Why does HDHR Quick TV Look Better Than Sage & How Do I tweek Settings?

[mrbiker]

Hi all,

I've searched for days all over the net and this forum for an answer but can't find one, so if it's here, please just point me at the right threads and don't flame. My apologies in advance if I'm a bonehead.

I just moved Sage to a spare Mac Mini w/an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz with 4Gb of Memory and a 7200RPM HD.

I upgraded from STV 6 to STV 7 and also from a HDHomerun 2 to a HDHR 3 I bought yesterday. I was ecstatic for two years with STV 6 and I'm slowly getting used to 7. I see lots of cool features that eventually I'll get to know. It took a while to set everything up but everything works great. I even moved an internal 2Tb drive full of recordings to an external case attached to the Mac and after following the instructions on how to move to another computer, everything came over with minimal frustration.

Then I configured the HDHR3 with their config utility and while doing so, I used their other utility "Quick TV" to check the signal. OMG! The picture in Quick TV is amazing! To wit:

Sharper Picture
Better Contrast
Better Brightness
Deeper Blacks
And most of all - smooth and natural movement.

STV does not look good with any movement whatsoever. It's not smooth. Also, the picture is washed out compared to Quick TV and the blacks are almost gray in STV. The (very slight) choppiness of Sage may get me dizzy if I keep watching. Meanwhile, Quick TV looks like a Blu-Ray movie. If I had the same quality in Sage, I'd be thrilled.

Since the hardware is obviously not the problem (2 different apps on the same computer), it has to be Sage.

So my question is; What settings do I need to change and where do they get changed? I've looked through sage.properties and there's a lot in there. I don't know where to start.

What CODEC is the best and where can I change contrast, brightness, hue and sharpness?

What settings seem to work best for the above?

Seriously, I've looked thru these forums and used Mr. Google for hours and can't find any discussions on maximizing picture quality via a settings change.

Lastly, I just read about FFDShow and now I'm wondering if I need to install it - or what better CODEC pack I should use.

Sorry this is long but I wanted to make sure I covered the whole sitch.

TIA

[mrbiker]

Just to be clear, I'm running STV 7 under Windows 7 on the Mac. I'm not running the Mac version of Sage.

So don't hold back thinking you don't know the Mac version. It's the Win 7 version I need help with.

Thanks again.

m

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by mrbiker

Just to be clear, I'm running STV 7 under Windows 7 on the Mac. I'm not running the Mac version of Sage.

So don't hold back thinking you don't know the Mac version. It's the Win 7 version I need help with.

Thanks again.

m

Are u using VMware under Mac OS? Which version of Mac OS X are u using? When running the config on hdhr are u in Mac host OS or are u in the windows vm?

Windows 7 has great built in codec support for most all playback, so I would go through the settings, video setup or maybe it's called playback setup ( I don't use the default STv so I don't recall exactly). Try using the better or advanced settings when going through the setup wizard.

Did u try enabling VMR9?

I am on my phone so I can't do some deep searching but I know for certain I have read and participated in threads discussing this. I am also pretty sure that there is a section in the sage v7 manual. Look at OPUS signature , I think he has a direct link to the guide.

If I get to a machine and no one else has posted links or suggestions ill see what I can find for you.

Good luck.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Are u using VMware under Mac OS? Which version of Mac OS X are u using? When running the config on hdhr are u in Mac host OS or are u in the windows vm?

Windows 7 has great built in codec support for most all playback, so I would go through the settings, video setup or maybe it's called playback setup ( I don't use the default STv so I don't recall exactly). Try using the better or advanced settings when going through the setup wizard.

Did u try enabling VMR9?

I am on my phone so I can't do some deep searching but I know for certain I have read and participated in threads discussing this. I am also pretty sure that there is a section in the sage v7 manual. Look at OPUS signature , I think he has a direct link to the guide.

If I get to a machine and no one else has posted links or suggestions ill see what I can find for you.

Good luck.

Fuzzy and Darcilicious, sorry to call you 2 out, but I know you both run client machines and I know darci runs her sage server as a client also. Do you guys have any input on this? I think I have see you too
Discussing this in the past as well... Maybe not under VMware but maybe you have some ideas.

[darcilicious]

I have the following under Detailed Setup >> Video/Audio for my W7 client:
Video Renderer: EVR
MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter: Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder
H.264 Video Decoder Filter: Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder
VC-1 Video Decoder Filter: Default

I agree with trying VMR9 first and if playback isn't acceptable try EVR.

One client is an all in one PC with nVidia chip (settings above) and my main HTPC has an nVidia card (IIRC); my HTPC (with SageTV server installed with HDPPVRs) however, is running Vista so it's using the ArcSoft Decoders with EVR.

I have no idea how well these settings will work on a Mac running in a virtual Windows environment but they're probably a good starting point. (Assuming Windows 7)