Changing from hardware Decoding to Software Decoding need help

[jphhughes]

I have been using SageTV for some time now along with my Hauppauge 350 (Using 3.0.7 Beta) . I had been using the Hardware encoding and decoding and OSD. However with the prospects of the EOF bug not getting fixed I have tried experimenting with software decoding. I have gotten the picture to a reasonable good quality (Using NVIDIA Fx-5200, VMR, NVIDIA CODEX, HARDWARE EXCELLERATION) however there is one very annoying glitch when watching recorded or live TV. It’s not easy to describe but here goes. It looks like a sparkling effect on background objects. When watching a baseball game the first base line or third base line will have this effect. Object such as window blinds, or stripes of various types also have this effect. I have no idea what adjustments to make to get rid of it. I have tried adjusting the flicker adjustment in the NVIDIA Drivers but it did not seem to make any difference. Hopefully I have described the condition well enough for someone to suggest a fix. Thanks

[blade]

Sounds like deinterlacing issues.

[TwistedMelon]

I get pretty much the same effect using the SageTV decoder. Doesn't matter if it's LiveTV or pre-recorded content that was created with another application (ruling out the PVR-500MCE capture device here).

It looks as if there's about half the vertical resolution. In fact it looks like the video consists of only a single field that's being doubled, instead of showing two fields interlaced.

I'm outputting video to my TV, so I don't need nor want any deinterlacing taking place. Unfortunately the only settings I see for Deinterlacing imply that it will be ON. There's no OFF option.

To clearly see this I need only play back some animated content like Family Guy where any diagonal lines (or curves) show blocky staircasing.

I filed a bug about this just a few minutes ago. Playing back the same content in BeyondTV or Windows MCE don't cause this visual problem. Of course when I filed the bug I wasn't thinking about it possibly being only a single interlaced field being shown. That sounds very probable.

Bruno

[nielm]

I'm outputting video to my TV, so I don't need nor want any deinterlacing taking place.

Unfortunatly a windows desktop is effectivly a progressive device, so you will always need deinterlacing.

If you are using composite or S-video tv-out, this progressive video-stream is re-scaled and re-interlaced to give the tv-out... It may be possible with component output dongles, or VGA-RGB-Scart converters to get exact scanline matching between the windows desktop and the TV, but this is not easy.

The difference between BTV and MCE may be the default type of deinterlacing used: Bob (doubling each half-frames interlaced scanlines, displaying at double frame rate: but at half-vertical resolution); Blend (averaging the interlaced scanlines, causing smudging) Weave (displaying both interlaced frames simultaneously on alternating lines: displays combing on movement).

If using the Sage decoder you can use the advanced deinterlacing with dscaler (enable it with my import for 2.2, enabled by default with 3.0) to get a stable deinterlaced picture that can the be used for TV-out.

Personally, I use:
2.2; Sage decoder; dscaler de-interlacing enabled; use plugin: Greedy2Frame; double refresh rate.

I also have a Geforce FX5200, and in the display control panel / settings / advanced / Geforce fx5200 tab / screen res + refresh rates , I use the advanced timings to ensure the resolution and especially the video refresh rate matches my TV (720x576@50Hz for PAL, 640x480@59.94 for NTSC).

[silkshadow]

That info should be pinned somewhere. Deinterlacing is one of those things I was never able to get the practicals of. That cleared alot up. Thanks Nielm!

Originally Posted by nielm

Unfortunatly a windows desktop is effectivly a progressive device, so you will always need deinterlacing.

If you are using composite or S-video tv-out, this progressive video-stream is re-scaled and re-interlaced to give the tv-out... It may be possible with component output dongles, or VGA-RGB-Scart converters to get exact scanline matching between the windows desktop and the TV, but this is not easy.

The difference between BTV and MCE may be the default type of deinterlacing used: Bob (doubling each half-frames interlaced scanlines, displaying at double frame rate: but at half-vertical resolution); Blend (averaging the interlaced scanlines, causing smudging) Weave (displaying both interlaced frames simultaneously on alternating lines: displays combing on movement).

If using the Sage decoder you can use the advanced deinterlacing with dscaler (enable it with my import for 2.2, enabled by default with 3.0) to get a stable deinterlaced picture that can the be used for TV-out.

Personally, I use:
2.2; Sage decoder; dscaler de-interlacing enabled; use plugin: Greedy2Frame; double refresh rate.

I also have a Geforce FX5200, and in the display control panel / settings / advanced / Geforce fx5200 tab / screen res + refresh rates , I use the advanced timings to ensure the resolution and especially the video refresh rate matches my TV (720x576@50Hz for PAL, 640x480@59.94 for NTSC).

[jphhughes]

Thanks for the feed back. I have been trying different setting with some improvement. Since I know very little about the technical aspect of these display /Video issue it’s been just a guessing game. When I first set up the software decoding I change the capture device record quality to the highest (something about MPEG2 Max.) thinking that that would improves the viewing of sports. I guess this is when I started seeing the sparkling problems. I recently set recording quality back to standard DVD and it seems to have improved this problem. Commercials that had shown this problem only show a hint of it now. Even the blurring effect when a runner is coming down the third base line and the background seats/Fans would blur is much better.

My current settings are VMR9, FSE, NVIDIA video codex, Hardware acceleration enabled. I have read some posts here debating the pros/Cons of VMR vs. Overlay. I will give overlay a try and see if there is any improvement. I also tried NVIDIA post processing setting but there was a slight jumping or frame problems, don’t think the FX 5200 could handle it. .

Any other comments or suggestion are welcome.

Edit: Nielm when I posted the above I had not read your reply ( never got email notice.) I will give it a try. Thanks

[jphhughes]

Nielm, I tried your suggested settings without much improvement. However just to make sure I have it set properly thses are the setting under Video:
VMR9
Sage MPEG Decoder
DXVA Mepg Mode =Default
DXVA De interlacing =Default
Descaler Deinterlacing Filter = Configure
Descaler = enabled
Deinterlacing = plugin
dscaler plugin = greedy2frame
Odd Field First = Disabled

I then changed the resolution and refresh ratees as you suggested. The picture looks ok but no any better then previously. Things like tickers on the news channels and on ESPN are very bad. They flow ok but look like you can see spaces between the picksels on each character. Test in general looks very ragged . Any comments appreciated.