TV quality -- help needed

[pglenn]

I am wanting (of course) to get the absolute best quality out of MediaPortal to my TV. My TV LCD resolution is 1360x768 and I have my PC desktop set to match that. When Playing DVDs the picture quality is very good, for video files it depends on the video itself but the better videos play excellant. My one "sore-spot" is with TV display. on "actual" display size of 640x480 the pic looks very good on the TV, however when playing any of the "zoomed" modes including "normal" (which I normally watch) the picture is visible inferior to the TV's own output of the same channel (same cable source) in the same expanded mode. The TV just does a MUCH better job of upscaling the SD channels than the MediaPortal does.

Even though the Theater550 may be lacking some setting options, "supposedly" it is (or was a year ago anyways) the best TV card on the market for quality picture. and the ATI 9800pro (again at least it was 2years ago when purchased) was arguably the best video card on the market . I just cant believe that between the video card, the TV card, codec choice, and MediaPortal settings I cant get a TV output that at least compares favorably with the Toshiba's own upscaling of SD material. It is a very watchable picture for sure, I just feel it could be better on upscaled SD signals.

yeah I know I am alwasy gonna lose some quality when upscaling SD TV from 640x480 to 1024x768, I just want it to be better than it is now...

Any and all assistance in improving my TV Out is definitely appreciated.

I am willing to try anything but the following are the codec's that "seem" to have the best quality for me right now.

VIDEO
-- nvidia video decoder
-- VMR9

TV
-- ATI MPEG Multiplexer
-- VMR9
-- de-interlacing NONE



and following is the current relevant hardware/software
-----------------------------
Toshiba 37HL95 (I am using the PC Input on the TV)

FFDShow (2005-11-15)
MediaPortal 0.2.RC2
WIN-XP MCE
Athlon 64 3200+
GIGABYTE GA-K8NSNXP-939 nForce3 Ultra
1gb Ram, DDR SDRAM 400
XTASY Theater 550 TV Card
ATI AIW 9800Pro
MyHD130 v1.66 (drv 1.66.0.1)

BTW - nothing wrong with the TV input, or TV settings for the PC. The MYHD HD card displays EXCELLANT pictures of HD signals to the Toshiba on the same input (it doesnt use the vid card and basically acts in A/B mode with the PC video output but it is still same cable s

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by pglenn

I the picture is visible inferior to the TV's own output of the same channel

In what way is the picture inferior - is it sharpness, de-interlacing, colour, brightness, contrast, etc... :?

It would probably help if you could describe (in as much detail as you can) what you see as different between the two sources, that might give some clues as to the areas to "tweak".

I assume you are referring to analog TV reception?

[pglenn]

TV signal over the cable but analog, yes

hard to describe exactly in words, but comparing the "normal" zoom mode to the "correct" 640x480 size from the PC, and also how the Toshiba "normal" zoom looks on its own reception....

from MP, the "normal" zoom mode looks softer/ less sharp, definitely has color loss, and not as bright as the "correct" mode and the Toshiba mode...

I dont see any issues with interlacing/de-interlacing (de-interlacing is set to NONE)

I dont see the loss of image quality like you would in zooming a 320x240 video to 640x480, but just the softening/color-loss/less-brightness

[Dion]

I'm having exactly the same issue.