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PVR 250 recording quality problem
http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4623		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  rteichman [ Wed May 18, 2005 10:07 am ]
Post subject:  PVR 250 recording quality problem
OK, I have an R5A10 system using 2 PVR-250 tunner cards and has been running solid for about 3 months or so (before it was on an earlier R5 version). I was never really happy with the video quality but accepted it as a cable TV problem. Well the other night I watched the last episode of Enterprise and for once, I watched a show real time. I have an LCD TV with PC input from my MythTV box, and a TV input from the cable (which is split going into the MythTV box). Thus I was able to swicth back and forth between pure cable TV, and live tv on MythTv. I was very upset with what I saw:

The cable feed gave a nice clear sharp picture, the MythTV feed was slightly washed out and somewhat snowy (but only in the dark areas). Basically the MythTV picture looked like it was recorded 25 years ago on a cheap VCR and the picture had degraded since.

Since I could switch back and forth watching the same show (and since it was being recorded so I did not mind missing parts), I decided to fiddle with the MythTV settings. I went up and down the range of resolution (from 300 or so to 720 horizontal/vertical) and up and down the bit rates, checking and unchecking every recording option in every combination. I could make things worse, but I could never get rid of the dark area snow or "washed out" look. I should mention that this is most noticeable on "dark" shows like sci-fi space scenes or dark room scenes. Bright pictures and bright cartoons like the simpsons look fine (I guess the snow is hidden) .

Any ideas?
Author:  brendan [ Wed May 18, 2005 1:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: PVR 250 recording quality problem
Using recent ivtv 0.3.xyz release (I have not tested the 0.2.xyz releases that come with Knoppmyth), I've noticed my PVR-350 gets considerably worse reception than the PVR-500s in the same box. I don't know why. They're set up about the same, from the same feed.

Which version of ivtv are you using?

-brendan
Author:  rteichman [ Wed May 18, 2005 1:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: PVR 250 recording quality problem
[quote="brendan"Which version of ivtv are you using?[/quote]
I don't know whatever was in R5A10... how do I find the version number?
Author:  elgordo123 [ Wed May 18, 2005 2:16 pm ]
Post subject: 
Gotta stick up for my 250/myth! I have 2 PVR250's coming from Dishnetwork receivers. Dishnetwork transmits mpeg2. Coax from receiver to PVR-250, and s-video from Video card to TV. The other is coax from Dish direct to TV. Watching TV thru my mythbox is extremely clear and crisp compared to watching tv straight from dish receiver to coax tv input. In fact I am blown away how detailed and clear the picture is from myth. Why, watching the Britney/Kevin reality show her pock marks and pimples were just glaring at me!
:lol:
Author:  cesman [ Wed May 18, 2005 3:42 pm ]
Post subject: 
elgordo123 wrote:
Why, watching the Britney/Kevin reality show her pock marks and pimples were just glaring at me!
:lol:
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Author:  aaronb [ Wed May 18, 2005 9:35 pm ]
Post subject: 
I've done the same thing, flipping between direct cable and the Myth box and noticed that the quality was significantly lower. But I don't think the PVR250 is the problem, the limiting factor is the tv-out. If I watch the 250 recordings on my windows machine they look perfect, even better quality than the the direct cable on my tv. What type of connection are you using to connect to your TV?
Author:  rteichman [ Thu May 19, 2005 2:54 pm ]
Post subject: 
aaronb wrote:
I've done the same thing, flipping between direct cable and the Myth box and noticed that the quality was significantly lower. But I don't think the PVR250 is the problem, the limiting factor is the tv-out. If I watch the 250 recordings on my windows machine they look perfect, even better quality than the the direct cable on my tv. What type of connection are you using to connect to your TV?


I'm not, I'm using currently using a MacMini running an OS X port of MythTV to play the video from my backend KnoppMyth box. Previously (and it had the same video quality) I had the KnoppMyth box directly connected to my 32" LCD TV's VGA port. Thus the reason for suspecting the PVR250 recording quality. I guess I could always try burning the MPEG file to DVD and playing it.... which raises a qood question: I don't have a DVD burner on my KnoppMyth box, but I can access all files via SMB. How do I figure out what file has what show. Also, how do I do a file conversion (or can I just rename the file with the proper extension)?
Author:  ceenvee703 [ Thu May 19, 2005 4:02 pm ]
Post subject: 
rteichman wrote:
How do I figure out what file has what show. Also, how do I do a file conversion (or can I just rename the file with the proper extension)?


Look for a /myth/pretty folder: if you have one you'll see that's been solved for you. (Just add a .mpg extension and you're fine, or modify the script to add one for you... search for mythlink and you should see some recent threads on this)
Author:  brendan [ Thu May 19, 2005 9:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
aaronb wrote:
I've done the same thing, flipping between direct cable and the Myth box and noticed that the quality was significantly lower. But I don't think the PVR250 is the problem, the limiting factor is the tv-out. If I watch the 250 recordings on my windows machine they look perfect, even better quality than the the direct cable on my tv. What type of connection are you using to connect to your TV?


It might also not be the card, but rather the ivtv (or mythtv) version or configuration. that's another can of worms, though.

-brendan
Author:  rteichman [ Fri May 20, 2005 11:09 am ]
Post subject: 
I don't have a "pretty" folder so I guess I will need to delv into mySQL or something to find it.

As far ivtv/mythtv versions.... wouldn't everyone then have a problem. As I said I'm runing plain jane R5A10
Author:  cesman [ Fri May 20, 2005 11:15 am ]
Post subject: 
"pretty" has nothing to do with MySQL.
Author:  rteichman [ Fri May 20, 2005 11:51 am ]
Post subject: 
cesman wrote:
"pretty" has nothing to do with MySQL.

Yes, I mean that I will need to go into MySQL to find the file name of the show I want to copy over.

Also, I tried copying one of the .muv files but the transfer seemed awful slow (4 hours to copy a 650MB file). Both the server and my laptop were hardwired to the same hub running at 100MBs. Any ideas why it would be so slow?
Author:  khrusher [ Fri May 20, 2005 1:52 pm ]
Post subject: 
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=498&highlight=mythlink
Author:  ceenvee703 [ Fri May 20, 2005 2:47 pm ]
Post subject: 
Or even more,

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... t=mythlink

If yours is a new install rather than an upgrade, you will have to check this thread on how to get it running on your system.

Those are ".nuv" files, not ".muv" files, and networking speed is going even farther afield from your original post, which was PVR-250 recording quality. If you're having networking problems (and it does sound like you are), post to a new topic AFTER searching (ideally for "slow AND networking").
Author:  rteichman [ Fri May 20, 2005 8:10 pm ]
Post subject: 
ceenvee703 wrote:
If you're having networking problems (and it does sound like you are), post to a new topic AFTER searching (ideally for "slow AND networking").

Thanks, but the networking issue was mentioned more in passing than anything else as I have never noticed a problem before (the video streams fine across the network to the other machine. As a matter of fact when I copy a file TO the MythTV server a 200MB file copies in a couple minutes, but when I copy a file FROM the MythTV server it goes very slow (600MB file in 4 hours)
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