Guide: Perfect playback & Display calibration (8 Viewers)

[hoborg]

Hi Kiwi
On my previous setup i was just using older SAF and had PDVD10 set for TV codecs and all was good. Funny as I cant seem to find PDVD codecs in SAF now
I have Unlocked SAF

Hi.
Please, send me your SAF LOGs.
This can happend if you have broken environment variables.

BTW, you need to enable TOOLS durning SAF install to install Graphstudio and other tools.

 

[tourettes]

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.

Did you enabled WASAPI exclusive mode in MPAR config? As it sounds like it is not enabled as the OS mixer configuration makes difference.

 

[elsmandino]

Hi there,

I cannot believe that I have not come accross this particular thread before - it is just what I have been looking for.

I am hoping to go throught the guide, from start to finish, over the weekend and see if I can get a perfect set up.

Just a few things to clarify, if I may:

1. Does this guide presume that you are going to be outputting sound to a 5.1 amp?

2. How do all the settings for the average flatscreen TV fit in with those in Mediaportal or on the PC itself? For example, I have a Samsung LE40A656, which has got so many options but in particular, a setting called "100 motion" plus.

This is recommended for sporting events as it apparently helps to reduce smearing but has the drawback of creating the dreaded "Soap Opera Effect" with films.

There are three presets that can you program into the TV - Off, Sports, Cinema and Game. Ultimately, you can fine tune each but the Sports one puts the 100 motion on whereas the Cinema one would not.

My question, really, is whether this guide is aimed at getting the perfect picture on the TV at which point you never touch any settings again - i.e. Mediaportal does all the processing or is the idea that I still need to change the pre-sets, depending on what the type of program it is.

Thanks

Alex

 

[kiwijunglist]

Idea is to disable all the improvement crap that the TV does eg. 100 motion, dynamic contrast etc.. they are just gimmicks. Since we want tv hz = movie hz interpolation is invalid anyway... Guide doesn't presume 5.1amp, but that is what I use. Processing is ideally kept to a minimum unless you use my post processing guide. I think post processing isn't really worth the hassle, it can make some shitty movies look slightly better, but others it can make slightly worse

 

[elsmandino]

Thanks KJ.

As you also have 5.1, I shall go through and use exactly the same settings as you have done.

Does seem that I have been sucked in by all those improvement settings - I have just been through my settings and I have most of them turned on.

So the idea is start with a completely blank canvas and then only turn on and adjust the pointers used in your guide?

I have just done a reset of my TV (and turned everything off or down) and want to make sure that everything is as "unadulterated" as possible to begin with. I currently have the following:

* TV = Standard Mode
* Backlight = 7
* Contrast = 95
* Brightness = 40
* Sharpness = 50
* Colour = 50
* Tint = G50 R50
* Black Adjust = off
* Dynamic Contrast = off
* Gamma = 0
* Colour Space = Auto
* White balance
Flesh Tone = 0
Edge Enhancement = off
* Colour Tone = Normal
* Size = Just Scan
* Digital NR = off
* HDMI Black Level = Low
* 100 MhZ Plus = off
* Blue only mode = off
* Entertainment = off
* Energy Saving= Auto

Am I good to go or are there any other changes I need to make before I go through the guide?

One other thing I noticed, from having a quick skim read through this thread, is that HDMI 2 on Samsung TVs is slightly different from the rest. I have just quickly read through the manual and it is not absolutely clear whether I am supposed to be using it or not.

My HTPC is connected to my 5.1 amp via HDMI, which is in turn connected to the TV via HDMI. By coincidence, I am using HDMI2 on the back of my TV. Should I switch to one of the others instead?

Thanks again for your help.

Alex

 

[kiwijunglist]

Looks good. I use HDMI2 on my Samsung tv. Change HDMI port only if your TV jumps out of just scan mode when you turn it on or when you change refresh rates.

 

[joostzilla]

Super guide. Didnt know it exist untill yesterday
I have followed all the steps to test the MPAR. My system was already running great although the tearing could be less. Especially annoying during football matches ('soccer' for our American friends).
What i found out was that since switching to the MPAR and AutoRefreshRate the audio video is completely out of sync and volume is much lower. So i quickly reverted back to the complete LAV settings.
Strange that the MPAR/refreshrate does exactly the opposite as i tried to achieve.

 

[kiwijunglist]

Hi joost, MPAR is not for live TV. MPAR works by speeding up + slowing down the audio + video, but that is impossible with a live broadcast. I thought MPAR is supposed to be smart enough to not try weird things with live TV, but maybe there are still some bugs. I have not tried to use MPAR with recorded TV. Generally you should use default audiorender for livetv. and keep mpar for video/dvd/bluray. Is this the problem you were having? I might be mistaken, in that the football comment was only regarding tearing not mpar as well.

regarding tearing you should easily be able to eliminate it completely by forcing vertical sync. You should not get any stutter unless your video processing is actually slower than the fps of the video / hz rate of the display.

PS. Vsync doesn't work with multimonitor and MP (Bug).

 

[Sebastiii]

About Vsync with multimonitor, it's more an hidden issue on MS side, like i have it with MPC / XBMC etc .

 

[joostzilla]

MPAR is not for live TV.

Haha, didnt know that but it sounds logical now you mention it. My bad.

Generally you should use default audiorender for livetv. and keep mpar for video/dvd/bluray. Is this the problem you were having?

I had problems with Live TV but also with playing videos (mkv). Actually i think the AutoRefreshRate is to blame for the lipsync problem. MPAR is to blame for the low volume.

I might be mistaken, in that the football comment was only regarding tearing not mpar as well.

Indeed, it was a general remark. Nothing related to MPAR. Although i hoped it would solve it. I already had v-sync set to always on before so that wont solve the tearing when the camera does quick panning. All TV and GPU gimmicks are set to 'Off'

You should not get any stutter unless your video processing is actually slower than the fps of the video / hz rate of the display.

That i dont exactly understand.
As default i use 1920x1080@50hz. When i set AutoRefreshRate to switch to 24hz i see no real difference in image quality.