How do you rate FTA to PC quality wise?

[airgator96]

Does FTA though PCI to an HD TV look better than, FTA receiver to TV? Or do you consider it about the same.

And does anyone know what 4-2-2 from pci go out of the pc to hdtv as? 480I? 1080I? or somewhere in the middle?

 

[timmy1376]

I think it varies channel by channel, some are very good quality, some are very compressed. The FTA HD feeds look great.

I think the 4:2:2 goes out however you have your rez set to go out to the monitor.

 

[airgator96]

I think the 4:2:2 goes out however you have your rez set to go out to the monitor.

I don't quite understand what you are saying here?

 

[voomvoom]

I'll have to say I don't have a clue. I say this because I have two BUD's and two 1.2m's (ku only) currently being used for one Pansat 3500s, one Coolsat 5000, one Quali-tv (for HD & 4:2:2), and one Twinhan 102g ( also for HD & 4:2:2). All four can get C-band from either BUD or ku from all four dishes. Each piece of the puzzle has it's +/- factor for each receiver and there are times when each receiver may give a better picture quality than the other three. But, all in all, nothing beats the HD pictures for best picture quality. Sometimes the Quali-tv is better and sometimes the Twinhan is better. Also I have two tv's, one is 61" 720p and the other is 70" 1080i. When a picture is broadcast in 1080i, it looks better on the 1080i set, and when a picture is broadcast in 720p, it looks better on my 720p set. But, regardless, they look excellent on either set.
4:2:2 goes out in 4:2:2, whether it's passing through a computer or a set-top box (Quali-tv). 4:2:2 has something to do with the color codec's and if it's being used, then that's what passes through.

Al

 

[timmy1376]

I don't quite understand what you are saying here?

If you have your pc set to a certain resolution, like 1280 X 720, then that is what is fed to the HDTV. 4:2:2 doesn't really have anything to do with the resolution, if I am not mistaken.

4:2:2 can be a SD signal, or a 720p hd signal, or a 1080i signal.

 

[mark_calgary]

Two reasons why FTA through my PC+DVB card has a better picture.

1) I've scaled the PC desktop to slightly less than 1920x1080 to compensate for the TV overscan so I see the entire frame when in full screen mode.

2) PAL feeds are not smooth and have the right side and bottom cut off due to the differing resolution vs NTSC when I use any of my Fortec Ultra, Pansat 2500, or Pansat 3500 receivers to view them. Even my really cheap DVD player does a PAL to NTSC conversion right. The PC, on the other hand, displays them perfectly.

I can't see much difference between the picture quality between any of my receivers on SD FTA vs the PC. I use svideo for the receivers and DVI for the PC. All look absolutely crisp on my Sony 60" LCD RPTV. Beyond the differences in brightness/contrast which can be adjusted, side by side it is a toss-up which is better.

 

[PSB]

MUCH better, I used to install DirecTV HD, but there is NOTHING quite like FTA HD on a PC screen right up against your face!

 

[digiblur]

My jaw still drops when I see a 1920x1080i 4:2:2 35mbps FTA feed on the 57inch HDTV with the 6.1 sound system filling the room with 5.1 audio!

 

[FordPrefect]

I will see when I finish with my DreamBox PVR project, I suspect that PC based FTA is just as good or better, of course this will be subjective choice for each individual, just as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”…I have not decided what HDTV or monitor I will use, with my setup I should be able to view on both HDTV and regular PC LCD monitor or regular CRT monitor (Viewsonic PT815-1800 x 1440) at the same time.

 

[Shawn95GT]

It's probably because of my LCD panels, but for some reason 720p always shows scan lines in the picture. My Terrestrial ATSC tuner does the same thing so I'm used to it. 1080i looks flat out amazing.

 

[Larry1]

FTA PC and FTA USB (same thing really) picture quality all depend on your codecs used to decode the picture, computer power, video card, connection from video card to the monitor and the monitor to tv itself. With the set top box, you are confined to what the manufacturer has in hardware and software and have no ability to upgrade any of the conponents. A computer with a poor video card, or poor codec may not look as good as a stand alone box.