Upgrade to X1600 Pro ???

[Ken C]

Finally got around to replacing the aging ATI 9700 Pro with a brand new X1600 Pro. Installed the latest Catalyst drivers, after uninstalling the old. Went through the wizard and it's up and running .... sort of ...

The first problem, no LAN. Fixed that by playing with some BIOS settings. Second problem, lousy picture on 'live TV'. Interestingly, the recorded shows are excellent, just the (almost) live TV is crappy. The third problem, still unsolved, no MVP. I'm not going to worry about that until the PQ problem is fixed.

Using VRM9 with the nVidia decoder, no FSE (still a problem, FS to window and back), 1776x1000 resolution, component out to a Toshiba RPTV.

This is my first experience with the Catalyst Control Center. Previously, I used the control panel versions. No choice with the latest stuff.

Any ideas why the 'live TV' PQ would be worse than a recorded video. Isn't it basically the same thing ? Anyone familiar with the CCC ? Possibly point me to additional settings.

An additional positive, the entire boot up is visible. I can actually go into BIOS without having to attach a monitor.

Any help appreciated.

Ken C

[dvd_maniac]

I bought one of these via Newegg and it came defective(Vertical scrolling via Component and S-video) returned it for another one and same thing. I gave up and purchased the X1300 512MB version at CompUSA and it installed fine, But I also do not like the PQ compared to my client with a AIW 9700 Pro. I use CCC with the AIW as well so I do not think CCC is responsible. I'm also using the same Decoder, codecs and settings on both PCs.
Anybody else with an X1*00 card that can chime in with PQ experience.

[Ken C]

Something interesting ... I was going to try various decoders and noticed that although the nVidia decoder is shown in the "Detailed Setup - Video/Audio - MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter" tab, clicking on the tab, drops the window and the nVidia decoder is not listed. Hmmm... So, it was showing on the tab but not really there. Somehow SageTV lost it.

I uninstalled / reinstalled the decoder. Now it is on the drop down list. Select it, reload the media player, and the picture is great !!

So, maybe, Sage was showing the name nVidia on the tab but actually using something else ?

Still don't understand why there was a PQ difference between "Live TV" and recorded. Anyone have a theory on that ?

Ken C

[thatdude90210]

Don't know what your problem is, it does sound like different decoder is being used for each. Maybe someone can weight in with how to set decoder merits.

I'm running a x1600pro AGP right now (dvi to 42" plasma), I have decoders from windvd, powerdvd, ati's version of the Powerdvd decoder, elecard, and sonic. So far, my best result is running the ATI's own cyberlink decoder using overlay & with vector-adaptive deinterlace. It's as smooth as playing the mpeg straight from my MyHD130's hardware decoder.

[alijiwani]

I am trying to put together a system will output in 16x9 1080i to a Sony XBR TV via the component outputs. Can you comment on how the x1600 is for this? I am more an ATI fan than an nVidia fan...but seems no one is talking much about those cards. Also - how does one get the ATI cyberlink decoder if we have an ATI card?

thanks!

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by alijiwani

I am trying to put together a system will output in 16x9 1080i to a Sony XBR TV via the component outputs. Can you comment on how the x1600 is for this? I am more an ATI fan than an nVidia fan...but seems no one is talking much about those cards. Also - how does one get the ATI cyberlink decoder if we have an ATI card?

thanks!

Can't help too much as my TV is a Toshiba 4x3. And I am not interested in getting into the video card debates. All I will say is that for my particular setup, the ATI cards seem to work better, YMMV.

About the decoder, I use the nVidia, but you can check here for the Cyberlink

http://www.cyberlink.com/cinema/ati/.../enu/index.jsp

Ken C

[thatdude90210]

Originally Posted by alijiwani

I am trying to put together a system will output in 16x9 1080i to a Sony XBR TV via the component outputs. Can you comment on how the x1600 is for this? I am more an ATI fan than an nVidia fan...but seems no one is talking much about those cards. Also - how does one get the ATI cyberlink decoder if we have an ATI card?

I have no experience with component output with any of my video cards, so someone who has might be able to chime in on that. I've only heard that some people might need Powerstrip to fix over/under scanning.

I'm not exactly sure when the ATI cyberlink decoder was installed. My htpc has been through a 9600pro and an x800pro before, and I'm currently running 2 theater 550 pro TV cards, so I'm not sure which installed the decoder, might even have been from from ATI's multimedia center software.

You can try the decoder from the link above, or try installing a trial version of Powerdvd... after the trail period runs out on Powerdvd, the decoder should still work using other applications.

[thatdude90210]

Just did a little testing on my system on CPU usage between the different decoders, and it seems that the Cyberlink decoders are very much tuned to the ATI card, in terms of using the hardware efficiently.

Here are some CPU numbers as seen in Task manager, playing the same video for ~1 minute (system p4-2.53, x1600pro agp, 768MB ram, dvi-output 1280x720):

decoder       overlay         vmr9
--------      -------         -------
Intervideo     25-33          29-36
Sage           33-40          36-46
Elecard        47-57          48-66
Cyberlink      8-16           10-22
(ati version same numbers as cyberlink)

Hardware acceleration is turned on for the Cyberlink & Intervideo decoders, I'm not sure about the others, don't know where to configure them. Btw, I do have the CyberLink H.264 decoder installed, and have it set to very high priority to make sure it gets used in H.264 files outside of Sage... I don't know if it influence anything here.

I just like the overlay colors better on my screen. Maybe I could tweak the vmr9 colors to match or exceed the overlay colors, but I just don't feel like doing the work.