SD Upscaling - Laymans Explanation Required (1 Viewer)

[CairnsFella]

Hi All,

I understand that there have been many posts and guides submitted on this and related subjects, but I must say that pretty much all of these have gone over my head.

I am looking for advice, if possible, to enable me to achieve upscaling of SD television in lieu of my imminent HP panel purchase. I realise that without some of the technical issues mentioned in these other threads I may not maximise my equipments capabilities, but I am thinking that there must be a laymans explanation that will at least see me achieve some of the benefits.

I am currently running a quad core (Q6600 I think) and graphics are handled by a Palit 9600 GT Sonic.

Certainly the FFDshow guides seem a little complex, and some suggestions seem at odds with others.

My understanding is that this card is PureVideo compatible, but I need to purchase software to take advantage of this. I dont mind doing this, but will this address my requirements simply within Mediaportal?

Is there any other software (preferably budget / free... but not necessarily) that will address my requirements "simply".

Also, if I manage to effect upscaling will this effect HD broadcasts and DVD playback?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[etheesdad]

I think Dscaler is the preferred method of upscaling TV. Its not easy to use though, and it does not work with all hardware.

Conventionally people would use FFDshow for upscaling DVD's. In this regard its very effective. Theres an excellent guide HERE

It can be used for postproccessing tv, although ive never used it for this. There;s information on how to use it with mediaportal for this purpose HERE

 

[Owlsroost]

I am looking for advice, if possible, to enable me to achieve upscaling of SD television in lieu of my imminent HP panel purchase. I realise that without some of the technical issues mentioned in these other threads I may not maximise my equipments capabilities, but I am thinking that there must be a laymans explanation that will at least see me achieve some of the benefits.

I am currently running a quad core (Q6600 I think) and graphics are handled by a Palit 9600 GT Sonic.

Basically, you don't need to do anything - MP+Windows will automatically up-scale/down-scale full-screen video to fit on the screen, irrespective of the actual screen resolution. The scaling is actually performed by the video card hardware, so the quality of it is down (in your case) to nVidia, but I'm quite happy with what my 9500GT achieves - viewed on a 37" 1920 x 1080 LCD at 3-4m distance.

People using FFDShow etc to re-scale video before it hits the video card may be achieving slightly better quality, but it's at a big cost in CPU power - especially if it's from interlaced material since it has to be de-interlaced first (and FFDShow software de-interlacers are generally not as good as the best ATi/nVidia hardware de-interlacing...)

To make use of the PureVideo hardware acceleration you just need to use video codecs that support DXVA - the PowerDVD MPEG-2 and H.264 codecs are some of the most popular.

Tony

 

[Jeditrav]

I am looking for advice, if possible, to enable me to achieve upscaling of SD television in lieu of my imminent HP panel purchase. I realise that without some of the technical issues mentioned in these other threads I may not maximise my equipments capabilities, but I am thinking that there must be a laymans explanation that will at least see me achieve some of the benefits.

I am currently running a quad core (Q6600 I think) and graphics are handled by a Palit 9600 GT Sonic.

Basically, you don't need to do anything - MP+Windows will automatically up-scale/down-scale full-screen video to fit on the screen, irrespective of the actual screen resolution. The scaling is actually performed by the video card hardware, so the quality of it is down (in your case) to nVidia, but I'm quite happy with what my 9500GT achieves - viewed on a 37" 1920 x 1080 LCD at 3-4m distance.

People using FFDShow etc to re-scale video before it hits the video card may be achieving slightly better quality, but it's at a big cost in CPU power - especially if it's from interlaced material since it has to be de-interlaced first (and FFDShow software de-interlacers are generally not as good as the best ATi/nVidia hardware de-interlacing...)

To make use of the PureVideo hardware acceleration you just need to use video codecs that support DXVA - the PowerDVD MPEG-2 and H.264 codecs are some of the most popular.

Tony

Agreed - I'm very happy with the upscaling I get from my nVidia 8600gt, in conjuction with PowerDVD codecs; I only use ffdshow for upscaling of low quality .avi files.

 

[CairnsFella]

Thanks all for your responses,

Tony, this is what I thought / hoped was the case, but can I just clarify (again without getting too technical).

1. If the default arrangement you describe is occurring already (or can be achieved) then I am happy enough, however can I confirm that this is definitely upscaling and not just stretching (other posts and sites on this topic seem to describe a significant difference).

2. To utilize DXVA / Purvideo hardware accelleration using say PowerDVD, do I need a specific version of powerdvd (or other software), as I do not know where to look to confirm that this is being utilised (there is no mention in the nvidia control panel I am using.


Thanks again.

 

[Owlsroost]

Thanks all for your responses,

Tony, this is what I thought / hoped was the case, but can I just clarify (again without getting too technical).

1. If the default arrangement you describe is occurring already (or can be achieved) then I am happy enough, however can I confirm that this is definitely upscaling and not just stretching (other posts and sites on this topic seem to describe a significant difference).

2. To utilize DXVA / Purvideo hardware accelleration using say PowerDVD, do I need a specific version of powerdvd (or other software), as I do not know where to look to confirm that this is being utilised (there is no mention in the nvidia control panel I am using.


Thanks again.

1. Stretching/scaling/zooming etc are basically the same thing, in the sense that it's taking an image of size x and mapping it onto a display of (larger/higher resolution) size y. How good this looks depends on the algorithm used (and the source material). Generally 'upscaling' implies some attempt to add synthetic detail derived from, but not actually present in, the source e.g. edge sharpening and smoothing of diagonal edges to reduce 'jaggies'. The problem with this is that with noisy sources it can make the noise look worse so there's a lot of trade-offs to be made....hence the varying opinions....

2. The PowerDVD codecs will automatically use DXVA if it's available and the only way I know of to check is by using GraphStudio to 'remote connect' to the filter graph while MP is playing (see the link in my sig below), and looking at the filter properties. With H.264 material you should see a dramatic drop in CPU usage with DXVA in use (the 9600GT has full H.264 hardware decode capability).

The latest versions of PowerDVD 8 & 9 don't allow use of their h.264 codecs in other apps, so you are better off with an older version - I use PowerDVD 7 myself. Also take a look at SAF.

Tony

 

[CairnsFella]

Thanks Guys..

I think I have a much better idea now,

and plenty to be getting on with there.

Thanks again