Hauppauge PVR's and S-Video input

Conar

Hey all.

I'm just wondering if anyone has changed from using composite in on their PVR to S-Video in.

I'm happy with my MCE PC but the picture from the PC is not quite as good as the picture directly from the Sky box to the TV via SCART so there is some quality loss there. Is that just the limitations of my card or would it be capable of better with an S-Video input.

I was wondering if I got a Sky box with S-Video out and used that to input into my PVR would it make a big difference.

Anyone tried this?

beolight

doing this with sky plus now picture quality is perfect

mossym

image quality will be significantly better over svideo. svideo has bright ness and color broken out into two seperate signals, composite obvioulsy has one. If you can make the switch do..

Conar

Sounds good, thanks.

Have you compared it to scart/composite?
Is there a marked improvement?
What are you outputting to? LCD?

mossym

Conar wrote:

Sounds good, thanks.

Have you compared it to scart/composite?
Is there a marked improvement?
What are you outputting to? LCD?

well can't compare scart, if you mean scartt rgb. no rgb capture card

have compared it to composite, much better with svideo. I have it going to a 37"lcd right now, before that i had it going to a 48" 1080i rear projection crt(brought back from the states with me) in both cases i'm upscaling the captured image (to 1080i for the 48", 720p for the 37". )image looks very good, as good as a connection straight from sky box to tv(mind you i couldn't do that with my 48" as it was ntsc only. had to do pal to ntsc conversion through the computer as well)

Conar

mossym wrote:

well can't compare scart, if you mean scartt rgb. no rgb capture card

have compared it to composite, much better with svideo. I have it going to a 37"lcd right now, before that i had it going to a 48" 1080i rear projection crt(brought back from the states with me) in both cases i'm upscaling the captured image (to 1080i for the 48", 720p for the 37". )image looks very good, as good as a connection straight from sky box to tv(mind you i couldn't do that with my 48" as it was ntsc only. had to do pal to ntsc conversion through the computer as well)

Excellent, I just wanted to make sure that my PVR wasn't the limiting factor here.
I'll continue my hunt for an s-video digibox so.

Cheers lads.

stevejazzx

I tried s video yeaterday..it was in black and white?
I was getting a very good picture over scart>composite but i was having with tv grpahics? they sometimes appear a bit fuzzy?
How do I get the svideo to display in color?

Conar

stevejazzx wrote:

I tried s video yeaterday..it was in black and white?
I was getting a very good picture over scart>composite but i was having with tv grpahics? they sometimes appear a bit fuzzy?
How do I get the svideo to display in color?

We're you going from S-Video out directly to an S-Video port on your TV, or how did you connect?

If you are using a standard def tv then your icons and text etc will always appear a bit fuzzy due to the resolution AFAIK.

beolight

set tv monitor resolution to 1024 by 768 should give less fuzzy pic assuming its crt or plasma/lcd 768(true hi def will be 1080p)

re: colour check your s video cable is it 4 pin or 7 pin also check tv menu to see if it is enabled

stevejazzx

Conar wrote:

We're you going from S-Video out directly to an S-Video port on your TV, or how did you connect?

I was going from s-vidoe out through a scart adapter from the back of my ntl box to svideo in on my aver tv tuner?

conar wrote:

If you are using a standard def tv then your icons and text etc will always appear a bit fuzzy due to the resolution AFAIK.

kinda what i was thinking...but i've read online that the hauppage tv cards (i have 85euro aver media one from komplett) make a much better job of handling this fuzziness?

stevejazzx

beolight wrote:

set tv monitor resolution to 1024 by 768 should give less fuzzy pic assuming its crt or plasma/lcd 768(true hi def will be 1080p)

re: colour check your s video cable is it 4 pin or 7 pin also check tv menu to see if it is enabled

think its a seven pin....

mossym

beolight wrote:

set tv monitor resolution to 1024 by 768 should give less fuzzy pic assuming its crt or plasma/lcd 768(true hi def will be 1080p)

re: colour check your s video cable is it 4 pin or 7 pin also check tv menu to see if it is enabled

svideo is locked at sd resolutions. it can't carry hd signals, setting the resolution only works for vga/dvi/hdmi or for component on cards that support it.

