Best settings for manual video output

wfdTamar · Post by **wfdTamar** » Mon Nov 14, 2016 08:26

I want to use the upscaling of my video processor which would be better quality than the Beyonwiz, so need to know what is the best setting for each of the resolutions here (i.e. closest to the original source) - Settings - AV Setup - AV Settings.

In most cases you have a choice of i or p (like 1080i or 1080p), so where the source is i or p I've picked the same as the output. Bit unsure when it doesn't have an i or p, or what implications the Hz has. Here's how I've set it. Have I got anything wrong?

480 24Hz as 480i
576 25Hz as 576i
480 30Hz as 480i
576i 50Hz as 576i (broadcast SD)
576p 50Hz as 576p
480i 60Hz as 480i
480p 60Hz as 480p
720 24hz as 720p
720 25Hz as 720p
720 30Hz as 720p
720 50Hz as 720p (broadcast 720 HD)
720 60Hz as 720p
1080 24Hz as 1080i
1080 25Hz as 1080i
1080 30Hz as 1080i
1080 50Hz as 1080i50 (broadcast 1080i HD)
1080 60Hz as 1080i

I'll mostly be dealing with the broadcast TV, but what about say a 1080p media file? There is no 1080p mentioned (as source resolution) or would that automatically be output at 1080p?

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Mon Nov 14, 2016 09:13

wfdTamar wrote:Have I got anything wrong?

It depends if the resolution or the cadence is more important to you.

In the case where you have selected "480 24Hz as 480i", your 480 signals are going to be output at 480 lines at 60Hz. Similarly for 576 25Hz as 576i but worse because 25 and 60 don't go together well.

If the output resolution is missing the frequency, then you can assume that it is 60Hz.

The problem is, that many of those odd modes don't exist in the HDMI standards, so there is no way to pass them unaltered at the original resolution AND framerate. Something has to give.

wfdTamar wrote: I'll mostly be dealing with the broadcast TV, but what about say a 1080p media file? There is no 1080p mentioned (as source resolution) or would that automatically be output at 1080p?

The 1080 50Hz and 1080 60 Hz settings are the relevant ones there. It doesn't matter if they are p or i in those instances, because there is no output processing to do. No matter what your scaler is doing, a 1080i50 and 1080p50 file being output at 1080p50 will be handled exactly the same if it is done in the BW or in the scaler.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Mon Nov 14, 2016 09:26

wfdTamar wrote:I want to use the upscaling of my video processor which would be better quality than the Beyonwiz

Maybe, but possibly not. The T4 has a pretty good image processing engine and it has access to a lot more information during processing than just the pixels. It can do things that an external processor can not.

wfdTamar wrote:In most cases you have a choice of i or p (like 1080i or 1080p), so where the source is i or p I've picked the same as the output. Bit unsure when it doesn't have an i or p, or what implications the Hz has. Here's how I've set it. Have I got anything wrong?

480 24Hz as 480i
576 25Hz as 576i
480 30Hz as 480i
576i 50Hz as 576i (broadcast SD)
576p 50Hz as 576p
480i 60Hz as 480i
480p 60Hz as 480p
720 24hz as 720p
720 25Hz as 720p
720 30Hz as 720p
720 50Hz as 720p (broadcast 720 HD)
720 60Hz as 720p
1080 24Hz as 1080i
1080 25Hz as 1080i
1080 30Hz as 1080i
1080 50Hz as 1080i50 (broadcast 1080i HD)
1080 60Hz as 1080i

I'll mostly be dealing with the broadcast TV, but what about say a 1080p media file? There is no 1080p mentioned (as source resolution) or would that automatically be output at 1080p?

Those are not very good choices. If you take a careful look, you will see that all modes that are not specifically interlaced are assumed to be progressive. In case where there is the same mode available as both progressive and interlaced, each version has the corresponding p or i suffix. By converting to various interlaced modes you are throwing away up to half the picture. Combine this with frame rate conversion (possibly multiple times) and you are making things look worse than they would have been if you just converted everything on the T4 to 1080p output.

You should keep the same frame rate and i/p settings whenever possible, since temporal image processing at more than one stage is not a good idea. Presumably your video processor will be more than keen to stick it's hand up for this task. At the end of the day, if you are doing this for picture quality reasons, then you need to do some subjective tests and see what combinations work for you.