Another Sweetspot Thread.

diesel

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Hi
I have recently been experimenting with an HTPC setup to see whether it offers a comparable alternative to my main Home Cinema.

I have built an Intel P4 based machine in dign case and recently added a sweetspot deluxe and Hollywood card. I also purchased the RGB Scart lead from Plugged in TV and use it to input Sky Digital into my PC.
The problem I have is that the PQ is dreadful. Everything has an Andy Warhol type pop art effect going on. I'm not sure what the proper name for this effect is but colours are blocky and unrealistic. Is it solarisation??? I've heard the term but I'm not sure whether this is the effect I am experiencing.

I didn't get any instructions with the cable but have it connected to the Red, Green and blue connectors on the sweetspot and also Svideo 1. The internal jumper is on seperate Sync and I am running the latest version of Dscaler and sweetspot WDM drivers.

When I display DVD using XMP/Dscaler or even Theatertek, I don't get this problem and the PQ is very good indeed.

I have tried messing with all the different filters and de-interlacing options but nothing seems to make a great deal of difference to the PQ.

The graphics card is a Radeon 9600SE outputting via DVI to a NEC Plasma.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated as I am currently thinking of junking the HTPC idea and just use a Iscan Pro or Ultra to connect Sky and DVD Player to the Plasma.

Thanks

Andy Brown
 
Have you changed the deinterlace setting to tomsmocomp2 when watching sky?
 
Hi Andy
Obviously something somewhere is wrong and will be correctable so don't give up on HCPCs just yet :)
It sounds as though DScaler shouldn't be the problem as you say you are seeing things corrently through PDI. Is that correct?

I will however just briefly go through some DScaler settings so that we can eliminate that...

Deinterlacing: enable the following only
Automatic Film/Video detection (this looks to see if the original source was film or video and helps with deinterlacing)
MoComp2 or Tomsmocomp (these are the most recent and advanced deinterlacing methods) There are settings for these which can reduce the CPU load if you find you're dropping frames.

Filters:
Turn them all off.

Aspect ratio:
Set the display setting to match your display (16:9 for example)
Then use 4:3 or 16:9 to switch based on what the program is like

Settings: you only need to use:
Video Adjustments
Image shift/size adjustments. Get a typical picture on screen and use the sliders to get is slightly overscanning evenly all around the screen.

Next - Have you got an S-video to S-video lead you can loop out of Xcard into SweetSpot. That's a good way to eliminate the SweetSpot cable from our enquiries.

If not let us know and we'll try the next step.

Cheers
Alex
 
Hi Andy
If you can take some screen captures using 'L' in Dscaler and email them to us then we can check them for you.

good tests would be the Sky planner screen, and also a couple from a high bit rate channel. Of course if you can capture some that show the particular problem then that would be great.

Cheers
 
Thanks guys.
Just got in so sorry I didn't reply sooner.

I will go through these suggestions and see where I get to.

Andy Brown
 
Originally posted by Alex Simon

Next - Have you got an S-video to S-video lead you can loop out of Xcard into SweetSpot. That's a good way to eliminate the SweetSpot cable from our enquiries.

If not let us know and we'll try the next step.

Cheers
Alex

Have tried all the other steps without it making any difference. At the risk of being thick. i'm not sure what to do with the svideo to svideo. I have connected it to the vga out from the xcard to svideo 2 on the sweetspot. Do I need to disconnect the sweetspot cabling from the sweetspot?

Also what do I do to check the Sky picture if I have disconnected the sweetspot cable? Do I connect the svideo bit from the sweetspot cable to the svideo in on the Xcard?

Bit confused:blush:

Thanks

Andy Brown

EDIT: My mistake the lower connector on the Xcard is not an svideo connection just a similar size.

Even more confused now:blush:
 
Sorry for the confusion.
An S-Video lead should fit into one of the connectors on the back of Xcard. It's labelled TV-out.
If you plug one end of your S-Video lead in here and the other end in S-Video 2 on SweetSpot you will be able to see a DVD through the 'S-Video 2' input in DScaler (through XMP in the same way as you did with PDI).

As David said, if when you see the problem (banding or solarisation), taking a screenshot (press 'L' on the keyboard - I think it saves it into the DScaler directory) and sending it to us is a good way to illustrate the problem.

Hope that doesn't confuse even more :)
Regards
Alex
 
Thanks Alex:D

I sat and thought about it after posting and arrived at the solution you mention above. Its just as bad using svideo. I originally had an analogue TV Tuner card in the PC (Avermedia) which I ran through Dscaler. This was a much better picture than I am getting now.

I have taken some screen captures and will mail them to you.
I am also going to re-install a software DVD player just to confirm that it isn't actually a setting on the plasma that's causing it.
 
When I display DVD using XMP/Dscaler or even Theatertek, I don't get this problem and the PQ is very good indeed.

Its just as bad using svideo.

Hi Andy
I'll await your screenshots but in the mean time can you confirm that the above 2 quotes are correct.
a) that you ran Xcard through PDI in DScaler and the picture looked fine.
b) that you ran Xcard though an S-Video cable into SweetSpot and viewed the same DVD content through DScaler and it looked banded/solarised?

Thanks
Alex
 
Are you sure the external sync jumper is correct if using the Sweetspot scart lead, I thought that was just for when you used a separate s-video cable as the sync lead?

I have noticed that on my Panny 6 plasma, I sometimes get blocky colour/ solarisation. The worst I have seen it was on the most recent J-Lo video on any of the music channels. I too would be interested to see the screenshots. I believe this is an issue inherant in the Panny 6 plasma.

Steve
 
Right.

I have completely borked my PC at the moment and have done something to my display drivers by mucking about in Powerstrip.
I was tinkering with this trying to attain 1:1 pixel mapping thinking that this might be the solution.

I will answer questions and post images once I manage to get windows displaying correctly:(
 

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