A few "General" TV picture issues (1 Viewer)

[spleisher]

Hello everyone!

I'm having some "issues" with the quality of the picture I am getting when watching TV with Media Portal.

My installation is a standalone installation of TV-Server, but I am using TV server, just on the same box as my installation of MP 1.0.

I'm using all the codecs recommended in this thread:

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/newcomers-forum-240/mediaportal-install-guide-49685/

My HTPC itself was purpose-bought just to be a HTPC. I am using an ASUS P5N7A-VM motherboard, which has a geForce 9300 video card.

Here are the issues. My standard definition channels are what I would describe as a little "blurry". They're not awful, but they're definitely not as clear as they should be.

Also, of the (4) major networks that I am picking up via clear QAM, (2) are pretty "iffy" as far as video quality goes. Our NBC station looks pretty good until someone moves, but when movement occurs, I see a little bit of horizontal line-effect in the part of the screen that is moving.

On CBS HD, any movement is just not very natural, if that makes sense. It tends to be a little "jerky". It's really noticable on any sort of sports action.

Fox and ABC look pretty good, and movement is natural.

All of the HD locals, however, appear a little "soft", if that makes any sense. I wouldn't describe them as blurry like the SD channels, but they're not as "crisp" as I would like them to be.

For what it's worth, Movies look awesome, all the way up to 1080. They all play great! The HTPC is hooked up to an LG 50 inch plasma via HDMI.

So, given that the movies look great, I don't think it's a resource issue on the HTPC.

It's not an issue with signal either, because all of the channels look awesome in the bedroom, where we have a 40 inch SOny LCD hooked directly to cable.

Also, for what it's worth, I first set up this HTPC as a Windows 7 Beta machine, running Windows Media Center. I had none of these picture issues on TV. They all looked AWESOME! (Now, I had a ton of OTHER problems with Win7 and WMC). So, MP is still far superior overall, but I think my positive experiences with the TV picture quality in WMC are relevant at least to illustrate that it's not a card issue, or cable signal issue.

My gut tells me it's some sort of CODEC thing, or maybe the way my card/TV deal with a certain codec. Or maybe a refresh-rate issue.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Any thoughts would be appreciated, and I'd be happy to provide further information as requested.

Thanks!!!!!

 

[Owlsroost]

For the SD channels, it sounds like you need to switch to an MPEG-2 codec which supports DXVA, so that you get hardware de-interlacing - the MPV MPEG-2 codec that comes with MP does not support DXVA. This may fix the HD channels as well if they are MPEG-2, but they may be H.264.

I think most peoples favourite is the codec from PowerDVD7/8/9 (I use the PDVD7 version).

Install a trial version of PowerDVD and have a play.

Or just extract the relevant file - ''CLVsd.ax'' - from the PDVD installer and register the filter manually - see the "How to extract PowerDVD MPEG2 ''CLVsd.ax'' decoder?" section at the start of the the SAF thread - https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/codecs-external-players-55/standalone-filters-mediaportal-saf-44614/

Tony

 

[spleisher]

Thanks for the reply. I'll give that a whirl tonight and we'll see how it goes.

For what it's worth, I tried using the FFDShow codec that I am using for movies, and it did seem to clean up the HD channels, but the built-in codec is the only one I've had any luck with when it comes to recording TV. Not sure why, but when I started switching codecs, the recordings got really choppy.

Anyway... always a new project!