PVR-500 Dynamic sharpness/noise reduction

[stanger89]

Hey all, I know a lot of you have been running PVR-500s for a while now, well I finally got one and am having a bit of trouble.

Basically, the sharpness and/or noise reduction bounces all over the place, I've verified that the NR is set to static, but it changes rapidly and rather drasticly. Anyone else seen something similar?

[stanger89]

Shameless bump,

Has anyone seen something like this? FWIW, the more I see it the more I think that it is in fact the sharpness changing.

-edit

FWIW, here's a clip of the issue.

http://users.mcleodusa.net/r/ratpac/sharpness.avi

[pftg4]

Hi
Mine does exactly the same on the teletubbies (not that i´m a regular watcher of course) but i have noticed that on demand teletubbies does the same

strange ha not sure if this helps ya

Dave

[stanger89]

Unfortunately no, it's not a source issue (99% sure) since my 250 has never done the same thing. It was new with the 500.

[teknubic]

Might be a coax issue. Swap the cables and see if the problem moves with them.

[snoopy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Shameless bump,

Has anyone seen something like this? FWIW, the more I see it the more I think that it is in fact the sharpness changing.

-edit

FWIW, here's a clip of the issue.

http://users.mcleodusa.net/r/ratpac/sharpness.avi

I can't play the clip using the latest DiVx player that I thought could play about anything. Any suggestions?

[stanger89]

It's actually a WM9 file.

[snoopy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

It's actually a WM9 file.

Thanks Stranger.

[White94Cobra]

Stanger - are you by chance using the Nvidia codec?

[kendryk]

I have had the exact same issue, it has bothered me to no ends! I have done the following, something did fix it... just don't know which

with a 6600agp card using the DNA force video drivers ver. 80.40 (quality)
latest nvidia codec smart deinterlace, best avaliable mode (prefer vmr9) -*amamorphic raw input setting also*-
haugpauge primary utility set to "both" (don't know what that does)
using the 2.7A drivers for the 500
the latest J2SE 5.0 update 4
Sage ver. 3.0.7

I have noticed it is worse on a few channels (fox, discovery, abc) and always looked
bad while playing family guy/futurama. It was always very noticable at the end of car commericals when you see the fine print.

I can't say my problem is 100% over, this happens to be the first day of better operation for me

do you happen to see the same issues? I am with you, in thinking it's a problem in the 500 drivers.

on a side note, I am playing around with FFDSHOW again this time using the sharpen "unsharpen" mask, which looks like it is giving me improved PQ.

[White94Cobra]

I had an issue where every second or so it looked like the sharpness shifted or something. I found it was the Smart deinterlace mode for the Nvidia codec switching modes. I changed the deinterlace mode to Auto and it went away.

[snoopy]

What type of file and file extension uses the tightest compression these days?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by White94Cobra

Stanger - are you by chance using the Nvidia codec?

I am on my HTPC, but the AVI file was created using whatever VirtualDubMod uses, I'd imagine the same decoder Dscaler 5 is based on.

Originally Posted by snoopy

What type of file and file extension uses the tightest compression these days?

Firstly, extension, or more correctly container has almost nothing to do with either codec, or size/compression. For example, I posted an AVI, which is usually associated with DivX or Xvid, but mine used WM9, I have successfully created AVIs with WM9 video and AC3 audio. mp4, ogm, divx, wmv, etc, are all just containers for holding audio, video, and sometimes other things like subtitles.

As for codec, to get the best compression, right now it's probably close between WM9 and H.264, with WM9 being a bit easier to work with at the moment. Both have bright futures considering they are mandatory codecs for both next-gen DVD formats.

Originally Posted by kendryk

I have had the exact same issue, it has bothered me to no ends! I have done the following, something did fix it... just don't know which

Thanks for the suggestions. There's definitely something similar between setups. I think I/we can rule out playback issues, since I believe I've verified the problem is in the recording with the clip I posted. That leaves, drivers and msc config. We've got the same drivers, so that seems to rule out that issue.

In fact the only differences I spot are you're running newer nVidia drivers than I, but we've eliminated playback as an issue, so that leaves Java, you're running Java 5, and I'm running Java 1.4. I will have to wait until some recordings finish, to see if that's an issue.

[White94Cobra]

Duh! I didn't even think about the fact that the clip showed the problem so that would rule out playback.

Not to hijack your thread, but has anyone with a PVR500 noticed a screen-door effect with the picture? It only happens on my secondary tuners on each PVR500 and only on certain channels.