Hauppauge PVR 500. On one tuner the picture looks fine. On the other, it looks really grainy as if it were picking up reception over the air. If I do picture-in-picture I can see that one is clear and the other is grainy.

Defective card? Weak cable signal? Ideas?

Are both inputs coax? Also, you should let us know your hardware and versions. If this is indeed coax single line in using the internal splitter, I would vote bad card.

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System Specs:
Intel P4 3.2Ghz; Intel mobo; nVid 7600gs AGP (512MB); SoundBlaster Audigy2 Sound; R5.5; PVR-500; HD Homerun; Vizio 42" LCD

I thought all PVR 500's had one cable input. Yes, it's one coax input. I didn't think there should be that much signal loss by the cards internal splitter.

I'll see about getting a RMA. Thanks.

Will the same problem exist if both of the inputs are s-video?

I am getting the same issue with my PVR 500. I think I will have to RMA it as well.

Before RMA'ing my PVR-500. I thought I would try something out. I ran to the local Home Depot and picked up a signal amplifier for the cable TV. It is not perfect on some channels but now I can watch the second tuner. Part of the problem may be the cable I am running to the MythTV machine.

Search for "daisy chain" for a number of suggestion for improving you cabling.

Thanks tjc! Here is the thread I think he is refrerring to:

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... aisy+chain

I had mine splitting two separate times after the initial connection to the house.

That one has the main rules of thumb:

- don't cascade or daisy chain splitters, get the proper N-Way splitter instead
- use screw on connectors, and make sure they're on tight
- anything over 5 or 6 devices on one feed start thinking about an amp

However there should be some other posts with more detailed suggestions and explainations along with additional things to watch out for, like interference from adjacent cables and the like. Try searching for "cummulative loss", "signal cross over", ...