Recording Pay TV (Austar) Again!

[armiller45]

In my earlier post I was puzzling over how the picture from Austar was better quality when connected directly to the TV via S-Video than via Composite to the LiDiC.

The answer turned out to be the composite connection. Once I dispensed with that and used the S-Video to the LiDiC I obtained a better image, but not great!

I still need to retain the Austar connection to the LiDiC and would like a direct connection from Austar to TV. To this point in time I have not been able to find an S-Video splitter (not Jaycar or Dick Smith or Sturmans Electronics). I can get a switch (about $80).

Before going down that path I decided to get another S-Video cable and connect from the LiDiC to the TV. Instant improvement in image quality!!! Austar on the TV is now sharper, better focussed and text on the screen is clear and sharp.

So now the question is, why is the Austar picture better when passed through the LiDiC than through the BW which is connected to the TV with HDMI?

I can only assume it's in the BW settings (?) but am not sure which.

My AV Output settings are:
Current Video Mode PAL HDMI 1080i YUV709
TV Aspect Ration 16:9
16:9 Display Format LetterBox
Video Type PAL
Component Video 720p
HDMI Video Auto
Audio Format Passthrough
S/PDIF Enable

Can anyone see anything in these settings which should be changed? Any other advice or ideas greatly appreciated.

This is driving me crazy!

BTW I have spoken to both Austar and Sony.

[IanSav]

Hi Armiller45,

We can't see what you are seeing but perhaps the image is degrading after the compression being applied by the LiDiC? I never noticed this when I tested a LiDiC for a friend but I don't know what you are seeing. I did notice issues with the image brightness. Bright parts of the image flared and were indistinct.

There are no controls to adjust how the LiDiC performs. Perhaps we may get some in the future that will help allow us to adjust how the LiDiC is set up and performs.

Regards,
Ian.

[tonymy01]

I don't have a LIDIC to know how it works, but I would think the image you get out of the digital (USB) side of the LIDIC has been sampled and possibly compressed to MPEG4 already (and possibly sampled to a progressive standard, this is another point of possible artifact additions as it requires a bit of smarts to de-interlace, esp if the broadcaster is mucking with the scaling of the material at their end), and then because your Wiz is 1080i, is also then rescaled (upscaled) to 1080, and turned back into interlace again.
Upscaling an ordinary image will look even worse than showing it at its native resolution.
The TV is likely just taking the 625i PAL signal and using its own internal scaling to display the interlaced standard definition signal, so will look a lot better than resampling to progressive (and probably less than 720x576 resolution, right?) and then upscaling and converted back to interlace by the Wiz, not to mention the signal has also been compressed more than it originally was through the MPEG4 compression process.
Regards

[netmask]

When transferring poor quality material off VHS I've observed the resulting LiDiC file subjectively looks better than the original. Mucking about in Vegas and a few plug-ins it seems the gamma transfer setting in the LiDIC is responsible for the changed balance of the image and by happenchance is an improvement .The change of aspect ratio from 4:3 to 5:4 is not so good but that can be fixed in post production...

[armiller45]

I take it from the responses that you guys see nothing wrong with the settings I have in the BW and that there is nothing there that will improve things.

I think I understand the comments about the image via the BW being compressed and then upscaled. If that's the only explanation it's a bit disappointing that the resulting picture is lower in quality than the direct feed. Perhaps one of the disadvantages of being an early adopter.

Sony more or less said that the TV was more advanced than the Austar signal being transmitted. "Wait until Austar catches up!"

I really appreciate everyone's comments and support.

[netmask]

I take it from the responses that you guys see nothing wrong with the settings I have in the BW and that there is nothing there that will improve things.

I think I understand the comments about the image via the BW being compressed and then upscaled. If that's the only explanation it's a bit disappointing that the resulting picture is lower in quality than the direct feed. Perhaps one of the disadvantages of being an early adopter.

Sony more or less said that the TV was more advanced than the Austar signal being transmitted. "Wait until Austar catches up!"

I really appreciate everyone's comments and support.

It's the LiDIC that is processing and compressing the signal from whatever external source Austar or your VHS machine etc not the BW. A number of us have issues with the LIDiC choice and implementation of the codec and file type it uses. To my mind it should have been bog standard MPEG2 transport the same as the BW notwithstanding the few gigs you save using MP4 Transport format.

I have transferred the same material via the LiDIC, a USB Dvico MPEG2 capture device and a DVD recorder and the LiDiC material looks subjectively better (dealing with poor VHS material to start with) so it minimises the post capture processing I would normally do. (adjusting gamma, contrast and brightness etc)
Anyway hopefully future firmware updates might improve things.