Problems with Various MPEG-2 Codecs

[Jean-Max]

Originally Posted by jackelectronics

, I cannot find a decent MPEG-2 Codec to use for Digital TV.

Hello,
Have you tested Intervideo codecs from WinDVD ?
If you have not it, the 14 days trial version can be useful for test : http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/WinDVD_Download.jsp

[giovifree]

well it said on the requirements page that parhelia are compaitable with the required dx9 features. vmr9 works nicely for me, it's just these dodgy codecs. if everyone asking me to buy nvidia, i might as well get showshifter instead cos it has it included and mediaportal is still heavilly beta and cannot be bothered to wait for it to mature. also i would have to continue to cope with people who just walk over me and not listen just because "i'm different".

no you are wrong..........i was a fans of matrox and their picture quality for a long time but now they are out of market and if you don't believe me there are some reply from matrox forum:

Joined: 09 Aug 2000
Posts: 28162
Location: Dorval, Quebec, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 7:58 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
The P650 supports DX9 only with the 1.06.00.99 Beta DX9 drivers from here.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/dr...6_beta_dx9.cfm
_________________
Louie
Matrox Graphics
Technical Support


PeterB
Matrox


Joined: 28 Apr 2000
Posts: 10413
Location: Dorval, Quebec, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:32 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
None of our products support VMR9.

For more information on this and other Matrox products you should contact the Matrox sales team at 1-800-361-1408 or fill out the email request form found here.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/contact_us...sales_form.cfm
They are best suited to handle all your pre-sales inquiries (availability, cost, etc.. .)
_________________
Peter
Matrox Graphics
Technical Support
Hardware Group

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

you cannot have vmr9 with p650

[jackelectronics]

I have looked on the NVIDIA site about their codec and found that all I really need for decent MPEG-2 quality in Media Portal is the bronze version. I can use my PowerDVD 6 to do the hard work for the audio. Although PowerDVD 6 has really nice de-interlacing, it is only true in the software app itself. In other applications like Windows Media Player and Media Portal, de-interlacing is dreadful. The bronze version is a lot less than I expected, $20 USD.

[FlipGer]

Hi,

there are some registry hacks for CyberLink and InterVideo codecs to get better deinterlacing in third party apps. Sorry, i have no link for them, but perhaps you can find them.

The nVidia codec is reported to be the best choice currently.

Flip

[jackelectronics]

Originally Posted by FlipGer

there are some registry hacks for CyberLink and InterVideo codecs to get better deinterlacing in third party apps.

I have also looked at this forum http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.so...light=powerdvd and I kind of used the same principle for the video settings. I just exported the registry settings of the main player, modded the registry export file and applied it to the CLVSD section. Load up Media Player 6.4 and the de-interlacing is all nice!!! Thanks FlipGer!!!

[Jean-Max]

Originally Posted by giovifree

p.s.
you can download trial version of nvidia pure video decoder

Is nvidia pure video decoder compatible with Matrox products (ex: Parhelia 128) or only with Nvidia graphic cards ?

Thanks

[SiLenTYL]

the nvidia purevideo codec doesnt require a nVidia card...just a card which accepts DirectX9 instructions...any DX9c supported card will be enough...i used to run it on my ATI 9800pro(pretty much the first Dx9 card around) and it worked perfectly

[Jean-Max]

Originally Posted by SiLenTYL

the nvidia purevideo codec doesnt require a nVidia card...just a card which accepts DirectX9 instructions...any DX9c supported card will be enough...i used to run it on my ATI 9800pro(pretty much the first Dx9 card around) and it worked perfectly

Yessss !
I just tested the trial version of nvidia purevideo codec :
http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_decoder.html

With my MATROX Parhelia 128, it's OK :



With MediaPortal 1.30 :the DVD & video quality is perfect
Some Graphs :

DVD playing :



Mpeg2 video:



Note : with WM9 videos (720 or 1080), it's the WM decoder which is automatically called :

[hellmelt]

Darn interesting... I'm just at the stage where I can start to tweak for best quality. Presently I have some stuttering and interlacing artefacts.

My question:
I have a ATI 9550 board. Is the NVidia decoder the best, or the ATI decoder? I have not tried either of them.

/hellmelt

[hellmelt]

OK, I'll continue the thread myself.

Found a link to a test at anandtech
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2551&p=1

They compare video quality from recent ATI and NVIDIA boards, especially with respect to de-interlacing.

They use Nvidia pure video decoder for both the ati and the nvidia board. I thought that in order to utilise the hardware it should be vendor dependent... Trusting their judgement, I decided to try Nvidia pure video, even though I have an ATI 9550 board. (BTW, I found some kind of ATI decoder on the net - I got no picture with that one. There is a download at ATI, but you have to have a CD with ATI multimedia centre in order to download, and I don't).

I have a dualboot system, with MCE 2005 on one partition and XP Home with MP on an other. I installed Nvidia pure video on both systems.

When I watch MCE 2005, I see quite a lot of interlacing artefacts, but the colours are deep and the contrast feels high. Apart from the de-interlacing, the video feels very good to watch.

When I boot to XP Home and MP, the de-interlacing is much, much better! While the feeling in the colours are more dirty. Strange - same hardware, same decoder.

So what makes the difference?

The ATI Radeon driver? In MCE I installed some kind of MCE version of catalyst. But I thought it is identical to the normal XP driver. Maybe it's not.

Does MCE tweak the drivers, esp. colours in some way? Is it the MCE application, or the OS?

In MP there is a de-interlacing setting. I had it at "Best". Does that explain the improved de-interlacing with MP? If so, can I tweak pure video in MCE too, eg. by some registry setting?

The next obvious test is to get MP running on the MCE installation, but when I tried I didn't get any picture at all... And then time was up, the weekend was over.

If I get it running, I might give a short report.

/hellmelt