[mythtv-users] Slow Performance - Improving Picture Quality

Bruce Markey bjm at lvcm.com
Sat Mar 22 12:49:50 EST 2003


William Preston wrote:
>>Broadcast NTSC or PAL is crappy. Resolutions beyond a width
>>of 480 just give a more perfect reproduction of the crappy
>>picture. I believe this is why the commercial products use
>>widths from 352 thru 544. Higher widths are a waste of disk
>>space for no real perceivable quality improvement.
> 
> 
> I know that's the theory of broadcast NTSC/PAL signals, and I know it's
> also the reality that anything over 480 is overkill.  But I've found that
> on my setup (BT878 card), using MP4, I get a better image by capturing at
> 720 horizontal.  Everything in the image seems a lot sharper to me.

Yes, it is going to be better. The question is if it is enough
better to justify using the resources. If the files are
twice as big, would someone prefer a slightly better picture
or twice as much recording time. Since the commercial products
advertise their recording capacity, they tend to stick to
'good enough' resolution.

Also, if I connect a DVD player directly into the S-Video input
of a capture card, higher resolutions up to 720 are obviously
clearer. With coax cable, the law of diminishing returns rules
and I don't know if I could distinguish 640 from 544 in a taste
test.

--  bjm




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