| Author |
Message |
Blair
Guest
|
 Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 3:36 pm Post subject:
Video quality |
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Hi people. I am new to this community and Windows XP MCE
I have successfully built and configured my media center using a Huppauge
WinTV-PVR-150 MCE OEM card. This seems to work well, (recording, playing
etc.) but I am a little disappointed with the quality of the image that being
displayed.
I am taking the composit feed from my satellite receiver into the Hauppauge
as I have been unable to get the S-Video input to work correctly.
Can anybody give me some advice regarding codecs of anything else that might
improve the image quality?
Thanks! |
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| Back to top |
|
 |
kalev-
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 4:21 pm Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
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Blair wrote:
| Quote: | I am taking the composit feed from my satellite receiver into the
Hauppauge as I have been unable to get the S-Video input to work
correctly.
|
You say you have an s-video output on the sat.receiver? Perhaps a menu
setting on it is needed to turn it on? (if it's OFF = aka "VHS mode" that
could explain a colorless signal coming out of the s-video port.)
See if you can find out what type of video signals your receiver/STB can
output?
I would recommend going the s-video route. Especially if you have a high
quality (TV) screen the difference between composite and s-video is quite
high.
I'm in Europe and my STB only has a composite and RGB "ports", so I bought
an RGB to s-video converter to solve it in my case. (Well worth it, in my
opinion.) |
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Barry Watzman
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:27 pm Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
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|
You won't be happy with results using either composite or S-Video. You
need to have a tuner in the PC, and connect to the monitor with DVI or
HDMI, to get truly good results.
Blair wrote:
| Quote: | Hi people. I am new to this community and Windows XP MCE
I have successfully built and configured my media center using a Huppauge
WinTV-PVR-150 MCE OEM card. This seems to work well, (recording, playing
etc.) but I am a little disappointed with the quality of the image that being
displayed.
I am taking the composit feed from my satellite receiver into the Hauppauge
as I have been unable to get the S-Video input to work correctly.
Can anybody give me some advice regarding codecs of anything else that might
improve the image quality?
Thanks! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JW
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:27 pm Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
|
|
What problem are you having with the S-Video and input?
If the video is B&W then either you have a bad S-Video card and the Chroma
or color signal is not being received or you need to insure that your are
setup to receive S-video and not to Automaticly sense if the inut is S-Video
or Composite.
"Blair" <Blair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:89378022-AF36-4089-A84F-A0B3B1EA4329@microsoft.com...
| Quote: | Hi people. I am new to this community and Windows XP MCE
I have successfully built and configured my media center using a Huppauge
WinTV-PVR-150 MCE OEM card. This seems to work well, (recording, playing
etc.) but I am a little disappointed with the quality of the image that
being
displayed.
I am taking the composit feed from my satellite receiver into the
Hauppauge
as I have been unable to get the S-Video input to work correctly.
Can anybody give me some advice regarding codecs of anything else that
might
improve the image quality?
Thanks! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
kalev-
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:27 pm Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
|
|
Jenny Talyor wrote:
| Quote: | I'm in Europe and my STB only has a composite and RGB "ports",
so I bought an RGB to s-video converter to solve it in my case.
(Well worth it, in my opinion.)
...and presumably the quality of output from the graphics adapter to
the TV display needs to be as high as possible?
|
Very good point. |
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| Back to top |
|
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Jenny Talyor
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:27 pm Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
|
|
kalev- <you.wish@duh.net> wrote in
news:3te0v1FrsrlpU1@individual.net:
| Quote: | Blair wrote:
I am taking the composit feed from my satellite receiver into
the Hauppauge as I have been unable to get the S-Video input to
work correctly.
You say you have an s-video output on the sat.receiver? Perhaps
a menu setting on it is needed to turn it on? (if it's OFF =
aka "VHS mode" that could explain a colorless signal coming out
of the s-video port.) See if you can find out what type of video
signals your receiver/STB can output?
I would recommend going the s-video route. Especially if you
have a high quality (TV) screen the difference between composite
and s-video is quite high.
I'm in Europe and my STB only has a composite and RGB "ports",
so I bought an RGB to s-video converter to solve it in my case.
(Well worth it, in my opinion.)
....and presumably the quality of output from the graphics adapter to |
the TV display needs to be as high as possible? |
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| Back to top |
|
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Michael J. Mahon
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:53 am Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
|
|
Before doing something potentially expensive, verify that
your S-Video cable is good. One broken connection will
eliminate all color information.
-michael
JW wrote:
| Quote: | What problem are you having with the S-Video and input?
