Quality problems with SageTV

[jmellicker]

My system:

P4 2.66 / 512 RAM / ATI AIW 7500 (using S-video out) in a prior model of this:

http://www.fica.com/site/html/produc...t_id=240000183

(prices) http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_g...43f311929b953/

(those are the new 800 MHz bus, mine is the older 533 MHz)

Main problem: Live and recorded video quality is far worse then a direct feed from the DirecTV satellite box to the TV.

Installed a PVR-250, quality did not improve much (though CPU utilization dropped a lot!).

Using Girder so the AIW remote controls Sage.

Then, got a plasma display for Xmas and the poor quality really became obvious - on live/recorded TV and DVD playback with the Cyberlink decoder. ("Banding" between gradients of similar colors is terrible)

So, my questions are:

1. Looking for tweaks to get better live/recorded TV quality from PVR-250/SageTV (I am now using VGA out to plasma TV)

2. Trying to figure out the best settings for PowerStrip for my 852X480 plasma TV

3. Trying to figure out which MPEG2 decoder to use (heard good things about TheaterTek)

Thanks in advance for your comments and advice. I have a background in professional video production but I am new to the HTPC thing and only pieces of my knowledge apply. I am trying to learn about FFDshow, Dscaler, Reclock to see if these would help me with SageTV.

[stanger89]

Welcome, it's always nice to see a new user.

Here's what I would try, in order:

2) If you're not using VGA or DVI, start. If you are, your best bet would be to set your HTPC to output 852x480 to get 1:1 pixel mapping to your plasma, without this, video will be scaled twice, once in the HTPC and once in the plasma. I see you mentioned banding, that's evidence of either poor quality video card (unlikely with an ATI) or low color depth, you need to be using 32bit color.

1a) Make sure you're using a reasonably high recording quality. Generally the 1.8Gb/hr is about the lowest that will get you acceptable results. I use either 2 2.5 or 3 depending on how much I like the show.

1b) The next thing to try is to correct the brightness/contrast settings, these tend to be far from optimal by default. Here is the method I used to set mine:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...ght=brightness
You can also just do it by eye but, that method seems a little more definite. This can make a big difference because, at least in my setup, the defaults crushed whites, and exagerated the noise in the cable feed.

3) Try the Intervideo NonCSS decoders that come with the 250. I use Sonic Cineplayer for my decoders, they work really good for DVD playback (they're what Theatertek uses). I know some people here like PDVD, but I've never been to excited about it (probably biased from spending too much time over at the AVS forum).

1c) You might also want to upgrade the 250 drivers, but I'd try the other less drastic measures first.

Hopefully that will get you somewhere. On my TV which doesn't have a scaler/deinterlacer (SD is shown interlace) the Sage playback looks much better than live, on my parents 46" Mits, it's pretty much indistiguishable.

[WirelessDJ]

I am running a Hauppauge Win TV PVR USB 2
the quality is absolutely excellent for a laptop
Keep in mind that I had the Hauppauge WinTV usb 1.1 before that

[jmellicker]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by stanger89

Thanks for your reply.

"If you're not using VGA or DVI, start..."

I am using VGA.

"If you are, your best bet would be to set your HTPC to output 852x480 to get 1:1 pixel mapping to your plasma..."

I have been through the setup screens on PowerStart but so far have not found how to create a custom resolution.

"I see you mentioned banding, that's evidence of either poor quality video card (unlikely with an ATI) or low color depth, you need to be using 32bit color."

I am at 32 bit

"Make sure you're using a reasonably high recording quality. Generally the 1.8Gb/hr is about the lowest that will get you acceptable results. I use either 2 2.5 or 3 depending on how much I like the show."

I will check- I tuned the data rate so an average movie would be just over 4 GB (burnable on a DVD-R) but in actual practice it's cheaper to just buy DVDs! (factoring in time)

"The next thing to try is to correct the brightness/contrast settings, these tend to be far from optimal by default."
Will try

"Try the Intervideo NonCSS decoders that come with the 250. I use Sonic Cineplayer for my decoders, they work really good for DVD playback (they're what Theatertek uses)."

I bought the PVR-250 raw (without discs)- I will try and find a download of this decoder

"You might also want to upgrade the 250 drivers, but I'd try the other less drastic measures first."

I will check but they are the newest as of a few weeks ago.

Thanks so much for your answers!

[pawn]

"If you are, your best bet would be to set your HTPC to output 852x480 to get 1:1 pixel mapping to your plasma..."

I have been through the setup screens on PowerStart but so far have not found how to create a custom resolution.


See here for custom resolutions in PowerStrip:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=206854

You just cut and paste examples into the pstrip.ini file, then they show up in Advanced Timing Options -> Custom Resolutions -> User Defined.

You might to just try the predefined ones first under the same as above, but -> predefined.


"Make sure you're using a reasonably high recording quality. Generally the 1.8Gb/hr is about the lowest that will get you acceptable results. I use either 2 2.5 or 3 depending on how much I like the show."

I will check- I tuned the data rate so an average movie would be just over 4 GB (burnable on a DVD-R) but in actual practice it's cheaper to just buy DVDs! (factoring in time)


You might want to play around with this. Depending on how good your video card and processor are, you might find a somewhat lower bit rate better. Try 2.5 GB/hr, which I believe is burnable to DVD.


I bought the PVR-250 raw (without discs)- I will try and find a download of this decoder


You also want to make sure hardware decoding is enabled for whatever filters you're using. It's different for each set of filters.

And whatever you do, reduce the sharpness and brightness settings in the video capture dialog mentioned by stranger89.

[sixdoubleo]

Originally posted by jmellicker

Main problem: Live and recorded video quality is far worse then a direct feed from the DirecTV satellite box to the TV.

Installed a PVR-250, quality did not improve much (though CPU utilization dropped a lot!).

1. Try taking Sage out of the mix...What happens when you simply watch Live TV with the included Hauppauge program, WinTV2000?

2. Copy one of your recorded MPEG files to another machine and play it. Does it still look bad? This might help isolate whether you're getting a bad recording or a bad playback...

[stanger89]

The Intervideo decoders I mentioned are here;
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/sw_pvr...m#videodecoder

[pawn]

Originally posted by stanger89
The Intervideo decoders I mentioned are here;
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/sw_pvr...m#videodecoder

If you don't install originally from the Hauppage CD, these will not install, since the filter installation looks for previously installed versions, at least that's been my experience.