Very poor video playback quality

[mike1961]

Yes that's true but I continue to have a very positive outlook because I can see how Sage is so very customizable and it looks like once I have everything all tweaked it will be rock solid. Also, many problems are not Sage related but computer issues. I often will restart sage service if at the least to make sure it rereads the properties file or to do an update. But, it only takes a sec to do that anyway.

Mike

[dshields]

Status: I can play DVDs now - as of today. In my previous post, I said I could, but that wasn't correct. I could only play recorded TV shows. The final solution (on top of a complete reinstall) was to switch from the NVidia Decoder to another one (I used PowerDVD).

My video playback quality is still poor, but at least now I can begin some of the troubleshooting steps the forum has shared with me. I'll report my results if I get this resolved.

[roxy99]

With all thos problems you're having, I am starting to regret getting V5 when V4 was working fine for me.

[mayamaniac]

dshields, are you using Overlay or VMR9? Have you tried overlay mode? If VMR9, do a screen capture of the sagetv window (non fullscreen) and post it here and we can assist you better on how to improve the quality if its really bad. There are a lot of threads concerning quality adjustments.

[mike1961]

dShields - ever since I changed my Audio and Video Renderers to DEFAULT everything is now working with just about any decoder. Following that discovery, ever since I got the NVidia dual tv card they are much better quality than the pvr500 but I don't know what you are using (but you can only use on in the computer).

Mike

[dshields]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

In my server, I have 3 PVR-150 cards. (Two of these have direct cable inputs and one has a digital cable box.) So using the NVidia dual tv card isn't an option for me, if there is a limit of 1 card/computer.

On my client, I have tried every possible settings including overlay, VMR9, etc. There is no combination of settings that would work with the NVidia decoder (and I have an NVidia video card).

However, with the PowerDVD decoder, everything works (settings are all set to default).

I am attaching a screen capture (JPEG 100% quality). One thing that bothers me about the quality is that the numbers under the scrolling ticker at the top (where it reads 4-Carmichael -3.7xx) are not legible. Another is that the numbers on the racers and the motorcycles are not legible either. Those are just examples.

Suggestions are appreciated.

[mike1961]

No, no no....Nvidia has a limit of one Nvidia tuner card per computer (not one tuner card). I already know it works with along with the PVR 150 because I have that now. If your cable box has an SVideo out (which most do) then you can hook the cable box to the NVidia and also the other cable to the NVidia as well and the third to the PVR150. to coax (without the cable box).

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the quality setting you are currently using?
2. Do you have Sage Server?
3. How is the computer hooked to the TV with the image you displayed (ie: svideo, coax, etc).
4. Does this image appear good without Sage?

Mike

[dshields]

Originally Posted by mike1961

No, no no....Nvidia has a limit of one Nvidia tuner card per computer (not one tuner card). I already know it works with along with the PVR 150 because I have that now. If your cable box has an SVideo out (which most do) then you can hook the cable box to the NVidia and also the other cable to the NVidia as well and the third to the PVR150. to coax (without the cable box).

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the quality setting you are currently using?
2. Do you have Sage Server?
3. How is the computer hooked to the TV with the image you displayed (ie: svideo, coax, etc).
4. Does this image appear good without Sage?

Mike

Some Answers
1. Great (3.2 GB/hr)
2. Yes
3. DVI connection to HP L2335 LCD panel
4. The quality is better when I play the MPEG in WMP 10. It's acceptable, but it still isn't great. And the quality of recorded shows is less than the quality of a DVD (in either player). I guess that means I have quality issues on both the playback and the recording sides...

My concern with the NVidia tuner is that I can't control which video source is used for particular scheduled recordings, so if I have one PVR-150, it is likely to be used for recording.

[blade]

Originally Posted by dshields

Some Answers
1. Great (3.2 GB/hr)
2. Yes
3. DVI connection to HP L2335 LCD panel
4. The quality is better when I play the MPEG in WMP 10. It's acceptable, but it still isn't great. And the quality of recorded shows is less than the quality of a DVD (in either player). I guess that means I have quality issues on both the playback and the recording sides...

1. Your capture rate is fine.
2. Doesn't really matter.
3. ...
4. You can pretty much forget about getting DVD quality captures. They should be a lot better than what you posted, but don't expect miracles.

I know you don't want to hear it, but to get the most out of your setup on the playback side of things you're going to need to get the Nvidia decoder working somehow. The purevideo features on the Nvidia cards look really good.

[dshields]

Originally Posted by blade

I know you don't want to hear it, but to get the most out of your setup on the playback side of things you're going to need to get the Nvidia decoder working somehow.

OK. Thanks. I'll keep trying to get the NVidia decoder working.

I would also like to get straight DVD playback optimized. What is the best monitor resolution? (And if the recommended mode isn't listed in my video card properties, how do I force that mode?)

