I read in the forum that buying a new case (with new power supply) might often improve the signal. Since the noise/signal bar stays 80% even when my antenna is not plugged into the HD3000 card I am assuming its either the mboard, power supply or maybe even the gfx card that interferes with the reception.

I was looking at an Antic (#AN12 Antec Overture 380W Quiet Media) or cooler master (#CM09 Cooler Master CAV-T04 Cavalier4 DT, #CM11 CoolerMaster CAV-T02-UWA Cavalier2) case but I am not sure those power supplies will not interfere with the reception either.
Anyone have experience with those (or very close) models and advice?

Thanks!

Matt

EDIT:
The current case looks like a foxconn case, I know these are relatively inexpensive. I am using a jetway mboard (but would like to keep it unless its also the case for the huge noise factor in the signal).

FYI, I went another route and purchased a refurbished set-top HD tuner. Why? To prove that my lack of HD coverage had more to do with location than the hardware in the mythbox.

Sure enough, an indoor antenna can only get a station or two if it's right at one of my windows, and, even then, it the signal cuts in and out.

I'll need to figure out where the cable to the antenna on the roof is hiding...

...but since I'm on the same block as comcast's arlington office (and their sat dishes), and their building is taller than mine, I have a bad feeling that the signal *and* building interferance has doomed me.

-brendan

Thanks for the update Brendan. Still without connecting the antenna I have 80% noise, any signal I receive is blasted away. I receive a few channels but all pretty unstable (hanging here and there) as I only get about 30% signal. As it shows the 30% signal, the noise level dives down to 70% but I am sure thats still too high. Very occasionally I see the noise level dive down to 50% but I hardly doubt thats even good (reading info around this forum).

I'm using the overture case and it runs a little hot, even with the case and PSU fas reversed and a slot fan to moe some more air. It's also a little cramped I have a AGP video card a sound card and two hd-3000's, although if you get a mother board with more slots you should be able to put a little more space between the cards. My hd-3000's get pretty warm (which I worry about). Other than that it looks real spiffy.

I've done alot of investigating into signal strength and have concluded that I have tree problems. In winter I got great reception. I get decent reception when it is dry and calm. When it is wet and rainy I start to lose my upper channels first. 5 (KSTP UHF 50) is the first to go when it blows or rains, which makes sense because the higher the freq, the worse trees are. I really can't move my antenna (UHF/HDTV on roof), so I'm thinking about pruning the hell out of the nearest offending oak (it needs it anyway).

I've tried turning off fans, turning on spread spectrum with my motherboard, adding amplifiers all over.

So before you pluck down $100 on a case I would try exhausting everything else. Buying a HDTV receiver sounds a little expensive , but is probably the best way to tell if it is your box or your reception. I'd try borrowing a friends or co-workers instead though. Too bad everyone I know has theirs built into their bigscreen.

_________________
FRONTEND 1 - R5A16, Athlon 3000+, NVidia Motherboard, SB live, GeForce 5200, AA 9A60
FRONTEND 2 - R5A16, Athlon 2500+, Nvidia Motherboard, SB Live, GeForce 440MX, TV-OUT
BACKEND - R5A16, Althon 1700+, Nvidia MB, 2- HD3000's, 450GB LVM partition

Try connecting the antenna. The noise is a % thing because it's relative to total signal level. Without the antenna there is basically no signal to offset it, so all you're getting at the tuner is noise. Heck, I'm surprisesd it's only 80%...

Let me give you an example... Put a microphone in a quiet room (no signal) now turn up the volume on the amplifier until you hear something (noise). There's always some noise to be had, even if it's just an artifact from the amps own electronics. If you have a speaker/singer/instrument as a signal source the noise gets drowned out by the signal.

So...
Very low signal - expect noise to be a significant fraction
Decent signal - expect noise to be a far lower %.

The weird thing is that even if the antenna is connected the noise level is 80%, it drops during te channel scanning very briefly when a channel is found but it never drops below 50% (most of the time its around 60-70 when it finds a channel).

What kind of antenna and does it have an amp? There is a good web site which based on your address tells you what stations are in your area and what kind of antenna you need to get dececent reception on them (barring local anomalies like a large steel bridge in your line of sight to the transmitter). There is a link to it somewhere here...

I am using an antenna from a friend, its the channel master 4221, the channel master website shows it has all the colors I need (compared to antennaweb.org). antennaweb shows I should have over 10 HD channels 35 miles away from me (4221 should have a 45 miles range).

I have 3 trees that are each 4 stories high in my 305 degrees view, there is one 2 story building and for the rest all 1 story. I am using a 5 foot antenna pole. I only receive 4 channels currently and only 1 of those decently, the others have all errors.

I tried with an amplifier near the PC but it did not help at all with the quality.

One of the mails make me think though, my HD3000 is currently very near the AGP video card, perhaps that interferes?

What is your drop from the antenna (twin lead or coax) and do you have a good earth ground? For HDTV twinlead is probably not going to cut it, you'll need the superior self shiedling of coax or something similar.

Make sure you have it hooked up with low-loss coax, e.g. RG-6 or better. Put the amplifier as close as possible to the antenna, not the HD-3000. Try steering the antenna while you tune in a station to see how directional it is. I have the same antenna in my attic, and I have found it a little more directional than I expected. It does much better for UHF stations (14 and up) than VHF. Few ATSC broadcasts are on VHF, but your area might be the exception.

_________________
Do you code to live, or live to code?
Search LinHES forum through Google

The drop is about 25 feet, it will become lesser but thats the distance right now. I use RG6, its the same I use for my dishes, pretty good stuff.

I will give the direction a try to see if that will help! Thanks!

Also with respect to direction, if you're close to the transmitting antennas and/or have a lot of tall trees or buildings nearby, watch out for reflected signals. If you're picking up a reflection, the signal will look strong at times, but then just drop in and out.

Before climbing on the roof I thought it was probably the easiest to take my setup to a friend who already had the antenna and Myth box running.

The reception was (as everyone mentioned) good with the current case and motherboard.

The problem is that I am an idiot when it comes to antenna's (ok maybe to some other areas too;).

I just had the channel master antenna 180 degrees wrong (ie flipped front and back). I had no manual or anything with it so I did not know there was a front side.

We still noticed that the display was slow (which I had considered as bad reception) but in fact it was the ATI card (or its drivers) that were just underpowered. I just bought the FX 5200 which was on sale at a local store for $52.

After turning the antenna 180 degrees and using the nvidia card I enjoyed this morning digital tv.

All HD channels had still some issues, such as running 'behind' (I could always skip a few secs further ahead) and stuttering sound.

Is there any way to see the reception strength for a certain channel after all channels are scanned? I tried using some of the scanning options but it did not give be the result I was looking for (ie just the bar with the reception).