TV-out when watching DVDs on G400 is 'grainy'

[jd]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone out here has seen or has any ideas what my problem could be:

I use my G400 to watch DVD movies on my TV over a 12ft SVideo cable (However I also get the same probs on a 12 ft composite (RCA) cable). I am using the Matrox DVD Player and the supplied cinemaster engine (1.029). I have tried various cinemaster engines as well as DVD region selector settings and I still have the problem.

Okay, here's the problem
The picture looks perfect on the monitor, however on my TV it looks 'grainy'. For example, on a scene that is all black (ie, the credits are scrolling), I see very small squares of dark grey speckled throughout the scene. Even during regular scenes it doesn't look clean. For the life of me, I'm sure it used to look much much better but can't seem to remember what I did to make it become bad. Things I've done lately include installing/running the shareware powerdvd, updating to the 1.036 cinemaster engine, 'registering' a directshow filter in Win98. I can't see how any of these could affect the TV-out quality.

From what I can tell, it seems like whatever scaling is happening in the TV-out portion of the card isn't very good anymore.

Has anyone seen anything like this or can offer any suggestions?

much thanks...

------------------
-JD
P3-600
G400
128MB
Intel SE440BX2
Win98

[Grego]

It could be the length of your cable, I have no problems at all watching dvd's with my g400dh, and I have a lousy tv! Try moving your tv closer to your computer, thereby shortening the cable.

Hope this helps
Grego

[xortam]

jd, You shouldn't notice any problem with a 12ft SVideo cable (I've uses one for another connection). It does degrade when you start getting over 20 feet and you should then consider other media.

It would probably be still worthwhile trying a minimal length cable to make sure you're still seeing the same thing. You could always have a bad cable but I doubt it since you saw the same thing on the composite cable.

[This message has been edited by xortam (edited 03 November 1999).]

[jd]

I don't think it's the cable either. I can pause the movie and move the cable around and the picture doesn't change, the 'specks' and graininess stay in the same places and do not
move.

It looks like some kind of scaling is occuring. For example, I'd get a similar thing happening if I incorrectly setup the dualhead to 'select size based on video source' instead of 'select based on video window size'. I think somehow, something is scaling the video incorrectly when outputting to TV. It's really starting to bug me. I'm considering doing a fresh Win98 install on a blank harddrive I have laying around just to test this out...

thanks for the suggestions though




------------------
-JD
P3-600
G400
128MB
Intel SE440BX2
Win98

[xortam]

jd, Sounds like you've played with these DVD settings more than me. I still get some jittering in the start of "Matrix" (see http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/005679.html). I haven't noticed any difference when changing most settings but I need to play with it some more. I've monitored this with a 6 foot RGA attached 13" TV and a 50 foot RG6/QS coax w/ RGA adp. attached 50" RPTV.

[jd]

Just refreshing this topic to see if anyone has any ideas about my graininess problem. After reading a few webpages about DVDs, it appears this qualifies as an 'artifact'. Where the picture appears to be grainy/blotchy, especially in dark scenes. This is exactly what I have here. A suggestion is to turn down the sharpness on the TV if it is not a DVD source problem. I've tried that, but it still looks bad, and with the sharpness turned down, fuzzy.

Again, this is only on my TV using DVDMax, it looks fine on the monitor (though a bit too dark).

Does anyone have any ideas (ie a different engine/player, different dvdmax settings, different dvdgenie settings, etc?)

Does the resolution/color depth of my monitor have anything to do with the quality of the tv-out?

any help would be appreciated!

thanks!

------------------
-JD
P3-600
G400
128MB
Intel SE440BX2
Win98

[smokva]

Are you sure it's not Macrovision problem.
If it is try Cinemaster engine v1.028 to disable Macroprotection

[agallag]

Smokva could be on to something. Is your s-video cable going straight to your tv, or is it going through a vcr or a/v receiver first? Try running straight from your g400 to your tv...