palmod_config colour settings

Could I get an idea of what people use as their colour setting using palmod_config? The default were just wrong.

It's also help future newbies to have an idea what the correct settings are.
They probably differ based on the input source though.

I have tweaked them but some of the color information seems to be shifted right and down a few pixels. Most obvious on the Sky guide and Cartoons.

I have a Pace Sky box and am using S-Video in and out, so I tweaked the av settings.

This is my current /etc/palmod.conf settings:
brightness=125 contrast=67 saturation=85 avbrightness=120 avcontrast=75 avsaturation=60 screenwidth=480 dualaudioinput=0 tunertype=0 horizontalshift=195

There were the defaults:
brightness=125 contrast=67 saturation=85 avbrightness=125 avcontrast=67 avsaturation=85 screenwidth=544 dualaudioinput=0
tunertype=0 horizontalshift=195

Mine is still a "work in progress". I was playing with the colours etc last night but it is quite a long process adjusting a little here, a little there etc because of the reboots in between. I have just been flicking between the sky video source without the tivo in line and then back to the tivo source etc. I am currently just using composite connections on the tivo as with the other Sky source. I am probably a little fussy as it is looking a lot better but I am still going to keep trying because there is a difference (mainly that "glossy" look you have with sky digital) that seems to have gone with the TiVo in line. I'll advise what levels I finish up with.

Muzza.

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Originally Posted by Wibble

I have tweaked them but some of the color information seems to be shifted right and down a few pixels. Most obvious on the Sky guide and Cartoons.

I have a Pace Sky box and am using S-Video in and out, so I tweaked the av settings.

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You may like to try using the composite output to see if the picture improves. I know S-Video is meant to be better, but you may be a little surprised. It is also very annoying that you must reboot the US TiVo's in order to make changes to the picture... this is not the case with the UK TiVo's running v2.5.5.

With my UK unit I can alter the contrast in real-time using i2c commands, however these are being trashed under the US model by the palmod hack. The following is a session log showing an attempt to set the contrast to #$ff only to have it reset within a second back to the default #$43:

Code:

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# iicset 0x42 0x0b 0xff; iicget 0x42 0x0b; sleep 1; iicget 0x42 0x0b
now set to 0xff
Contents of address 0b is: ff
Contents of address 0b is: 43

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It seems that the palmod module is frequently resetting these values back to the ones that it read from /etc/palmod.conf during system startup... from looking at the code it seems that the values are being set within a couple of "hooked" functions when they could be placed outside of these (allowing us to adjust them in real-time using i2c commands). I will have a look to see if I can alter the module to allow for this... stay tuned...

I'm using the following settings (viewed via SVideo)

brightness=125 contrast=67 saturation=85 avbrightness=125 avcontrast=67
avsaturation=75 screenwidth=544 dualaudioinput=0 tunertype=0
horizontalshift=195

I'll give the Composite a try.

And that i2c sound very interesting. I'll have a look at that too, being able to change the values in real time would be a big improvement :-)

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by thomson

You may like to try using the composite output to see if the picture improves. I know S-Video is meant to be better, but you may be a little surprised.

With my UK unit I can alter the contrast in real-time using i2c commands, however these are being trashed under the US model by the palmod hack.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by thomson

You may like to try using the composite output to see if the picture improves.

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Does the picture improve because the default settings work better for composite than for S-Video?

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Originally Posted by thomson

I know S-Video is meant to be better, but you may be a little surprised.

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Not meant to be better... is better.

Using S-Video as the AV output for the TiVo because the settings aren't right sounds to me like trying to get drunk on water because the last beer you had was flat - if you get my meaning.

To sort this was on my to do list. But just now I'm rebuilding my TiVo in the hope that I can get not a good picture via AV inputs but any at all - yes my TiVo is kaput. I hope it's just software not hardware.

Okay, I have slightly modified the attached version of palmod.o (which should be placed in /lib/modules) so that it will only reset the picture settings when channels (or inputs) are changed. This means that you will be able to use iicset commands to adjust the brightness, contrast and saturation settings in real-time. However as soon as you change the channels it will reset to the values loaded from the /etc/palmod.config file during system startup (this allows you to use different values for the tuner and A/V inputs).

Once you have found the correct settings for your particular system setup then you can use the palmod_config command to adjust the correct values and restart your TiVo.

The following will set the Brightness to 125:

Code:

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# iicset 0x42 0x0a 125

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The following will set the Contrast to 67:

Code:

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# iicset 0x42 0x0b 67

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The following will set the Saturation to 85:

Code:

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# iicset 0x42 0x0c 85

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Ooooh ... Thanks Thomson... I wondered if my last rude post would kick you into action but it seems that as usual you were already wearing your superhero underpants.

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Originally Posted by SeanOffShotgun

Does the picture improve because the default settings work better for composite than for S-Video? Not meant to be better... is better.

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Actually, it is possible that the wiring/shielding/encoder for the S-Video connection is not as suited to PAL output as some people may think, whereas the composite connection may actually provide a better video signal.

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Originally Posted by SeanOffShotgun

like trying to get drunk on water because the last beer you had was flat

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It is just as easy to get drunk on water as it is on land :) Also, from a medical point of view it is possible to get "drunk" on water, as drinking large quantities can reduce/dilute your blood sugar to such a level that you feel "drunk". :cool:

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Originally Posted by thomson

Actually, it is possible that the wiring/shielding/encoder for the S-Video connection is not as suited to PAL output as some people may think, whereas the composite connection may actually provide a better video signal.

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Are you talking specifically about the TiVo here?

On your other points.... OK you win.... again.

:)

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I am probably a little fussy as it is looking a lot better but I am still going to keep trying because there is a difference (mainly that "glossy" look you have with sky digital) that seems to have gone with the TiVo in line

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You'll never get that sharp image with a Series 1 Tivo, the MPEG compression used by the Tivo degrades the image (& sound) quality quite noticeably.. The newer "DirecTIVO" units don't re-compress but just store the digital stream so there is no change in quality.

Composite ...

brightness=125 contrast=70 saturation=75 avbrightness=125
avcontrast=67 avsaturation=85 screenwidth=720 dualaudioinput=0
tunertype=0 horizontalshift=195

I've got my screenwidth set to full PAL horizontal resolution ... anyone else doing this?

Whoo whoo, thank for the mod. It'll certainly speed up the process :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thomson

Okay, I have slightly modified the attached version of palmod.o (which should be placed in /lib/modules) so that it will only reset the picture settings when channels (or inputs) are changed.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by DJC

I've got my screenwidth set to full PAL horizontal resolution ... anyone else doing this?

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Hi DJC,

I've tried setting to full resolution (720x576) in conjunction with my Saturn set top box. But I get a video flickering at the bottom of the screen in both live tv and recordings.

Not sure wether it's something with the TiVo not liking the set top box video or something else. So for now I'm set on 544x576. I'll be trying full resolution on Saturn Digital Cable when it becomes available.

If you're going to look at increasing the capture resolution you'll probably need to increase the bitrate as well. Otherwise you're just be squeezing more resolution into the same size pipe. This will result in as many if not more artifacts.

I've increased the bitrate rather than the resolution at this point on the basis that the mpeg2 compression trying to squeeze things into the given bandwidth may be the greater factor affecting quality.

Found my TiVo started stuttering slightly during fast-forwards at around 6200000 and during playback at 6500000. This represents about a 5-10% increase which is pretty marginal considering the increase in resolution from 544 to 720 represents something like 30% more data being squeezed into the pipe.

Guess it comes down to whether a limited sampling resolution has a greater impact on quality that the mpeg2 compression being asked to squeeze things down more.