X1900XT Problems with HDTV

Take it out and go back to the NVidia card. You just took a giant step backwards in usability and image quality.


Don't believe the reviews that you read on the internet, because the HQV tests they perform for deinterlacing have very little to do with media playback from DVD and HD in the real world. ATI simply optimized their drivers to perform better on this specific benchmark. Nothing new for ATI.


I have both cards and have done AB comparisons when playing back DVD and WMV-HD. I am using 1080 feeding a Qualia 004 FP on a 5' x 13' screen viewed from 14' away.


The NVidia card delivers a more detailed image than the ATI, has much more stable drivers, and much better custom res and HDTV display support than the ATI.


Vern

It Does NOT!


Don't you see the colour banding on your ATSC / Sat/Cable HDTV or are you only into "pristine" DVD for testing?


Your test - which I've read was not what I would have done to prove definitely for myself.


Former owner of Radeon now owning an nvidia which is inferior IMHO.


Colour banding (posterization) is woeful on nVidia and fail to see how your've missed it.


DA

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Try the following:


Component support should be also TRIED with Radeon as first test. If that fails then the FIRMWARE could be culprit. If you HAVE NOT tried custom settings in CCC with DVI to account for overscan and fails to wrk successfully then I'd GO BACK to the nvidia and TEST on DVI and see.


IMHO - I have found DVI does not work well on some firmware in HD displays via nvidia cards and it takes alot of fiddling to get the drivers to co-operate and "stick" as an EDID override.


DA.

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I assume you are addressing this to me.... No, I don't see color banding in any environment. Color banding is often exacerbated by the use of certain display technology. It can also be caused by using older combinations of drivers and decoders.


I use TT for media playback in software decode mode with ffdshow doing a Lanczos 2 resize and the DScaler 4 sharpen filter and see no color banding at all on any sources. I have also tested using DXVA hardware mode, and in that case the difference between the two cards is even greater. I don't use my HTPC for ATSC/Sat/Cable, which I rarely watch in my HT anyhow. DVD, WMV-HD and HD-DVD are my sources of choice.

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Not sure what you are talking about? My test simply consists of playing the same source material on both PC's and pressing a single button on my remote to switch the projector inputs. It could be anything from a DVD of "Moulin Rouge" to any one of a number of test patterns on DVE Pro or any one of several other calibration discs. Or it might be a WMV-HD disc like "Coral Reef Adventure". Of course both players and both projector inputs have been calibrated using DVD Pro's test patterns before testing. Any differences in image detail, color ringing etc. are very easily seen.

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Then why do you have the NVidia in your system now?


I have 2 identical PC's one with the 7800 and one with the X1900. The only time I'll ever use the ATI equipped PC is after a new driver comes out to see if ATI has finally eliminated their lack of fine detail and reduced the ringing around any hard edges in the image.


So far, it hasn't happened. What I am treated to is the challenge of making the new driver work properly at 1080I with my Qualia. The X1900 is certainly an improvement over the X1800, which couldn't output a proper 1080I signal over DVI. But it still takes me 4 to 5 times as long with the ATI to get a custom 1080I resolution that survives a reboot.


Edit: Just read the other thread about the color banding issue. I don't know if this is why I dont see it, but I use MCE2005 in my HT systems because it's the only way to get all the DirectShow fixes available from MS. For some reason, certain modules were never released as patches for XP. I also never mess with the desktop color and level controls in the video CP, preferring to calibrate my projector's inputs to the standard default DVI outputs of the video card. Maybe that explains why I never see your banding issue????


Vern

I would love to chuck the nVidia back in, but I had sold the 7800GTX before I bought the X1900XT (arrived the day I sent the nV off).


I will try the component, but I dont see it working. Although, I didn't actually try the 7800GTX at 1808x1017 through DVI-HDMI.


I'll see how we go.


Thanks for the help Please, if you get any more ideas I would love to hear them!


Really don't want to end up selling this beast of a card as games run amazlingly on it, and selling it and buying a 7900GTX would leave me with a huge loss as well $$$


Thanks guys

Vern


Banding...and displays. Noticed failure of nvidia from 6600 to 7800 in removal of colour banding on Plasmas and LCD, DLP @ 720p vertical native via DVI/HDMI. The ATI inclusive of earlier entrants from 9550 respond really well latest efforts in Catalyst.


Tested with numerous floor displays in reseller environment. That's WHERe IT counts.


Pristine environment that are controlled by you is exactly what I'm getting at. Your controlled test cannot be objective based on a few grounds:


Embedded post processing of MPEG does transpire within the GPU as these enhancements are engaged by DRIVER embedding not by external RAW grunt CPU processing as in ffdshow. Nvidia open up there GPU enhancements via a SPECIFIC optimised codec. All your proving is that sharpening maybe already high with the ATI driver and those settings should not be applied on same level basis using FFDshow as your benchmark.


Finally as I suspected your NOT using disparate lower quality sources and what I'm seeing in quality in HDTV is inferior decode on nVidia and it weakenesses are colour banding, lack of mosquito noise removal and softer decode in sharpness.


DA