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#1
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
Hi
I've got a Sapphire X800 GT, and whether I play DVDs back with hardware acceleration or not, the quality of DVDs is not very good - the images look as though the colours are in 16bit, and look much more blurred than when playing the same DVDs on my PS2 on my TV. This is whether the DVD has been ripped onto the harddrive or being read from the optical drive. I've got all the latest drivers (Catalyst, etc) and am using PowerDVD 6. My DVD drive is DMA enabled. When I view still images, or play other movie formats, the images are completely crisp and smooth. Does anyone know what this could be about? I have a high-spec rig and its DVD playback is worse than an old PS2, and am completely out of ideas now! Thanks. Paul |
#2
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
Let me guess. You're running a resolution higher than 800x600 and trying to
watch it on an LCD monitor It will always be ugly. You're showing low resolution content on a high resolution display. LCDs don't scale. Your TV will look better. Tom "BabyDinosaur" wrote in message oups.com... Hi I've got a Sapphire X800 GT, and whether I play DVDs back with hardware acceleration or not, the quality of DVDs is not very good - the images look as though the colours are in 16bit, and look much more blurred than when playing the same DVDs on my PS2 on my TV. This is whether the DVD has been ripped onto the harddrive or being read from the optical drive. I've got all the latest drivers (Catalyst, etc) and am using PowerDVD 6. My DVD drive is DMA enabled. When I view still images, or play other movie formats, the images are completely crisp and smooth. Does anyone know what this could be about? I have a high-spec rig and its DVD playback is worse than an old PS2, and am completely out of ideas now! Thanks. Paul |
#3
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
Have you installed the dual core driver?
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...mdcpusetup.exe -- Robert J. Salvi, Ambiance Acoustics http://www.ambianceacoustics.com San Diego, CA USA (858) 485-7514 "BabyDinosaur" wrote in message oups.com... I'ev got two: a standard DVD writer and a CDRW/DVD player. But the problem also happens with DVD rips (VOBs) that are stored on my harddrive, so it's not a DVD player problem. I forgot to say that I'm using XP SP2, with an Athlon 64 x2 4200, 2GB RAM and an EQS motherboard (can't remember which). -P- SP Goodman wrote: "BabyDinosaur" wrote in message oups.com... Hi I've got a Sapphire X800 GT, and whether I play DVDs back with hardware acceleration or not, the quality of DVDs is not very good - the images look as though the colours are in 16bit, and look much more blurred than when playing the same DVDs on my PS2 on my TV. This is whether the DVD has been ripped onto the harddrive or being read from the optical drive. I've got all the latest drivers (Catalyst, etc) and am using PowerDVD 6. My DVD drive is DMA enabled. When I view still images, or play other movie formats, the images are completely crisp and smooth. Does anyone know what this could be about? I have a high-spec rig and its DVD playback is worse than an old PS2, and am completely out of ideas now! Which DVD drive do you have? -- Stephen Goodman * * Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff * http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack * The Loop Of The Week since 1996! * http://www.earthlight.net/Studios |
#4
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
There is a smearing/ghosting issue with the Radeon X1k series due to the
noise reduction and detail enhancement in hardware accelerated mode. I didn't realise this problem was there on the Radeon X800 series as well. For more information: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=676073 "BabyDinosaur" wrote in message oups.com... Hi I've got a Sapphire X800 GT, and whether I play DVDs back with hardware acceleration or not, the quality of DVDs is not very good - the images look as though the colours are in 16bit, and look much more blurred than when playing the same DVDs on my PS2 on my TV. This is whether the DVD has been ripped onto the harddrive or being read from the optical drive. I've got all the latest drivers (Catalyst, etc) and am using PowerDVD 6. My DVD drive is DMA enabled. When I view still images, or play other movie formats, the images are completely crisp and smooth. Does anyone know what this could be about? I have a high-spec rig and its DVD playback is worse than an old PS2, and am completely out of ideas now! Thanks. Paul |
#5
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
