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Grainy DVD?

post #1 of 10
3/9/03 at 6:58am
Thread Starter 
I have noticed on my 8887 when I'm playing a DVD (I have the Matrix in) the video seems really grainy. Anyone have any idea why this is so? This is especially noticable on black or dark colored background. It's simply not "crisp". This is true using both WinDVD and NV-DVD.

I have the stock drivers preloaded on this thing with XP Pro.

I think they are dated 11/7/2002.

I'm also running DirectX 9.

Any help would REALLY be appreciated since how I can't seem to use the S-Video to play this on my TV, for some reason it won't show DVD on my TV even with the S-Video in, even though the rest of my desktop shows up fine.

I sure hope someone can help!

Thanks!
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post #2 of 10
3/9/03 at 12:31pm
I don't have my laptop with me at the moment, but you need to go to the ATI control planel, and click on the little dot icon for the TV under the display menu (choose LCD, TV, monitor)... this will take the video from the LCD and the TV.
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post #3 of 10
3/9/03 at 3:28pm
Vex, how close are you sitting to your LCD? What I noticed is that it does seem to look a little grainy when you are real close to it. I think the reason for it is not a lack of detail, but too much detail. All of those pixels are showing up and when you are close you can see all of them. When you back-off it doesn't look that way. If you get real close to a TV it does the same thing. Unless you are talking about blockiness. If its blocky instead of grainy it may be another problem.
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post #4 of 10
3/10/03 at 3:50am
Dvds are designed at 720x5-something res. Since your display has over twice the pixels as the dvd, it's going to look grainy. Try setting the resolution to around 800x600 then watch the DVD at its full size, not stretched. Should look good. I dont have my sager yet to try, hopefully tuesday. (HURRY IT UP, UPS!)

-Gumpan
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post #5 of 10
3/10/03 at 1:44pm
Quote:
Originally posted by BazooDJG
Dvds are designed at 720x5-something res. Since your display has over twice the pixels as the dvd, it's going to look grainy. Try setting the resolution to around 800x600 then watch the DVD at its full size, not stretched. Should look good. I dont have my sager yet to try, hopefully tuesday. (HURRY IT UP, UPS!)

-Gumpan
DVDs have 500 lines of resolution.

LaserDiscs have 550 lines, and VCR tapes have 200 (or so).

Digital television (satellite & some cable) has 500 lines.

I don't know why the industry still refers to it as "lines" - obviously left over from the TV days where everything was fired from the electron gun in lines across the tv screen.

-myrkat

PS: so, yes, when you have a 1600x1200 native-rez LCD, to get full-screen TV/DVD/etc the picture needs to be artificially "inflated" - much like ZOOMING way in on a graphic image; the computer "guesstimates" the pixels' color/lum/etc.
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post #6 of 10
3/10/03 at 3:07pm
actually, i just got my 8887 and put in Austin Powers 3 and was amazed at the quality of the video... It was the best looking dvd i've ever seen on a computer.
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post #7 of 10
3/10/03 at 5:20pm
Quote:
Originally posted by themysteryman83
actually, i just got my 8887 and put in Austin Powers 3 and was amazed at the quality of the video... It was the best looking dvd i've ever seen on a computer.
HAHA!

That was the same DVD that I played for my first movie in my 8887-X !

I meant to only watch a little bit to test out playback and software, etc., but I got carried away and watched all of it (again).

-myrkat
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post #8 of 10
3/10/03 at 6:01pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Abaddon
I don't have my laptop with me at the moment, but you need to go to the ATI control planel, and click on the little dot icon for the TV under the display menu (choose LCD, TV, monitor)... this will take the video from the LCD and the TV.
In other words, make your TV the primary monitor, and the LCD the secondary monitor. (DO NOT confuse this with the extended desktop feature in Windows, that's a different animal. The TV will still be a clone of the LCD.)

Then, you may have to experiment with the correct resolution to get the best display on your TV (I use 1024x768). (When running in this mode, the LCD image runs in native resolution, but does not use the full screen size.) Setting the resolution any higher than this will not 'sharpen' the output on your TV, and will result in parts of the image 'falling off' the edges of the TV screen.

Good luck!

-iNJ
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post #9 of 10
3/11/03 at 6:46am
Thread Starter 

YAY!

Thanks guys!!!

This fixed the problem, I wouldn't have guessed I had to set TV as primary, now I can watch movies on TV!!!


As always, this forum rocks.


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post #10 of 10
3/11/03 at 2:15pm
Glad to hear that was solved... but yes, that's one thing I don't like about a tv tuner on an LCD screen... it can look icky when you maximize because the native resolution on the LCD is nothing like tv resolution. In any case, it looks fine, just not great if you stick your face up against the screen :-)
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