Comparison: Hauppauge PVR500 vs LG RC7000B

[Caple]

Well, I have the devices mentioned above and never did a comparison. Now there I formatted my computer and have the Hauppauge drivers set to default I decided to do it.

I have an almost crappy analog cable source, so the image is not great, but I think it's still worth the comparison.

The Hauppauge drivers used are version 2.0.48.25037, from the LiteCD 2.7.25057 you can get on SHS forum. Hue, saturation, brightness, noise removal, nothing was changed. The values on the procamp are:

Brightness: -12
Contrast: 121
Saturation: 0
Hue: 113
Sharpness: 4

Temporal filter is set to 8 and Spatial filter set to 0.
I didn't change anything, those are the default values after installing the drivers.

My analog cable is connected though coaxial on my LG recorder. The Hauppauge svideo input receives the signal from the same LG recorder.
I started both recording on the same time.
On the LG recorder I used XP profile and on WinTV application I used CBR 12Mbit profile.

The proprierties for the Hauppauge capture, using MediaInfo are:

Format               : MPEG-2 Video
Format/Family        : MPEG-2
File size            : 3.12 GiB
PlayTime             : 34mn 58s
Bit rate             : 13 Mbps

Video #0
Codec                : MPEG-2 Video
Codec profile        : Main@Main
Codec settings/Matri : Custom
PlayTime             : 34mn 58s
Bit rate             : 12 Mbps
Bit rate mode        : CBR
Width                : 720 pixels
Height               : 480 pixels
Aspect ratio         : 4/3
Frame rate           : 29.970 fps
Standard             : NTSC
Chroma               : 4:2:0
Interlacement        : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)   : 1.159

The proprierties for the LG capture, using MediaInfo are:

Format               : MPEG-2 Video
Format/Family        : MPEG-2
File size            : 2.43 GiB
PlayTime             : 35mn 5s
Bit rate             : 9926 Kbps

Video #0
Codec                : MPEG-2 Video
Codec profile        : Main@Main
Codec settings/Matri : Custom
PlayTime             : 35mn 5s
Bit rate             : 9396 Kbps
Bit rate mode        : CBR
Width                : 720 pixels
Height               : 480 pixels
Aspect ratio         : 4/3
Frame rate           : 29.970 fps
Standard             : NTSC
Chroma               : 4:2:0
Interlacement        : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)   : 0.907

The shots were made using VirtualDubMod version 1.5.4.1 build 2178 and saved as PNG.
The first one is from the Hauppauge, the second from the LG.

I'd love to read your considerations

http://www.vetorial.net/~caple/comparison/comparison.htm

Thanx.

[mats.hogberg]

Well, for the images that do show (in some cases one of the images aren't available) I like the Hauppage images better. Higher contrast, higher detail, higher color. Some may be due to the higher bitrate, which biases the comparision.
Could you do a test using exactly the same bitrate?

/Mats

[jagabo]

The black level is off on the LG recorder.

[Caple]

Yeah, I can set the Hauppauge to capture at ~9bmps too.
I may do some tests with VHS tapes too.

About the black level, I believe there's nothing I can do. The recorder does not offer advanced options :/

Thanx for the replies, both of you

[Caple]

I bought this DVD recorder mainly to transfer VHS tapes to DVD. But, as almost all tapes do not have an exact time (like 1 hour, 2 hours), I end up capturing on my computer to be able to fit a DVD without leaving any space left. To get the better quality possible.
If I sell the LG recorder, I would like to buy a SVHS VCR, to use svideo (the svideo seems far better than the composite inputs on my card), but I can't find a SHVS VCR that will accept PAL-M signal. I use the recorder as a tuner.

[jagabo]

Yes, black level is a problem on many DVD recorders. As far as I know, the only thing you can do is use an external proc amp to pull the incoming video down to IRE 0. You can't do that if you're using the internal tuner of course.

Otherwise the two look comparable. The DVD recorder may have a built in TBC. If so it would look better with VHS tapes.

A temporal filter value of 8 on the PVR-150 is pretty high. I would use a lower value when recording cleaner sources. You'll get smearing with in the shadows or in dark movies.

Thanks for the comparisons. It's always nice to see examples.