Config query involving PVR-350

[Razzle_Dazzle]

Hi all - thanks for the help you have given me through me reading your posts..

I have my SageTV box plugged into my standard CRT TV, everything works reasonably well: translucent menus, XMLTV, DVD etc. However, the quality of the picture could be better - particularly whilst watching something that has a fast moving picture, eg football (soccer). I think the problem may be down to displaying too few fps on the TV. Here is my system:

> P4 2Ghz
> PVR-350
> 200Gb Hard disk
> 512 Mb RAM
> GeForce 2 64Mb graphics card

I'm currently using the following configuration:

> 800x600 resolution
> Recording Quality - 3Gb/hr
> Enable TV-Out for PVR-350 = Disabled
> Enable UI on TV-Out of PVR-350 = Disabled
> Hardware decoding only = Disabled

> Video renderer = VMR9
> MPEG video decode Filter = NVDVD
> DXVA Deinterlacing = Default
> DScaler Deinterlacing Filter = Disabled

I have decided to not use the TV-Out option of the PVR-350 because I want to be able to play DVDs (I understand this is not poss using the 350's TV-Out). From reading the forums, I feel I am better off bypassing this functionality completely and use software codecs instead. As a consequence to this, I think this may put extra demand on the graphics card; which I think may be the bottleneck on my system.

With this in mind, would the forum members recommend a change in configuration to improve the picture quality, or is it time to shell out for a new graphics card??

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Cheers

RD

[mls]

Try dropping to 640 x 480 (which is about all a standard def tv can handle anyway). That might take some of the load off the graphics card, but don't know if it will help much with the motion blur. That's part of the mpeg encoding and how good of decoder you are using (combined a bit with how much your graphics card can handle).

You might also want to try Overlay instead of VMR9.

[stanger89]

And try setting the AR mode to Fill and setting your Zoom settings to 100%. Also try 720x480 if it's available.

[Razzle_Dazzle]

Thanks

I've dropped to 640x480, but no change. This may not make sense but I think the card performs better generally at 800x600 - this is certainly the case with games like Counterstrike (when the graphics card was in my main desktop).

I've also checked the AR mode which is already Fill.

mls, you mention the motion blur may be part of the mpeg encoding, the decode and the graphics card. The decoder I use is NVDVD which seems to have strong support amongst other Sage users, so I don't think I should need to change this. Presumably I cannont change the encoder...

[mls]

Ya, NvDVD is one of the better ones. However, if you are having tearing, that means something isn't keeping up and could also be causing the other problem since the decoder can't fully do its job correctly.

Since the specs you listed seem fairly decent, I'm not sure why you are having that problem though.l

As for 800 x 600, yah, seems like the graphics card makers seem to have things somewhat more optimized for that resolution since it is the most commonly used one.

If you're watching on a monitor, you could also try reducing the refresh rate down to 60. That might help a bit.

[kevthor]

I always had the blur and choppiness with a fast motion, IE: Football, and Hockey. I have recently purchased a PVR350 for video out in stead of my Nvidia 5200, and all motion problems have been resolved. There is the lockup problems but I would rather deal with those than not be able to watch sports through my pvr.

[mls]

Yep, hardware decoders will almost always do a better job than software decoders unless you fiddle around with a lot of extra stuff (and then you end up needing a really fast computer and graphics card to handle all of it).

The Xcard does a good job also with less lockup problems, but they don't have anything for the Xcard (yet) to display the SageTV OSD, so you'd need to use a monitor for the OSD.

Glad you found something that came close to meeting your requirements. A higher end graphics card might have been able to come closer to the 350's output, but it's hard to beat a hardware decoder.

[kevthor]

So the Xcard doesn't have lockup problems or just less lockup problems? Is it expected that the SageTV OSD will be able to display through the Xcard at one point or are we just "hoping" it will at one point?

[mls]

From what I've heard the drivers for the Xcard are supposed to be realy stable. There's a group discussing possible ways of adding OSD support to SageTV for it, but I haven't seen anything from Frey about if they have any official plans to add it or not. I suspect at some point they will, but it could be a long wait.

[Opus4]

I have been using an Xcard since about a year ago and I don't believe I have ever had a problem attributable to it or its drivers. I have no idea whether adding an OSD to it would create problems, but I don't recall seeing such comments when I've looked at a couple other forums.

- Andy