[imilne]

Hi all,

Xbox360 aside, all of my viewing is done via an HTPC - that includes SD (Freeview, Freesat, DVD), and HD (Freesat, Blu-ray). The PC is currently HDMI connected to a Pioneer KRP-500M and is set to output at 1920x1080 regardless of source. Although the refresh rate can change, the resolution never does, and getting it to output at source resolution would be far more hassle than I can be bothered with!

Obviously, any scaling has already been done by the PC, and the signal will already be progressive. So I'm wondering if adding a video processor will be of much benefit? Has the PC already "done" too much to the image to allow a VP to really get its teeth into it?

I'm not overly happy with the SD images I get. They seem overly soft, and video combing/bad deinterlacing can still be a (rare) problem on some programmes with my current PC's setup and decoders.

(Regarding budget, I've had my eye on the DVDO Edge).

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

If your pc is outputting 1080p for everything then an Edge will be of absolutely no benefit to you at all for SD material.

[imilne]

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

If your pc is outputting 1080p for everything then an Edge will be of absolutely no benefit to you at all for SD material.

As expected, but thanks for clearing up the issue for me (and saving me a tonne of cash to boot!).

[eiren]

Get yourself a good graphics card. The feature set and processing on them, when set-up correctly, is almost up to professional VP standards.

Here's the relevant features on ATI HD4800 series and above:

· Hardware MPEG-1, and DivX video decode acceleration

· Motion compensation and IDCT

· ATI Avivo Video Post Processor

· New enhanced DVD up-conversion to HD

· New automatic and dynamic contrast adjustment

· Color space conversion

· Chroma subsampling format conversion

· Horizontal and vertical scaling

· Gamma correction

· Advanced vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing

· De-blocking and noise reduction filtering

· Detail enhancement

· Inverse telecine (2:2 and 3:2 pull-down correction)

· Bad edit correction

· Full score in HQV (SD) and HQV (HD) video quality benchmarks

· Two independent display controllers

· Drive two displays simultaneously with independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls and video overlays for each display

· Full 30-bit display processing

· Programmable piecewise linear gamma correction, color correction, and color space conversion

· Spatial/temporal dithering provides 30-bit color quality on 24-bit and 18-bit displays

· High quality pre- and post-scaling engines, with underscan support for all display outputs

· Content-adaptive de-flicker filtering for interlaced displays

· Fast, glitch-free mode switching

· Hardware cursor

· Two integrated DVI display outputs

· Primary supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)

· Secondary supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI only)

· Each includes a dual-link HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content

· Two integrated 400MHz 30-bit RAMDACs

· Each supports analog displays connected by VGA at all resolutions up to 2048x15363

· DisplayPort™ output support

· Supports 24- and 30-bit displays at all resolutions up to 2560x16003

· HDMI output support

· Supports all display resolutions up to 1920x1080

· Integrated HD audio controller with up to 2 channel 48 kHz stereo or multi-channel (7.1) AC3 enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution

· Integrated AMD Xilleon™ HDTV encoder

· Provides high quality analog TV output (component/S-video/composite)

· Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions

· Underscan and overscan compensation

· MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264/AVC encoding and transcoding

· Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time

· VGA mode support on all display outputs

Here's a report using the HQV test disc:

ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 - AMD Back On Top - HotHardware


If you set up an ATI card with a good video player such as KMPlayer, and a fantastic rendering engine such as MadVR... you will get an absolutely superlative picture including SD playback.

The top NVidia cards are also very good.

[imilne]

Originally Posted by eiren

Get yourself a good graphics card. The feature set and processing on them, when set-up correctly, is almost up to professional VP standards.

I have an ATI 4550. I guess I've just been spoilt by Blu-Ray and find most SD stuff well below par now.

[eiren]

That's a pretty old card now, there have been many improvements.

You can get an ATI HD4850 card now for not a lot of money (easily less than £100), and that will have all the above features on it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...d=56&subid=938

Should give you much better SD playback with the correct software too.

[imilne]

Originally Posted by eiren

That's a pretty old card now, there have been many improvements.

Sorry, guess I should have said HD4550. Surely it's from the same generation as the HD4850 and has the same set of video related features (?), although obviously it'll be lacking in gaming/3D performance.

[eiren]

The HD4550 is a couple generations or more back now, I'm not sure how many of the above features are implemented on that particular card. The software you use to play stuff back is pretty important too.