image quality problems = decoder/renderer hell?

[emok]

Hey guys....

I'm having some issues here with picture quality and I was hoping to get some expert advice.

Background: My machine was built about 1.5 years ago and was running stable for about a year and a half with 5.0.4 with HD/SD content. Previously I was using the Cyberlink decoder/Overlay renderer with an ATI x1950pro. Oh.. this is on Windows XP.

Recent changes: Swapped the x1950pro out with a fanless 8500GT (latest geforce release drivers) and installed purevideo decoder. In addition, I upgraded to Sage 6.3.5.

Results: Decoder/renderer hell.
Default decoder/VMR9 = purevideo icon shows up and says it's doing VMR9, but the image is really bad. Looks extremely aliased.
Default decoder/Overlay = purevideo icon shows up and says it's doing VMR9, image looks good, but don't get the nice transparent OSD.

What gives? It feels like there's some general weirdness with what's going on here. I've tried fiddling around with Directshow filter manager with no luck (but I don't really know what I'm doing except increasing/decreasing merits of random filters).

I can live with using overlay, but I also want to better understand the decoder/renderer. The FAQ entry makes sense, but I'm not sure how to put it into practice correctly

Does anyone have an 8500GT running purevideo decoder with VMR9 with good image quality? Would it be possible for you to post a screenshot of your Directshow Filter Manager values sorted by merit?

TIA,
E

Edit: I've also unregistered the sage mpeg decoder filter as I read on one of these other threads.

[gplasky]

Have you gone into the nVidia icon and changed the settings to Auto instead of Smart? That may help. You may also want to change it in Sage so that you have actually chosen the nVideo decoder and not chose it with Default.


Gerry

[mayamaniac]

have you tried the cyberlink decoder on the new machine? Personally, I like the colors of Cyberlink decoder more than the nVidia. The advanatge of nVidia decoder is it generally uses less CPU power so its more ideal for slower machines.

[emok]

Yes, I've switched from Smart to Automatic.

It's almost like it's not really using the purevideo decoder. I don't quite get it. The PQ is really bad and blocky unless set to overlay. Let me see if I can get a screen shot.

Regarding the cyberlink decoder, I've actually uninstalled the cyberlink decoder, but I can re-install it and try again.

[emok]

Just tried playing with this more. The purevideo icon shows up everytime I play video and this is what I see:

Renderer=VMR9, SD Content very blocky, HD content shows considerable tearing, Purevideo properties screen shows "Video mixing (DirectX 9)" as the renderer.

Renderer=Overlay, SD Content looks good, HD content looks good. Purevideo properties screen shows "Video overlay" as the renderer.

Renderer=Default, SD Content looks good, HD content looks good. Purevideo properties screen shows "Video mixing" as the renderer.

So... When I had set the renderer to "Default" in sage, it looks like it was using VMR7? instead of overlay as I had originally assumed because of the non-transparent menus.

So does this mean my 8500GT doesn't have enough power to drive 1920x1080 VMR9 video? I was under the impression that an 8500GT had enough juice. It doesn't make sense that SD content is so blocky, with VMR9 either. Strange?

[Fuzzy]

I would also recommend using the latest cyberlink decoders. They still use the PureVideo accelleration that is present in the newer nvidia drivers, and seem to be much more consistant than the actual NVidia video decoders.

[emok]

Thanks for the replies. I just ended up going back to the cyberlink decoders as suggested by several of you. I'm using overlay as the renderer. If I try to use VMR9, SD content still looks the same: all blocky.