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The Green Button » Media Center 2005 and Earlier » Hewlett Packard MCE » how is your z555?

how is your z555?

Last post 11-21-2008, 1:44 PM by daler. 30 replies.
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  •  01-22-2006, 2:54 PM 91585

    how is your z555?

    The LiveTV quality of my z555 on standard TV is sub-par.  The picture is 'fuzzy' and overall poor, both for Live and recordedTV.  PC desktop, DVD playback and HDWMV are fine.
     
     I've warranty replaced the PVR500MCE card with no effect.
     I've reloaded the machine
     I've tried all the latest drivers and updates and nVidia Pure Video.
     I've tried every adjustment /tweak I can think of and have found on the web
     A standard TV on the same cable drop does not have any issues
     
    I'm curious if anyone else has z555 and is seeing TV quality issues? 
     
    My issue is expecially visible when watching the 'shopping' network or similiar.  Below is a screen cap.  Notice how text on the screen is barely readable.  The picture also 'vibrates' and shimmers slightly making it extra fuzzy. 
     

  •  01-22-2006, 3:08 PM 91587 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    Same Basic Issues, because i cant run in High Res on my Plasma due to the DVD protection on component video with High Res. All showed up in SP2.

    I have cruddy audio as well on some channels and great on the Dish XM channels.  I am contributing it to cruddy broadcast audio and video to start with.

    Garbage in Garbage out.

    HP z555
    Cinenova Grand 5ch & 3ch 300w x8

  •  01-23-2006, 5:25 AM 91680 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    Damm..... This is not good.  How can they put out a product that gives a picture like this? 
    I haven't tried component connection.  I've tested with a 19" LCD at 1280x1024 via SVGA cable and a 32" LCD TV at 1388x768 (tried both a SVGA cable and a DVI to HDMI cable).  All attempts looked about the same.  Tried a number of different resolutions.
     
    As always PC desktop, DVD's and WMV all look great. 
     
     

  •  01-23-2006, 7:53 AM 91716 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    I've noticed that my LCD TV does tend to display more artifacts than my CRT HD set.  In terms of cable - well - the Z555 does just about as well as the native HDTV (Advent 27") in terms of raw NTSC cable.  I mean, it ain't great - but it's OK...

    The OTA HD looks pretty darn good.  Again, via the CRT.  The LCD just has tons of artifacts in the darker areas - and gets pretty washed out.  And if there's any light in the room?  Fuggetaboutit!  The CRT wins hands down.

    I think your display issues have more to do with the display device than the Z555.  I mean, if you rip a DVD, and go ahead and push out 720p or so, I'll bet it looks pretty darn good!  Same for HD OTA stuff.  Mine is very crisp, and nice.

    Having said that - I DID have to ship mine back to HP to replace a failing HD and a riser card.  I think these units have been giving them fits, because they were more than happy to send Fed Ex to grab the box.  1 week later I got it back, and everything has been fine...  YMMV.

    JR

     

  •  01-23-2006, 4:45 PM 91808 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    I've tried a 19"CRT with the same result so I don't believe its a LCD induced artifact.  I might warranty the whole box but I'm hesitant to believe HP will 'correct' the issue since it seems like all the 'z' series have a similiar issue with standard NTSC over cable.  I really think this is a decoder or filter issue since it appears even on recorded TV watch that watched on a completely different PC.
     
    When using the nVidia PureVideo decoder I can see a definite, but small, quality improvement when changing the De-interlace control to "Film" which means no interlacing applies.
     
    I'm going to keep searching and tweaking for awhile longer.

  •  01-23-2006, 10:21 PM 91838 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    Your MPEG2 decoder (DVD decoder) has a huge effect on this. Download and try a few of them until you find one that looks good. I've tried 3 or 4, settled on Intervideo's DVD Xpack decoder.

