X800 - poor DVD playback quality

[BabyDinosaur]

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

 

[SP Goodman]

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

 

[BabyDinosaur]

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-

 

[Tom Scales]

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

 

[R. J. Salvi]

Have you installed the dual core driver?

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/amdcpusetup.exe

 

[Sharanga Dayananda]

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

 

[First of One]

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 here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_id=403110

BTW, DVD hardware acceleration ceased to be an issue after the Pentium II
days. MPEG2 decoding simply isn't that CPU-intensive.

 

[Ian]

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 here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_id=403110

BTW, DVD hardware acceleration ceased to be an issue after the PentiumII
days. MPEG2 decoding simply isn't that CPU-intensive.

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[Jack F. Twist]

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.

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 here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_id=403110

BTW, DVD hardware acceleration ceased to be an issue after the Pentium II
days. MPEG2 decoding simply isn't that CPU-intensive.

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[Ian]

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).


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[First of One]

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/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_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."

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...