[mvoosten]

hi,

xbmc has some very nice features and is much more user friendly then xbmp.. though xbmp has something over xbmc that brings me back often to xbmp over xbmc and that is the far more superiour image quality of video's.
is it just me or does xbmc show more divx artifacts then xbmp. the video's in xbmp look much more crisp and smoother (read no color banding etc) then in xbmc.

m.

[Frodo]

i didnt notice that, and a good friend of mine who's very picky on these things didnt either
but what do others think?
is xbmc video quality worse then xbmps?

ifso pls note:
- if you're using pal / ntsc
- if you're using postprocessing on both xbmp/xbmc
- if you're using xtra postprocessing in xbmp
- what resolution are you viewing the movie? (you can see this by pressing a while viewing the movie)
- try calibration to (0,0) - (0,0) in xbmc. does that help?

frodo

[Rtificial]

i also noticed the differnce in quality. i use xbmp as well as xbmc, and i am more impressed by xbmp's video quality.

i use pal, no postprocessing, calibration has been done, and experience the difference with every movie so far (several resolutions/codecs)

as mentioned by the topic-starter, xbmc has far more artifacts then xbmp...

[mvoosten]

as for more info, i'm using the folowing config myself:
- pal (pal 60 enabled)
- no post processing on both xbmc and xbmp
- all movies are affected so far as i can tell
- 0,0 calibration i have to try.. but they are both callibrated to show within the normal boundries.

[Frodo]

k, i really would like to solve this. but i gotta be sure
that you're using the same parameters for both xbmc/xbmp

1.xbmp doesnt support pal60 so try disabling it in xbmc

2.by calibrating to (0,0) - (0,0) you make sure that
the video output doesnt get scaled.

3.make sure that the 'soften' setting is off in both xbmp/xbmc

4. disable 'choose best video resolution in xbmc'

5. xbmc standard runs in 720x576. make sure xbmp does 2



now about the quality.
can you describe the difference between xbmc/xbmp?

is it:
- clearer / more detailed
- less softened?
- less blocky?
- plays smoother/less choppy?

what do you mean with artifacts?
- strange colored blocks appearing randomly ?
- a colored horizontal line ?

it would help me a lot if we had an example movie
which clearly (and i mean clearly) shows the difference.

if you have such one, pls upload it to
http://www.xboxmediaplayer/it/upload

(max. like 25 megs)

[mvoosten]

hi frodo,

ok, all suggestions done and difference still shows.
i've uploaded a video file as you requested.
at the beginning of the fragment watch for example when the guy and woman embrace each other, on the richt side next to the heads you will see a brown wooden wall that shows the difference in quality good.
in xbmp it appears almost smooth brown (with offcourse the material structure) while in xbmc it shows blue'ish glares and it just doesn't look smooth.
also you will probably notice the brighter view of the fragment in xbmc compared to xbmp.

overall it's more clearer/detailed/natural looking.
if you need anything more, let me know. hope this helps.

[Frodo]

k, i got the example
now tell me the time i should look at cause the man/women are hugging the entire example
(play file in windows media player to get the time)
are we talking about
00:04?
00:05?
00:10?
00:14?
or?

btw i added more advanced postprocessing settings to xbmc yesterday so ppl can choose whether they want:
- vertical deblocking and to what degree
- horizontal deblock and to what degree
- deringing
- auto levels (contrast/brightness)
- deinterlacing

maybe with these options we can get things better

frodo

[MrMario64]

ok, i did some fast testing myself now.

i tested a movie with black background and static text.
then a scene unfolds from the middle.

xbmc settings:
postprocessing on, the rest auto (23-12 cvs) no smoothing, linear filter
the black looks ok at first but you see some darkgreen/gray blocks
when the scene unfolds you see a noise trail coming behind the static text.

xbmp settings:
postprocessing 1 on, rest off
the black looks good, little blocks
when the scene unfolds there is no trail, all looks very good

this made me realise there is indeed a difference between the to with my current settings. i dely more blocks cided to return to default settings with all stuff off. no postprocessing whatsoever on both players.

xbmc all off
the black looks mighty fine!!!!!?, even better than xbmp with pp
also when the scene unfolds there is no sign of a trail!!

xbmp all off
the black looks good, slightly more blocks
scene unfold looks very good

conclusion:
xbmc with postprocessing on is worse than xbmp
xbmc without postprocessing was better than xbmp without postprocessing and about the same as xbmp with postprocessing 1.

i did not play with smoothing.
hope some more people can test this,

did you mess with a ! somehwere frodo where you really shouldn't have

[Frodo]

mrmario64,

pls share this movie with me. i can/will test it with mplayer itself as well and if you're right then there's a bug in the mplayer code
frodo

[MrMario64]

ok, it's uploaded.
you can ask me for more details if needed..