  •  01-24-2006, 8:10 AM 91902 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    I've tried Intervideo, Cyberlink and nVidia PureVideo decoders.  All give exactly the same result.  I've spent maybe 40 hours on this now and have given up and called HP for warranty work. When the shipping box arrives I'm going to include screen captures and explicit detail of the issue.   Must be bad hardware.  Might be bad video card???  Bad MB, who knows?
     

  •  01-24-2006, 1:45 PM 91947 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    Yeah - HP has had all kinds of trouble with the Zs - it's a shame, cause it's a great form factor, and it has the "potential" to be a nice product.  Still, after going round with them for like 2 days (Restore DVD wouldn't install the drivers, etc) they had a Fed Ex truck at my door - and now I'm very pleased with the system.

    Maybe attach some screen caps so we can see what you're talking about?

    Good Luck!

    JR

     

  •  01-25-2006, 7:01 PM 92142 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    I hope I have similiar results when I get mine back.  I've had the PVR500MCE in it replaced by both HP and Hauppauge so its not the card (unless there is a design flaw in the card).
     
    You can get more detail on my issue at
     
    It looks like the screen cap was lost in the above post.  Here is another one.  Notice the text and how blurry it is.  Looks like an interlacing or Chroma error of some sort. The entire image 'shimmers' and is just unwatchable.
     
    The most frustrating part is my old 900Mhz generic PC with a PVR250 card running GBPVR has a much better TV picture than my z555 on the same cable drop and on the same monitor.
     

  •  01-26-2006, 6:03 AM 92207 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    I've recently started running my system full time at either 1080i or 720p.  When I do, and when I'm watching standard cable (NTSC) I, too, see blurring, and interlacing artifacts all over the place.  I've resorted to running my NVIDIA TV desktop at 480p for normal cable - and bumping up to 720p or 1080i for HD content.  When I use the 480p settings for "normal" tv programming, everything looks fine.  In this case - "fine" - means it looks as good as my HDTV does itself displaying raw RF cable plugged directly into the TV...

    YMMV

    JR

     

  •  02-08-2006, 10:10 AM 94121 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    The saga continues....

    Well I just got my z555 back and the report says they replaced the video card and reloaded the machine.......it still has the same issue.  Lousy TV picture.  The TV picture on my 32" LCD using the built in tuner is much better than TV image from the z555 on the same LCD.  And I've tried multiple (LCD, CRT, etc) monitors, resolutions, codes, tweaks, etc with no luck.  Spent maybe 60 hours now trying to fix it.  Its completely unsuitable for watching on any size screen.

    I have called HP again and they are taking it back...again.  Maybe they can fix it this time.  I'm including a CD of recorded TV showing the issue and have asked them to call me before they ship it back.  I don't want it back unless they can prove that it is working correctly.  Or they send me a newer model.

  •  03-01-2006, 11:48 AM 96882 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    I've gotten my z555 back and it still has the same issue so I sent it back again and HP replaced it with a brand new z556.  But guess what, it still has the same issue!!
     
    So I decided to do some indepth troubleshooting.  I ripped out the PVR500MCE card and replaced it with a PVR250BTV card (aka 'Roslyn') I had in a tower PC running GBPVR.  I found that the poor TV quality issue disappeared and TV quality was substantially improved. 
     
    I also tested with a Hauppauge PVRUSB2 MCE tuner and found the TV qualily very good, not anything like the crap I've been seeing with the PVR500.
     
    I then installed the PVR500 card in an old tower PC and ran it with GBPVR software.  The resulting TV image was subpar and identical to what I have been seeing in the Z555 and the new z556. I have had the PVR500 card replaced 4 times now so its not a bad card but, I think, a design flaw or a driver issue.  It must be aggrevated by something in my local cablevision signal since I haven't seen anyone else complain about this exact issue.
     
    I'm talking with Hauppauge now on swapping it out for two PVR250MCE's.  Since I'm not using the ATI HD card I'll just replace it with the second PVR250 so I have dual NTSC tuner capability.  Now I think I can finally have a system I can put on my 32" LCD.