mossym

stevejazzx wrote:

I was going from s-vidoe out through a scart adapter from the back of my ntl box to svideo in on my aver tv tuner?



kinda what i was thinking...but i've read online that the hauppage tv cards (i have 85euro aver media one from komplett) make a much better job of handling this fuzziness?

are you sure your ntl box supports svideo? not all scart sockets do, that is why the op has been trying to find a box with svideo out. scart to svideo connectors only work if the scart socket supprts svideo, which few do, they are usually rgb.
I'd guess you can't use svideo with your current box.

stevejazzx

mossym wrote:

are you sure your ntl box supports svideo? not all scart sockets do, that is why the op has been trying to find a box with svideo out. scart to svideo connectors only work if the scart socket supprts svideo, which few do, they are usually rgb.
I'd guess you can't use svideo with your current box.

ahh would a dedicated scart to svideo be better?

mossym

it'll only work if the scart socket itself is svifdeo enabled, scart is only a connection type, it is not a type of signal. svideo is a signal type...

those scart to svideo converters only work if the svideo signal is present on the scart socket in the first place

stevejazzx

so would know find if that ntl pace 1000 box supports s video?
it probably otherwise there'd probably be an svideo out?

mossym

not neccesarily, a lot of sky boxes don't have s-video out, i'd guess the majority don't..

duleekboy

sky plus is free from july so get yourself one of them:)

MAJJ

duleekboy wrote:

sky plus is free from july so get yourself one of them:)

Hi duleekboy,

Where did you here that from? Am interested as I am about to get sky, to get FTA in 12 months time after contract expires, but may hold off?

Cheers
MAJJ

beolight

cancelled sky today and this was the main counter argument used

stackeye

I have a ntl pace STB, it only has one scart out port, I got a scart lead that splits into 2, one goes into the tv and the other into the video recorder,

Is there a way of changing a male scart connection into an male S-video connection? is there an adapter or a converter that I could get, I dont want to get ride of the video recorder just yet

SouperComputer

Ill jump in on my usual SCART rant. SCART is not a video or audio standard per se, it is a connection standard if you will. It can carry a multitude of signals including component video, RGB video and svideo in both directions. However not all devices use all of these pins. In fact you may even find some connectors or adaptors missing pins!

The NTL pace boxes do not have Svideo over SCART. They only have Composite and RGB over SCART. Thereby, you have three options:

1) Use the composite connection
2) Use the RGB connectors (good luck finding a PVR card that supports it)
3) Get an RGB to Svideo converter. This is not a cable, or just a box it actually electronically converts the signal, so a power source will be required for it.

To be more specific stackeye, I would check to see if your VCR supports RGB over SCART. If it does, then split the SCART connector and route one set of RGB and Audio cables to your VCR and one set to your PVR via an RGB to Svideo converter. The NTL box outputs both RGB and composite simultaneously, so if you need to mix and match signals, it should not be an issue.

mossym

SouperComputer wrote:

Ill jump in on my usual SCART rant. SCART is not a video or audio standard per se, it is a connection standard if you will. It can carry a multitude of signals including component video, RGB video and svideo in both directions. However not all devices use all of these pins. In fact you may even find some connectors or adaptors missing pins!

The NTL pace boxes do not have Svideo over SCART. They only have Composite and RGB over SCART. Thereby, you have three options:

1) Use the composite connection
2) Use the RGB connectors (good luck finding a PVR card that supports it)
3) Get an RGB to Svideo converter. This is not a cable, or just a box it actually electronically converts the signal, so a power source will be required for it.

To be more specific stackeye, I would check to see if your VCR supports RGB over SCART. If it does, then split the SCART connector and route one set of RGB and Audio cables to your VCR and one set to your PVR via an RGB to Svideo converter. The NTL box outputs both RGB and composite simultaneously, so if you need to mix and match signals, it should not be an issue.

hadn't i already said that?