autoboy

[autoboy]

Sounds like it could be a color space issue.  I’m not educated in that enough, but there is PC color which goes from 0-255 and there is video color that goes from 16 – 248 or something like that.  Windows will switch from PC to video color space when it plays a video.  Maybe you should download the AVSforum calibration disk and calibrate the TV.

[autoboy]

Sounds like it could be a color space issue.  I’m not educated in that enough, but there is PC color which goes from 0-255 and there is video color that goes from 16 – 248 or something like that.  Windows will switch from PC to video color space when it plays a video.  Maybe you should download the AVSforum calibration disk and calibrate the TV.

[autoboy]

Yes, I forgot about the HD fury.  That would work wonders and would probably come in handy sometime in the future after they start blocking content on analog.

[autoboy]

Yes, I forgot about the HD fury.  That would work wonders and would probably come in handy sometime in the future after they start blocking content on analog.

[autoboy]

There are some differences in the quality of the deinteracing they are capable of.  Generally it is recomended that you stick to the 5570 or 5670 if you want the most capable 1080i deinterlacing performance.  After the 5670, there is no difference in quality.  going 5770 or 5870 or 5970 will gain you nothing.  If you watch a lot of 1080i content, like from a HD-PVR, then it would be worth it to upgrade to one of those 55XX cards instead of the 5450 which is a really slow card and only handles bob and weave deinterlacing.

If you just watch blu-rays and other progressive content like ripped movies from torrents, hulu, etc, then you could go with the low end card.  They will all accelerate blu-rays the same.

I would go for a fanless 5550 with DDR3 memory personally.

But, the only real difference between the 4XXX cards and the 5XXX cards is bitstream audio support.  You already have a 4XXX card which is a good card for playing blu-ray.  There is no difference in picture quality of a 1080p video between any 4XXX card and any 5XXX card.  I’d stick with your current card and check out why the picture looks bad. 

Try text on the screen from a website.  Does it look sharp and readable?  If it doesn’t then fix that before you start to quibble about little things most people won’t notice like Vector Adaptive deinterlacing on a 5570 video card vs bob and weave on a 5450.

[autoboy]

There are some differences in the quality of the deinteracing they are capable of.  Generally it is recomended that you stick to the 5570 or 5670 if you want the most capable 1080i deinterlacing performance.  After the 5670, there is no difference in quality.  going 5770 or 5870 or 5970 will gain you nothing.  If you watch a lot of 1080i content, like from a HD-PVR, then it would be worth it to upgrade to one of those 55XX cards instead of the 5450 which is a really slow card and only handles bob and weave deinterlacing.

If you just watch blu-rays and other progressive content like ripped movies from torrents, hulu, etc, then you could go with the low end card.  They will all accelerate blu-rays the same.

I would go for a fanless 5550 with DDR3 memory personally.

But, the only real difference between the 4XXX cards and the 5XXX cards is bitstream audio support.  You already have a 4XXX card which is a good card for playing blu-ray.  There is no difference in picture quality of a 1080p video between any 4XXX card and any 5XXX card.  I’d stick with your current card and check out why the picture looks bad. 

Try text on the screen from a website.  Does it look sharp and readable?  If it doesn’t then fix that before you start to quibble about little things most people won’t notice like Vector Adaptive deinterlacing on a 5570 video card vs bob and weave on a 5450.

[autoboy]

Personally I don’t think you’ll be able to tell the difference between the HD audio and the Spdif.  I’ve tried to blind test it and I can’t tell.  But, have fun!

Don’t spend too much money on it just to get HD audio working on that setup since it is kinda a stopgap measure.  A new TV with HDMI will probably be needed sometime in the future and the $ would be better spent on a TV than on an obsolete soundcard.

[autoboy]

Personally I don’t think you’ll be able to tell the difference between the HD audio and the Spdif.  I’ve tried to blind test it and I can’t tell.  But, have fun!

Don’t spend too much money on it just to get HD audio working on that setup since it is kinda a stopgap measure.  A new TV with HDMI will probably be needed sometime in the future and the $ would be better spent on a TV than on an obsolete soundcard.