Try a different player software. I've noticed a distinct difference in DVD
image quality between Windows Media Player (which uses the system MPEG2 codec) and Media Player Classic (which by default uses its own internal codec). Download it he http://sourceforge.net/project/showf... ase_id=403110 BTW, DVD hardware acceleration ceased to be an issue after the Pentium II days. MPEG2 decoding simply isn't that CPU-intensive. -- "War is the continuation of politics by other means. It can therefore be said that politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed." "BabyDinosaur" wrote in message oups.com... I've got all the latest drivers (Catalyst, etc) and am using PowerDVD 6. My DVD drive is DMA enabled. |
#6
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:52:41 +0100, First of One wrote:
Try a different player software. I've noticed a distinct difference in DVD image quality between Windows Media Player (which uses the system MPEG2 codec) Hi there - if I may, what "system MPEG2 codec"? I'm under the impression that my Media Player (10) uses the Power DVD decoder because that's whatI installed and that yours and others will use whatever 3rd party decoder you install. Back in the early days of XP I was caught on the hop with no DVD decoder and I bought Power DVD's offering to get one. M$ provided no decoder as they were prohibited by anti-trust law from bundling any one product. It so happened that the Cyberlinc decoder for Media Player included a player, but that using one or the other was merely optional ways to use the same decoder. Years on, I don't think much has changed. My understanding is that, if I reinstall XP (even SP2) I won't get Media Player to play a DVD without installing a 3rd party codec, and for me that is still Power DVD (version 5 these days). Am I wrong? Btw, Power DVD can be more fun with software decoding. As you point out, the modern CPU can handle this task with ease. Used to be a bitch though... and Media Player Classic (which by default uses its own internal codec). Download it he http://sourceforge.net/project/showf... ase_id=403110 BTW, DVD hardware acceleration ceased to be an issue after the PentiumII days. MPEG2 decoding simply isn't that CPU-intensive. -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0622-4, 02/06/2006 Tested on: 02/06/2006 17:33:17 avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2006 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com |
#7
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
Last century (going back to Win95 or was it 98?) Windows did
include an MPEG2 codec in their original WMP. IMO the best quality MPEG2 codec ever was the VFW one Ravisent included in their Cinemaster '99 and 2000 players. Unfortunately Ravisent was aquired by another company and Cinemaster is no longer supported in OS's past Win2000. In fact installing it in XP will likely screw up other DVD software (especially DX/WDM-based). But its output is nothing short of gorgeous -- ultra smooth, not nearly as hard/ contrasty as all the more recent codecs like PowerDVD's, and CPU usage is ridiculously low. In fact I still keep a separate Win95 drive on my system just for Cinemaster, and when I want absolute best quality for DVD output I'll boot to Win95 and use Cinemaster 2000. "Ian" wrote in message newsp.tai1lqr2zzltit@iano... On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:52:41 +0100, First of One wrote: Try a different player software. I've noticed a distinct difference in DVD image quality between Windows Media Player (which uses the system MPEG2 codec) Hi there - if I may, what "system MPEG2 codec"? I'm under the impression that my Media Player (10) uses the Power DVD decoder because that's what I installed and that yours and others will use whatever 3rd party decoder you install. Back in the early days of XP I was caught on the hop with no DVD decoder and I bought Power DVD's offering to get one. M$ provided no decoder as they were prohibited by anti-trust law from bundling any one product. It so happened that the Cyberlinc decoder for Media Player included a player, but that using one or the other was merely optional ways to use the same decoder. Years on, I don't think much has changed. My understanding is that, if I reinstall XP (even SP2) I won't get Media Player to play a DVD without installing a 3rd party codec, and for me that is still Power DVD (version 5 these days). Am I wrong? Btw, Power DVD can be more fun with software decoding. As you point out, the modern CPU can handle this task with ease. Used to be a bitch though... and Media Player Classic (which by default uses its own internal codec). Download it he http://sourceforge.net/project/showf... ase_id=403110 BTW, DVD hardware acceleration ceased to be an issue after the Pentium II days. MPEG2 decoding simply isn't that CPU-intensive. -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0622-4, 02/06/2006 Tested on: 02/06/2006 17:33:17 avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2006 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com |
