HTPC - TV Tuner Reviews
by Jarred Walton on December 7, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
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Image Quality Comparison
Comparing image quality among these cards is inherently a subjective task. Without investing in hundreds of dollars of hardware, you can't do a direct side by side comparison of the same video. In our last TV tuner round-up, Anand used content from CNN, since it loops about every 30 minutes. I'm less of a CNN-type person, so I choose to use content from various football games for the samples. Football has the added advantage of providing fast-paced video. Watching the camera pan down the football field stresses the codec, and you get the added benefit of being able to find many football games broadcast in 1080i and 720p HDTV.
Starting with the analog content, we have six sample points: FusionHDTV; MyHD using the Sempron, 4000+ and the X2 3800+; and finally two from the Theater 550 Pro. We set all configurations to use the best encoding possible, though the MyHD was CPU limited when running without the X2, resulting in very low encoding settings.
Looking at the full-size images, it should be pretty obvious that the Theater 550 provides the best analog quality. The MyHD, analog quality is terrible on the 4000+ and even worse on the Sempron. However, the quality using the X2 is actually very good. The Fusion5 analog quality isn't bad, but one thing that the image can't convey is the audio. All of our analog captures using the Fusion5 have a high-pitched squeal throughout the video. This appears to be a problem with the Fusion HDTV software, so using a different application should fix the issue. As we've already hinted, analog only users will definitely want to get a quality analog card as opposed to something like the Fusion5 or the MyHD. That brings us to the HDTV captures.
There really isn't a whole lot to say about the digital quality of the cards, other than that HDTV images are vastly superior to any analog/SDTV broadcast. As long as the card can receive the transport stream, the quality should be identical to any other card that can receive the transport stream. The card doesn't have to do any encoding, so if the signal is clean, the quality is exceptional. We didn't get an example of the Fusion5 capturing 1080i content, but there shouldn't be any difference from the MyHD capture. What we did provide is an upsampled 1080i sample. Needless to say, if you start with a 480i video, more than doubling the resolution isn't going to provide a clean result.
Incidentally, if you do get a card that can record digital transport streams, you might want a cost-effective way to play the videos on another HDTV. A $500 computer could probably get the job done, but you might not want another PC. Here's a home theater device that can play DVDs, DivX files, MPEG-1/2, and WMV9 (unprotected) videos. It can also handle TS/PS files (which are just a variant of MPEG-2). More importantly, it can do all this through the 10/100 Mbit network connection. If there's enough interest, we'll try to get one for review.
Comparing image quality among these cards is inherently a subjective task. Without investing in hundreds of dollars of hardware, you can't do a direct side by side comparison of the same video. In our last TV tuner round-up, Anand used content from CNN, since it loops about every 30 minutes. I'm less of a CNN-type person, so I choose to use content from various football games for the samples. Football has the added advantage of providing fast-paced video. Watching the camera pan down the football field stresses the codec, and you get the added benefit of being able to find many football games broadcast in 1080i and 720p HDTV.
Starting with the analog content, we have six sample points: FusionHDTV; MyHD using the Sempron, 4000+ and the X2 3800+; and finally two from the Theater 550 Pro. We set all configurations to use the best encoding possible, though the MyHD was CPU limited when running without the X2, resulting in very low encoding settings.
 MyHD Sempron |
 MyHD 4000+ |
 MyHD X2 3800+ |
 Fusion5 |
 Theater 550 |
 Theater 550 |
| Click on images to enlarge. | ||
Looking at the full-size images, it should be pretty obvious that the Theater 550 provides the best analog quality. The MyHD, analog quality is terrible on the 4000+ and even worse on the Sempron. However, the quality using the X2 is actually very good. The Fusion5 analog quality isn't bad, but one thing that the image can't convey is the audio. All of our analog captures using the Fusion5 have a high-pitched squeal throughout the video. This appears to be a problem with the Fusion HDTV software, so using a different application should fix the issue. As we've already hinted, analog only users will definitely want to get a quality analog card as opposed to something like the Fusion5 or the MyHD. That brings us to the HDTV captures.
 MyHD 720p |
 Fusion5 720p |
 MyHD 1080i |
 MyHD 1080i - upsampled 480i |
| Click on images to enlarge. |
There really isn't a whole lot to say about the digital quality of the cards, other than that HDTV images are vastly superior to any analog/SDTV broadcast. As long as the card can receive the transport stream, the quality should be identical to any other card that can receive the transport stream. The card doesn't have to do any encoding, so if the signal is clean, the quality is exceptional. We didn't get an example of the Fusion5 capturing 1080i content, but there shouldn't be any difference from the MyHD capture. What we did provide is an upsampled 1080i sample. Needless to say, if you start with a 480i video, more than doubling the resolution isn't going to provide a clean result.
