any way to increase image quality and bitrate in Windows Media Center 7?

[Jonz]

I've been looking for a while now, but I can't get any answer I look for. I have a Hauppauge 1850 and it look a bit mediocre in Windows Media Center. I have found my answer in the past but I have to reinstall windows today so I lost every settings I had. The registry modification doesn't seem to work.

Any tips?

[usually_quiet]

I've been looking for a while now, but I can't get any answer I look for. I have a Hauppauge 1850 and it look a bit mediocre in Windows Media Center. I have found my answer in the past but I have to reinstall windows today so I lost every settings I had. The registry modification doesn't seem to work.

Any tips?

By registry modification do you mean the changes suggested in this guide? http://www.nedmug.com/Blogs/tabid/226/PostID/33/Default.aspx#Increasing_Analog_Recording_Quality

...plus using the "Best" quality setting for analog recording?

[Jonz]

yeah I tried that, doesn't do anything. I even set it to 200 to see if I can even see a difference and it haven't modified anything at all.

From the top of my head I think I got that thing working before with a little program that look similar to Hauppauge control panel seen in other capture applications. I just can't remember how it called or where to find it.

[jagabo]

yeah I tried that, doesn't do anything. I even set it to 200 to see if I can even see a difference and it haven't modified anything at all.

Are you recording an analog source or a digital source (ATSC/QAM)? If the latter the bitrate settings will make no difference because the device is simply downloading and saving the already compress video stream from the broadcaster.

What exactly is the problem you are seeing?

[Jonz]

Analog, the image quality is definitely lower than for example winTV because it simply doesn't allow me to adjust the bitrate. Since I don't use winTV I would rather like to make tweaks to make it work on WMC

[jagabo]

Maybe you can use this:

http://www.techlifeweb.com/how-to-use-the-hd-pvr-with-windows-media-center/

That's for the HD PVR but a similar procedure may work for your 1850.

[Jonz]

Thanks, that link did help a bit, the Graph Edit program was that thing I was looking for to play with the drivers settings. Although, I couldn't find any places to adjust bitrate, I could only play with the sharpness and saturation, which is kinda something I could use. Now I realized later that when I was speaking adjusting bitrate it was with my old PVR350, not this device. So I'm not even sure anymore how this device record, or if there's any switch at all like my previous device. Maybe you were right, it cannot be adjusted, or I had some kind of placebo effect.

I wish someone could educate me on this one, I'm not sure if I got all the specs for this device.

[jagabo]

Look for any other Hauppuage filters with Graph Edit. Like CrossBar, Encoder, etc. See if they have bitrate settings.

[Jonz]

Yeah I did, I can't see any switches to adjust the values in most of the tabs you mentionned. I can see something maybe like register values and variables but I am reluctant to touch these. One of them look like dwBitRate 124416000 which looks like a maximum bitrate value.

Maybe instead, I could record a sample and with some tools I can check how much bitrate the sample has recorded? if I can see it already roofed then there's no point for me to adjust the bitrate. The fact I found the color adjustment sliders are already a major step for me.

Edit, nope. I just used MediaInfo and it telling me that total bitrate is 80179kbps which confirms me that the registry modification doesn't do anything. I'm pretty sure this device can go up to 12mbps with MPEG2.

[jagabo]

Use Bitrate Viewer. It reads the entire file, draws a graph, and reports the average and max bitrates. It's much more accurate than a lot of other tools which just read what the headers says.

[Jonz]

ah yes, forgot about this little program. I ran a test and it says an average of 4519 kbps and peak 9261, which confirm my suspicion. I'm pretty sure this card is capable to record at a much higher rate. Even thought I installed the latest drivers from Hauppauge site, it just sound like I'm missing something.

You said earlier that the signal cannot be changed if I'm using Digital. I'm not sure anymore, the box is digital, although the signal is through an S-Video cable which for me sounds analog because the coax already did the digital part in the digital box. Maybe I understood it wrong? Hence why I cannot adjust the bitrate? (still I don't think the S-video is enough smart to detect the bitrate thought)

[Jonz]

Ok, here's a nice update. I found a solution and workaround, althought I was lucky to have a HD PVR2 in my possession, otherwise the drivers wouldn't let me install.

So what I did is pretty much like that tutorial explain, except I have to plug in my USB HD PVR2 in my computer and install the capture drivers. So once it was installed, I could see the bitrate adjustments in Graph Edit for this device. So in the end, the drivers was the culprit, but the original drivers just sucks after I realized you couldn't adjust the drivers at all even with the newest on their site.

