Why is Playback so Bad, grainy on my monitor?

[SamsonRollins]

I am somewhat of a newbie to sagetv so go easy on me. I am using sage on my office computer and playing the content back on my office monitor (samsung syncmaster 912n) and it is terrible quality - not clear at all. I am using a haupage pvr 350 but only for capture not playback.

Are there some settings I may have set incorreclty? Or, is a clear picture on an older monitor not going to happen?

Thanks,

Samson

[MitchSchaft]

List your hardware specs. Have you tried it on another PC? Same issue? What is your sage setup? Just the sage server on your office PC or are you using placeshifter? etc etc

[paulbeers]

Also, the Hauppauge 350 is only capable of recording at 480i. This will look pretty cruddy on just about everything but a Standard Definition Television.

[SamsonRollins]

Ok, here's the details:

Using Sage that is loaded directly on my office computer with monitor hooked up to it to view tv. It looks fine when I have hooked it up to my old non-hd tv via the haupage card outputs. The sage gui interface looks crisp and clear it only when I play live tv or recored tv that the quality is terrible.

Specs:
SageTv V6.3.10.166
Java Version 1.6.0_17
Current STV file: SageTv3.xml
Display: 1280x1024, window 1032x851
Video Format: NTSC
Video Renderer: VMR9

Not sure what else you may need to know.

If it's the tuner card that needs replacing, can you suggest one that has worked well for you? Thanks

Samson

[SamsonRollins]

I guess I should have given some specs about the computer as well:

HP Compaq desktop with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.00Ghz, 2 GB of ram
Win XP Pro, SP3

[mike1961]

Sage has the capability of recording in different quality modes such as DVD Standard, Long Play, Fair Quality, etc. Are you recording in DVD standard which is about 3.2 gigs/hour? You can view video details of any recorded video to check.

Also, the hauppauge 350 is pretty junky in my opinion and might even have some bugs. I seem to recall reading a while back on this forum a lot of quality issues with that card. Search the forums for hauppauge 350 and you might find a lot of articles on that and quality. In fact, I'm not big on any of the hauppauge cards at all (not sure about the new HD cards though as I have not tested them). I've used other cards such as Avermedia but I like the nVidia Dual TV cards the best thus far (for standard video). I've played them on my monitor as well as 42" HD TV and they look just fine.

Other things that might help include checking the decoders you are using but I'd start by quickly checking the quality mode you are recording in and then research the hauppauge card you are using and consider a different one.

Mike