[mythtv-users] Is the pchdtv card looking good?

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Wednesday, Sep 17, 2003, at 23:14 US/Pacific, Steele Price wrote:

> Jarod C. Wilson wrote:
>
>> So what is the deal with me not being able to use videogen to create 
>> a 1920x540 custom modeline to output to my TV? 960x540 doesn't work 
>> either. I've been having a miserable time with this Audio Authority 
>> adapter, but I don't think the adapter is the problem...
>
> It's not the adapter, I have the same one, it's flawless for me, in 
> fact it is excellent in terms of quality, it look every bit as good as 
> DVI on everything but 1080i.

Yeah, I've heard mostly good things about it. I think my biggest 
problem is not figuring out the right stuff to feed it. I've tried now 
with both my mythtv box w/videogen, and a WinXP machine w/powerstrip, 
and no luck with much of anything...

> TVs are really pathetically tuned, what brand/model are you dealing 
> with?

Panasonic PT-47WX49E, a 47" widescreen rear-projection TV. It's got 
dual component video inputs, and claims to do 1080i and 480p for HD, as 
well as 480i for that old NTSC crap. My X-Box w/HD kit and HD cable box 
hook to it just fine with no tweakage needed... The cable box is doing 
1080i, and I think the X-Box is 480p (but I'm not positive).

> I have a Sony 34XBR800, I had to go into service mode and make alot of 
> "adjustments" just to get things to output correctly, overscan 
> settings were terrible, upper right corner was warping, convergence 
> was off in a couple modes, and some just needed a little tweaking.

No problems like that. The junk I get on screen isn't even discernible. 
The WinXP machine produced a semi-usable picture at "720x480 (HDTV 
Standard)" in powerstrip, but it was way off-center, and varied when 
you changed what was on screen. For example, opening a window would 
result in a loss of any picture sometimes. Moving a window would 
occasionally blank the screen, and other times shift the picture a 
pretty good amount one way or the other.

> Modelines took me at least 2 days to finally get right, but I wanted 6 
> resolutions.

I spent about 6 hours on it the other day, and haven't got back to it 
since (been too busy, and dreading another potentially wasted 6 
hours)... Got any canned modelines you're willing to share with me? :)

> I'm pretty certain that mine is optimized for 720p, at least it is the 
> most clear from VGA to Component out.

I'm positive my TV can't do 720p.

> However there was a 30 pixel overscan and it was making me crazy, I 
> got it down to about 10 pixels, but a tad more tweaking and I think I 
> can get rid of it completely.

I suppose I need to figure out how to get into service mode too. The 
manual for this TV is pretty shabby. I guess I really do need to head 
over to AVSForum...

> Tearing is another big problem spot for me and I haven't quite figured 
> this one out yet, when myth goes into certain alpha modes it sends my 
> display crazy with moire patterns, I am trying to find a service mode 
> to fix that without trashing the tube.  Service mode can fix pretty 
> much everything, but it can also send you tv into oblivion, so extreme 
> caution is needed when using it.

Duly noted...

>>> Which is better?  Depends on your viewing habbits.  If you're a 
>>> sports
>>> fan, almost all sports are recorded in 720p because motion looks 
>>> better.
>
> the best resolution is going to be matching what is broadcast, that is 
> if you tv can handle it.  Not all tvs are created equal and they 
> usually don't support all resolutions.  Upscaling is always going to 
> look bad. if you are watching a broadcast in 720p then viewing it at 
> 1080i is going to be a drop in quality. Likewise for downscaling, 
> however 1080i to 720 actually isn't too bad, much better than the 
> other way around.

I'm gunning for 1080i, since I have the option for either that, or 
480p. Keep this all in perspective though. Scaling an HD picture still 
should look better than NTSC. :)

> If you adjust your modeline refresh rates to match the input signal 
> you really improve this tremendously.

What video card are you using? I talked to someone at Audio Authority, 
and they said they didn't think it was even possible to output an 
interlaced signal with a GF4-series card, and thought the only thing I 
might get to work was 640x480p... They were somewhat befuddled why I 
was having such troubles (and I'm not a complete idiot, mind you :), 
because they did all the development of the adapter on a fairly 
similar, though not identical, Panasonic HDTV.

> Turn most of your combfilters and deinterlacers in the tv off and you 
> will achieve better results as well.

I'll keep that in mind.

> Everything I have learned about hd signal has come from scouring 
> AVSForum and following most of the external links to the items (like 
> service modes, modelines, etc.)

I'm heading there now...

>> I'll second that.
>>> It depends on
>>> how the upscaling is being done, and where.  480i tv shows upscaled 
>>> by
>>> the tv stations often is the worst thing I've seen being done.
>
> 480i is terrible anyway you look at it.  Matching refresh to exactly 
> 59.97 and using 1080i is tollerable.

Yeah, pretty much. I'm only now starting to realize just how bad with 
the few HD shows I've been able to watch in a week of having an HD 
cable box. :)

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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