blurry action from HDPVR

[pat_smith1969]

When I record HD shows using my HDPVR the video looks GREAT, except where there is movement on the screen. For instance during the news the desk and background will look awesome but when the news person moves his/her head it will get all pixelated.

Any ideas what I can do?

[pat_smith1969]

so no one has ever heard of this problem before?

[fidget]

What quality/bit rate are using? Have you tried recording at a higher quality?

[hockeyfan]

I've seen that on our LCD TV in the living room. On our DLP projector I do not have this problem (HD200 on both displays). So I'd start looking at the display.

[pat_smith1969]

I am using "high Quality" as a recording level. This particular source (HD-PVR) works fine most of the time, sometimes though it will do this. I wonder if it is not the provider, FIOS, sending a crappy signal, or the Set Top BOx that is a little messed up.

The next time this happens I will save off the recording and look at the raw recording on a PC. THis will tell me if it is a rendering issue, TV issue. I will also pay attention if the recording is in 720p or 1080i... perhaps the reason it is so random is because my system is doing something weird with one of these two resolutions.

[fidget]

Originally Posted by pat_smith1969

I am using "high Quality" as a recording level.

The HD-PVR does not have a setting of "High Quality." I have mine set to "Best" (5.9 GB/hr) as the others didn't look quite right. I think it was the additional compression of the h.264 on top of the compression that Dish (or your cable provider) applied. I think the default is "Great" at 3.8 GB/hr. With "Best", my files are slightly smaller than an OTA broadcast recorded with my HD HomeRun.

[Spectrum]

You might want to create a custom recording bitrate to take advantage of the 13.5 Mbps that the HDPVR is capable of. See Andy's posts in this thread for details. The other thing you might be running into is a deinterlacing problem. On my system I can see the interlacing on my HDPVR recordings unless I use the Arcsoft h.264 decoder. An easy test for both would be to record a clip with the TME software bundled with the HDPVR and play it back in TME and in Sage to see if there is a difference.

[sic0048]

What is your playback method? Extender or computer?

My gut feeling is that it is the decoder being used. But if you are watching the output via a HD-100 or HD-200 extender, then that blows my theory out the window.

[mangriotis]

I know this is 5 years old... but this problem seems to be getting worse lately.

Recordings from HDPVR that have a lot of motion (i.e. sports, typically) look like garbage, pixelated and blurry during the motion.

A power cycle of the HDPVR seems to correct this for a time, but it seems to be happening more often over the past 6 months or so.

I am using a HD300 for playback.

Anyone have any experiences with this at all??

Anyone still using HDPVR's?

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by mangriotis

I know this is 5 years old... but this problem seems to be getting worse lately.

Recordings from HDPVR that have a lot of motion (i.e. sports, typically) look like garbage, pixelated and blurry during the motion.

A power cycle of the HDPVR seems to correct this for a time, but it seems to be happening more often over the past 6 months or so.

I am using a HD300 for playback.

Anyone have any experiences with this at all??

Anyone still using HDPVR's?

It could be a failing hard drive. Check its health with HD Sentinel. The HDPVR's power supply might also be failing.

[mangriotis]

Don't think it's hard drive, I also have HDHR tuners and imported video files that are all fine... in addition, even while it's recording, if I power cycle the HDPVR, the recording goes back to normal.

I can try a new power supply to see if anything changes... haven't tried that yet.

[KryptoNyte]

If it's a progressive decrease in HD-PVR performance, then that definitely sounds like what I've experienced with a slowly fading power supply.