Poor quality live and recorded TV

[Codey]

Hi there, I have just got myself a new plasma screen, an LG PX990 50", when I use the TV's on board tuner, (SD or HD) I find the picture quality as whole is much better than via my Windows media centre PC, is there any reason why this shoyld be the case?? my AV recevier can also do upscaling, so I have tried by passing this but still have the same problem, any ideas what the problem could be??

Here is my setup:

Processor Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E6600 @ 3.06GHz, 3066 Mhz,
2GB RAM
Windows 7 Professional 32bit SP1
AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series Graphics card, Driver Version 8.872.0.0
Motherboard - gigabyte ga-g41m-es2l
LGPX990 3D Plasma, connected with HDMI cable ver 1.4a
Screen resolution and refresh rate - 1920*1080, 50hz
Blu-ray disc drive - HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW CH10LS20 ATA Device
Black gold BGT3600 hybrid Tv Tuner
Onkyo TX-NR808 AV Receiver

[richard1980]

What is it you are seeing different? If it's a resolution difference, make sure Windows Media Center is set to output to a Television in the settings. Also, have you calibrated your graphics card picture settings such as brightness, contrast, and gamma?

[STC]

I'm sorry to hear you are experiencing poor quality love.
I hope you find this forum will make up for it

[Codey]

What is it you are seeing different? If it's a resolution difference, make sure Windows Media Center is set to output to a Television in the settings. Also, have you calibrated your graphics card picture settings such as brightness, contrast, and gamma?

I did have the display set as "flat panel" I have now changed to "Television" and the picture does seem a little better. But the wife is trying to watch tv at the moment so I have to leave it is for until I can try an tweak settings tomorrow

[STC]

It's advisable to turn off most of the ATI video 'enhancements'. They destroy PQ more then enhance them. I shall look up the settings for you when I get home tomorrow if that helps.

[edit] I took the liberty of editing your title typo

[Venom51]

My numbers 404-555-35.....oh wait. I can't do a dude with crappy picture quality.

[Codey]

It's advisable to turn off most of the ATI video 'enhancements'. They destroy PQ more then enhance them. I shall look up the settings for you when I get home tomorrow if that helps.

[edit] I took the liberty of editing your title typo

Lol, only just noticed my type in the title

If turned off all the settings in the software, but if you could let me know what settings you use that would be magic

[averageschmoe]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't see a follow up from the poster so if I may take his place I think I have the EXACT SAME PROBLEM. I am using 2 AverTVHD DUet's, one's a White Box and the other isn't. Signal quality is 100 percent on all 4 tuners. I tried getting a screengrab using PrtScn and Microsoft Paint but the picture shows up black. It looks like compression artifacts. When I'm watching a show I'd describe as a combination of blockiness / like I'm watching tv through really wavy glass if that makes any sense. A 1080p AVCHD m2ts of Wall-e looks perfect in Media Center and I have no codecs installed. I've tried uninstalling the driver's for the tuners and disabling/enabling Media Center, no difference. I'm about to print out the 4therecord installation instructions and sort my way throught that. I've done more than a few reinstalls of Windows 7 for various reasons now and this is the first time I've seen this. I'll provide you with any info you need.






The rest of the system:
ASUS P55D-E LX, i7-860, 4GB GSkill DDR3 RAM, Saphhire Vapor-X HD5770, Home Premium x64, OS on WD Caviar Blue 160GB, Recorded TV on WD AV-GP WD20EARS

[LuckyDay]

Are the two of you by chance watching analog cable channels? These look much better via a TVs built in analog tuner than when they are stretched to fit a (typically) higher res output on a media center pc.

[averageschmoe]

I don't think so. The avertvhd duet is, if I understand it correctlly, a purely digital, atsc dual-tuner. Would a screenshot help or is there some way to see codec info like Mediainfo for .wtv?


-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

[tony_park]

Hi

if you review a live tv program, then enter 411 info on your remote, then use the cursor keys, you should be able to find out details of the video stream - if you can post details here of the values etc, we can compare and see how they match up with ours

HTH
Tony

[richard1980]

Considering the OP said the problem was with both SD and HD, and HD is not transmitted in analog, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet this has nothing to do with analog cable.

[averageschmoe]

Sorry for the delay, busy weekend. Couldn't wait to try 411+info, a menu choice to display that info would be very handy...but I digress. So, I'm not sure what I need to be looking for in the Debug Mode. Frame Rate = 59.9401; Frame Corruption Rate = 1; Corrupt Frame Count = 10; Display Size = 1920x1080; Native Display = 1920x1080; MPEG2; Bit Rate = 10077812, Audio is perfect so who cares and I have no idea what the other screens are telling me. It's a recording of Sesame Street in HD. I wish I could show you the blocky mess that the dance sequence devolves into. I'll also mention that the HDD Recorded TV points to is on an AV-GP WD20EARS. I'll give you whatever you ask for.

I should say that 411+info displays different 'Frame Corruption Rate' and 'Corrupt Frame Count' at different points in the program. It currently stands at 0/14, respectively.