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Tearing/jerking output to TV

Soldato
Joined
14 Mar 2004
Posts
8,040
Location
Brit in the USA
Just revived an old PC to use as a bit of a media center and network backup. Using a Raddy 7000 to output to the TV via S-Video. The image quality is generally very good (much better than I was expecting) but I have one annoying problem when playing movies. During slow pans the image seems to tear and stutter slightly. It's very noticeable if there are any vertical objects in the image against a plain background - you can really see them tear as it pans. It looks quite a lot like a game when you have v-sync turned off.

I'm using a Lite-On DVD-ROM drive and Power DVD software. I've had a mess with the plethora of options in the Catalyst Control Center and Power DVD software, but can't seem to cure it. The TV is just yer bog-standard 21" 4:3 box.

Any ideas on this? The basic system spec is...

Duron 1.2GHz / KT7A mobo
Radeon 7000 AGP
384MB PC133 RAM
Lite-ON DVD-ROM
ATA100 hard disks
WinXP Pro

Cheers :)
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Nov 2004
Posts
9,857
Location
UK
That sounds a bit like dropped frames, sort of thing you get playing NTSC on a PAL display. If you play a NTSC source at 30FPS on a native PAL display which displays at 25FPS then the panning shots show judders or jumping frames. Or it could be the CPU stuggling to draw the frame in time, I sometimes get the same thing if the single core cpu in my HTPC is opening a zip file whilst watching TV in a window. If your watching NTSC DVD/TV then there are ways to sync the frames.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
9 Mar 2005
Posts
367
Location
Birmingham
I have the same problem, looks exactly like a Vsync problem to me, although I can't seem to find an option in control center to set the correct refreash rate for my TV out?
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
14 Mar 2004
Posts
8,040
Location
Brit in the USA
Well I seemed to have solved it, more by trial and error than anything. I think it was either (or both) forcing the secondary display (the TV) to 60Hz or setting composite sync to on. Whatever, it seems to be very smooth now.

Strangely, all of a sudden the Catalyst control center seems to have no control over the video out or TV - I can only seem to change settings (colour, contrast, etc) from within PowerDVD itself. Also, I can no longer see the mouse on the TV screen while PowerDVD is playing, which can be a pain if I need to navigate out. Fortunately, I have a wireless keyboard with media control keys, which works out nice :)

Anyway, it all seems hugely complicated and hit and miss. But I seem to have fixed it. Not sure I could manage it again tho :eek:
 
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