FYI, I set up MCE 2005 on a new computer for my Mom, and the NVidia decoder gave a whole bunch of problems. I could not get them resolved, but once again there was an easy solution - I installed PowerDVD and everything just worked. This is a different computer, different OS, etc. Yet NVidia decoders are as problematic. (And as I mentioned in another post, a visit to TheGreenButton.com shows that problems with NVidia decoders are probably the #1 post over there.)

[ben_95sl1]

Have you tweaked the settings using the hauppauge tweak tool (google it)? my pvr150 quality looked bad before I turned off the blurring settings. And is that capture from coax, or from the digital box output?

[dshields]

Originally Posted by ben_95sl1

Have you tweaked the settings using the hauppauge tweak tool (google it)? my pvr150 quality looked bad before I turned off the blurring settings. And is that capture from coax, or from the digital box output?

Thanks for the tip about the "hauppauge tweak tool". I had never heard of it. I'll try to find it and use it.

I'm using coax right now because when I tried to hook up the RCA output from my cable box to the PVR150, SageTV stopped sending channel change signals via the USB-UIRT. (Which is just typical of my experience - one issue leads to yet another issue.) However, I would like to figure out how to use the RCA outputs from my STB.

[mike1961]

For starters - you must isolate the following:

1. Is the problem due to bad quality when recording the mpg file or when playing it back? That will be paramount to solving your problem. Therefore, to me, it does matter if you have Sage Server or not because that tells you where to start isolating the problem.

WIth Sage Server then there are more things to isolate as to what might be wrong but I definitely think SageServer is a better way to go when there is more than one TV hooked to Sage.. For me, I had a bad SVideo cable in the family room on a SageClient and the quality was absolutely horrible. That combined with what I consider a "not so good" video card in my Sage Server was enough.

I would start by recording a show and on the file server go to the task manager to make sure the CPU resources are not in any way even close to being maxed out (because SageControl uses very very little in way of resources). Make sure there is no spyware and/or viruses or other programs running in the background that don't need to be there on your server.

One must start by figuring out if the problem is with a bad mpg recording from the file server or whether it is when displaying the mpg file that the quality is bad due to a cable, decoders or something else. That's really the place to start. If he has an ftp site, he could use video redo to post a 30 sec-1 min mpg file for us to view.

(dShields, have you seen the screen shots I have posted with my NVidia DualTV card. I really love that card and I don't even work for NVidia. But, I'm starting to get a slightly negative feeling about trying to get the right people on the phone to RMA my second card which can't be used).

Mike

[mike1961]

dShilelds for months I tried EVERYTHING to get the nvidia decoder working and I just kept getting exception errors. Finally, I found the solution. All you have to do is set the Audio and Video Renderers to DEFAULT. Since then it has worked every time.

Mike

[dshields]

Originally Posted by mike1961

dShilelds for months I tried EVERYTHING to get the nvidia decoder working and I just kept getting exception errors. Finally, I found the solution. All you have to do is set the Audio and Video Renderers to DEFAULT. Since then it has worked every time.

Mike

Can you explain how to verify that you are using the NVidia decoder if you select DEFAULT instead of selecting NVIDIA?

(I can't easily test the NVIDIA decoders now because I have PowerDVD installed.)

[gplasky]

If you installed PowerDVD last that will be your default. Play a video in Windows Media Player and go to Files-Properties and it will tell you what codec it is using. That's the default.

Gerry

[mike1961]

dShields have you considered the NVidia DualTV tuner?

Mike

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by dshields

Here is my config:
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285 video card driving 2 HP L2335 23" monitors via DVI
1920 x 1200 resolution on each monitor
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
CORSAIR XMS 2GB RAM
ASUS A8N5X motherboard

Can you expand on your config? I saw PVR-150 tuners, what drivers for everything? What version decoders? What OS?

Thanks,

B

[roxy99]

dssheilds,

BTW, I am using cyberlink Mpeg2 decoders and find they work great. I'm upscaling to 720p by DVI connection to a 46" RPTV. Do not get yourself all hung up on needing the purevideo codec as I was a while ago. Purevide was stuttering for me and I could'nt get it to work. Finally uninstalled it and stuck with the Cyberlink that I had originally as default.

The best part of it is that if you installed powerDVD, as Gerry mentioned above, then you already have the cyberlink Mpeg decoders. So my advice is if Nvidia Purevideo is giving you grief, then screw it. Stick with Cyberlink's- there probably just as good. I have no regrets.

[mike1961]

Roxy - I tried all of them with my WinTV 500 including Cyberlink, PureVideo, Sage, etc...nothing worked. But, once I got the NVidia DualTV card, I was really happy and the clarity was good with any decoder.

Mike