[monkeyknifefight]

Running a 8500GT (with Forceware 158.22) at 1920x1080 via DVI/HDMI to my 52" Bravia (1080p Native). So here is my question/issue ... my DVD picture quality is "ok", but not as good as I thought it would be. I used to have a 57" Hitachi RPTV running an ATI All in Wonder at 1080i, and the PQ was pretty darn good, borderline incredible. I've seen BluRay DVD's played on my set and they looked amazing, so I know the set is capable.


Funny thing is that using the built-in player in MCE looks better than PowerDVD 7.3 (running AnyDVD in the background)?! Playing Shrek 2 from DVD, gives me a fairly "pixelate" picture on PowerDVD, lots of artifacts. MCE player has a lot less artifacts, but the PQ is far from as stunning as I'd hoped it would be. Do I need to run ffdshow or any other filters? I'm currently running everything fairly vanilla. I used to run TheaterTek with ffdshow (like 4 years ago), should I head that route again? I plan on playing HD-DVD's which I beleive TT can't do.


Advice?

 

[umdivx]

you running vista?


- Josh

 

[monkeyknifefight]

Opps, sorry for the lack of info. Here are my Specs-


OS: XP SP2

Front End: MCE 2005 Rollup 2

Video Card: Gigabyte 8500GT (the heat pipe one) running Forceware 158.22 drivers

Playback Software: MCE builtin player (Media Player?) and/or PowerDVD 7.3 (without updates)

Filters: None

ffdshow: None

 

[umdivx]

I bet you'll find that if you get the Nvidia pure video decoders (which come with Theatertek) that you'll get a better PQ.


- Josh

 

[monkeyknifefight]

Will try, but I thought PowerDVD comes with the Pure Video decoder (at least it appears that way in the config)?


Also, not sure if this is an issue but once I selected my display as "pixel" and then set the adapter to 1080p I experienced a fair amount of underscan, which I was able to fix with the "desktop correction" in the nVidia control panel. I can't help thinking that somehow it's not right since I essentially "stretched" the picture.

 

[umdivx]

no powerdvd has its own mpeg decoder, it just ties in the nvidia hardware acceleration.


- Josh

 

[monkeyknifefight]

I see. What about the underscan issue? Could that be a cause?