Picture Quality (1 Viewer)

[grubi]

TV-Server Version: n/a
MediaPortal Version: 0.2.3 RC1
MediaPortal Skin: blue wide
Windows Version: XP SP2
CPU Type: E4400
HDD: WD 160GB
Memory: 1 GB
Motherboard: ASUS P5B Deluxe
Motherboard Chipset: P965
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: Radeon X1650PRO HDMI 256
Video Card Driver: Catalyst 7.3
Sound Card: C-MEDIA 8738
Sound Card AC3: C-MEDIA 8738
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: FloppyDTV
1. TV Card Type:
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: ATI (Cyberlink OEM)
MPEG2 Audio Codec: (Mediaportal default)
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Zalman HD135
Cooling:
Power Supply: Enermax Liberty 400
Remote: Zalman HD135
TV: Panasonic TH-50PZ700E
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

Hello Mediaportal users and developers.

I just built up a new HTPC with Mediaportal and connected it to my new display. After spendig much time on tweaking the config I get stuck and I'm absolutely clueless how to get further on, because the picture quality does not reach the level I would expect from a HTPC. So there are three possibilities:

1.) I bought wrong components. No problem. Be so kind in helping me to find out which one sucks and I will throw it out and replace it with a better one.

2.) There are further configuration steps I simply missed so I would be very glad to know what I have to do additionally.

3.) I simply reached the picture quality level of what is possible with a HTPC/Mediaportal. That would be hard because I like the ease of use and felxibility esp. Mediaportal gives me for home theatre experience. However if that is the case I will have to switch to classic HT equipment as PQ is the most important thing for me.


The problems I still have and what I have done so far:

1.) Deinterlacing sucks. The easiest way I found to check deinterlacing quality is to watch a TV news channel showing a horizontally scrolling textbar (I choose n-TV here in Germany). The scrolling is not smooth and is missing sharpness when watching it over Mediaportal. As reference I choose the TV built in DVB-T receiver wehre the same channel shows a very smooth and crisp textbar instead. From what ATI states for their new cards supporting AVIVO I was under the impression that they offer superior deinterlacing technologies diectly built in their new cards.

What I have done so far is first to get a pixelperfect display using an integral multiple refresh rate of the content displayed. So I use 1920x1080/50p as I have a Pana Full HD display with exact that resolution and refresh rate and I live in a PAL country where 25 fps is used for source material. The display is capable of disabling the scaler (overscan) and so I really have 1-1 pixle mapping.

I set the deinterlacing mode of Mediaportal to none in the TV section.

Under Mediaportal Setup -> DVD -> DVD-Codec I unchecked "Turn off DXVA"

In the config screen of the ATI MPEG DirectShow filter I enabled "Hardware Accelerator" and set "Video Mode" to "autoselect".

In the CCC Avivo Quality settings I set "Auto detect" for Video quality.

However it seems that I'm able change all these settings without any effect on deinterlacing at all, so I really I have no idea what component does the deinterlacing in my setup. Maybe the AVIVO deinterlacing works only in overlay mode and not with VRM9 at all, or DXVA is simply not used in my setup?


2.) Details in dark scenes get lost, there is no differenciation between black and dark grey, whereas black and white itself are accurate. I use the default color settings for the TV where the TV built in DVB-T decoder shows accurate shading in dark scenes. The Desktop and Mediaportal GUI looks quite accurate however the video itself has the problem described.


Any suggestions are most welcome.
Thanks a lot.

grubi.

 

[patricon]

Try using ffdshow codecs http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ffdshow.cfm i get great results using this codec, also place a check mark on Postprocessing and enable 'Automatic quality control' , and mplayer, accurate deblocking, Luminance and 'Full luma range'. Also activate 'Resize & aspect', set your preferred resolution and select 'Lanczos' in Luma method... get great results that way...

regards,

 

[grubi]

On further investigation I found the following. The croppy deinterlacing is due to the fact that all codecs I checked so far do not support the new AVIVO deinterlacing methods even if they support DXVA and so swithed back to software deinterlacing. The only app I found so far is PowerDVD 7. Not even the latest ATI codecs support it (quite a joke I think). However the question remains how to enable these feature if you only want use the codec with a different player (MP in this case). The difference in quality is really impressive and comes close to what you get from dedicated HT equipment.

Any ideas how to get this to work with MP?

Regards,
grubi

 

[grubi]

Found the probelm.
Mediaportal Setup breaks AVIVO adaptive deinterlacing leading to bad PQ.
I have reported this as a bug.

 

[mbuzina]

The question 2 is probably due to the difference of video levels to pc levels. PC goes frm 0 - 255 and video from 16 - 216 (I think). This reduces the color space. There is no real 100% perfect solution here.

It depends on what your TV is showing (from your description I would guess PC range). Then use fddshow post processing to enhance the color range from video levels to pc levels.

 

[grubi]

The question 2 is probably due to the difference of video levels to pc levels. PC goes frm 0 - 255 and video from 16 - 216 (I think). This reduces the color space. There is no real 100% perfect solution here.

It depends on what your TV is showing (from your description I would guess PC range). Then use fddshow post processing to enhance the color range from video levels to pc levels.

That's what I assume also. I'm not familiar with fddshow, is it correct that it breaks DXVA when used. This would again trigger problem no 1 I mentioned.

Thanks for your suggestion.

grubi.

 

[joboehl]

The question 2 is probably due to the difference of video levels to pc levels. PC goes frm 0 - 255 and video from 16 - 216 (I think). This reduces the color space. There is no real 100% perfect solution here.

It depends on what your TV is showing (from your description I would guess PC range). Then use fddshow post processing to enhance the color range from video levels to pc levels.

There is a thread round with instruction on how to workaround this issue. The problem is that it's nVidia only.

Maybe threres something else for ATI?

As for PQ, I can have a better PQ with Cyberlink or nVidia Codec when playing DVDs when comparing a stanalone DVD player. BUT, I don't think it's not perfect. If you compare it to a mid-tohigh end DVD player, it will probably look worst imo.

 

[grubi]

There is a thread round with instruction on how to workaround this issue. The problem is that it's nVidia only.

Maybe threres something else for ATI?

As for PQ, I can have a better PQ with Cyberlink or nVidia Codec when playing DVDs when comparing a stanalone DVD player. BUT, I don't think it's not perfect. If you compare it to a mid-tohigh end DVD player, it will probably look worst imo.

The most important thing IMHO is to get HW deinterlacing to work (only for interlaced material of course). But the difference is outstanding. It took me two days to find out that MP setup broke it. The fact that nobody noticed this before seems to indicate that most of the people around do not care about high picture quality at all.

 

[elconejito]

my setup has onboard ATI video. I could never quite get the colors to look right and had occasional stutters. I first purchased Nvidia Purevideo codecs which gave a big improvement. Then I later added an Nvidia 7600GT card which gave an additional slight boost to image quality. I never tried the AVIVO software.

 

[grubi]

my setup has onboard ATI video. I could never quite get the colors to look right and had occasional stutters. I first purchased Nvidia Purevideo codecs which gave a big improvement. Then I later added an Nvidia 7600GT card which gave an additional slight boost to image quality. I never tried the AVIVO software.

AVIVO is no software. Is is a new technology built into the latest Radeon cards X1XXX and X2XXX. However you need software which takes advantage of these new features like the Cyberlink codec.