Foxtel Cable HW Capture Quality Problem (1 Viewer)

[BigBuddha]

I am using a Hauppauge PVR 150 MCE as a hardware capture solution from my Foxtel cable STB. I am using vanilla RC2 but this has persisted across all versions from 0.1.x when I started using MP.

Everything works fine except I discovered the other day that in comparison to watching the cable box live to the TV, I am getting TERRIBLE image quality in comparison when routing it through the Hauppauge.

I am using two outputs on the STB, one goes straight to my HD Plasma screen and the other to the Hauppage (which eventually gets to the screen via the HTPC video card)

When I switched between the two today I saw a HUGE increase in the quality of the picture from the direct to the screen conection. It is noticeable in all things, peoples faces, scenery etc, but especially in the STB's OSD. When viewed through the Hauppauge it is kinda all ragged at the edges and the text is blurry. When I view it straight from the direct connection it is a beautiful crisp image with lovely straight lines and clear text.

I even get a better quality picture by using my V-Stream XPERT PCI 100's S/W Encoding input.

I must have something setup wrong, or there must be some way to solve the problem. If I had to guess I would say that the Hauppauge is compressing the signal too much and this is producing the lower image quality, however I cannot find anywhere to adjust the amount of compression used in the card.

Please if somebody can help with this, I will be eternally grateful!!

 

[BigBuddha]

***BUMP***

C'mon, there must be somebody out there who has a solution ??? Pleeeeease??

 

[Callifo]

When you edit the card settings in configuration there is a Quality tab there. A VBR of 7-8mbps is usually very good picture quality. Ive got the same card and the recordings off foxtel look decent enough here (considing its using composite out). Either that or try routing it through the RF out (techically its worse than composite but its worth a try).

 

[BigBuddha]

When you edit the card settings in configuration there is a Quality tab there. A VBR of 7-8mbps is usually very good picture quality. Ive got the same card and the recordings off foxtel look decent enough here (considing its using composite out). Either that or try routing it through the RF out (techically its worse than composite but its worth a try).

My Understanding was that the setting you are referring to is for recorded quality only, not the quality you receive when just viewing live. Have I got that right ?? I have previously set this to the "HIGH" setting with no noticeable difference.

I have recently purchased a HD Plasma screen, and I don't think I would have noticed the PQ difference if viewing on my old 68cm CRT.

I haven't tried the RF out yet, but it's a good suggestion I will give that a try later on tonight when I get some time.

I still somehow think it is some sort of compression issue, when I view the Foxtel STB OSD it has sort of little swirls around it making it blurry at the edges. It's the same kind of thing you see when you use too much compression on a JPEG image, only not as pronounced.

 

[Callifo]

On a high resolution HD screen youd probably see the difference main because of foxtels low resolution. But your right, when viewing, quality settings doesnt do anything. Codec's could make a difference in quality though.

Ive found RF input is more software than the current svideo we are using hooked up to the television (through svideo we get exactly what you describe around the osd on the tv screen).

 

[BigBuddha]

On a high resolution HD screen youd probably see the difference main because of foxtels low resolution. But your right, when viewing, quality settings doesnt do anything.

Normally I would agree about Foxtel's low res being the cause, except for the following.

I am using two outputs from the Foxtel STB: No S-Video output on my Foxtel STB unfortunately

output # 1 Scart to Component and output # 2 Component.

It doesn't matter which one is hooked up directly to the TV and which one goes to the Hauppague (IE I can swap them and get the same results). Whevever I switch between the two different inputs on the TV, the Hauppauge looks like low res compared to the one directly connected to the TV.

I know it is not the connection from the HTPC to the TV (which is RGB to RGB) because HD FTA looks absolutely fantastic, and this is the same way the Hauppauge connects to the TV if you know what I mean.

Codec's could make a difference in quality though.

When you say codecs do you mean like Xvid or the filters that you set in the Television page of MP setup. I am using Nvidia filters on both Audio and Video on that page.

 

[astrocreep]

I think I am having the same problem with my 150 MCE. Its borderline unwatchable. I was using windows MCE before and had the same prob, so I am starting to think its the card.

I would buy a different card, but it seems like plenty of other people use this card without problems.

I was using TimeWarner Cable before, and now I use DirecTV. Same problem on both providers.

 

[BigBuddha]

Ive found RF input is more software than the current svideo we are using hooked up to the television (through svideo we get exactly what you describe around the osd on the tv screen).

I finally got around to trying the Foxtel STB RF output to the RF input on the Hauppage last night. The display was worse. It gives a row of very fine diagonal lines running down the length of the screen. Kinda similar to when you only have rabbits ears for an aerial but not as bas as what you get with that.

Any other ideas would be gratefully appreciated!

 

[BigBuddha]

Hauppauge 150/500 MCE PQ HUGELY IMPROVED

Hi All,

I came across some interesting information from another forum dedicated to Hauppauge cards.

Apparently in the most recent drivers available for the 150/500 MCE cards, Hauppauge decided to turn the comb filter off completely. The comb filter is what tries to turn a composite signal into something resembling an S-Video signal. My HD Plasma must have an awesome comb filter in it and this is why the composite signal put into it was so much better than when the same composite signal was put into the Hauppauge.

I downloaded some registry tweaks that enable the comb filter and allow you to try some different settings. The result was nothing short of AMAZING. Whilst I would not say that the PQ was perfect, I would at least go as far to say that the improvement was off the scale compared to the PQ I had previously.

On the downside, when I got the best PQ after tryng the different registry tweak files, there was a VERY noticable increase in dot crawl. Luckily this was 99.99% limited to the OSD of the STB that I cam capturing the signal from so for me it is not an issue!.

Finally, (after finding out all this good info) I found a way to get my Foxtel Cable STB to output a S-Video signal and the PQ is perfect (or at least as good as DVD quality). I still thought it was worth posting the ways to get the best picture when using the composite input. But as everybody has told me, the S-Video input (wich does not make use of the comb filter, because it is not neccessary) is by FAR the best PQ I have seen my PVR 150MCE produce.

I will post the links to the topic that I discussed this in as well as some other relevant links about the issue. I will also place a link to the registry tweak files.

The first one is the topic that I discussed this whole matter about with another user on the Hauppauge unofficial forum:

http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=9618

The second link (in a uk Hauppauge forum) details a discussion about whether the comb filter should be on or off:

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=6083

This link contains some links to some comb filter tweaks:

http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=9170.0

This last link is to an archive I am hosting ( I am hoping that I can get somone else to host it permanantly, it is only 2.14KB in size) and have created that contains all of the registry comb filter tweak files and a description of what each file does:

http://www.harmonycentral.com.au/downloads/PVR150Combfix.zip

Lastly, I would like to say a BIG thank you to all of the people who have shared their time and tried to hep me with this problem that I have struggled with for so long.

Thanks,

BigBuddha