How to get best DVD quality in MCE?

J

jebo_4jc

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2011
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Scoff if you must at my insistence on using MCE, but I want to find out how to get the best DVD quality in MCE. AFAIK, FFDshow can't process videos played in the MCE player. However, I have heard nvidia's purevideo will upsample DVD videos in MCE.
I've searched the web and browsed the Green Button forums for a while, but found no answers.

I guess the bottom line is, what is the cheapest/free way to improve MCEs DVD quality?
 
scoff, scoff. Sorry, I don't use MCE, but I just like scoffing. it's a funny sound/word
 
IDversusEGO said:
scoff, scoff. Sorry, I don't use MCE, but I just like scoffing. it's a funny sound/word
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Yea I expected this :)
 
Try the 30-day trail of pure video from Nvidia, I use it in MCE 2005, and have zero complaints, im running 1080i dvi-hdmi cable also.


*edit I know you said free, but if the program does/looks the way you want it, isnt $19.00 worth it?
 
Freemason115 said:
Try the 30-day trail of pure video from Nvidia, I use it in MCE 2005, and have zero complaints, im running 1080i dvi-hdmi cable also.


*edit I know you said free, but if the program does/looks the way you want it, isnt $19.00 worth it?
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$19 would definitely be worth it. However, as it stands, I'm using an ati 9500 pro. So, purevideo isn't gonna get me very far. I need to know that's my best option before I invest in a geforce.
Side question, what's the lowest-end agp card that supports purevideo?
 
6200 has partial support, 6600 has full. 6600gt is the sweet spot right now.
 
IDversusEGO said:
6600gt is the sweet spot right now.
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It seems that way. Looking around it looks like the difference between vanilla and GT is only about $10-20. The problem is, then I'm suddenly spending about $120 for an HTPC upgrade, which was basically inspired by the desire to improve DVD IQ, when I could buy an upsampling DVD player for about the same price.
I hate decisions like this.
 
IDversusEGO said:
get the PC, it's cooler. and if you do get a vid card upgrade, this is a nice little card for an HTPC...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814135182

low profile for flexibility and passive cooling for noise. There are a couple of passive 6600gt cards, but I can;t seem to find any right now.
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Yea the passive aspect is nice, my HTPC is a SFF though, so the low profile thing isn't necessary. If I decide the 6600/purevideo is the best MCE option, I will explore my options there.
 
Does the nvidia DVD decoder come free with any 6600 cards?
 
jebo_4jc said:
Does the nvidia DVD decoder come free with any 6600 cards?
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Not that I know of - the manufacturer might throw in a cheap oem powerdvd or windvd, but I haven't heard of any giving away nvidia's decoder.
 
IDversusEGO said:
6200 has partial support, 6600 has full. 6600gt is the sweet spot right now.
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Sorry for the hijack...but does the 6800GT support purevideo? I've read somewhere that it does not offload resources from the cpu. In that case, is the whole point of purevideo lost on the 6800GT? or is the decoder just that good that it still improves playback?


S.O.
 
IDversusEGO said:
used to come witrh the BFG OC series. not sure if it still does or not.
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Reguardless, it's not worth it. The BFG OC 6600GTs are about $30 more expensive ATM.
 
oneils said:
Sorry for the hijack...but does the 6800GT support purevideo? I've read somewhere that it does not offload resources from the cpu. In that case, is the whole point of purevideo lost on the 6800GT? or is the decoder just that good that it still improves playback?


S.O.
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AFAIK, the CPU offload functions of one/all of the 6800 cards doesn't work, but the purevideo decoder will still help improve IQ.
 
jebo_4jc said:
AFAIK, the CPU offload functions of one/all of the 6800 cards doesn't work, but the purevideo decoder will still help improve IQ.
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Thanks, that's exactly what I was trying to figure out. :D
 
the 6600gt actually came out after the 6800 so that little bug was supposedly fixed. at least that is how I understand it.
 
was a bit annoyed when I upraded my rig and made a htpc. Got MCE and looked for the purevideo and they want payin...

I'd just bought 2x7800gtx's and a 6200 sulked for at least an hour before I bought it anyway :D apart from an occasional wrongly inserted frame I'm happy with the pic qual on my lcd @ 720p
 
IanG said:
Purevideo feature comparison per cards.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

Looks like it was wmv acceleration that was broken on the 6800 series (pcie & agp). I could have sworn it was more than that though.
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That's good information. 6200 cards are so cheap...anybody know the quick and dirty explanation of "Inverse Telecine" and "Bad edit correction?"
 
For MCE what you'll want to do is:

1.) Get a 6600 GT for broad compatability (also supports more Purevideo features, 6200 only go up to 720p).

2.) Get a copy of the Purevideo Codec (Email PC Alchemy to get it for $10).

3.) Install everything, play a DVD in MCE and stop it, double click on the NV codec control panel and makes these adjustments:
Select VMR9 for all renders
Select Smart for your De-interlacing option
Check Allow Subtitle Movement
Check DXVA in the Advanced Video Page
Check FullScreen in the Advanced Video Page
Check YUVMixing in the Advanced Video Page
Click to expand...

Without FFDShow thats the best you can do, it's pretty good IMO though.

FOR USE WITH RECENT ATI CARDS
In the NV control panel you'll want to select these options:
Select VMR9 for all renders
Select Smart for your De-interlacing option
Check Allow Subtitle Movement
Check FullScreen in the Advanced Video Page
Check YUVMixing in the Advanced Video Page
Click to expand...
 
