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[jmone]

I’m sure others will be using ReClock but I could find no mention on the forum so thought I’d provide a post on this great little filter!

Background - After playing around with my filter selections I was 95% happy with the quality of my Video Output but still had some Video Jitter.  This was especially noticeable on pans and constant moving areas like a "Ticker" running at the bottom of the screen and in particular with my Home DV (in AVI containers).  The jitter was not bad but for me it was distracting and would pull me out of enjoying the show.

My Config – As outlined in a previous post, I use a NVIDIA 6200TC with DVI out to the HDMI on a Yami V2700 then HDMI to a Hitachi Plasma.  Sound is S/PDIF from the sound card to the V2700 with the following additionally installed direct show filters:
- Nero File Source (Async) - manually selected under "Source Filter"
- Nero Splitter - manually selected under "Other Filter"
- NVIDIA Video Decoder - manually selected under "Other Filter"
- FFDSHOW Audio Decoder - gets automatically selected

ReClock - After some searching and playing with options, I found a simple solution at http://reclock.free.fr/ that worked me!  It replaces the "Default Direct Sound Device" filter with its own and according to the very thorough doco removes the Jitter by adjusting and providing a common sync signal between the selected refresh rate of the video card and the media being played.

So in my configuration - I set my Video Card to 1280x720p@50hz (PAL for us down under) and now all my PAL (25/50fps) media (DVD / MPG / AVI & DVB-T Broadcasts) plays perfectly Jitter Free  and for the first time is indistinguishable to CE devices!

Limitations – ReClock needs the refresh rate of your card to be the same or a multiple (eg I could of used 50, 75 or 100hz) of the frame rate the media you are playing to sync it up and remove the jitter.  Now like most people I have a mix of 24/25/29.97/30fps (but by far the most is PAL 25fps material) so the sync is only working on my PAL stuff.   

Feature Enhancement Idea – MC is unique in letting you watch Video’s in either “Desktop Resolution” or lets you pick a specific one (I don’t use this function as the HDMI Sync process takes a few seconds and can sometime fail (very annoying) – also the available resolutions are NTSC focused with no current choices for PAL Resolutions or Frame Rates like 576i/p@50hz, 720p@50hz etc).  However if this feature was tweaked so that there was another option or checkbox added such as “Set Output to Source Frame Rate” (not does not need to change resolution just frame rate) then ReClock would work each time.

Issue – The only problem I now have is the NVIDA drivers keep defaulting to 60Hz whenever I try to enable overscan compensation or full 1280x720 when I select 50Hz……more playing to come 

Nathan

[raym]

Hey! great advice.

You may already know this but one way to get over the refresh rate limitation(s) you've described is by using "Powerstip" (google it) to change your refresh rate from 50hz to xxhz (and back again) as required. Better still, you can wrap these commands within a batch script to automate the process depending on the material you're wanting to watch (ie, PAL or NTSC). I'm also in PAL land and this is what I do whenever I need to switch refresh rates.

I have a bit of an OT question for you... With the resolution you're outputting via DVI-HDMI to your plasma (1280x720p), how does the PC desktop look? Is it sharp? I take it that this is NOT your panel's native res? The reason I ask is I'm looking at purchasing an LCD TV soon but pretty much everything I've read to date on connecting PC's to LCD tvs points to using the D-Sub input rather than HDMI due to scaling problems causing the PC desktop to look bad but video content to look ok. I'm no expert on the subject and would be interested in your findings on this.

Thanks.

[jmone]

Hi raym,

The Plasma is a 1024x1024 (I would now buy a 1920x1080 and solve many probs ).  I run the desktop at 1280x720 but in Windows changed the DPI Setting up by Display Properties--> Advanced--> General--> DPI Setting--> Large-120DPI which makes it all easly visable, sharp and clear.  I am not toooo woried about the desktop as I only use it for config etc.

I've spent the last few hours testing ReClock on and off with the 50Hz setting on the graphics card and while it looks to make an improvement, much of the gain was simply setting the refresh rate from 60Hz to 50Hz.....now if I can only fix the overscan compensation as all my edges are off the screen!

I've heard of Powerstrip but will have to have a play  - thanks!
Nathan