The default was variable around 8000 peak. I could max it up to 11000, I could see an immediate difference in WMC. I tried a low value like 1000 to see how far it could goes. And I could see how ugly the image was just to confirm I wasn't seeing placebo.

Now this solution sucks because you need another device to make it happen, but at least I have my workaround.

Edit, it working, but as soon I try to record, the settings goes back on default variable 7500/8250. Looks like I'm not out of the wood yet.

[jagabo]

You said earlier that the signal cannot be changed if I'm using Digital. I'm not sure anymore, the box is digital, although the signal is through an S-Video cable which for me sounds analog

Yes, the cable box has converted incoming digital to analog s-video. If you plugged the cable coax from the wall directly into the 1850 and recorded a QAM channel you would be recording digital -- essentially downloading the already MPEG compressed signal from the cable company. In that case you have no control over what bitrate is used because the cable company controls that.

I have to plug in my USB HD PVR2 in my computer and install the capture drivers. So once it was installed, I could see the bitrate adjustments in Graph Edit for this device.

So you had to install the HD PVR 2 drivers to see the 1850 bitrate settings? That's bizarre. Though this is Hauppauge "we have no idea what we're doing anymore" Inc. so anything is possible.

Now this solution sucks because you need another device to make it happen, but at least I have my workaround.

Are the 1850 bitrate settings still there if you unplug the HD PVR 2? Or does the HD PVR 2 have to be plugged in and turned on? Just curious.

Edit, it working, but as soon I try to record, the settings goes back on default variable 7500/8250. Looks like I'm not out of the wood yet.

This isn't a solution, but try using graphedit to change the bitrate after WMC has connected to the 1850.

[Jonz]

So you had to install the HD PVR 2 drivers to see the 1850 bitrate settings? That's bizarre. Though this is Hauppauge "we have no idea what we're doing anymore" Inc. so anything is possible.

Yes, I don't know what exactly happen, but after the drivers installs, it added supplemental tabs in the device encoder properties in which you can now control sound quality and video.

Are the 1850 bitrate settings still there if you unplug the HD PVR 2? Or does the HD PVR 2 have to be plugged in and turned on? Just curious.

Yes, I was also curious if the new settings will stay put after I removed the device from the computer and indeed they stayed and I could still play with them.

This isn't a solution, but try using graphedit to change the bitrate after WMC has connected to the 1850.

I was doing this as WMC was connected to the device. During the minimized window, I could see changes of the bitrate. But as soon I hit record on my remote control, they change back to the initial settings. They don't change while you stay on the tab, but I could hit any tab and go back to video tab to see the values has changed back to default.

[jagabo]

Can you change the bitrate while WMC is recording?

[Jonz]

Yes, the values stay when I record that's sound promising. I can even see the quality change in the preview window while I record.

The values as soon I do stop recording fall back to default values. So when you record or stop recording, the values reset no matter what. not only the bitrate reset, but also the P Spacing, Horizontal resolution etc.

Edit: there's definitely two default values that can be changed somewhere. If I set the recording quality in WMC recording settings to fair, I could see the bitrate quality way lower than the default. As soon I stop recording, the default are back to 'best' which is variable 7500/8250

[jagabo]

Yes, the values stay when I record that's sound promising. I can even see the quality change in the preview window while I record.

The values as soon I do stop recording fall back to default values. So when you record or stop recording, the values reset no matter what.

That probably means the bitrate is saved in the Registry or an INI file. Finding it is the problem!

[Jonz]

I almost got it, I also thought going back in the registry and mess with the values. After tries and trial, I had the default values changed, but very low! After tries and trial and some reboots I managed to get back the default values like they were but I have no idea how I did that. It like if to make the changes I have to make some random save in the recording settings in WMC, but every time I try my theories it doesn't work. It sounds like something won't overwrite until it not used by the system.

Edit: ah false alert. never went close at all. After a reboot. the default bitrate values in the encoder tab are lower by default before live TV is launched in WMC. Nothing to do with my settings. Once WMC is launched the default settings of 7500/8250 come back.

Edit2: I think I will just settle down for a bit. After many trials, I just didn't accomplished anything. Heck I even installed the supplied WinTV software and like WMC, it offers only 4 switches of quality from fair to best. Looks like the device was not made for tweaking in mind. At least it offer superior quality (I've checked it record at 9000 in the encoder value). Still no hint on how to modify those static values in WMC. The fact my research reveal nothing more than those who modifies registry settings at the same spot, it sounds like I am one of the few who attempted to crack this thing.