View source for Pvr-150 picture quality guide

[[Category: Hardware]]
[[Category: TV Cards]]
{{merge|Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE}}
{{versioninfo}}
== PVR-150 PICTURE QUALITY GUIDE ==

The PVR-150 is one of the most common devices used to capture live analog TV broadcast. 
After weeks of searching the internet and trying various settings I have finally got to a point where picture quality is almost identical to the picture you get watching your set top box connected directly to you TV.

The first thing you need to take into account is that the picture quality is vary much dependent on the type of connection you are using on the card. I received the best results using the S-VIDEO connection, how ever it is a good idea to experiment with the various connections because in different countries there are different broadcast formats and you might find that using a different connection works better for you.

'''These settings should stop the OSD from tearing, how ever, at the time of writing this these settings do not survive a router reload.'''

# Launch MythTV, got to the '''Utilities/Setup --> Setup --> TV Settings --> Playback'''. On the first screen you'll see several options:
# Deselect the '''Deinterlace''' option. 
# For '''Preferred Decoder''' choose '''libmpeg2'''
# Select '''Enable OpenGL'''. 
# After that keep clicking '''next''' until you get to the last screen and click '''finish'''. Failing to do so will leave your settings unsaved. The next step is vary important as it is dealing with the picture quality and is the reason for writing this tutorial.
# Still in the setup menu go to '''Recording Profiles --> Mpeg2 Encoders --> Default'''. The reason to use the default profile rather then the high quality one is that they are basically all the same until you change them.  I always use the default one because I always want to get the best picture quality I can.
# On the second screen - '''picture size''' choose at least '''720X480'''. Depending on your country, using a larger resolution might give you better quality so try it.
# On the next screen: For '''Stream Type''' use '''DVD-Special 2'''. 
# Set the regular bitrate to '''8000''' 
# Set the max bitrate to '''12000''', which the highest bitrate the card can handle.
# Once again, go thru all screens until you get to the last one and click finish.

You should now have a pretty good picture quality which is pretty close to direct TV picture quality (at least on my system).