HQV (Test 5)

Test 5: Picture Detail

From the HQV manual:

Even though high definition television is growing in popularity, the majority of TV programs are still delivered as standard definition television. An HDTV set will use some sort of image processing to scale up this SDTV content and convert it to ‘pseudo’ HDTV. However, many of these processors employ low-quality detail enhancement circuitry that degrades the converted images with ‘ringing’ artifacts. These appear as artificially enhanced edges around objects, and often resemble faint white outlines.

Turn on any detail enhancement option on your TV or monitor to the nominal setting (‘Medium’ or ‘On’). In this scene of a bridge with foreground auto traffic, check the level of detail in the bricks of the bridge, the statue, the stairs and the blades of grass in the lawn. If any of these areas appear too smooth or even blurred, your TV’s or monitor’s image detail processing is inadequate. An effective image detail processor will preserve and reveal fine textures in the bricks, grass, and steps. The bricks next to the highlight arrow should be nearly as detailed as those on the left side of the bridge. Also, there should be no noise visible in the sky as a result of any image detail processing.

ATI Radeon X1900 All-in-Wonder Video Card Review - Graphics Cards 99

ATI Radeon X1900 All-in-Wonder Video Card Review - Graphics Cards 100

ATI Screenshot; Score: 5

ATI Radeon X1900 All-in-Wonder Video Card Review - Graphics Cards 101

NVIDIA Screenshot; Score: 10

The screenshots here don’t show it as well as it should, but the NVIDIA video had much more detail in the on-screen video than ATI’s X1900 AIW card showed.  Even in the screenshots though, you can see some slight differences between the detail in the stairs; NVIDIA’s output shows the individual stairs more explicitly than the ATI card does. 

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