[themoid]

hi all,

recently bought a TV card for the HTPC so we can pick up Freesat (after dumping Sky). picture is ok with the settings i have at the moment, but there are issues with things like rollign ticker on the news sites which are jerky, and watching the athletics the other night was painful as it was quite stuttery.

anyone advise on the best codec / post processing settings for picture quality ?

also, when i try to show BBC HD it crashes Mediaportal, any ideas why ? have done a Google on this but to no avail...

cheers
Stu

[robbo100]

If you are a novice with CODECs then you might want to try this Codecs, External Players - MediaPortal Forum You may get better results setting them up manually, but using the SAF (stand alone filter) package should at least get you up and running with a stable system for SD and HD content.

Robbo100

[jameson_uk]

Originally Posted by themoid

anyone advise on the best codec / post processing settings for picture quality ?

In my experience there is not much difference in different MPEG2 codecs. Most support things like hardware de-interlacing which is generally what makes the difference. What video card are you using?

also, when i try to show BBC HD it crashes Mediaportal, any ideas why ? have done a Google on this but to no avail...

A hard crash (as in this has stopped responding or just an error about being able to play stream?)

[themoid]

running a Compro s800f card.


BBC-HD, i select the channel and it just locks up (stops responding)

[CHBMB]

Originally Posted by jameson_uk

In my experience there is not much difference in different MPEG2 codecs. Most support things like hardware de-interlacing which is generally what makes the difference. What video card are you using?


A hard crash (as in this has stopped responding or just an error about being able to play stream?)

Just out of interest Jameson, what codecs do you use in your HTPC with Mediaportal?

[ma9mwah]

i think for BBC-HD you need the unlocked version of SAF as that has the cyberlink codec that had deal with the slightly strange format it also it meant to handle scrolling text/banners better as well

[jameson_uk]

Originally Posted by themoid

running a Compro s800f card.

I meant graphics card not tuner

[jameson_uk]

Originally Posted by CHBMB

Just out of interest Jameson, what codecs do you use in your HTPC with Mediaportal?

I use Nvidia mpeg2 codec & powerdvd 7.3 h264 codex

I am using do though and might use other codecs on win7

[themoid]

Originally Posted by jameson_uk

I meant graphics card not tuner

sorry, running Radeon HD 4200 Integrated Graphics

[Stephen Neal]

Have you checked that you have Vector Adaptive de-interlacing enabled in your Catalyst Control Center in the de-interlacing options?

AIUI when you use hardware acceleration, stuff like de-interlacing is offloaded from the codec to the graphics hardware and graphics drivers, and the quality of de-interlacing is thus dependent on the graphics card and drivers, not the codec itself. (Things can get confusing when the codec is produced by a graphics card manufacturer as they may provide hardware acceleration tweaks in their codec settings) In other words - two people may be running the same codec on different set-ups and get different results.

Theoretically the codec converts the H264 or MPEG2 encoded video - which for broadcast purposes is always interlaced (whether the source within is interlaced or progressive) to uncompressed video - but still interlaced. This then needs to be de-interlaced as PC screens are progressive. Some codecs additionally do this - but this isn't actually strictly a codec function - and most graphics cards that use DXVA will de-interlace as well.

De-interlacing is complicated - and can be done in various ways depending on the processing power available from the CPU or GPU - and performance varies on the source material.

Simple de-interlacing can get defeated where the source has a mix of interlaced and progressive content (say an interlaced rolling or crawling caption over a progressive background), and in some cases where a straight Bob (interlaced source) / Weave (progressive source) motion adaptive technique is used it can take a while to switch modes or not switch correctly at all. Better systems will use Vector adaptive techniques, where the screen is divided up into blocks and different de-interlacing techniques are used for each block, and the motion of objects around the screen is tracked to improve the resulting progressive de-interlaced picture.

If you can select Vector Adaptive - then do so.

You may find in some situations that you can't have Edge Enhancement and Noise Reduction options enabled at the same time as Vector Adaptive de-interlacing - as the processing requirement is too high. My advice in those situations is get the de-interlacing right and don't bother with EE and NR.

ISTR that the HD 3200 Radeon's would only run Vector Adaptive with high-end AMD processors, because they needed a faster Hyper Transport level than the slower CPUs could manage (though they don't use the CPU for video) - but this may have been to do with shared memory issues. I don't know about the HD 4200.

Certainly my nVidia 9400 IGP does a good vector adaptive de-interlace and has no problems with tickers etc., and neither does my ATI 4450, but my old Radeon HD 3200 IGP wasn't as good.

Additionally, make sure that your desktop refresh rate is matched to your video source, to avoid judder from frame repetition or dropping.

UK SD/HD TV and European DVD, and some recent BBC 1080i Blu-rays - 50Hz
1080p Blu-rays - 23.976/23Hz or 24Hz
Most 1080i Blu-rays - 59.94/59Hz or 60Hz