It's nice to see that NV final made corrections to the 6600 series listings.
jebo_4jc said:
That's good information. 6200 cards are so cheap...anybody know the quick and dirty explanation of "Inverse Telecine" and "Bad edit correction?"
Click to expand...
Inverse Telecine: http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/inverse_telecine.cfm
Process where video editing tools reverse telecine process. Basically inverse telecine (or IVTC as it is also called) brings back movie's original framerate from NTSC's 29.97fps to 24fps.
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Telecine: http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/telecine.cfm
1) As movies are normally shot using 24.00fps framerate and American TV system, NTSC, uses framerate of 29.97fps, movie framerates need to be changed in order to get them play smoothly on TV.

This process, where studios add additional frames to the picture in order to increase the framerate, is called telecine. Process where various video editing tools reverse this process is called inverse telecine.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks a lot crim. So for MCE I need to rely on the video card's abilities. Something you said reminded me, ATi's x1xxx line currently has the best DVD quality, IIRC. I think I saw an article showing this, I'll have to look it up. A cheap x1300 might be a good option too.
 
ATI has really followed through with their AVIVO winter update, it's pretty suprising. I'm thinking about getting a X1300 at some point to maybe test out of the capabilities (maybe I can get one for review for my friends at HTPCnews :D ) but I haven't heard anything about it being useable in MCE (alot of it is just benchmark like stuff with little to no pics for comparison).

But I would say that if your going svideo or component out then it's worth a shot, if not the ATI tweaks for the Purevideo codec should work too (supposely AVIVO doesn't care what codec you're running, it just cares if the card is a X1000 series or not).
 
CrimandEvil said:
But I would say that if your going svideo or component out then it's worth a shot
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Sorry. I missed this part. Why does my connection method matter?

At this point, I'm using VGA for my HTPC. Although, if I upgrade my HD box like I plan to, the HD box will move to HDMI and my HTPC will probably move to DVI.
 
Argh. The only passive x1300/x1600s are PCI-e.
Darn my luck. I'm sure if I bought a AGP x1300 it would have a whiny little fan on it.
I might end up with a Gigabyte 6600 AGP.
 
jebo_4jc said:
Sorry. I missed this part. Why does my connection method matter?

At this point, I'm using VGA for my HTPC. Although, if I upgrade my HD box like I plan to, the HD box will move to HDMI and my HTPC will probably move to DVI.
Click to expand...
ATI's support for DVI to HDTV is still a bit spotty, either it works and things are happy or it doesn't and your screwed. Analog methods seem to be fine though.
 
can someone direct me to a begginers guide for purevideo and the nvidia decoder ?
 
if you decide to get purevideo you may want to consider getting theatertek.

its a few bucks more and it includes purevideo codecs. then you can also experiment with ffdshow without hosing MCE. that is what I am doing currently. they has a special a month ago for theatertek, like $29 for 2.4 basic audio edition.

eek, just looked, its now $70, so ignore the "few bucks" part.
 
i tried theatertek with ffdshow and purevideo and it just doesnt look any different from powerdvd to me at all. Are there any settings im missing, i noticed the button is grayed out when you choose nvidia post processor, is this normal ? tia
 
CrimandEvil said:
For MCE what you'll want to do is:

1.) Get a 6600 GT for broad compatability (also supports more Purevideo features, 6200 only go up to 720p).

2.) Get a copy of the Purevideo Codec (Email PC Alchemy to get it for $10).

3.) Install everything, play a DVD in MCE and stop it, double click on the NV codec control panel and makes these adjustments:


Without FFDShow thats the best you can do, it's pretty good IMO though.

FOR USE WITH RECENT ATI CARDS
In the NV control panel you'll want to select these options:
Click to expand...

All I can find is to change from the overlay. I can't find the other controls, do you think it is the version of nvidia codecs I have? I bought mine from TheaterTek.

What do you think?
 
Ho hum... I really don't know what codec the OP is using for DVDs right now so it's hard to say what will improve quality.

Nvidia Purevideo does not upsample DVDs. If you want to keep your card I recommend trying PowerDVD. The PowerDVD mpeg2 codec will run in MCE and should offload your cpu with hardware acceleration.

You can upsample stuff with ffdshow in MCE... but not DVDs.

To use vmr9 in MCE... set that in WMP. Basically just make sure WMP 11 is set to use full acceleration at defaults. Dig around in the options a bit. :)

The option for preferring vmr9 in nvidia purevideo can be accessed when playing a DVD. Right click on the nvidia tray icon that appears there... and take a goooood look around.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Your looking under the "Advanced" options right?
Click to expand...

I did what you wrote. Started DVD and then stopped. Minimized MCE and found nvidia codec control.

could not find the advanced options in that. At you looking at the codec controls within MCE?
 
I have never got DVDs to play as nice in MCE as they do in Power DVD.

I know that one of the reasons is that I have CLPV enabled in MCE.
However, even with CLPV disabled in MCE, there is a difference in experience.

Luckily, the MCE remote works just perfect with PDVD. :)
 
Liver said:
I did what you wrote. Started DVD and then stopped. Minimized MCE and found nvidia codec control.

could not find the advanced options in that. At you looking at the codec controls within MCE?
Click to expand...
The advance options are in TheaterTek.
 
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