#8
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 19:08:17 +0100, Jack F. Twist
wrote: Last century (going back to Win95 or was it 98?) Windows did include an MPEG2 codec in their original WMP. IMO the best quality MPEG2 codec ever was the VFW one Ravisent included in their Cinemaster '99 and 2000 players. Unfortunately Ravisent was aquired by another company and Cinemaster is no longer supported in OS's past Win2000. In fact installing it in XP will likely screw up other DVD software (especially DX/WDM-based). But its output is nothing short of gorgeous -- ultra smooth, not nearly as hard/ contrasty as all the more recent codecs like PowerDVD's, and CPU usage is ridiculously low. In fact I still keep a separate Win95 drive on my system just for Cinemaster, and when I want absolute best quality for DVD output I'll boot to Win95 and use Cinemaster 2000. Perhaps we should be clear that the codec and the decoder are not really interchangeable words for the same thing. You could play some mpeg2 files with a suitable codec if you had no DVD playback ability (decoder). I had a nice Cinemaster setup when I ran Windows ME and of course that died when I upgraded to XP. I didn't mind fifteen dollars for PowerDVD (one of three that were linked as approved suppliers from Microsoft's site), but what I did mind was that on the same machine that did so well at software decoding under Cinemaster/ME, smooth playback was no longer possible! My only reason for still using versions of Cyberlink software is that I keep getting it bundled with DVD burners!! ;-) I keep a version of WinDVD installed too as it can handle DTS sound with my compatible sound card. I have so much power now that they all look smooth and I am not sure what has happened to upset the OPs system as I get mighty fine results on a 19 inch LCD using either DVD player, or with Media Player running on PowerDVD. Maybe the OP needs to remove all his DVD related software and start again. They used to say to install only one decoder, not so sure this still applies (as stated I have two). -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0622-4, 02/06/2006 Tested on: 02/06/2006 23:37:17 avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2006 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com |
#9
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X800 - poor DVD playback quality
Yeah, Windows Media Player 10 probably uses the PowerDVD decoder because it
registered itself a system-wide MPEG2 decoder. Media Player Classic (MPC) is a front-end, just like Windows Media Player, but you have a choice of using either the system-wide MPEG2 decoder, or (by default) MPC's own internal decoder. Anyway, try MPC out. It's free, open-source, and consists of just a single executable - no DLLs, no registry changes (unless you want file assoc.), no bloat. http://sourceforge.net/project/showf... ase_id=403110 -- "War is the continuation of politics by other means. It can therefore be said that politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed." "Ian" wrote in message newsp.tai1lqr2zzltit@iano... On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:52:41 +0100, First of One wrote: Hi there - if I may, what "system MPEG2 codec"? I'm under the impression that my Media Player (10) uses the Power DVD decoder because that's what I installed and that yours and others will use whatever 3rd party decoder you install. Back in the early days of XP I was caught on the hop with no DVD decoder and I bought Power DVD's offering to get one. M$ provided no decoder as they were prohibited by anti-trust law from bundling any one product. It so happened that the Cyberlinc decoder for Media Player included a player, but that using one or the other was merely optional ways to use the same decoder. Years on, I don't think much has changed. My understanding is that, if I reinstall XP (even SP2) I won't get Media Player to play a DVD without installing a 3rd party codec, and for me that is still Power DVD (version 5 these days). Am I wrong? Btw, Power DVD can be more fun with software decoding. As you point out, the modern CPU can handle this task with ease. Used to be a bitch though... and Media Player Classic (which by default uses its own internal codec). Download it he http://sourceforge.net/project/showf... ase_id=403110 |
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