


Hello, I'm currently in trial mode and my PQ is not up to speed to the service I get with Directv in standalone mode.

I've tried Tivo, but can't see spending 20 bucks a month for their service.

For some reason my major problem is with the quality of the picture. On some channels it looks good and others It's horrible.

I've played around with all the adjustments but can't seem to get anything to release a picture that is almost equal to my directv standalone setup.

Are there any tip's or pointers you can provide me with.

I've tried searching the forums but couldn't find anything that helped me.

I'm hoping someone may have the same setup I do and can provide any info that I may have overlooked.

If necessary, I'm willing to pay for support. If this appeals to you, shoot me a pm and I'll provide you with my phone number and we can work out a deal.

BTW, I'm also experiencing black bars on the top and bottom of my screen, is there anything I can do to fix this?
Thanks in advance



My TV currently in use is a WS-B55 Mitsubihi HD

[Polypro]

1. How are you connected to the PVR150 from the Sat box? S-Vid is the best of your options.

2. Is your graphics card outputting your TV's native resolution?

3. The Hauppauge TweakTool will allow you to adjust Spatial and Temporal "Blur".

4. When I had DirecTV, some channels were more compressed than others.

5. If the picture isn't filling the screen in "Fill" mode, you can adjust the Overscan Percentage in Setup>Detailed Setup>Overscan

P

[Jesse]

Hi,

What Polypro said plus:

What is your capture quality setting?

What decoders are you using?

Jesse

[gman4nj]

Originally Posted by Polypro

1. How are you connected to the PVR150 from the Sat box? S-Vid is the best of your options.

I'm currently running the S vid from my H20 DTV Receiver to the input on my Hauppauge 150

Originally Posted by Polypro

2. Is your graphics card outputting your TV's native resolution?

Well, this may be part of my problem, hopefully you can help... I'm currently running the x1300 dongle (component) to my Mitsubishi WS-B55's component input. I have the resolution on my X1300 (TV) set to 720x480. The resolutions on my tv are 480i, 480p and 1080i. If I go to the catlyst tools, I can only select 480p as my resolution because when I set it to 1080i, my screen goes black and I can't see anything on the TV. Do you think some of my problems may be here?

Originally Posted by Polypro

3. The Hauppauge TweakTool will allow you to adjust Spatial and Temporal "Blur".

hmmm... Where do I get this and where can I find more info as to what Spatial and Temporal Blur are?

Originally Posted by Polypro

4. When I had DirecTV, some channels were more compressed than others.

Originally Posted by Polypro

5. If the picture isn't filling the screen in "Fill" mode, you can adjust the Overscan Percentage in Setup>Detailed Setup>Overscan

Will this result in detoriating my picture even more?.

The setting I'm currently running my TV format in is 480p standard.


I'm also currently using the Nvidia pure video platinum decoder and i'm using the overlay mode since it provides a much sharper picture.

Thanks for your questions

P[/QUOTE]

[gman4nj]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hi,

What Polypro said plus:

What is your capture quality setting?

What decoders are you using?

Jesse

Capture for the Hauppauge is set to 3.2 gb per hr
and for recording it's set slightly lower

again, using the Nvidia Pure video platinum

Thank you

[salsbst]

There are two areas of picture quality in a PVR:

1) quality of what is recorded

2) quality of the rendering of a recording

IMO, #1 gets neglected a bit. If you can find a way, see if your problems are in the recording stage or the rendering stage. If you have a DVD player, you could compare what gets rendered by your DVD player when it is played directly into your TV with what Sage renders when it plays the DVD into your TV. If those are about the same, then you should focus on the recording stage (I think this is most likely). Otherwise, you should focus on how your computer (including Sage) is rendering video.