Quick Help Needed for HD

[pvr599]

Hey guys,
I only have a day to decide on this, so any quick help would be great.

I found an 42" Plasma at a great price and wanted to know of any problems I might have with viewing and/or recording with the setup I have. Please see my sig.

Thank a ton in advance,
Dana

Edit: Mainly my tuner cards, I'm starting to think I'll need new cards. Am I correct?

[paulbeers]

Why would you need new tuner cards? While true, with a pvr150 and pvr500, you won't get HD, you can still use them. My PVR500 and Purity 500MCE do just fine on my HD sets. You just have to remember it still will only be Standard Definition video on a 42" screen. You will probably want to consider getting a HD tuner.

Edit: And if you go HD, your built in 6150, may or may not be powerful enough to display HD. Some say yes, some say no. My geforce 6600 and geforce 7300GS are barely able to handle it.

[pvr599]

Thank you so much for the reply.

You just have to remember it still will only be Standard Definition video on a 42" screen. You will probably want to consider getting a HD tuner

Going backwards, do you mean a HD Tuner from the cable company (STB)? Will I be able to record TV the same way (being able to use all 3 TV cardsI have been with or without HD? This is my biggest concern.

I am SO incredibly new to this and wish I had more time to study up on it like I did with my current setup (that took me 2 months), but I don't want to pass up this deal and am worried about, well pretty much everything.
Thanks again

[paulbeers]

Currently there isn't any way to record from Cable company's HD STB's (and still have full HD) if your channels are encrypted. If you want to record HD, your best bet is an HDHomerun, because that would at least allow you to record Unencrypted HD channels (my area has all the network channels unencrypted). Like I said earlier though, you can still output SDTV to your HDTV. I do it. It just isn't taking full use of your fancy new television.

[pvr599]

Well I did it, I bought it and it's just sitting here in my Living Room. Thanks for your help Paulbeers. I appreciate the help in such a short time. It was kind of an emergency.
At least I can watch movies (DVD & stuff) in HD. That will be nice, I can't wait.
Thanks!!!!!
Dana

[paulbeers]

Even if you can't use it to its full glory right now, you eventually will. If you thought the expense stopped with that tv.......

[pvr599]

LOL, I was hoping it would stop, but I am going to have to go for it and do what you suggested.
I guess considering the cable's HD box is $15 a month with the service, a HDHomerun sounds like the way to go, I think. I have 10 non-premium channels I can get.
I'll have to do some more research, but I was wondering, after looking at the HDHomerun, why are there only coax connections and no composite of HDMI? How is it controlled?
Please remember all this HD hub bub is VERY brand new to me.

Edit: would it be considered another tuner....so essentially I would have 4, but the Homerun would only be for HD?

Edit#2: I need to go back just a little on PQ. Right now everything is working the PQ is pretty bad. The best way to describe it is that resolution is too low and it's causing somewhat of a pixelization effect. I'm not sure where to start. It's either my video card (like you said earlier), my display settings, some setting in SageTV (I don't think it's this because my desktop looks the same way) or the fact I have it connected through S-video. In order, which would you check first?

Sorry this got so long.

[paulbeers]

1.Yes the HDHomerun would be considered 2 more tuners. Like you said, they would be your HD Tuners.

2. Your video problems, what are you setting your resolution to? I would recommend keeping it to 480P for now (since I assume you are still only using your SD tuners). What are you using for video codecs? What about Overlay vs VRM9?

[pvr599]

1. COOL

I guess that is part of where i'm getting stuck. I'm not so good on resolution and how to set it. I mean i know how to change from 800X600 to 1280X720 for example, but when you put into terms like 480p, I don't understand. I WILL be reading up on that, since I really need to know it.

I can answer the second part of your question though. I am using the NVidia Purevideo decoders (at least that is what i have set in SageTV) and I am using Overlay (also set in SageTV).

I know, or at least I feel i'm doing something wrong

Edit: If I got an HDHomerun, would I still need to get a HD video or Tuner card?
Sorry, my wheels are always turning :0)

[paulbeers]

Well before I recommend the HDHomerun, have you checked out the Avsforums.com for what channels are not encryped on your cable system? I don't find the Avsforums to be that easy to use, but they have tons of great info (you just have to find the way into your metro area's forum). I know here in the Des Moines, IA area, we have all of our locals and I believe all the digital music channels (I don't own an HDHomerun YET so I haven't checked and my HDTV's don't have QAM). My recommendation is to check there first just to be sure that for whatever reason your cable company isn't blocking your networks. WITH THAT SAID:

No you would not need to get an HD Tuner with the HDHomeRun. It is your HD Tuner. If it was out a year and a half go when I bought the Fusion5Lite, I wouldn't have bothered buying the Fusion (not that it is a bad card....).

As for the 480P, it is actually 720 x 480 at 60hz. How are you connecting your connecting your Sage box to your tv? Composite? S-video? VGA? Component? HDMI/DVI? What is the native resoultion of your HDTV (if you don't know that, what type is it? LCD/Plasma/CRT?)?

Edit: I just re-read your post. If you do end up with the HDHomerun, you still will need to upgrade your video card. While it will take care of all tuning, it won't display the content.

