Bad ghosting/artifacting

franksm

Hi folks

Always great advice on this forum, so I'll throw this one out there: I have just installed a new video card in my HTPC machine so that I can use DVI. However the level of ghosting or artificating (or whatever that ill effect is known as), seems to be a bit worse than when I was using the motherboard's built-in VGA analog port.

To describe the effect: people moving across the screen leave shadows behind; someone's head on the screen may be moving slightly, but their hair lags behind Looks funny, but is bloody annoying.

I tried the PC on a different display LG L226WTQ (2ms response time) and it's the same there.

Games and everything else on the PC are pixel-perfect and great quality. Should I be looking at a better PVR card ?

For the record, my HTPC setup is as follows:

screen: Acer AT3201W (32" LCD, 12ms response, 1366x768 native res)
video adaptor: Asus ATI Radeon X1650 Silent 512mb
res: 1360x768 @ 60Hz with ATI Catalyst s/w
TV card: Haupauge PVR150MCE
Source: NTL digial via SCART-to-Svideo adaptor
MPEG2 driver: Intervideo WinDVD
CPU: Intel 6400 Duo
RAM: 2gb
OS: XP MCE2005 with all the updates
Disk: C$=250Gb, D$=500Gb
Motherboard: Intel DG965OT uATX board
Case: Antec NSK1300 Cube

8T8

That is unusual but you should be seeing that problem on VGA as well unless there is something wrong with the displays inputs.

If you go to LG's site you could try downloading the INF driver (software section) for the display along with the forte manager which is I think some OSD config software for the display.

Try changing DVI cables just in case something is wrong with the current one.

bazwaldo

I had the same problem when I first set up my MCE and the problem was that my mpeg2 decoder was not deinterlacing properly. There is a free tool called fraps which you can run to tell you what the frame rate of your video is. So if you run the tool while watching LiveTV or a recording, if your decoder is deinterlacing it will read 50. If not, 25. Which means you are seeing 2 frames displayed at the one time. Make sure you are using the right mpeg2 decoder and check your settings. I found settings in the registry which I could not change via the decoders settings page so worth a look (although risky). I have info somewhere on these settings somewhere. If this is your issue, post back and I'll try find the info.

franksm

FRAPS is pretty cool

It tells me I'm getting 50fps on live TV.

One interesting thing I have noticed: playing videos (eg. .wmv created from camcorder) results in superb playback.

In the MCE settings-->Display setup wizard, there's an introductory video. The display from that is *outstanding*.

That rules out my DVI cable anyway - problem is either with the PVR card or more likely the Intervideo MPEG2/DVD player.

I'm going to install the trial version of Nvidia's Purevideo and see how that looks http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_decoder.html

bazwaldo

For Intervideo, have a look at http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/69669.aspx for what the settings are for within the registry.
For other decoders try http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=261942
Is there ghosting when viewed through your VGA output?

franksm

Tried the Nvidia Purevideo decoder - it was marginally better, but still not great.

Anyway, I steamrollered the problem - I went ahead and installed Vista Ultimate on my system. Different kettle of fish, but still the display isn't great. To describe it better, the image is sometimes pixellated, sometimes with colour bleed, and in dark scenes, moving objects cause a following "ghost" effect.

This goes for live TV as well as recorded TV, whether on DVI or on analog-VGA.

Videos played via MCE, DVDs, etc are much better. There's a video-based wizard in MCE-->settings-->picture setup. You know the "friends playing billiards" one ? Quality of that is superb.

franksm

Problem solved

It seems that it's a known ATI problem (although ATI themselves claim ignorance). If I had searched for the word "smearing" rather than "artifacting" it would have turned up the answer. It's detailed succinctly in this thread, and the fix works brilliantly for me:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/2/191159/ShowThread.aspx