Nvidia Drivers 304.79 & Arcsoft TMT5 Latest Patch 5.3.1.146

[newfiend]

Ok.. Here's what I found... (at least for me... your mileage may vary) But this happened to me so I thought I would try and save a few some headaches..

As we all know the Nvidia GT430 has been plagued with crappy driver builds as of late.. all of them having some sort of 29/59 flicker issue.
I have been using the BETA driver 290.53 with good results (no 29/59 flicker) I also posted on how to implement Ian's workaround from WEC that worked with the last driver build 301.42.

I saw a post by another person that they were running Nvidia BETA Driver Build 304.79 with no flicker. I can confirm that this driver works fine with no sign of 29/59 flicker. I ran a test with my test file (clone wars) and executed the 411 Info screen to verify the changing frame rate and absence of flicker.

What brought me to this driver build was that Arcsoft recently pushed an update out to TMT 5 to version 5.3.1.146
This version will not launch with nvidia driver build 290.53. (At least for me it locked up at the TMT 5 Splash Screen on the desktop and would not continue to load). Trying this in WMC would also crash right back out of TMT 5 to the WMC Main Menu.

After Installing the latest Nvidia BETA 304.79 and Arcsoft patch 5.3.1.146 everything is working again... TMT 5 launches perfect and WMC works great with no 29/59 flicker..This is the first driver in ages since 290.53 that has NOT had a flicker on 29/59 content.

I still went into Nvidia Control Panel and set up Full Screen Videos and set the color space etc..that we all tweak after installing a new nvidia driver.
So far everything seems solid.. I'll post back any more issues If I have them. I hope this saves some people a little headache if you try updating TMT 5 and find it won't launch.

HTH
newfiend~

[barnabas1969]

Hey Curt,

Can you point me to the link that has all the settings that you change (color space, etc)? Also, did you test the 29/59 problem before you made these changes? Were the changes really necessary?

[barnabas1969]

Oh, and if richard1980 happens to see this thread, can you post the links to the downloadable videos that exhibit the 29/59 issue, so I can test them, please?

Thanks!

[newfiend]

Brian,
For the GT-430 the settings I change In Nvidia Control Panel are:
Open Nvidia Control Panel
on the left click Adjust Desktop Color Settings
on the right Under #2 select Use Nvidia settings
On #3 Apply the following enhancements set Digital color format to YCbCr444
Set Content Type Reported to display to Full Screen Videos
Click Apply in the lower right corner.

What the above setting fixes: The GT-430 has/had an issue where playing certain content the screen will blank (go black and pop back on). This may have been addressed in previous driver updates but I have always had good luck setting this to Full Screen Videos.. So I just do it to avoid the screen blanking issue. I noticed this was happening more when switching from a show to a commercial during Live TV playback.

The other setting I adjust is:
On the left select Adjust video color settings
On the right Under #2 select With the Nvidia Settings
Then the Advanced Tab set Dynamic Range to Full (0-255)
Click Apply in the lower right corner.

What this fixes: This sets the color range to full and gives your display a much improved color space. (you will notice that your display will have brighter colors and have a much less washed out look.)

I did NOT test for 29/59 prior to setting this up on my card. I have always set these two settings to avoid screen blanking and so my picture quality was much less washed out looking.

If you have HBO you can pretty much put it on any movie and execute the 411 Info screen and watch for frame rate changing from 59 to 29hz.. It happens ALOT on HBO.
I do have one recording saved (clone wars) from last season that has it right at the beginning of the show and its VERY noticeable as it does it a lot right at the beginning of the show. I executed the 411 Info screen and watched the program and could see the frame rate change but I had NO flicker what so ever with the latest Nvidia BETA driver 304.79. http://www.nvidia.com/object/win8-win7- ... river.html

HTH,
newfiend~

[newfiend]

29/59 sample here : https://skydrive.live.com/#cid=08AFD0E4 ... FD88%21712

newfiend~
EDIT..I downloaded this file on my desktop PC.. (The PC I e-mailed you pictures of awhile back with the two NVIDIA GTX 560Ti's in it in SLI.)
I had WHQL driver build 301.42 installed at that time. I watched the test file above and it had flicker like crazy.. I then downloaded the latest BETA 304.79 and installed that using the Clean Install Method I told you about before in a previous post. And Boom.. Flicker Gone.
You can tell if you watch close enough though that you get a stutter when the frame rate changes from 29/59 but the flicker is gone.

[barnabas1969]

Great info, Newfiend. Thanks a lot.

I've been trying to get ripped 3D BluRay movies to play in TMT5 and so far, I have been unsuccessful. I was hoping the new version of TMT5 might fix the problem. My samsung 3D BD player won't play them either. So far, the only player I have found that will play the ripped 3D BD-R discs is the Sony PlayStation 3. I suppose that would be OK, if I had a PS3 that stays in my house. The PS3 is my son's, and he takes it to his mom's house when he's not here.

I'm a little embarrassed... I installed the 304.79 beta drivers (clean install) and I spent 2 hours trying to figure out why the original 3D BluRay's would not play in 3D... until I realized that I needed to go through the nVidia 3D setup again.

EDIT: My problem above has nothing to do with the problem of playing ripped 3D BluRays. That's something else. I can still only play those on the PS3.

[newfiend]

No problem Brian.. Wish I could help you with the 3D part but I don't have a 3DTV yet.. Maybe someday.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

[barnabas1969]

I decided to try Daemon Tools Lite to mount the ISO and see if that will play. I installed Daemon Tools Lite and Mikinho Mount Image, and then copied the ISO file to the HTPC over the network. It was late, and I went to bed. I'll try it tonight. If TMT5 will play them as an ISO file, I could live with that. If it still won't play the ISO file, doing it this way will at least give me the ability to test different ways of making the ISO files without having to burn a $7.99 dual-layer BD-R every time I test.