If the video is B&W then either you have a bad S-Video card and the Chroma
or color signal is not being received or you need to insure that your are
setup to receive S-video and not to Automaticly sense if the inut is S-Video
or Composite.
"Blair" <Blair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:89378022-AF36-4089-A84F-A0B3B1EA4329@microsoft.com...
Hi people. I am new to this community and Windows XP MCE
I have successfully built and configured my media center using a Huppauge
WinTV-PVR-150 MCE OEM card. This seems to work well, (recording, playing
etc.) but I am a little disappointed with the quality of the image that
being
displayed.
I am taking the composit feed from my satellite receiver into the
Hauppauge
as I have been unable to get the S-Video input to work correctly.
Can anybody give me some advice regarding codecs of anything else that
might
improve the image quality?
Thanks! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Blair
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:20 am Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
|
|
Many thanks Jenny and Kelev
To answer both questions. They way I have tested the S-Video signal from the
STB is by plugging it directly into my monitor. This works a treat and proves
that there is signal coming from the STB
My sneaking suspician is that the Hauppauge card needs to be reconfigured to
accept the signal. At best I can get a black screen that waves slightly. I am
in New Zealand which uses PAL - maybe it is accepting NTSC?
Regarding the graphics card quality, I have the following Shuttle PC -
http://au.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SB83G5M.asp
And am using the on-board video. This is plugged into my 42" Hyundai Plasma
via the VGA cable. The quality of DVD's playing is excellent, but would be
interested in your thoughts as to weather I should buy another graphics card.
Many thanks,
Blair.
"kalev-" wrote:
| Quote: | Jenny Talyor wrote:
I'm in Europe and my STB only has a composite and RGB "ports",
so I bought an RGB to s-video converter to solve it in my case.
(Well worth it, in my opinion.)
...and presumably the quality of output from the graphics adapter to
the TV display needs to be as high as possible?
Very good point.
|
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| Back to top |
|
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Jenny Talyor
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:28 am Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
|
|
"=?Utf-8?B?QmxhaXI=?=" <Blair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:9572F6E8-4237-41C1-807B-B10EE2E8FEF8@microsoft.com:
| Quote: | ...
Regarding the graphics card quality, I have the following
Shuttle PC -
http://au.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SB83G5M.asp
And am using the on-board video. This is plugged into my 42"
Hyundai Plasma via the VGA cable. The quality of DVD's playing
is excellent, but would be interested in your thoughts as to
weather I should buy another graphics card.
|
The key factor is the type of signal interface between graphics
adapter and screen. You are using the VGA output which means you have
separate wires for 3 colours and 2 sync signals - as good as it gets
for analogue interfaces. |
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JW
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:28 am Post subject:
Re: Video quality |
|
|
You need to get the S-Video input connection working. It is not a NTSC-PAL
issue since you can consider composite as a subset of the S-Video interface.
Your STB apparantly does not sense that it is connected to an S-Video
interface when connected to the Haupauge so it sends composite over the
Lumina/B&W S-Video wire and the Hauppauge only acts upon the B&W part of the
signal since it is looking for the color part over the Chroma wire.
Aanother Graphics card.
Another graphics card will not help your PQ unless you can first improve the
input by using S-Video instead of composite.
In any case you wiill most likely never match the PQ of going direct from
the STB to the TV due to the endoding and decoding process that occurs when
the MCE system is connected between the STB and the Plasma TV.
"Blair" <Blair@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9572F6E8-4237-41C1-807B-B10EE2E8FEF8@microsoft.com...
| Quote: | Many thanks Jenny and Kelev
To answer both questions. They way I have tested the S-Video signal from
the
STB is by plugging it directly into my monitor. This works a treat and
proves
that there is signal coming from the STB
My sneaking suspician is that the Hauppauge card needs to be reconfigured
to
accept the signal. At best I can get a black screen that waves slightly. I
am
in New Zealand which uses PAL - maybe it is accepting NTSC?
Regarding the graphics card quality, I have the following Shuttle PC -
http://au.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SB83G5M.asp
And am using the on-board video. This is plugged into my 42" Hyundai
Plasma
via the VGA cable. The quality of DVD's playing is excellent, but would be
interested in your thoughts as to weather I should buy another graphics
card.
Many thanks,
Blair.
"kalev-" wrote:
Jenny Talyor wrote:
I'm in Europe and my STB only has a composite and RGB "ports",
so I bought an RGB to s-video converter to solve it in my case.
(Well worth it, in my opinion.)
...and presumably the quality of output from the graphics adapter to
the TV display needs to be as high as possible?
Very good point.
|
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