Picture quality and ATI 550/650 cards (1 Viewer)

[mrfx]

Started on: 2007-01-15
last update: 2007-01-15

Summary:

This case is weird. I have over 50 channels via cable tv. Four of them has explicitly worse picture than others. There are ugly artifacts on the screen on these channels and annoing noise. ATI Theatre cards have powerful hardware filters (3d comb, noise, etc.) The only software which can remove this is Winamp + WinampTV plugin. All other software including Mediaportal, Cyberlink Power Cinema (3,4), ChrisTV, Beyond TV, GBPVR and many others I've tested are unable to remove the noise and artifacts.

Description:

Picture on standalone CRT TV set is fine.
Picture on WinampTV has only little noise. (LCD 21,3" 1600x1200px)
Picture on Mediaportal and any other software has artifacts and noise. (LCD 21,3"1600x1200px)

1. It does not depend on mpeg decoder. (I tried a lot of, including: Dscaler, Cyberlink, Elecard, MPV, Nero)
2. It does not depend on renderer. (I tried in Winamp WMV7 and WMV9 and always was good picture)

I'm attaching two screenshots. (printscreen at 1600x1200, then scaled down to 800x600 bilinear). Channels are tuned to the same frequency in both programs. Oryginal view on the monitor has even more difference between this two screenshots.

 

[Geon106]

hmm, well are you sure its not just being upscaled to HD? obviously poor broadcasting at low resolutions come out bad on HD resolutions, but if the program upscales it differently, it might improve the quality? I'm not sure tbh

 

[mrfx]

I don't think it is just upscaling (but I'm not sure too). The noise is visible not only in fullscreen, but also in small window (artifacts are harder to see), and I've test it on 800x600 projector and effect was the same (only in winamptv picture has been clear).
I think it is related to the ati's driver usage inside program. I doubt an upscaler can remove this kind of noise. I suppose also, if both programs use wmr9, then wmr upscale picture for both programs in the same way?

 

[Johnny-D]

Bit of a bump here 'cause I'm getting the exact same problem- haven't tried WinampTV yet (just about to) but I noticed after recording in MP that the video was poor quality when viewed on my LCD- although it's only been noticeable recently.

My TV (32" CRT) *seems* fine, but once I saw it on my monitor, I realised it was there on the TV too.

Interestingly I read here http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=91647 (bottom post) that it seems the software has to 'request' hardware encoding then decoding or else it bypasses it (at least for Theatre 550/650 cards) could this be what's happening here? CPU usage is around 50-60% with the TV on.

Another point of interest is that I upgraded MP just before Christmas and my recordings before then are perfectly acceptable (although not as good as WinampTV looks), but since then things seem to have taken a turn for the worse.

I've attached a couple of screenshots to highlight the issue- the artifacts in the '07 shot appear regularly for a few frames but are definitely noticeable and I believe due to MP. The '06 shot still has artifacts\banding but fairly minor and not the fault of MP.

Thinking about it, I also get lip-synch issues which according to ATI's website should be eliminated by the 550 as it sends the stream on as an A/V whole. Does this support the 'not hardware accelerated' case?

P.S. Geon, I think were WinampTV upscaling, the issues would be exaggerated, unless it was seriously cleaning up the picture too- and that would send CPU usage through the roof...

 

[mrfx]

I've discovered, that picture's noise and tv standard have something in common!
It seems to be a bug. I have some channels in Pal B/G and some in Pal D/K in cable television.

VERSION 0.2.2.0 of MediaPortal:
When I turn off TV while watching one type of channels and turn it on again then there is no sound but white noise (bug), and PICTURE QUALITY is MUCH BETTER (looks like all ati's hardware filters works - but since the sound is gone it's for nothing)

VERSION 0.2.2.0 SVN BUILD 12948
Changing tv standards in setup from PAL B to PAL D (and others) does not work (there is no difference). The unexplained and interesting is, that after fresh install there is proper sound on all channels (both PAL B and PAL D) when I choose my Country. Changing Countries in setup makes the sound into white noise as well as improves picture (turns on hardware filters?) and back - good sound, but worse picture depend on which Country is selected.
It seems to be a bug in this SVN - when I switch from MyTV to Radio and back to TV then I have also white noise instead of sound (and picture is much cleaner - the same thing - seems that radio changes tv standard?)

Hey... if in WinampTV it is possible to get proper sound and good picture at the same time I believe it is possible also in such a great piece of software like MediaPortal! If you need I can test another SVN, just let me know.