DScaler - Impressed (screenshots)

[phunkey_monkeh]

I just installed DScaler one my MCE machine.
I have a Hauppauge PVR150MCE.

The results are so much better than the standard MCE.

Even the guide looks better. I wasnt really expecting a good result. Im using Composite at the moment by the way.

Loads of screenshots (over 1mb each)

Screenshots

(images are in tif format, it might be easier to right click and save as?)

 

[IronGiant]

Dscaler is an amazing bit of software, it was also our best way of inverting/mirroring a picture to project with an upsidedown projector that couldn't do it itself.

 

[phunkey_monkeh]

Im trying to figure out why when i take the screenshots on my screen its 16:9, but the screenshots come out at 4:3 and look all squashed.

 

[Mr.D]

Thats right . Its probably just dumping a 720x576 frame to disk.

Dscaler is a superb piece of software. I'd really like to see John and everyone else involved coming through with a full on media app.

Its generally a more succesful and more stable piece of software than many a retail product.

If you use it give them some money. 5quid isn't going to break the bank. If everyone that used dscaler coughed up a couple of quid I'm sure we'd have an awesome piece if htpc software.

 

[chuckalicious]

Is it possible to use DScaler with MCE 2005?

I installed it, and told the Decoder Checkup Utility to use it, even though it wasn't certified, and MCE did work, fine as far as I could tell, but I don't know if it was really using it.....

 

[garyc]

what version of dscaler should you be using on xp?

cheers

gary

 

[gazzer82]

I would also like to know how i would make Dscaler work with MCE, also with Nvidia Purevideo Decoder? I thought this wasn't possible so would be delighted to find out otherwise!!

P.S i am on DVB-T, does that make any difference?

Cheers

Gareth

 

[drummerjohn]

Dscaler wont work with MCE. What u see with Dscaler and the PVR150 is Dscaler capturing the feed before it hits the MPEG encoder hence no delay\lip sync.

I would advise anyone to stay away from the PVR150 as a capture card as the drivers are poo. If you use the line in\Svideo input then you will suffer from audio clipping and oversaturated whites on the video. As a TV card it fairs better.

 

[Werner]

I used dscaler 5 mpeg decoder on mce for a bit last week...picture quality was ok-ish, they dont have deinterlacing working yet and there were transport problems (no ff or rew), but, there is hope that a free quality mpeg2 decoder for mce2005 may be on its way And if you like it, as mentioned, donate!

 

[dUnKle]

What is descaler?

Post one says being used on an MCE machine whilst another post says its not able to run on MCE

 

[TheCrow]

What is descaler?

Post one says being used on an MCE machine whilst another post says its not able to run on MCE

There are two different pieces of software called Dscaler.

There is the original DScaler 4 "a piece of software that captures video, processes it, and scales it for presentation on a projector or computer monitor".

Then there is Dscaler 5 which is a mpeg 2 codec.

I think the OP is refereing to DScaler 4 and chuckalicious is refereing to Dscaler 5.

More info' here

 

[MikeKay1976]

Descaler (4) is mint picture qualitywise, however sadly at the moment i have spent £600 & its unusable. Am not sure why, it could be my panel, however when i use descaler the framerate is jerky, this is the same even if i set it to the minimum settings (which makes pic quality bad).

Its a real shame becasue with it on the quality is amazing, but whilst you can get used to a bad picture, you cant get used to a jerky one. Have tried a number of computers but to no avail. am running it through a sweetspot card which is just a big waste of £180 at the mo

have tried all supported refresh rates, but no one has been able to suggest a fix (panel is a philips 37inch 37PF9946 i think - suffers terribly from solorisation & doesnt have component video support)

XP3200, 512mb Dual channel 3200 ram, 160gb harddisk, 32mb matrox G450

 

[fraggle]

have you tried powerstrip to force the refresh rate to 50Hz?

I've just done that and the juddering has gone completely. It does judder at 60Hz, and 75Hz (which I expected), still judders a little bit at 100Hz (dissapointed about that, wanted 100Hz refresh), but 50 is fine.

 

[MikeKay1976]

have you tried powerstrip to force the refresh rate to 50Hz?

I've just done that and the juddering has gone completely. It does judder at 60Hz, and 75Hz (which I expected), still judders a little bit at 100Hz (dissapointed about that, wanted 100Hz refresh), but 50 is fine.

cant remember to be honest as my card wont natively go that low i think. i think i may have just assumed that it would have been flicker hell on a 37inch screen.

i will have to give it a go.

 

[Mr.D]

I don't find 50Hz material through Dscaler with Judderterminator on a 60Hz display that terrible to be honest. You can see the frame repeats if you look closely on pans but its hardly noticable.

 

[David PluggedIn]

Hi Mike

sorry to hear that you are having problems .. There are a couple of things to try
1] make sure that you are not getting dropped frames - I doubt that you are as you can run with less than a 1Ghz cpu for live video and have no problems. Look on the DScaler statistics page while you are running video
2] As fraggle said, assuming that you are not getting dropped frames, then the judder sounds like it could be to do with frame rate differences between your display and that being output by your video card. For Sky you should try 50, 75 and 100 (basically mutiples of 25) to see if you get clarity.
3] As a 'sanity check', just try connecting a conventional CRT monitor and see if the judder is present there. If it isnt, then you know it is a frame rate issue between your video card and display.

hopefully there are some starters there, let me know how you get on

 

[MikeKay1976]

Hi & thanks guys....

i will have a go with these suggestions. i have tried it using the TV out on my matrox card on a 28inch widescreen telly, & it looked smooth, not tried on a monitor. i was thinking it was summat to do with refresh rate differences, fingers crossed 50hz will solve it becasue the difference in picture clarity is impressive.

 

[SeaneyC]

cant remember to be honest as my card wont natively go that low i think. i think i may have just assumed that it would have been flicker hell on a 37inch screen.

i will have to give it a go.

LCDs don't flicker Give it a go