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Xidus
16th April 2002, 18:57
I upgraded from a TNT to a gf4 mx440, and for one video playback looks noticably worse. A quick search turned up this thread, which mentions different cards may use different resampling methods when playing video full screen.

Video cards: bicubic resampling / Mod32 / VIA chipsets (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12507&highlight=video+playback+bilinear)

What I'm thinking is that my old TNT used bilinear sampling and the gf4 mx uses bicubic, which would explain the differences in playback quality. The thing is, I liked the bilinear. It hid alot of the imerfections. I've been encoding clips from tv captures all this time with the TNT thinking "tra la la, this looks great. No artifacting", then I watch them with the gf4 mx and the blending that was covering up the artifacting is gone. I now see all the macroblocks in horrid detail. Am I right in this line of thinking, is it different sampling methods causing the differences in playback quality? And if so, how can I force other methods used (like if I wanted to go back to bilinear)?

theReal
18th April 2002, 20:06
you could try other drivers for the card. The drivers that came with my card (ATI Radeon 7500) were really bad for watching video in lower resolutions (some kind of horizontal lines were drawn in the picture, almost like interlacing artefacts). I thought it was the card's fault and I had to watch all videos in 1280x960 to keep the picture smooth. The next time I updated drivers, all these issues were gone...

I'd also recommend watching divx in lower resolutions, something like 640x480 or 800x600. It hides a lot of imperfections as well (especially at 640x480 when the divx is in a 640x... resolution)

Xidus
19th April 2002, 15:44
I did try a number of different drivers with no difference in video playback quality. While watching videos in lower resolutions would help a bit it is still worse than the old TNT. For some reason it just doesn't look as good than the old card.

theReal
19th April 2002, 15:57
I have to add a stupid remark here, sorry ;)

"Buy an ATI or Matrox card and none of those nvidia 'performs best in 3DMark but is good for nothing else' cards"

Don't take this seriously, please, just kidding :)

rui
23rd April 2002, 14:51
But what you said is very true!

I have a Hercules Geforce2 at home, but here at my work i have a Matrox G200. This matrox card is an old one, but i must say that it displays a hell of a lot better image than my more recent Hercules Geforce2 at home.
A friend of mine has a ATI Rage 128 Pro, which has also a superior image compared to my Hercules.
And since not everyone is a gammer, i would say that matrox/ati really rule when video display quality is involved.
And if one is a gammer, than he/she just has to buy him/herself a ATI 7500 card, or preferably a ATI 8500 card ;)

theReal
23rd April 2002, 15:04
And if one is a gammer, than he/she just has to buy him/herself a ATI 7500 card, or preferably a ATI 8500 card
I'm playing games sometimes, but I'm much more into video-editing, -capturing, -watching than into gaming, plus I'm a student and don't have money to burn, so I bought an ATI Radeon 7500 :)

iamsparticuz
6th May 2002, 20:03
When I first got my gf3 i had the same problem. Get tvtool and you can tweak it from there, i got it almost looking perfect.

twist2
11th May 2002, 02:17
i experienced similar things upgrading from my trusty tnt2 to a gainward gf4 mx440.

my percieved flaws, (in xp running microdvd) were that the playback was "choppy" .
but the newest detonator drivers fixed that , and i'm pleased as punch. i don't notice any artifacts , or any more artifacts at least.