  •  04-04-2006, 4:35 AM 101107 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    Just thought I would update the forum on my z5xx systems as I've had several PM's on this topic,
     
    I complained to HP very loudly about my TV quality issue and HP sent me a brand new Z556 PC to replace my z555.  When I hooked it up guess what I found?  The same exact issue of poor TV quality, both recorded and Live.  I did the below testing and replaced the z5xx cards with store bought MCE cards(different models cards).

    Issue tested for: z5xx Poor Live/recorded TV quality.  Pixel 'shimmering', drift, etc.  Entire picture looked poorly defined.  Much worse than SDTV.

    Results:

    PVRUSB2 in Z556 - The picture was much, much better than the PVR500MCE and the Z540 running a PVR150MCE.  SDTV quality

    PVR250BTV(Roslyn card) in Z556 - The picture was much, much better than the PVR500MCE and the Z540 running a PVR150MCE.  SDTV quality

    z556 PVR500 card installed in a generic tower with GBPVR on XP - Exhibits the same poor picture issues as the PVR500MCE in z556 and the PVR150MCE in the z540.  Bottom line:  The issue followed the card!


    The PVR500MCE was replaced three times in the original Z555 and now I have a brand new Z556.  That means the issue has been seen in 4 different PVR500 cards.  I think this indicates either a design flaw in the PVR150/500 series and/or a driver issue.


    I contacted Hauppauge and they agreed to swap my existing PVR500 and a spare 150 card (I had from a different PC) for two PVR250MCE cards. Great service from Haupp.  The PVR250MCE is a slightly different card than the PVR250BTV card I tested with but nothing that I was worried about.

    Final installation was a bit of a hassle.  I had to remove the ATI HD card and redrill the back tuner cover plate to accomidate the different hole pattern of the PVR250MCE (the other PVR250 fit just fine in the PVR500 holes).  I also had to re-splice the front A/V cables to match the different A/V header pattern on the PVR250(not the same as the PVR500/150). I can't seem to get the FM radio to work but don't really care about that feature.

    In addition I'm using the latest nVidia PureVideo codec which makes a noticable difference (set it for 'film' mode). I bought the $20 base version.

    I'm sure all the above voids the warranty but I got a the original z555 as a refurb and can't beat the price.  And since HP sent me a z556 I actually have a brand new PC.

    Also, I am using the 'volume tracker' utility to allow my remote to control digital audio volume.  Works great.  Much easier than having to reprogram the HP remote to alter the amp volume or run all 7.1 analog lines.

    I'm not sure why this is not a more widespread issue as I was able to prove the issue was the 500/150 card series. Maybe the comcast signal or tuner freq's are slightly 'off' in my area and aggrevating an issue rarely seen?
     
    I just wish the damm thing worked out of the box like its supposed to.

  •  04-17-2006, 7:44 PM 102960 in reply to 91585

    RE: how is your z555?

    My Z555 has been randonly locking up lately and would not boot at all today. I unplugged the power cord, turned it back on and (I'm not making this up) saw a flame inside the machine. I blew it out through the exhaust cover in the top. I opened it up and found a giant burn spot on the video card. I am assuming this was the problem all along (I hope). In any event, I am trying to find a replacement and want to know if the generic half height cards (Nvidia 6600) have the same connectors as the OEM version. There is a huge price difference between the HP replacement part and the generic ones but I want to be sure I can actually connect the VGA and svideo to it. Anyone dealt with replacing this before?

  •  05-03-2006, 2:12 PM 112447 in reply to 102960

    Re: RE: how is your z555?

    The EXACT same thing happened to me yesterday..after speaking with customer service/tech support  I got kicked up to the "safety department"..and I talked them into sending me a replacement video card(they wanted me to send the whole unit LOL) I should be receiving my card tomorrow..But I kid you not, the flame thing..EXACTLY..I think if you stress the "fire" they will give you a new card!!! Good luck
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