[gop]

Hi, I've just had sky hd installed, and I notice a major difference in picture quality with the sky box compared to my ati radeon hd 4300 series card. Why is this?
My comp specs:

The card above is connected via hdmi to a samsung 42 inch 1080i hd ready tv.
Also installed latest drivers software.
Have a tbs dual dvb-s2 tuner connected with two lnb lines.
Cosair 550w psu.
3 gig ram.
Windows 7 ultimate, using media center for satellite reception.

I notice a better picture when I increase the screen resolution way above the 1024, but this makes the desktop small and awkward to read and the screen on the tv isn't covered, ie the picture is reduced.

Anyone any ideas as to how or if I can match the quality of the sky boxs hd?
Many thanks.

[Bossworld]

If Sky is putting out a better picture, I would imagine it's:

Better at deinterlacing than your HD 4300.
Running at a different resolution as you've already alluded to.

[gop]

Would a better graphics card correct this?

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by Bossworld

If Sky is putting out a better picture, I would imagine it's:

Better at deinterlacing than your HD 4300.
Running at a different resolution as you've already alluded to.

I thought most of it was broadcast in progressive now?

Assuming you're comparing the same signal (sky and freesat won't always be identical) then it's likely to be the resolution. You haven't said anything about the age or technology of your TV so which one is best is hard to guess but you want the TV's native resolution.

You can play around with resolution in the Catalyst Control Centre software under the 'My Digital Flat-Panels' tab (or possibly 'My HDTV'). You also want to turn overscan/underscan off on the TV (or set it to 1:1, disable pixel scaling, enable PC mode etc. - anything that stops it messing with the picture).

Your graphics card has very little affect on the picture quality most of the time, unless it's doing some more subjective processing like deinterlacing and interlaced source it's effectively transparent.

[Bossworld]

Originally Posted by EndlessWaves

I thought most of it was broadcast in progressive now?

Assuming you're comparing the same signal (sky and freesat won't always be identical) then it's likely to be the resolution. You haven't said anything about the age or technology of your TV so which one is best is hard to guess but you want the TV's native resolution.

You can play around with resolution in the Catalyst Control Centre software under the 'My Digital Flat-Panels' tab (or possibly 'My HDTV'). You also want to turn overscan/underscan off on the TV (or set it to 1:1, disable pixel scaling, enable PC mode etc. - anything that stops it messing with the picture).

Your graphics card has no affect on the picture quality most of the time as it's just passing information along to the TV, unless it's doing some processing like deinterlacing and interlaced source it's effectively transparent.

On a Sky HD box you get the option of 720p or 1080i. In which case, I'm assuming 7MC takes the 1080i, I'm not sure of whether they're both broadcast or not, perhaps you can clarify?

I also thought that 7MC applied some kind of 'direct show' filter (if that's the correct term) as people use LAV filter/shark's codec pack to tweak image settings.

A better graphics card would most likely give you better deinterlacing options (vector adaptive). Have a play in Catalyst control centre and see which ones you can enable - on my onboard HD 4250, only BBC HD could cope with VA, everything else stuttered unless I put it down to motion adaptive.

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by Bossworld

On a Sky HD box you get the option of 720p or 1080i. In which case, I'm assuming 7MC takes the 1080i,

Given that he's got a tuner card not a capture card I was assuming the setup was that both the Sky box and the PC were connected to the TV directly rather than the Sky box outputting to the PC. Or are you thinking he might have gone through the hoops to get sky working on a tuner card?

Originally Posted by Bossworld

I'm not sure of whether they're both broadcast or not, perhaps you can clarify?

I had a quick look earlier but the information doesn't seem to be widely available and I'm not on satellite so I can't check directly.

Originally Posted by Bossworld

I also thought that 7MC applied some kind of 'direct show' filter (if that's the correct term) as people use LAV filter/shark's codec pack to tweak image settings.

Yeah, that was rather poorly worded and if you do use the hardware decoding assistance on a graphics card there will be some minor differences in quality between cards. It's certainly not what you'd call major though.

[Bossworld]

Originally Posted by EndlessWaves

Given that he's got a tuner card not a capture card I was assuming the setup was that both the Sky box and the PC were connected to the TV directly rather than the Sky box outputting to the PC. Or are you thinking he might have gone through the hoops to get sky working on a tuner card?



