Screen "tearing"

[Bada Bing]

I've always had a wierd tearing effect on my HTPC during busy scenes. The screen looks as though it refreshes the screen in about 3 stages. It's most prominent on panning shots. Like the screen is struggling to keep up.

I put this down to the aging ATI AGP graphics card, and swapped the motherboard for a PCI Express one, and the card for an 2400XT. It's still there!

I've also tried a couple of different MPEG2 decoders, and get the same result. The CPU is a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 HT (541).

I've tried using HDMI and it's slightly better, but then the overall image is terrible, very rough, so for the time being I'm back at running the card at 1280x720 on my Pioneer 507XD.

Any suggestions?

[MikeC]

Bada
I know the effect you are getting (explanation).

I have had this at certain times & I believe it is dependant on the source material rather than the gfx card.
The cure I believe, is to match refresh rates - source & target - if possible.

Can't say I have had much success in eliminating it tho'......

HTH

[Bada Bing]

Thanks Mike, that image once zoomed in is exactly what I'm getting. The main culprit is my TV card. I think I might be able to get the video card to run at 1280x720 @ 50Hz which could help. I'll have a go at that.

[Chris.Day]

Do you get tearing in full screen? Tearing in windowed VMR9 mode is "normal" but you shouldn't be seeing it in DX-Exclusive mode as used when Media Center is full screen.

If your TV card is digital terrestrial it cannot cause tearing.

[CaptainAnarchy]

I get this tearing via VGA cable but not via SVHS on my samsung plasma.

It is on an fast moving panning shots.

My GFX card has just packed up so I am considering a card with HDMI socket to hpoefully improve this. (once I figure out if my TV can accept PC signal via HDMI?)