"Rosyln" vs PVR-250 MCE

[cmaffia]

Originally posted by sleight42
So how does one tweak the Roslyn drivers? I just got mine and I, too, am having the same brightness and contrast issues. I've found a single page that seemed to result in some improvement.

http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=gateway901_5

Incidentally, has anyone found a way to turn off the auto brightness adjustments?

Ugh the AutoBright really was annoying... probably the most annoying. If anyone has suggestions for us Roslyn owners please let us know. Thanks!

[justme]

Driver tweaking is something a munufacturer does as they develop the driver over time.

Most of the settings you found can be editted by SageTV using the capture source's color calibration screen. Go to Setup>Setup Wizard>Then select the roslyn source(you may have more than one)>then select Color Calibration. This will bring up a "live"(remember everything is Sage is recorded first) video stream for that source. You can then adjust the Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Hue and Sharpness. Keep in mind that the changes will take between 1-3 seconds to appear on screen, so go slow. If your source is a tuner, you can even change channels to find a good show to use to tune the source with. Also this only effectc new recordings not old/already recorded shows.

You should do this for each source used by each card, as each has it's own calibration settings. You're after one consistant looking playback appearance over different cards/sources. This may not always be totally(you can usually get very close in my experience with other cards) possible so you may have to decide to which source is more used and tune it best. Also there can be a large difference between a Tuner input and a RCA/SVHS input on any PVR card. This is mostly caused by how the signal is presented to the PVR card. ie Your cable company, broadcaster for Tuner input and your Cable/Satallite box for the SVHS or RCA/composite inputs.

Sorry I can't tell you about autobright on/off. Anyone else?

If you want to go even farther with tuning there's a good guide link posted in the FAQ here.

[cmaffia]

Originally posted by justme
Driver tweaking is something a munufacturer does as they develop the driver over time.

Most of the settings you found can be editted by SageTV using the capture source's color calibration screen. Go to Setup>Setup Wizard>Then select the roslyn source(you may have more than one)>then select Color Calibration. This will bring up a "live"(remember everything is Sage is recorded first) video stream for that source. You can then adjust the Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Hue and Sharpness. Keep in mind that the changes will take between 1-3 seconds to appear on screen, so go slow. If your source is a tuner, you can even change channels to find a good show to use to tune the source with. Also this only effectc new recordings not old/already recorded shows.

You should do this for each source used by each card, as each has it's own calibration settings. You're after one consistant looking playback appearance over different cards/sources. This may not always be totally(you can usually get very close in my experience with other cards) possible so you may have to decide to which source is more used and tune it best. Also there can be a large difference between a Tuner input and a RCA/SVHS input on any PVR card. This is mostly caused by how the signal is presented to the PVR card. ie Your cable company, broadcaster for Tuner input and your Cable/Satallite box for the SVHS or RCA/composite inputs.

Sorry I can't tell you about autobright on/off. Anyone else?

If you want to go even farther with tuning there's a good guide link posted in the FAQ here.

Speaking for myself, I had done all of this and then some and the quality was not to my satisfaction. This is what led me to creating this thread and purchasing a genuine PVR-250 MCE. These drivers are not ready for prime time IMO. The quality is not there when compared to other cards or stand alone PVR's

[SteveP]

Ok, I have a Roslyn card and have tried the calibration step several times using the steps outlined in Frey's FAQ on adjusting brightness and contrast. Every time I setup Sage with ffdshow using Dscaler's histogram filter, Sage closes (goes home, quits, says adios) at the point the video and the histogram should show up behind the calibration adjustments. The calibration adjustments do show up but for some reason Sage goes away a couple of seconds later when the video is to show up. Any ideas why?

As a side note, I have used Dscaler with the Roslyn card (and without Sage) and the automatic adjustments work well when used against a local station's color bar signal late at night and Dscalers THX reference.

[sleight42]

cmaffia, do you experience any auto-brightness adjustments with the 250 MCE? I'm definitely willing to shell out $30 more for a consistant picture.

[kny3twalker]

your card is not a pvr250 MCE
it is a roslyn blackbird that is used in MCE boxes that are sold through OEMs
I posted a reply to question in the other thread

[cmaffia]

Originally posted by sleight42
cmaffia, do you experience any auto-brightness adjustments with the 250 MCE? I'm definitely willing to shell out $30 more for a consistant picture.

Nope, the retail PVR-250 MCE is near perfect in output.
No autobrightness at all. I recommend the MCE with either the Sonic decoder or NVDVD 2.55 Decoder. Even the Haupphauge decoder that came with my sage CD that didnt work with the Rosyln is close to the other two.

[sleight42]

kny3twalker, thanks, but I realize what type of card I bought. I was inquiring because, if I find myself unable to get ffdshow to work without crashing Sage (no luck so far), then I shall be returning it to Frey.

cmaffia, thanks for the input. I'll keep it in mind.