[autoboy]

A 4XXX card should be state of the art in terms of picture quality.  The adapter will not have any impact on picture quality since DVI and HDMI are actually the same apart from audio support, but the adapter may prevent you from running HDMI audio through it.  Official ATI DVI-HDMI adaptors will support audio over the DVI port.

If you aren’t getting a good picture, there are other problems.  You should check your overscan in the drivers to make sure you are displaying a 1:1 pixel mapping.  Searching for PC overscan ATI will get you some info on how that works.

You should also enable the smooth video setting in the ATI drivers and that will make sure you don’t drop frames because your video card can’t do all the post processing you’ve set in the drivers. 

Check the sharping and noise reduction settings in the ATI drivers.  I prefer those off but some people like them.  Don’t have them turned all the way up.

Then, you need to check the settings on your TV.  Make sure your TV isn’t scaling the picture to create overscan.  There are normally settings called picture size that adjust how much the TV will overscan your content.

Make sure the noise reduction, mpeg noise reduction, black and white balance settings, etc are all turned off or set to their low settings.  Check out AVSforum for specific instructions on what settings your TV should have enabled.  The community there tends to post their picture settings for each TV on the market.

[autoboy]

A 4XXX card should be state of the art in terms of picture quality.  The adapter will not have any impact on picture quality since DVI and HDMI are actually the same apart from audio support, but the adapter may prevent you from running HDMI audio through it.  Official ATI DVI-HDMI adaptors will support audio over the DVI port.

If you aren’t getting a good picture, there are other problems.  You should check your overscan in the drivers to make sure you are displaying a 1:1 pixel mapping.  Searching for PC overscan ATI will get you some info on how that works.

You should also enable the smooth video setting in the ATI drivers and that will make sure you don’t drop frames because your video card can’t do all the post processing you’ve set in the drivers. 

Check the sharping and noise reduction settings in the ATI drivers.  I prefer those off but some people like them.  Don’t have them turned all the way up.

Then, you need to check the settings on your TV.  Make sure your TV isn’t scaling the picture to create overscan.  There are normally settings called picture size that adjust how much the TV will overscan your content.

Make sure the noise reduction, mpeg noise reduction, black and white balance settings, etc are all turned off or set to their low settings.  Check out AVSforum for specific instructions on what settings your TV should have enabled.  The community there tends to post their picture settings for each TV on the market.

[autoboy]

Netflix via playon on the sagetv extenders works on my 32 inch TV, but on the 65 it can’t keep up with CE devices.  Part of the problem is that there isn’t any HD content for the PC compared to HD on CE devices.

Knowing SageTV it won’t be open to just one vendor.  I would think they would want to go the plugin route so they could support other systems like Amazon video, pandora, etc.

[autoboy]

Netflix via playon on the sagetv extenders works on my 32 inch TV, but on the 65 it can’t keep up with CE devices.  Part of the problem is that there isn’t any HD content for the PC compared to HD on CE devices.

Knowing SageTV it won’t be open to just one vendor.  I would think they would want to go the plugin route so they could support other systems like Amazon video, pandora, etc.

[autoboy]

I’m pretty sure that the HD100 and HD200 do not use the chips that support DRM pathways.  That means you will need the fabled HD300.

Ceten tuner $400
3 HD300s – $600

That’s a steep upgrade for me.  Hopefully the old extenders are able to still play copy freely content.  I don’t have any premium channels that are typically DRMed.

[autoboy]

I’m pretty sure that the HD100 and HD200 do not use the chips that support DRM pathways.  That means you will need the fabled HD300.

Ceten tuner $400
3 HD300s – $600

That’s a steep upgrade for me.  Hopefully the old extenders are able to still play copy freely content.  I don’t have any premium channels that are typically DRMed.

[autoboy]

It isn’t the size that matters, it is the ratio of size to sitting distance.  My 24″ monitor from 15 inches is pretty dang big.  It fills 50% of my view.  It fills more of my view than the 65 from 11 feet.

For the slow paced FPS games I play, bigger is better.  Often times I’m shooting at something only a few pixels big.  And I’m pretty dang good at hitting those few pixels with a bolt action rifle.  You don’t know how to aim until you’ve only got one shot every 2 seconds.

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