Jagged edges on HDTV

[cjv998]

Hi everyone. I'm using my HDTV (Samsung LN46A650) as the monitor for my HTPC (Intel E8400, Vista 64-bit, Radeon 4850, 4GB of RAM...you get the picture; a relatively new, capable PC). The TV is connected with a DVI to HDMI cable.

So here's the problem I'm having: when I play DVDs (I usually use VLC player, but I get the same problem with Windows Media Center), I often notice tearing when the camera pans across objects. It seems like an issue with the refresh rate or something, but I'm not sure why that would be happening; is something getting messed up with the upscaling of the DVD to 1920x1080?.

BTW, I'm running at 60Hz. Switching to 24Hz and disabling the TV's AutoMotion Plus 120Hz mode does lessen the problem, but it still exists. Does anyone know what's going on, and if there's anything else I can do to alleviate this issue? It's making me seriously consider getting an upscaling DVD player and stop using the PC to play movies. Thanks.

 

[xdivenx]

Jagged edges along certain surfaces on the screen, or just jaggies on the WHOLE screen?

 

[cjv998]

I looked up some terminology so I can sound like I know what I'm talking about, haha. Looks like tearing is what I'm seeing. The edges of objects will be broken apart into couple-inch pieces when the camera pans across the object. Updated my first post so people understand my problem.

 

[CrimandEvil]

This is both a hardware and software problem; you posted what software you were using, where is the hardware specs? How the hell are we suppose to help when we have no idea what could be causing this?

 

[cjv998]

This is both a hardware and software problem; you posted what software you were using, where is the hardware specs? How the hell are we suppose to help when we have no idea what could be causing this?

Hi everyone. I'm using my HDTV (Samsung LN46A650) as the monitor for my HTPC (Intel E8400, Vista 64-bit, Radeon 4850, 4GB of RAM...you get the picture; a relatively new, capable PC). The TV is connected with a DVI to HDMI cable.

What more would you like as far as hardware goes? I figured that was all the relevant equipment. Only other thing I can think of that may be of interest is my DVD drive, which is a standard Samsung IDE DVD burner, IIRC it has a 32 or 36x read speed; nothing special there. Motherboard is an ASUS P5E Deluxe if you want that as well.

Anyway, back on topic...Apparently I'm going insane. The tearing doesn't occur in Windows Media Player (didn't re-check Media Center, I assume it'll be the same as WMP). Looked into it some more, and VLC player doesn't support hardware acceleration supposedly. I guess it isn't the best player if you want high-quality video. (Only reason I went out of my way to get it is that I wanted a way to use my discrete subwoofer and run 2.1 channel audio; VLC gives me a way to do that, whereas WMP is too deeply integrated into Windows for that to work.)

I do still get judder from time to time. Are there some plug-ins or filters I should look into using that could help that (I know I've heard ffdshow mentioned in other threads), or maybe a new media player altogether? Surely there's something better than WMP (I'll do some searching tomorrow on this). Thanks again.

 

[w1retap]

First try forcing vsync in your graphics control center. Turn it on and save/apply settings, then restart the computer and try playback again. Usually that solves the problem for most people.

 

[cjv998]

Alright, so after some research I've got the following:

Media Player Classic (regular and Home Cinema 64-bit; still need to work out some issues with HC before I remove the regular version)
ffdshow (64 bit, same issue as with the MPC versions)
Haali Media Splitter (which doesn't like to work in Vista, so I don't think I needed it)
Avisync.

I'm sure I can get some nice video out of these...let's hope all this hassle pays off, haha. I ought to have it all installed and cleaned up by tomorrow night; I've seen some pretty impressive before and after shots for ffdshow, so I have high hopes. We'll see how this turns out.

I have to admit, all the customization in ffdshow is intimidating, and I don't know what any of the settings mean. Luckily I've found a few good customization guides.