[kny3twalker]

Well I do not have a roslyn but I know I had to set my color setting becuase it was too bright and I have a retail PVR 250 MCE and a retail PVR 250

[kny3twalker]

uh it is crahsing with ffdshow because of something you are doing wrong
ffdshow has nothing to do with the card itself
it is a post processor of the video
do you think that the video from the roslyns is some other form of video than comes from the retail versions?

also read you duplicate posts

[sleight42]

Yup. Apparently had to change some settings for the Sonic decoder.

FFDshow was showing some downright wonky values. The contrast seemed to be dynamically adjusting itself when the image got to dark.

I cranked it up to 120 and now it seems a bit more stable. However, the contrast (not brightness, apparently), seems to adjust by itself to some extent within a given shot. More help? Anyone?

Thanks for the info so far.

[kny3twalker]

you want to know my settings
130
132
124
130
185
for Digital DirecTV
and
130
132
126
130
180
for analog cable with Southwestern Bell Cable

I do not use ffdshow but it try test things every once in a while

[sleight42]

Originally posted by SteveP
Ok, I have a Roslyn card and have tried the calibration step several times using the steps outlined in Frey's FAQ on adjusting brightness and contrast. Every time I setup Sage with ffdshow using Dscaler's histogram filter, Sage closes (goes home, quits, says adios) at the point the video and the histogram should show up behind the calibration adjustments. The calibration adjustments do show up but for some reason Sage goes away a couple of seconds later when the video is to show up. Any ideas why?

As a side note, I have used Dscaler with the Roslyn card (and without Sage) and the automatic adjustments work well when used against a local station's color bar signal late at night and Dscalers THX reference.

Stevep, I was having the same problem. Are you using a Sonic decoder? There are a couple of register entries that you have to change for it, I've learned tonight. Also, you have to set FFDShow set to take Raw Source, "all supported". One of the other users here responded to a post of mine on the hardware forum and pointed me [url]http://users.mcleodusa.net/r/ratpac/brightness_contrast.html[/ur] here.

[stanger89]

The direct link is in my sig.

[SteveP]

Ref. ffdshow & Sage problem: I went through the Sage setup for ffdshow and it is set for Raw Source, all supported plus the Dscaler histogram dll. I also previously set the registry values to 1 from 0 for the speed improvement and have the Sonic decoder. I had to change to Overlay in Sage for the registry changes to work. One thing I am not sure of is whether Sage is using the Sonic or Intervideo decoder when I pick ffdshow. How do I verify which main decoder Sage is using?

[stanger89]

Open a file in Windows Media Player, go to File-Properties and it will list the decoders it is using (which are the system defaults, and the ones Sage will be using also).

Two more things, to use ffdshow with Sonic decoders, you need to add the registry key, AllowAllRenderers = 1.

And to use ffdshow with anything you have to disable DXVA, for Intervideo, that means changing the HWMC and DXVA (it think those are the two) keys to 0. ffdshow will not work if the decoder is running in DXVA mode.

[SteveP]

Thanks for the info stanger89. I was able to find WMP uses the Sonic decoder, I added the AllowAllRenderes=1 key, and went ahead and changed the HWMC and DXVA keys to 0. Sage has DXVA set to default.

Sage still blanks out. Ouch. Now what? Any ideas?

[cmaffia]

Originally posted by SteveP
Thanks for the info stanger89. I was able to find WMP uses the Sonic decoder, I added the AllowAllRenderes=1 key, and went ahead and changed the HWMC and DXVA keys to 0. Sage has DXVA set to default.

Sage still blanks out. Ouch. Now what? Any ideas?

This seems like a lot of needless work having to use and configure external programs just to get "ACCEPTABLE" video quality from the Roslyn cards. I am all for using programs like FFDshow to try to make quality descriptions like "VERY GOOD" or "EXCELLENT" even better but this isn't the case for some of us.

Again, after much frustration with my own Roslyn card, I purchased the retail PVR-250 MCE. I now get excellent video quality and all I did was make minor brightness and contrast changes using the Color Calibration utility within SageTV.

Another problem, which someone already has stated, is what appears to be an active "Auto-Brightness" parameter which constantly dims and brightens the screen thus making any attempt at calibration extremely frustrating.

Perhaps Frey Techs can look into these issues and resolve them with either driver and/or registry tweaks.

Is it possible to get more feedback from Roslyn owners?
I am very curious to see how far reaching these problems are by hearing from people who actually use the Roslyn card.

[dr150]

Originally Posted by cmaffia

I originally purchased my SageTV Bundle with the Roslyn card about a month ago and was slightly disappointed by the video quality I was getting with the Roslyn card. I decided to purchase a genuine PVR-250 MCE which I just finished installing and let me tell you.. there is a MAJOR difference in quality between these two cards. I recommend that Frey Technologies bundle their software with the geniune PVR-250 MCE cards rather than the cheaper Rosyln cards. I am aware they are slightly more expensive. I would bet my life that customers would GLADLY pay more for the bundle if they saw the difference!

The SageTV software is TOP NOTCH and the genuine PVR-250 MCE really makes this software shine!

Anyone want to buy my spare Rosyln?

Do you get FM radio with the MCE card? If so, do you access it through the Sage TV software or some other software?............