Connecting PC to TV - Quality Issues

[brettuk]

Hi,
I'm currently just using my laptop hooked up to my TV via S-video to see if Sage will be any good for main TV use, and i'm having a few problems.

I'm currently running Sage on a WHS box with a NOVA-T-500 PCI freeview card, and i'm comparing against SkyDigital.

The Sage picture seems a lot softer and judders. For example the News 24 ticker at the bottom of the screen. On Sky it's very smooth, on Sage it doesn't appear to be as smooth, I also get this feeling when the camera pans and stuff.
As far as I am aware i've set everything up fine. In my laptop card settings i've told it to output PAL-I (which is the UK format I read), and when I first setup Sage i'm 99% sure I selected PAL (but I am unable to reach this screen again in the config wizard, via placeshifter and on SageTV client it does not ask. The only way I can change this is on the server and i've just confirmed it is indeed set to PAL.)

How can I improve the quality of the TV picture? The picture on the monitor seems better, but it's hard to tell as the screen is obviously of better quality so not really a fair judging ground.

Any ideas? What is your setup? Am I missing some options on the NOVA card perhaps?

Thanks,
Brett

[Conejo]

Jittery "tickers" at the bottom of news/financial channels are usually an indicator that your losing frames; either because your screen refresh isn't set to 50 for PAL, or because the video decoder is dropping frames trying to keep up.

I watch shows with tickers on my PC moniter here in the U.S. and finally upgraded to a new video card with better hardware decoders and downloaded a pay-for NVIDIA PureVideo codec to get smooth, correctly interlaced display.

Have you tried selecting other codecs in the SageTV -> Detailed Setup -> Video / Audio -> MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter? If you have DVD software installed you should have other decoder options you could select, like Intervideo.

[stux]

Brett, I never got his one sorted in my setup when using PC to TV, always had to compromise with some stuttering.

How I got it resolved was with the HD extender, even that was stuttering when I first pluggged it in until the PAL modes were correctly setup, then, the picture quality went absolutely stunning.

If you are contemplating putting sky into your setup, which is perfectly feasible, and maybe being abled to view BBCHD then save yourself a world of pain and get an extender. I spent far too much time trying to get smooth SD and HD playback, trying and buying one decoder or another - money and time which was ultimately wasted. Get an extender!

[cychou]

Originally Posted by brettuk

Hi,
I'm currently just using my laptop hooked up to my TV via S-video to see if Sage will be any good for main TV use, and i'm having a few problems.

I'm currently running Sage on a WHS box with a NOVA-T-500 PCI freeview card, and i'm comparing against SkyDigital.

The Sage picture seems a lot softer and judders. For example the News 24 ticker at the bottom of the screen. On Sky it's very smooth, on Sage it doesn't appear to be as smooth, I also get this feeling when the camera pans and stuff.
As far as I am aware i've set everything up fine. In my laptop card settings i've told it to output PAL-I (which is the UK format I read), and when I first setup Sage i'm 99% sure I selected PAL (but I am unable to reach this screen again in the config wizard, via placeshifter and on SageTV client it does not ask. The only way I can change this is on the server and i've just confirmed it is indeed set to PAL.)

How can I improve the quality of the TV picture? The picture on the monitor seems better, but it's hard to tell as the screen is obviously of better quality so not really a fair judging ground.

Any ideas? What is your setup? Am I missing some options on the NOVA card perhaps?

Thanks,
Brett

Connecting PC/notebook through S-video to a TV (CRT? I assumed) is never going to give you picture quality as good as direct connection between your STB and TV. This is because S-Video only transmits interlaced signal, while computer by default displays everything in progressive manner. So computer will have to de-interlace you captured video first, and then encode it into interlaced signal to go through S-Video. Therefore the picture quality is always going to be a bit softer. Also there is a scaling factor due to the low resolution that S-Video signal can support.

As for video studder, you should be able to get rid of it completely. It depends your setup of video decoder, video render, screen refresh-rate and your audio decoder. Check this thread out and see what can you learn from it.

I will suggest you to start with Overlay as your video render and download the trial of PureVideo decoder.


I have used a S-Video connection for years before upgrade to a digital plasma. The difference is quite big, and I am never going back. HTPC display device should always be digital/progressive anyway.

[cychou]

Originally Posted by stux

Brett, I never got his one sorted in my setup when using PC to TV, always had to compromise with some stuttering.

Stutter free video is always a bit tricky to set up on a PC/HTPC. There are so many factors involved (video card, driver, decoder, ....). But for mpeg2 sources, using Overlay render and some decent decoders, most modern computers should be OK!

On the other hand, H.264 materials is still quite a problem. Sage does not even ship with directshow decoder for it. Its so called support is through Mplayer/SageTVPlayer which does not support DXVA at all. I am not sure whether it support Interlaced H.264 capture either. Just seems everyone is using Arcsoft Video decoder for that purpose, or an HD extender (more sales for Sage)

[brettuk]

Hey,
On my Main PC i'm using a NVIDIA 7800GT with the purevideo decoders and VMR and tried following that thread and still getting some stuttering on my monitor.

I was considering a HD-100 but I will still have to connect it to an SD TV, and so S-Video will still be used, so will I get much of an improvement at all?

I like Sage, I like the fact that I can potentially do multiroom and do things remotely and stuff, but it seems to be a right pain to get the video to look as good as Sky digital, makes me wonder sometimes if it's worth it.

Also just for reference, I have no intention of piping sky through the system, I will be moving to a different house in the near future and just testing this system out as a possibilty for my new place.

Thanks for the replies so far guys

[ry94080]

Hello all,

I've successfully hooked up my PC(DVI) to my Sony TV(HDMI) and I'm pretty happy with it.

I've got a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS graphics card.

While watching movies on my tv, and there is alot of motion, there is a tiny bit cracking in the picture.


Any ideas what the cause of this is and how to fix it?


Thanks

[starfire]

I suggest trying differing combinations of playback software (eg WMP, Zoomplayer) and CODECs to see if you can eliminate the problem.

[ry94080]

Originally Posted by starfire

I suggest trying differing combinations of playback software (eg WMP, Zoomplayer) and CODECs to see if you can eliminate the problem.

Any specific codecs you recommend?

[starfire]

ffdshow (tryouts) is usually pretty good and covers most formats