How to improve TV-OUT quality (1 Viewer)

Hustler

Portal Member
March 29, 2005
16
0
Denmark
This probably won't help you upspace, as you have a nVidia card, don't know if nVidia cards have anything similar to this.

But with my 25$ ATI Radeon 9200 and a S-VHS cable, I can't really tell the difference between watching tv through the puter, or watching it direct. Unless I feed the tv picture to ffdshow, then I'l get better picture watching tv through the puter.
The picture even has the exact same size as when watching "normal" tv (logos, subs etc. appears in the exact same location when switching between normal tv and the tv from the puter).

And also, don't know if this solution is posted somewhere else on these forums, i'm too lazy to search :)

"Normal" tv-out, on all the gfx cards that i know off, aren't really meant for watching movies, they are configured so text and stuff will appear smooth, and not flickering, but this is done at the cost of sharpness.
Most gfx cards have the option to turn this flickering filter up and down, this means the text will flicker more, and you will get a sharper picture, but usually this isn't enough.

But on ATI cards you can turn this feature off completely.
Ati cards have a "secret" button called "Video mode", this button doesn't appear unless you are running windows in the same resolution as your tv-formats resolution, for me i need to change the windows resolution to 720x576 (pal).
Running any other resolution than whats the resolution of the format also degrades the picture quality further, I believe it's scaled up or down anyways, depending on the resolution you choose, to match the format.

If you can't get this resolution by moving the slider in the monitor settings, then you can do it here:
Screen properties - settings - advanced - adapter - list all modes, and pick your resolution, don't mind the refresh rates, doesn't matter when you are using the tv-out.
now enter the ati display settings, Screen properties - settings - advanced - "ATI" displays and click the tv button. The "secret" button that was activated can be found under adjustments, called "Video mode", activate it.

You will see a huge difference in sharpness, but small font text and vertical lines will flicker (1 pixel lines will blink, 2 pixel lines will jump up and down).
Usually you won't even see the flicker on lcd's and plasma tv's, but you will still get the improved sharpness on them, same with Phillips televisions that has pixel plus 1 or 2.
But this flickering is because the picture is now "perfect" interlaced, and this is what you wan't in most cases, I can actually watch the tv without deinterlacing, if it's just scaled correctly.

Hustler
 

Lars E.

Portal Member
March 28, 2005
37
0
Norway
Hustler, you made my week. On my X800 board this is called "Enable video mode" - not movie mode. But you made me look for it :).

Now I have better quality through the PC than through my VHS machine.
 

Hustler

Portal Member
March 29, 2005
16
0
Denmark
It's called "video mode" on mine too (edited my post), just remembered it as "Movie mode" when i was writing the post.
Anyways, glad it worked.

Now I have better quality through the PC than through my VHS machine.

You had a better picture comming through your VCR than your PC before this? that must have sucked.

Hustler
 

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