[mythtv-users] nVidia GF4 mx440 tv-out optimization

[Ville Vehvilainen]

On Sun, 28 Mar 2004 blacklion at blacklion.org wrote:

> On another note, I haven't been impressed so far with the Live TV
> picture.  I'm sure there is more configuration that I could do.  I just
> need some direction.  Here are the two problems I'm seeing:
>
> 1. Light colors and whites have hardly any detail at all.  They are just
> so bright that all the detail is just washed out.
>
> 2. I'm not sure what to call it, but I see a lot of "jitter" or
> horizontal lines during fast moving scenes on TV.  I've activated the
> "Jitter reduction" option in the TV settings, but that doesn't seem to
> help.

These problems are exactly what I see when trying to use my NForce2
integrated GF4MX. (The board is the MSI K7N2G.) Either the blacks are too
dark, or the whites washed out, and the maximum available brightness
leaves much to be desired. This is using the SVideo output to a fairly
high-quality 100Hz television.

I see the horizontal lines also, unless I turn on the "deinterlace
playback" option - in which case fast-moving scenes, such as in sports,
are jerky.

I assume that if the Nvidia drivers supported real interlaced resolutions
(as has been promised but as yet not delivered) the "deinterlace playback"
option could be disabled without suffering from those horizontal lines.
This, in turn, would supposedly result in fast movements being smoother.
Am I correct?

What I'd really like to know is whether I can improve the TV-Out quality
sufficiently compared to the integrated GF4MX by getting a discrete GF4 MX
or GF FX5200, and waiting for the Nvidia drivers to get interlace support.

This is with DVB material so compression settings etc. play no part. The
comparison hardware I've been using has been a cheapish (100 euro / $120)
DVB set-top box, which currently beats the pants off MythTV+TVOut in
quality.


-- 
Ville Vehviläinen <buddha at cs.tut.fi> Tel. +358 40 8491076