Cant hit 23.976 Hz with Nvidia GTS 450 and Panasonic AE4000U Projector MPC-HC w/MadVR

[LordX2]

My quick system specs:
Panasonic ae4000u 1080p projector
Denon 2808 AVR
HTPC w/ Nvidia GTS 450 Video

I simply can not make the video card hit 23.976 when I try to customize it - and I have had it hooked up 2 different ways. The first was DVI to HDMI in the beginning, and now it is straight HDMI through the Denon AVR. Both ways have had the same issue.

When I set the Refresh rate on my Video card to 23Hz - I get 23.9777. When i go to CUSTOM Refresh, and try 23.976 - I get an error that it was not compatible with my display! So I have gone to 23.975 which actually gives me 23.9738 (or 23.974 rounded). So each of these options are about equidistant from 23.976 and I get roughly the same amount of dropped frames (around 6 per hour).

I know that this is not terrible - but I actually notice the lost frame every now and then, and it ruins my movie watching experience.

I have turned off the 'frame repeat' option on this projector - because I didn't like the 'soap opera' effect that it was having on the movies.

So - anyone else run into this issue with an Nvidia card? Is there a way to tweak it to 23.976 even with this error?

Also - if I simply can not get this video card to output at 23.976 - are there some options on the projector that can help me not notice the dropped frames so much? Does frame repeat look soap opera like if the refresh rate almost matches the movie?

Thanks for any insight!

[6233638]

Output 24.000 to get the original film framerate back (assuming your sources are US 23.976 and not international 24.000 releases) and use ReClock to avoid dropped/repeated frames.

[madhatter300871]

Hi

I had the same challenge as you. I have a Sanyo Z4 720p projector. Spent a long time tweaking both the PC, the projector and the screen and, in the end, I have a truly outstanding end result.

I also wanted to input 23.976 into the projector. It accepts pretty much any frequency I throw at it. The main reason I wanted to display at 23.976 was so I could feed my external amp with the original DTS audio. However as it turns out this was just not meant to be (for me at least). I did manage to output 23.976 quite easily on my Nvidia 8400GS and my projector accepted it no problem, but I had screen tear on playback, top third of the screen. I tried everything; interlaced, progressive, 48HZ, 47.952Hz, 24Hz, 23.976HZ, 72Hz, different renderers, different resolutions... I really did put a lot of time into this.

I think the main thing I learned (for my setup at least) is that, even though the projector happily accepts pretty much any frequency refresh, and the Nvidia happily outputs pretty much any frequency refresh, best results where always obtained by having the movie playback at (and hence the Nvidia have a refresh rate of) a multiple of the projector native refresh rate.

My projector is most happy with either 50Hz or 60Hz refresh. If I play at 23.976, output at 60Hz, I can see the classic judder every second. I don't like the effect of 3:2 pulldown (telecine), I seem to have one of the sets of eyes that are sensitive to it, but I do get to output the full DTS-HD soundtrack to my amp.

Not happy with the judder, I set my Nvidia to have a refresh rate of 50Hz, the projector natively accepts this. I use reclock to speed up to 25fps and re-encode to AC-3 on the fly. I must say, with a quality DTS audio track, the re-encoded AC-3 is top notch. I use both ffdshow and LAV as my decoder, depending on what mood I am in, both seem to perform flawlessly (to my eyes at least). I use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema as the player and MADVR as the renderer. I get a frame drop rate in the region of 1 frame every 5 hours or something like that. My screen is home made, 107 inch, MDF board painted with a special mix of Leyland cream and an auto metalic silver (Got the details from Doom 9 :)). The finish is a light grey, colour reproduction is (to use an american-ism) awesome !

My home cinema, if I say so myself, gives a top quality movie experience :)

Hope this helps.

[pirlouy]

Top notch ? From 24 fps and DTS-HD source, you end up with 25fps and AC-3.

Let's be honest. If your projector is not able to handle a multiple of 24Hz without problem, then it's not a good output. I though one advantage of projectors was the fact it often can output 96Hz...

At least, you could avoid the loss of DTS-HD by letting Windows decode it and output multiple PCM to your HT stuff.

[6233638]

25fps is far more preferable than 60Hz 3:2 judder. Having this option with a HTPC rather than being stuck with 3:2 judder is a much better experience.

Yes, native 24p would be ideal, but things are not always ideal in this world. There are a number of older projectors out there that still put out a good image, but don’t have 24p support.