munky Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Ok, so here's the situ: I have a hackintosh (third machine listed in my sig) connected to a standalone VGA->Video converter box, which allows me to output a 1024x768 Mac OS X desktop to a standard definition (ie *not* HD) widescreen CRT TV. This works fine, and im using an Apple Remote and twistedmelon's Mira software + Mantra hardware combo to operate Front Row and EyeTV from the couch. So far so good. However, when playing back videos in Front Row (downloaded videos etc which I have converted to H.264 or MPEG4 video and added to iTunes) motion seems a bit... strange, or jumpy. I'm not sure, but i'm wondering if i'm seeing some problems related to interlacing. Horizontally scrolling credits (at the end of Spaced, for example) are unreadable on the TV screen, due to 'combing' or 'mouseteeth' effect. Am I right in thinking I need to deinterlace the video before playing on the TV? I've been looking into the technical aspects of this all, and I get the impression interlacing is used for TVs while progressive (non-interlaced) is best for monitors. Maybe my problem is that the 'mac' thinks its outputting to a VGA monitor but is in fact outputting to a TV. Can anyone shed any light on this? Is there something I should be doing on the mac end to make it think its connected to a TV? Do I need to preprocess all my video files with a deinterlacing filter or something? Help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VooD Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 What you REALLY need if you want to keep the original 60 fps (in ntsc signals) from tv broadcasts is to send 720x480 pixels to your tv and encode your videos without any deinterlacing or stretching. That way every physical horizontal line from your tv will correspond to a horizontal pixel line in your computer, and given that the computer is able to keep perfect timing when playing back your videos you´ll get real 60fps with no artifacts at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 I live in the UK, so its (presumably) PAL i'd want? Tho I think the TV can handle NTSC too.... So you think I should be, for a start, outputting the Mac desktop at 720x480? Also, I have a cable I bought from ebay like this one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VGA-converter-adapto...1QQcmdZViewItem which appears to plug straight into a VGA port and provide Composite and S-Video connections. I'm assuming for this to work, the VGA port would have to be outputting something the TV can understand, right? So if I can force a resolution of 720x480 at 15khz or something it should work? Thanks in advance EDIT: So for PAL I guess it should be 720x576, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-definition_television Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VooD Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Ok, first of all that cable won´t work for you. That cable is meant for special VGA cards which included svhs video output in a couple of unused vga pins. Then, yep, since you are in a pal country you should aim to 720x576, and of course keep the interlaced video you capture in exactly that resolution without any resizing or deinterlacing if you really want to keep the 50 fps. Tough I really think MacOS X is not a good solution as video player at all. You´d get a lot better results using Windows with any of the media player software, or some specially designed Linux distros. In addition to this, since you are in an European country and your tv has presumibly a Scart connection you should be able to connect your pc directly to scart by making your own VGA to Scart RGB cable and then tweaking the video output resolution in windows with PowerStrip. That way you´ll get pure RGB colorurs, real 720x576 interlaced and absolutly the best ever signal you´ll be able to get in your TV. But if you really want a good solution, pick a Xbox console, then install XBMC you´ll never regret, is HUNDREDS of time better than frontrow, iTV or any hardware player, and it plays E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Neo Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Hey munky! I have a quick question: Does sleep and wake work with mira and the apple remote? I have a G4 Cube and a Sumsung 32" widescreen LCD TV, and wanted to use the cube with front row and apple remote. Ah and: Do you know a way to start front row at startup? Thanx cYa ~Neo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 I can sleep the machine using the remote, but not wake it. I boot into eyetv, which has a menu option for front row. i dont know a way of booting into front row, sorry. VooD: thanks for the lowdown, i will investigate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mebster Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 I have a hackintosh (third machine listed in my sig) connected to a standalone VGA->Video converter box, which allows me to output a 1024x768 Mac OS X desktop to a standard definition (ie *not* HD) widescreen CRT TV. I know this is slightly old topic but I've heard that if your TV doesn't have a VGA/DVI input and you try connecting it using other cables (as you are in this case) then the image you project on the TV over time gets burned on to the screen and damages the TV. I can't be 100% sure about this but it always worried me. For this reason I've never tried to see if I can connect my PC to my CRT TV. Just thought you might want to look into that just as a precaution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 thanks aceplayer - i promise not to let my TV burn in hopefully my htpc machine will be running the appletv OS soon enough, and that has a screensaver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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