Incidentally, if you do get a card that can record digital transport streams, you might want a cost-effective way to play the videos on another HDTV. A $500 computer could probably get the job done, but you might not want another PC. Here's a home theater device that can play DVDs, DivX files, MPEG-1/2, and WMV9 (unprotected) videos. It can also handle TS/PS files (which are just a variant of MPEG-2). More importantly, it can do all this through the 10/100 Mbit network connection. If there's enough interest, we'll try to get one for review.
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Brian23 - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link
I'm supprised more people aren't talking about this. I haven't downloaded them, but I assume they are recordings of OTA broadcasts. If that's the case, then I'm suprised Anandtech posted them. In the news section they're always posting stuff about how people are getting sued for sharing movies. Most of the movies out there on torrents have been broadcast OTA at some point which would make them public domain. Everyone is so quick to judge someone when they post a torrent of something, but mysteriously no-one has said anything about this yet.JarredWalton - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link
They're basically 30 second clips demonstrating analog/HDTV videos. If anyone wants to come after me for posting sample content... wow, they have way too much time on their hands. I guess I didn't bother to get "express, written consent" though....Brian23 - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link
I don't fault you for posting this, and I don't think you need express written consent. I think the whole lawsuit thing over p2p file sharing is a bunch of crap. My point I was trying to make in my previous post was that I was suprised that no-one was was posting anything about copywrite violations. Normally the people here at Anandtech scream and yell if there's something being distributed that's copywritten, no matter what it is. I think people should be able to share stuff that they recorded from OTA.valnar - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Perhaps I missed something in the review, but what's the point of posting screen shot comparisons of a transport stream? They would all be identical across all the cards, unless there were bit errors in the stream. Of course they all look good! They should also look the same too. The only way to show a difference would be through a video card, such as a particular ATI or nVidia in either overlay or VMR9 mode. Or with the hardware output of the MyHD series of cards, which is vastly superior to the software based cards. If you have an HDTV and have used the DVI or Component out of the MDP-1xx, they are fantastic. Of course, a screenshot wouldn't show that. Maybe a digital photo or something(?).It should also be noted that watching HDTV on overlay is a big no-no. The overlay was never meant to register more than 540 lines of resolution. While deciding between overlay or VMR9 for DVD (740x480/NTSC) watching is a matter of religious debate, overlay can never resolve HD properly. I would submit that the reviewer possibly didn't see any of those cards in their full glory.
-Robert
xtknight - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Where is this overlay limitation stated and what happens when you go above said lines? I'm sorry but I find that hard to believe. SIL overlay vs. SIL VMR9 looks the exact same to me as I remember it. What does 540 lines mean? What resolution is the max (x by y)?JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
I'm a little confused by this overlay limitation as well. I mean, obviously the Fusion5 only works through overlay, but the video stream is transferred digitally from the TV Tuner to the graphics card. There should be no limitation other than bandwidth, I thought? Maybe I'm using the term "overlay" incorrectly here?As for the HD images, I mentioned that they are all identical for TP captures. They were included to show people exactly how much data HDTV contains (and how much better looking HDTV is) relative to analog/SDTV. The upsampled SDTV image is also there to show how poor that looks in comparison to a real HDTV stream - and I get far too much upsampled content on most HD channels.
valnar - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link
These limits are discussed in all the usual forums, like avsforum.com.JarredWalton - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link
Link please? I just don't see how the hardware overlay interface on your video card could possibly be limited to only 720 x 480. Windows Media Player uses the overlay mode for playing video. Last I checked, it's fully capable of playing 1080I resolution. NTSC signals have nothing to do with overlay mode inside computers.valnar - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link
It not limited per se, but you won't see much of an improvement at a rez above 540 lines horizontal. Everything (like WMP) can use the Overlay, but if you were to truly show a video in 1080P mode, for example, it wouldn't be as sharp - because of most video card overlay limitations. It's hard to explain, as the resolution of overlay is more an "analog" style of limitation, to use that metaphor inaccurately. It simply doesn't resolve the detail of HDTV, period. Get a 100" screen and a projector and it becomes obvious. Forgive me for not being able to articulate it, hence my recommendation to visit Home Theater/HTPC specific forums.xtknight - Thursday, December 8, 2005 - link
I can't find anything about this limitation with google or avsforum search. Are you mixing up overlay with interlacing? It would be nice if you could provide us with a link because we effectively have no clue what you're talking about here...