I had a quick look earlier but the information doesn't seem to be widely available and I'm not on satellite so I can't check directly.



Yeah, that was rather poorly worded and if you do use the hardware decoding assistance on a graphics card there will be some minor differences in quality between cards. It's certainly not what you'd call major though.

Apologies if it qasn't clear, but given his setup I'm under the impression he's comparing FTA sources (e.g. BBC 1 HD) connected straight to a TV from either box.

What I was trying to get at was

1) how does a Sky HD box offer both 720p and 1080i - so are they both broadcast or does the Sky HD box deinterlace and downscale a 1080i source and output 720p?
2)whether the OP was comparing like for like - e.g. sky hd box set to 720p, 7MC using 1080p. Or if they're both displaying a 1080p signal working off a 1080i input source, the deinterlacing quality of the STB/PC comes into play rather than the TV. Google 'cheese slices' and be prepared for a shock as to the deinterlacing quality of the cheaper cards.

The only thing I'm 99% certain on is that a pure 1080p source broadcast is not yet possible in this country - see 1080p - Sky+ HD - Digital Spy Forums

If it's not a like for like comparison e.g. Sky Sports 1 vs BBC 1 HD we'd need to know the bit rate and broadcast resolution as well.

In short, I think there's too many variables

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by Bossworld

The only thing I'm 99% certain on is that a pure 1080p source broadcast is not yet possible in this country - see 1080p - Sky+ HD - Digital Spy Forums

That thread if four years old and likely to be out of date, certainly freeview is broadcasting some programs at 1080p25 (source) so I'd be surprised if freesat with it's higher bandwidth had fallen behind.

1) I'd imagine it'll just convert, either 720p to 1080p, 1080i to 720p or 1080p to both. It doesn't have to be broadcasting the same signal all the time either, some programs may be 576i, some 720p, some 1080i and some 1080p.

2) That only applies if the card is set up to do the deinterlacing itself, the card is likely to be capable of outputting a 1080i signal to the TV (my Radeon 4850 can) which means the TV's deinterlacer would be handling it - the same as for the sky box on 1080i.

[gop]

Guys thanks for the replies. To clarify, I am running a dual tbs dvb s2 tuner connected via hdmi tho my tv, also have sky connected tho second hdmi port on tv, so I can change source. Ill need to go through my graphics card software, however I always set paramete tho quality rather than performance. Do I turn of deinterlacing, let program decide? Can sky box output to a pc? What difference would I see, and can my pc pick up sky channels including subscription channels?

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by gop

however I always set paramete tho quality rather than performance.

If you're talking about the stuff in the 3d/gaming section then that'll only affect dynamically generated content (e.g. games) and not playing back recorded/received stuff like TV.

Originally Posted by gop

Do I turn of deinterlacing, let program decide?

I'd assume the automatic deinterlacing option chooses the best one that still allows the CPU to keep up on a per video bases (or in this case, per program). You could try unticking it and moving it to the right (motion adaptive/vector adaptive).

Originally Posted by gop

Can sky box output to a pc? What difference would I see, and can my pc pick up sky channels including subscription channels?

Neither are options sky would like to allow so are likely to require workarounds and a bit of reading up. Given your SkyHD box is new I'd imagine it fully supports whatever capabilities sky think they might implement in the next few years so I don't think you'd see any significant difference in picture quality - it'd mainly be for convenience. I've not idea what the process of getting sky on a DVB-S2 tuner involves though, I've only heard it mentioned.

Feeding from the sky box into the PC should be possible but you'd need extra hardware (a capture card) as well as the workarounds so probably isn't worth bothering with.


Some description of what the difference in quality is would be helpful in guessing the problem. Is it motion-related, colours, sharpness or something else?

[gop]

The difference in quality between the skyhd and the tsb dual dvd is like watching dvd compared to a divx (in favour of the skyhd). I turned off deinterlacing, and gpu scaling in the grapgics card, still no difference at full screen. Cant find any option to disable upscaling in the samsund plasma tv. If i reduce the window size in win7 MC it becomes much sharper.