How to improve SD picture quality on HDTV

[rtwhbw]

Guys,

I am using a HDTV LCD and really irritated with picture quality I am getting and do not know what to do to improve pq if possible

I use wintv 150 capture card. I have a dell 2.8mhz, 1 gig ram, will be adding a new video card (geforce 7300GT).

Any suggestions?

Rusty

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by rtwhbw

Guys,

I use wintv 150 capture card. Any suggestions?

Rusty

In my opinion the wintv 150 capture card is the worst card out there PQ wise. Get yourself a Nvidia DualTV card.

[olyar15]

If the PVR-150 is similar to the PVR-250, then the DualTV will provide a better but not a hugely improved picture. I think the picture quality of normal TV can't really be improved a whole lot.

[Jesse]

Hi,

What is your capture source? What sort of interconnect are you using for capture? What is your capture quality setting? What decoders are you using? What sort of interconnect between the pc and the tv? Please give us the details.

As for your capture card it's a toss-up. Lots of folks report good results with just about all the popular cards. Personally, I got poor results with a hauppauge card. I switched to ATI 650's and am getting great results. As for the new vid card I would not bother with anything less that a 7600GT. Eventually you will want some sort of HD and you will just have to buy yet another card.

Let us know.

Jesse

[rtwhbw]

Thanks for the replies. I will look into the Dual TV Card. I am also looking at getting an OTA card (HD Homerun). I live in eastern NC and have directv, so with out spending a lot, HD on directv is out of the question unless I subscribe to their service. I believe several of my locals already broadcast in hd. So I am going to tune those with the homerun. My concern is the pq of the setup I have now.

I use directv (serial controlled) to feed my wintv150 card via coaxial cable, from my intergated card on my dell 2.8 ghz, I go to LCD tv via VGA (what ever the monitor hook up is. I have heard some say to go s-video.

THe decoders I am using are sage mpeg decoder both audio and video. I tried the nvidia decoders but keep getting errors.

Please let me know if I did not hit all the info requested. I greatly appreciate all the help I am getting.

Rusty

[GbrNole]

the sage mpeg decoders are horrible. try your best to get the nvidia ones working or at least try out the powerdvd which i prefer as a second choice to nvidia.

to be truthful though the mvp blows away nvidia even when it comes to SD quality that's why i'm so intrigued to see what sage's HD extender quality will be like.

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

the sage mpeg decoders are horrible. try your best to get the nvidia ones working or at least try out the powerdvd which i prefer as a second choice to nvidia.

I second the above post. If you can't get Nvidia to work try powerdvd decoders. A better capture card and improved 3rd party video decoders will go a long way in making you happy with your PQ.

[Polypro]

Originally Posted by rtwhbw

I use directv (serial controlled) to feed my wintv150 card via coaxial cable...

THe decoders I am using are sage mpeg decoder both audio and video. I tried the nvidia decoders but keep getting errors.

Rusty

I don't use an STB but can you go S-Vid or Composite from the DirecTV box to the PVR150? Search for decoder setup...the nVIDIAs are better. I own a DualTV and a Type A PVR500...I like the Hauppauge better (after using the Hauppauge TweakTool to change the blur settings).

P

[Thomas Wischgol]

Originally Posted by Polypro

I like the Hauppauge better (after using the Hauppauge TweakTool to change the blur settings).

P

I completely agree. Especially, the default setting for the temporal interpolation (interpolating across four consecutive images) reduces the picture quality assuming you have a decent analog signal coming in.

Thomas

[camus]

Try s-video from your DirecTV box to you hauppauge card, I noticed a huge improvement over coaxial with my set-up.

[Jesse]

Hi,

camus said:
Try s-video from your DirecTV box to you hauppauge card, I noticed a huge improvement over coaxial with my set-up.

This is the very first thing to do. Coax is a good bit inferior to svid. The very next thing would be to set the capture quality to at least "great." I would definitely go for "best" or "mpeg2max" if you have the storage capacity. Next would be the decoder. The sage supplied decoder is really only good for making sure it all works. I wonder if your problem with the nvidia decoder is related to using onboard video? Just a shot in the dark on that one. You should really look at getting a vid card as well. Other than the nvidia 6150 chipset I have not heard much good about onboard vid.

Also keep in mind that SD is never going to look spectacular on an HD set.

HTH

Jesse

[jdamore]

I think we need some more insight to your PQ. What do you see? Are they digital artifacts, is it fuzzy like an analog antenna? Does it stutter or is it choppy?

most likely not related, but does anyone believe location on the MB could make a difference in PQ? ie: vertical or horizontal scan lines caused from EMI and/or RF noise from motherboard, fans, or neighboring expantion cards.

[stanger89]

Well the very first thing I would do is calibrate your capture settings. They are often off such that black level is elevated, which accentuates noise, and whites are blown out.

Simply tweaking the capture settings can go a very long way to improving PQ.

[rtwhbw]

Guys, thanks for all the input. I will look at the following first

s-video instead of coax - easiest to try
tweaking the card I have now - how do I do that?
play with the nvidia decoder setting, which may work better once I install a nvidia card. I have the powerdvd decoders, but those did not work either. ( I must be doing something wrong)
purcashing a new video card (ordered 7300GT, on its way)
also looking at OTA hd homerun for my locals (use directv now and HD is very limited)

The pq is terrible on my LCD, I hope I can describe it accurately. My wife complained about not being able to see the player's numbers or the ball during a UNC basketball game. It's a 32" LCD. It is very blocky (pixel-ated?) Play back is okay, just pq sucks.

I did buy a new cpu (on suggestion from another posting) with 7300LE card and quality was better when I tested it out. But I will be using that one on the LCD in about a month or so, doing some remodelling now and need my work computer to be both TV/computer.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by rtwhbw

tweaking the card I have now - how do I do that?

Adjust the settings under capture calibration in source setup. There's a guide on http://www.sage-community.org

[Polypro]

http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_tweak.html

P

[bcjenkins]

Is your TV widescreen? Are you viewing in full screen mode? Try switching to source.

B

[domc]

Keyword here is HDTV... you will never get a real great picture using standard tv on an HDTV. I'm using my HDTV to watch movies only. I've given up on getting it to look good with a 150 card and Dishnetwork.

[rtwhbw]

polypro,

what are your settings with the tweaker tool?

I have my s video cable coming out of my video card, and I switch the tv to look for a svideo signal but I get no signal. Am I not doing something to get the svideo signal to come out of the card. I was assuming I could have the vga plugged up and the svideo plugged up and just switch between the two.

Action shots still suck on this. It looks okay with the sage toggled off full screen, but full screen looks blocky and I see artifacts.

Thanks
R

[phelme]

I'm curious, how does it look if you take Sage out of the picture... running the S-Video direct from the DirecTV box to the LCD set? My guess is it still won't look that great.

This is one of the reasons I hang on to my CRT based RPTV. The analog nature of CRTs tends to look better with NTSC than pixel based display devices. The latter all depends on the scaler within the HDTV and even then I'd argue CRTs can look better.