So I recently have gone thru the joy of setting up my first media center. There have been some great forum posts and faqs that have helped my optimize my system so far. My only gripe was that I couldn't find one place with a lot of informatin and I would have to either read 17 pages of a forum post, or troll the web looking for 1 tidbit here or there.

 My picture clarity is still not perfect. I'd say it's 90-95% of what it was with just the set top box (STB). I do think I've got my color clarity pretty close, if not better to be honest since I never paid as much attention to it.

So here it is, a list of items I have implemented I feel successfully. Hopefully this list helps someone like me who was so frustrated in the beginning at the obvious people (MS, video card manufacturers). Let it be known that I use an ATI card, so some of these items will not work with everyone.

1. Download and install and run DXVA Checker.

2. Enable TRDenoise and set to 0. Enable DXVA_DetailEnhance and set to 0. Enable UseBT601SC and set to 1.

3. Open REGEDIT. Create the following keys and values if they do not exist or modify them if they do.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Debug\ehPresenter.dll\BoundByNativeSize (DWORD) = 0

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Debug\ehPresenter.dll\NominalRange (DWORD) = 1

4. Many have said that connecting the TV Tuner card to the STB via SVideo instead of coax cable (regular tv cable wire) will improve the picture quality, but that wasn't an option I had.

5. In the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) v9.8 (use the most recent version from the amd website) in Graphics - Avivo Video -All Settings enable edge enhancement and denoise, but keep them as low as possible. My edge enhancement is set to 20, and my denoise is set to 5.

6. In CCC make sure Enable Dynamic Contrast is not checked.

7. Set the resolution on the screen you will be watching media center to as high as it will go. Some may say this isn't right, but it definitly worked for me. Especially for football.

8. When making changes to your system create a restore point!!! I can't stress this enough. It helps so much.

9. Remove the KB966315 update. This screws up the vmc (vista media center) configure your tv video.

10. Upgrade the driver for your TV Tuner.

That's all I can remember for now. I'll update this as I remember so more.

 If anyone can give me and everyone else here some tips to get my picture clarity up to 100%, that would be appreciated.

Great work!

This should be required reading for anyone with an ATI card.

tollanarama:

Great work!

This should be required reading for anyone with an ATI card.

But it makes you wonder why anyone would buy an ATI card if you have to go through all this. 

 My nvidia card just works.  Or is it that I'm just less picky and what looks fine to me drives someone else crazy.  I cant tell the difference between the TV's built in tuner and MCE.