[mythtv-users] Best Picture Configuration?

[Brian Wood]

On Jun 27, 2006, at 8:38 AM, Brian Van Grunsven wrote:

> I've been looking around for a while for suggested configurations of
> Mythtv and IVTV in order to achieve the best picture possible.  A sort
> of highest common denominator to start with and then (if need be) the
> plan would be scale back incrementally.
>
> I myself have an AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+, 512 meg of ram, and a
> PVR 350.  I'm thinking not that uncommon of a setup for a Myth box
> (correct me if I'm wrong here).
>
> When I compare the picture of live tv from myth to the picture of
> (analog) cable directly connected to my Sony HD there is quite a
> noticeable difference.  The (analog) cable's picture is much clearer.
> Myth's live tv picture is kind of blurry, there are some artifacts
> every once and a while, and the color is off balance.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions or links to configurations for the
> best possible picture from MythTV and/or the IVTV driver?

I think your system is certainly a "not uncommon "configuration"

I'd start by looking at the recording parameters, recall that there  
are four of them. These settings represent a tradeoff between picture  
quality and storage space requirements. I found the defaults to be of  
lesser quality than I wanted, and was willing to trade off some space.

I found the following to be useful in setting up the recording profiles:

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/bitrate.html

I'm running at close to DVD standards (full D1) for recording and I  
use about 2.2GB per hour of SD programming. While a very careful  
examination will reveal degradation from the "live" signal, most  
casual observers will not see this.

Remember that there four recording profiles to set, and also remember  
that your video output settings are going to affect your picture.