New HD TV! Need help with settings.

[LogDog]

I am very new to all of this video recording but here are some of my questions.

My system is a:

Computer: MB BIOSTAR AMD M-ATX M7NCG400; CPU AMD|2500/333 ATHLON XP BARTON; with DDR 2X256M PC-3200; Hauppauge PVR-250; Western Digital 200 GB Hard Drive; Video Card ATI Radeon 64 MB VIVO 7200 Series

Monitor: Sony 36" 4x3 KV-36HS510

Software: Windows XP Pro, SageTV Version 2.0.17 RC

My first issue is that I am getting some weird type of flashing or ghosting on my television. I dont get this when I view on a regular monitor which I dont have hooked to the HTPC but I also don't get this flashing when viewing the menu on my laptop via RealVNC. I dont know if the issue is my video card or is something with the TV. I am hooked to the TV via S-video which I know is not the best. So I was thinking if I buy a new video card and hook the HTPC to the TV via DVI would eliminate the flashing. Has anyone ever heard of this issue with the flashing?

Second issue is dealing with overscan issues. I am currently running my desktop resolution at 800x600 but I am not running SageTV in Full Screen mode. I am running it in a window sized to 776 x 562 which puts the maximum picture on my screen. Does any have any issues like this. I cant believe how much of the picture i have been missing all of these years. I haver read from the thread at

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ighlight=1080i

and still seem somewhat confused of what it is that may work for me.

Third issue snapping and popping with quick movements especially during sporting. Is there a way to eliminate that snapping and popping? Is that an issue with my vidoe card? If I buy a video card that will support Direct X 9 will that help with my picture? Any reccomendations for a vidoe card without giving my right leg?

For the most part I am very pleased with SageTV. It seems to get better with every version.

[stanger89]

The "flashing or ghosting" or ghosting you mention, is it like the background going in and out of focus? I've seen this on a Mitsubishi, I think it's casused by the fact that the Picture is deinterlaced by the decoder, interlaced for output on s-video, and then deinterlaced again in the TV.

Overscan is a common problem, it's a combination of TV and video card. You can run SageTV in fullscreen mode and use the overscan adjustments to compensate for it. Also, with s-video, there should be some settings in the drivers to adjust the size of the display.

For snapping and popping, are you referring to the audio? Not sure what you mean otherwise.

As for video card, right now I'd get a Geforce FX 5700 (not the LE, make sure you get one with the ~400MHz core). I've got a Radeon 9500 that has served me well, but I'm becoming increasingly unhappy with it due to poor VMR9 support, and the fact that the best drivers for it are 3.4 (they're on 4.4 now, 12 revisions and it's only gotten worse).