HD 'stuttering' and Refresh Rates link?

[Legal Eagle]

Let me start this post by apologising (as seems to be usual) in case this is a duplicated question – I don’t think it is having searched the Forums – and also if it’s naïve.

I have a Dell 2405FPW which has a native resolution of 1920x1200 and refreshes at 60Hz.

I have played a variety of HD material, with pretty good results. I use a SkyStar 1 CI for HD material from Astra and I have plenty of WMV HD material (both 780p and 1080p).

However, although the pictures are as sharp as I would expect, they tend to ‘stutter’. By that I mean that panning is not smooth. I was wondering whether that may be due to the refresh rate of the monitor not matching the refresh rate of the source (i.e. a 50Hz 1080p playing on a 60Hz monitor).

Is that possible, or should I look elsewhere to fix my problem? There doesn’t seem to be any way to select other than a 60Hz refresh rate for the monitor and keep the native resolution.

Has anyone else experienced this ‘problem’ ad if so, how did they fix it?

My PC Specifications are AMD 64 3800+ with 2GB RAM and Radeon X850 Display Adapter (256M memory).

James

[mda]

Are you sure that the HD material you have is 50Hz? If it is then that would explain the stuttering. I have successfully achieved smooth 50Hz DVD video on my Dell 1905FP using a standard nVidia resolution of 1280 x 1024 @ 75Hz via VGA cable. I've had no joy with HD material on my Dell 2005FPW (DVI cable) with either NTSC or PAL material but haven't spent enough time on it to reach any firm conclusions. You could try using Powerstrip to set up some custom resolutions. For 50Hz material try 1920 x 1200 @ 75Hz and for NTSC try 1920 x 1200 @ 59.94Hz and also 71.928Hz (or as near as Powertrip will allow). Alternate between the VGA and DVI cables. You could also try using ReClock.

[Legal Eagle]

No - you are right ... it is 60Hz... so it isn't that.

What exactly is 'reclock'?

[mda]

ReClock is a freeware utility that compares the frame rate of the video to the refresh rate of your graphics card. It can make minor adjustments to the frame rate to give better playback eg 23.976 frames per second film sourced video would be changed to 24 fps which may be smoother at 60Hz. It also tells you precisely what the graphics card is outputting which may not necessarily be exactly 60Hz. If your HD material is 23.976 fps my suggestion of trying to set up a custom resolution of 1920 x 1200 @ 71.928 with Powerstrip would give you the best chance of achieving smooth pans. Plenty of info available on ReClock and Powerstrip as they are both well used in the HTPC community. Try posting on the Entertainment PCs & Computer Hardware threads for more feedback.