Do I need a new video card ?

[AtariJeff]

Currently I'm running with an Nvidia 7300GS, Purevideo for video decoder using VMR9, and AC3Filter for audio. My display is a Samsung 62" DLP running at 720p over DVI. In both SD and HD I am getting noticeable tearing. With interlaced SD content the de-interlacing is really bad. I've recently switched to non-FSE due to PC resume from hibernate issues but the issues are the same with FSE. Do I need to upgrade my video card perhaps or <gulp> change out my beloved HTPC with an HD extender ?

[Jesse]

Hi,

Do you have a pci-e X16 slot or an agp slot? If you have a pci-e slot then 8500/8600 series nvidia cards are very cheap right now and will provide plenty of hardware acceleration. If you have agp then you could look around for a 7600GT. I have good luck with ota hd and a 7600GT in an old P4 machine (see sig).

I understand that the 2600 series ATI cards will do hardware acceleration comparable to the nvidia 8500/8600 cards and are available in agp. The last I looked these cards do not come cheap, and I have also heard there are driver issues with the agp versions of the ATI cards.

I guess what I am saying is that IMO a 7300GS does not have the horsepower for smooth HD. If you have a pci-e slot I would definitely try a new vid card. If you have agp you will need decide if you want to risk investing in an obsolete platform.

Jesse

[AtariJeff]

I guess I should have mentioned it was a PCI-Express slot. I was looking at this bad boy. Passive cooling too.

[autoboy]

My 7300 GS works great for HD on a 1080p display no less. Your problem is a result of software, drivers, or codec issues and replacing the video card will likely not fix any of those issues. You will be throwing money at the wrong thing. Check to see if you have pulldown detection ebabled in the drivers. The 7300GS will not do pulldown detection because it is not fast enough. Turn FSE on with all Nvidia video cards and make sure it is working by hitting the windows button. If it minimizes sage then you are good, if the start bar pops up over sage then it was never in FSE. Entering and exiting FSE again should solve that.

[AtariJeff]

Slight correction. Its a 7300GT according to the Nvidia info tab. Currently inverse telecine is turned off. I changed the de-interlace control to smart to see if that improves anything. Oh FWIW I am using ForceWare 163.75. I'll try upgrading to the latest 175.16

[autoboy]

Hmm, even better. The 7300GT is a lower clocked 7600GT. Must be something else going on.

[AtariJeff]

Updated to latest driver and set de-interlace control to smart. De-interlacing looks much better but tearing continues. I'll turn FSE back on and see what happens.

[doc]

If you get to the point where you're going to have get a better graphics card, I'd seriously consider getting an HD extender instead.

The extender will be slightly more expensive but I think the quality will be a lot better than you'll get from your PC.

I can't stress enough how happy I am with mine.

[Djc208]

The 7600 won't get you there either. I had tearing from time to time, though I thought it was better to have the inverse telecine on.

It could be the decoder software, I used the nVidia decoder too and had tearing at times. Wish I could say I fixed it but I ultimatly moved the Sage machine to a closet and went with an HD extender. It really does work well.

I've heard that it's just how XP handles video and that some people had moved to Vista because of issues like this. Not sure of the specifics though.