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[mschneid]

I finally got around to using media center on my Plasma 720P TV for videos with an old dell running XP. (intel extreme graphics 2)

Most of the video format  suck with a vertical bar of  green lines in the center of the picture and constant flashing of ghost images and flicker.   
I think video was better back at Media center 16 when I played some videos back then on the plasma.  Then I started geting the vertical green bar artifact and stopped using this setup for videos.

So today... I discovered that I can eliminate the headache inducing flicker artifact by forcing the display settings to 800x 600 x 32 x 75 hz.  from default desktop settings (which is 800 x 600 32 x 75)

I had always assumed that my video card was not up to speed (Old XP dell box)...  some films have more of these artifacts then others.

However, when I use the Connect Media feature (New to me) and play music videos... Everything looks great.  Down load the video and play it back and I have the same artifact  problem.... green bar of lines down the center of the screen.

I must have something set incorrectly... What should I do?  Using the standard Red October setup  and non of the tweaks that I make seem to solve the problems.

I notice that checking crop video buttons can eliminate the picture entirely

I usually have a green horizontal artifact bar at the bottom of every video.... sometimes you can crop that off...

I am not sure how to event think about this problem.

help?

[yannis]

All of this seems to be related to the combination of refresh rate and file frame rate. You need to set your video card to send a proper signal to the TV. On my Pana PX80 I can get get away with using 1280X720x32X60. Then in MC>Tools>Option>Video you set the same value as default, select RO ST and tick Video Clock.  Start playing a few files and if your problems persist, untick the Hardware Acceleration.

It's better to have a column displaying the FPS of the file and note which files present a problem. Then you could use MC>Tools>Option>Video>Display Settings to sort out the specific frame rates.

BTW, do you have a dual monitor configuration? If yes, is your desktop extended or cloned? Have you tried changing this setting?

[mschneid]

Thanks for the suggestions...

None of the settings seem to make a difference here.

I did notice that  while none of the video is super clear (ghost images on occasion)
There are just a few terrible formats.  that have the lines forming a bar dead center of the screen.
352 x 480 ifo format and 352 x 288

608 x 256 yuv 420p to 608 x 480

644 x 260 yuv 420p

664 x 268 yuv 420p and  664 x 274 yuv 420p

672 x 288 yuv420p

710 x 480 yuv 420p

720 x 304 yuv 420p   To 720 x 576  yuv 420p

848 x 480 yuv 420p

Working with accepteabl amount of video artifact are resolutions
640 x 250 yuv 420p  to 640 x 480 yuv 420p and lower resolutions
694 x 480 yuv 420p
702 x 394 yuv 420p
704 x 480 yuv 420p
815 x 464 yuv 420p
1024 x 576 yuv 420p
1280 x 544 yuv 420p to  1280 x 720p yuv 420p

JRiver fixed a math error  on video calculations for XP vid drivers  before... I wonder if this is related.

[yannis]

How do you connect your PC to the TV? Is it a VGA to VGA cable or a DVI to HDMI?
What model is the TV?
Depending on the connection, you should check the TV manual to see what resolutions are officialy supported; report them and we'll take it from there.

[mschneid]

Thanks again
Using a VGA cable to VGA input on the pioneer selectable from the remote.

I swapped out the XP box with an old Vista HP laptop.....   No problems playing any of  my files  and they looked great.....

MC worked instantly with the default Video settings.  No hardware accelerate ticked, no Video clock ticked, no display settings..enable automatic display settings ticked.

I conclude that the files, Pioneer TV  and cabling are fine.

I suspect the problem is a quirk of XP and their video drivers.  JRiver found and fixed a video problem where you could not bring up the large cover art pic with the view first file cover art.... something about a math error I believe.  That was a bigger problem for how I use JRiver in this setting.

The puzzle is that internet downloaded video looks fine.

I just installed VLC player and that player has no problems...  so... its a work around but outside of JRiver.

I suspect a lot of folks are re-purposing an old PC for their media servers which raises the question  how much legacy support is needed?.

If the Video card and drivers are a mess to sort out... I wonder if there is a cheap video card upgrade for these old boxes that would meet a current performance standard.  (lots of ways to skin a cat as they say)

[yannis]

VLC has its own codecs & stuff "embedded", so it's not affected by the Windows' problems. MC, if you use a recent version, should also run smoothly, as RO ST works in a similar way. The fact that streaming video is ok but local files are not is a telling sign, but I'm not savvy enough to read it. It seems like a splitter or DirectX issue (?).

To eliminate possible factors, are you sure you've not left some advanced setting active in your Options>Video>Video mode  ?

To cheer you up, if no alternative is found, I think you can still call VLC to play your files from inside the Theater view.