Guide: Perfect playback & Display calibration (3 Viewers)

kiwijunglist

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    try 24bit 44.1khz. go into supported formats, test each freq, disable if popping.
    under supported formats untick 48khz and any other frequencies that sound bad
    also I don't know why mpar (or LAV) is upscaling 44.1khz to 48khz, when you have sample rate = auto and source rate = 44.1khz - @tourettes

    unless you ticked in audio config that 44.1khz is not supported by your sound device and ticked that 48khz is supported <- did this happen?
     
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    kiwijunglist

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    it sounds like you can't play 48khz it should be disabled along with any other freq that don't work. should be enough after restarting the PC. If still having problems after that which is unlikely you need to force mpar to use a sample rate of 44.1
     

    tourettes

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    also I don't know why mpar (or LAV) is upscaling 44.1khz to 48khz, when you have sample rate = auto and source rate = 44.1khz - @tourettes

    unless you ticked in audio config that 44.1khz is not supported by your sound device and ticked that 48khz is supported <- did this happen?

    based on the log (which might be a wrong log that I was looking into :))

    Input format : 48000Hz 32i (24)bits 2ch -- ch mask: 3 align: 8 avgbytes: 384000
    ...
    REN - applying : 48000Hz 32i (24)bits 2ch -- ch mask: 3 align: 8 avgbytes: 384000

    No forced sample rate conversion is done as input and output are same.
     

    Sogg_Nomis

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    thanks for your time, the files previously not working are now working by changing the windows sound option down to the lowest format the FM quality and leaving MPAR on Auto. I'm now pretty settled on the fact that its windows doing something stupid here. I will try the last suggestion of forcing 44.1khz, but the system is only about 6 - 7 months old and I built it myself and used some middle to high range products. I cant accept that it would not be able to play a simple 48khz sound file.

    I think I will run for now and when i get a weekend I will re-format and start again. Thanks again, great guide the 5.1 sound is awesome maybe I should change all my files to 1080 5.1 surround and there will be no more issues.
     

    emphatic

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    I've gone through this guide today as I'm currently vacational leave from work. :D Here are my thoughts:

    When (like in my case) a user has a 720p display that can still show a 1080p signal, I think you're better off outputting a 1080p signal from your HTPC than a 720p one. Font readability isn't any worse IMHO, but more importantly, the HD standard has no 24hz compliance at 720p! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television

    This means that a user has a much bigger chance of getting a working 24hz signal on their HD-Ready TV than the non-standard 720p 24hz one.

    Edit: Never mind the question below, I misinterpreted something somehow.
    I have a question concerning setting up audio - I prefer watching my DTS movies with DTS and not Stereo. When following the setup guide, I only get Stereo sound. :/ I'm going back to bitstreaming the digital sound formats.

    Thanks!
    Emph
     
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    kiwijunglist

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    Hi emphatic

    720P Display:

    1080P output - More chance of 24hz (based on what you just told me :) )
    720P output - You get 1:1 pixel mapping, so sharper image if source video = 720P.

    If you get a 720P gif image, enlarge it to 1080P save it, close it, open it, shrink it to 720P, you lose detail.
     
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    emphatic

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    I have a Panasonic Plasma + NVIDIA GeForce GT430 and if I try to get rid of the overscan by following your guide towards 1:1 pixel mapping, the test grids looks like crap (jagged everything etc, scanlines "overlap" weirdly like an off scaling artifact in Photoshop LOL). If I just use MePo's screen calibration to remove the overscan however, I get a crisp image etc.

    I think that this also depends on the screen technology, for LCD or LED @ 720p, having 720p material displayed at 1080p can show degrading quality, but on Plasma it will be less noticeable. I admit to having very little experience with anything else than Plasmas though. ;)

    To get a working 24hz signal compatible with my TV, I had to Google what values to use, as simply inputting 24hz gave me a picture that was heavily "panned" off center and to the left. :p

    Emph
     

    BlueMax1916

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    Great guide here.

    A thought on the recommendation for using CUVID vs. DXVA (native) with Nvidia graphics adapters. On my gaming system I have a GTX 580 and using CUVID the system consumes much more power while watching a movie than with using DXVA (native). Power usage of the whole system is CUVID = 134 W vs. DXVA (native) = 81 W. That is a difference of 53 W. Also the temperature of the graphics adapter rises. CUVID > 50 °C vs. DXVA (native) 37 °C. This is an example for a high end grapics adapter. That big difference may not be appropriate to smaller cards like GT 520 which I have in my HTPC. The absolute value of the difference will be smaller. I did not try it there. As the HTPC is in use by my wife :p

    On small HTPC boxes using CUVID may lead to fans spinning faster and being louder.
     
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    kiwijunglist

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    cuvid has more format support but dxva uses less resources on low end cards. that's quite a huge power difference
     
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