[pvr599]

That's a great site. I found my area...leaves me with futher reading :0)
The first post in this thread is my area and I have WOW for service:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=453486
I haven't gone that deep into that thread yet to see if any channels are encrypted, but I will do some reading.

How are you connecting your connecting your Sage box to your tv? Composite? S-video? VGA? Component? HDMI/DVI? What is the native resoultion of your HDTV (if you don't know that, what type is it? LCD/Plasma/CRT?)?

I am connecting via s-video right now. the cable co. is coming out Tuesday to bring and hook up the HD box.
Here is a link to my TV. http://www.akaiusa.com/products_deta...uctno=PDP4273M

I just re-read your post. If you do end up with the HDHomerun, you still will need to upgrade your video card. While it will take care of all tuning, it won't display the content.

What should I look for in a video card?

Paulbeers....I appreciate your help with this SO much. Thank you for sticking with me and answering my stupid questions. If I'm ever in Iowa, I'll buy you a beer or 10


Edit: Looking at my list of OTA channels, it sure looks like I'm not going to have too many. Let's say I get the HD box through the cable co., with a different config (not the HDHomerun) would I be able to record any of the premium service channels if I got the right cards? Would that mean getting an HD tuner card and an HD video card?

Edit 2: I just went back and re-read one of your replies: Currently there isn't any way to record from Cable company's HD STB's (and still have full HD) if your channels are encrypted
I guess the answer is to find out if my channels are encyrpted.

[paulbeers]

Vid Cards: Most recommend the 7600GT, although you might be able to get away with the 7600GS. I highly recommend silent cards, but that tends to run a bit higher in cost.

Connection: I don't know what you had before you bought your HDTV (size wize I mean), but I am assuming you have a much bigger screen now. It probably will look worse now. Before I got my big 51" rear projection HDTV, I only had a 27" SD and it was really sad to see how bad the SDTV picture was on it. You could try running 800 x 600 or even 1024 x 768.

[pvr599]

I had a 32" Sony and it was nice, crisp picture. Now it's not clear at all and somewhat hard to watch. Some stations are better than others, but overall I'm not very happy right now.
I am running 800X600 now.

Before I got my big 51" rear projection HDTV, I only had a 27" SD and it was really sad to see how bad the SDTV picture was on it.

Do you mean your SDTV picture with SD wasn't good or the 51" isn't good?

I'm frustrated, I don't know still really what to do.
HD STB or HDHomerun
Video Card?
HD Tuner Card?
Could it be the decoder? Nvida Purevideo? A setting or 2 in SageTV to let it know I have a higher resolution monitor now?

In any case, I just have this feeling I need to get off the S-Video cable. I could be wrong.

[paulbeers]

The S-video is not your friend. Not at all. I run DVI to HDMI on one of my HDTV's and on the other I use Component. It very well could be the quality of your s-video connector on your big screen, but as I was saying (and not very clear about it) was that the SDTV feed to my big 51" tv really shows the limitations of SDTV. Its like zooming in on a picture. The more you zoom, the worse the picture looks. You may also want to try to do 1024 x 768 (although I don't know how well s-video does with that "high" of a resolution). Most plasmas "native" resolution is 1024 x 768.

HEY, just went back and looked at your tv. USE THE VGA!!!!
Your mobo should have a Vga port and it looks like your tv does too. Set to 1024 x 768 and see if that makes you happy. VGA is probably second to only DVI/HDMI.

EDIT: one other question, this is still the same rig with pretty much the same setup as when you were running it on the 32" sony right?

[pvr599]

Well, I am using VGA. It is for sure an improvement. It's not crystal clear, but an improvement non the less. Thanks for suggesting it.

To answer your question, yes, it's exactly the same thing I was running before. What are you thinking?

[paulbeers]

Well, I just wanted to make sure nothing had changed. I looked at your tv more. It has kind of an odd native resolution of 1024 x 1024. That would make things a bit odd. You could see if you can set a "special" resolution of 1024 x 1024 or you can see if you have an option for 1280 x 720 (that is 720P) and see if that helps any.

[pvr599]

Thank you very much for all you help.
WOW is coming out tomorrow to bring me HD. I'm going to try that out for a while and see if there is any improvement. I hope it's not the TV itself. Then I'll go from there.
I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again :0)
Thanks again,
Dana

[pvr599]

Hey Paul,
I have another quick question. If were to get a HDHomerun, does that basically take the place of the cable companies' box? I would pay for the service and wouldn't have to get the box and still get the channels I pay for?
Does that make sense?

[paulbeers]

Yes and no. For channels like Discovery HD or Movie channels in HD, you would still need the service and the box as those are most likely encrypted and can't be recorded by the HDHomerun. However, if you are happy with the channels your cable service doesn't encrypt and don't want the additional channels, my understanding is that you wouldn't even have to pay for the service, let alone the box.

[pvr599]

I was looking at tuner cards and video cards and am starting to get a clearer picture (pardon the pun). That made me go back and re-read what you wrote about the Fusion card. It's making me think more about the Homerun.

I'm waiting at the moment for the cable company (god how I hate them coming in my house and touching my equipment) to bring me the HD box and thinking even harder about how I'm going to make this record. The Homerun sounds more and more like the way to go. Then just get a better video card like you suggested.

I'll probably be hitting you with a whole new series of questions