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Capture Quality PVR150 Channel 2
http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14446		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  RCS [ Sun Mar 04, 2007 12:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Capture Quality PVR150 Channel 2
I never really noticed this problem before since I never really watched Channel 2 before Jericho came out but on the PVR 150 and to a much lesser extent on the PVR 500 I get wavy lines scrolling up the screen.


Image

This weekend I had some time so I popped the 150 into the old computer:
Sempron 2400+
ECS 741GX-M2 - Socket 462
640 MB Ram
OnBoard Nic - SiS 900
OnBoard Sound - RealTek
Asus V7700 Video Card
with R5E50

and I hooked it up at 3 different cable outlets all with the same capture quality. Currently my system is :
R5D1 with the Myth upgrade
Compaq SR1403WM
Sempron 3000+
SiS 760/964
FX5200
PVR-500
PVR-150

Does anybody have an idea what is causing the problem? Could it be just signal strength since I live in an apartment? I read on one of the posts a bad ground would cause humbars on channels 2-6 (I can see some lines on 4), would this be a case of a bad ground?
Author:  Liv2Cod [ Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
This is classic bad cable reception. Channel 2 is the lowest-frequency channel you receive. It's at the bottom of the VHF band. It could be a bad ground, or any of a host of other things. Do you also see this when the TV is directly connected?

Make sure your cables are very good quality. No, I don't mean buy super-fancy "videophile" cables -- just good screw-threaded coax cables for all connections. If you have any splitters in your system, consider getting an amplifier to put in front of the splitter to get better signal levels. Do not use "push on" coax connectors for anything. They are junk.
Author:  RCS [ Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:59 pm ]
Post subject: 
Liv2Cod wrote:
Do you also see this when the TV is directly connected?


ah I guess I forgot to put that .. the regular tv has a crystal clear picture

I will try an inline amp, I know I can get one of those for under $10 at Fry's.
Author:  adoute [ Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:20 am ]
Post subject: 
I had a similar problem - and tried fixing it with an inexpensive amp (I have high quality RG6 Quad Shield & high quality connectors for every run). The low cost amp only made things worse. So I tried a few more amps, generally increasing the cost each time. None of them made much of a difference, most made things worse on higher channels. I tried strong amplification with tilt compensation and signal attenuators for fine tuning - and still never got a good picture on 2 while maintaining a good picture on anything in the 50's & 60's.

After reading several reviews, I finally bit the bullet and bought a Motorola 484095-001-00 Signal Booster. It was about $80 when I bought it, but they can be found for under $50 now. I am happy to say that simply changing to that amp made all my problems go away (almost completely). I learned a few lessons form fixing this problem - too much signal causes just as bad (if not worse) a picture as not enough, and the old standard - you get what you pay for.

Please note that I am not affiliated with Motorola in any way - I'm just a satisfied customer.
Author:  novellahub [ Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:59 am ]
Post subject: 
I have the Motorola amp as well. It works great and improved the picture quality on the TV's and Mythtv box. I originally got it to boost the signal on my second PVR-500 tuner but had no luck fixing the second tuner. I even tried using newer firmware with the PVR-500. I eventually just accepted I had one bad tuner and simply just removed access to it in the Mythtv-Setup.
Author:  RCS [ Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:43 pm ]
Post subject: 
I just picked up the Motorola today and it has made a big difference in all of the channels. Channel 2 though is still a bit off :(, so I think I will just tell the box to use one of the other tuners for 2.
Author:  cameraready [ Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:58 am ]
Post subject: 
Have you tried using the finetune function to adjust the frequency for channel 2? I think it's an option in the channel setup. I had to finetune a couple of channels on my pvr150 to get the sound to come in cleanly. IIRC, you can edit the channel in the mythweb channel editor, go to liveTV on that channel and check your picture quality. If the picture is not better, change the channel to a different one and go back to the mythweb channel editor and adjust the settings again. Repeat until you get something better. By using the mythweb editor, you can avoid all the hassle of exiting the frontend and loading mythtv-setup. The key it to make sure you change channels between tests so that it loads the altered settings from the db when you switch to the channel you're editing.

:!: I did this back on R5A26, so I'm not sure if this still works in R5E50
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