I'm on my 6th install in just 3 days, so forgive me if I sound frustrated. I've even switched machines to see what the problem is.

Here's my story: After installation, everything seems to be working. I start watching live TV, and the picture is total snow. At first, I think I've plugged the cable into the wrong spot, so I unplug it and plug it in to the other port. No, that doesn't work, so I plug it back in to where it should be.

Then I just try to change channels. Sometimes, I can almost see some images. That gets me excited. So, I try unplugging and replugging. Suddenly, the picture is great!

So today I scheduled a recording. Then I watched the recording. Lousy, lousy picture. Nasty diagonal bars running through it. I can't keep plugging/unplugging the cable every time I want to use it. Where to begin?

Check these links:

http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=PVR500DualTuner
http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=CompileIvtv

They describe a similar problem I had with the PVR-500. I found a solution online. Find out what tuner you have installed by running 'dmesg | tuner:' Hauppauge will use a tuner on their card from other vendors like Phillips or samsung. Each tuner have specs that are different, and they can change the tuner without notice due to availability or other technical reasons. Then Google the results: (ie Samsung TCPN 2121P30A snow). You will probably find an answer on the knoppmythwiki.

I had to patch the kernel with 'pvr500_samsung_patch_2.6.17.diff', by following the instructions here:

http://www.mail-archive.com/ivtv-users@ ... 03909.html

If you do patch your mythtv box, make sure nothing is being recorded. It may take one or two hours to compile and install the patch... (that was my experience on a sempron 3100 w/1GB RAM).

I will be out of town until Saturday...Good luck...

The problem is very unlikely to be the Samsung tuner problem that the PVR-500 has. My first guess would be the far simpler "wrong frequency set" (bad configuration).

Start here on the master troubleshooting page: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=TroubleShooting
On that you almost certainly want this page: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=BlackScreenWatchingTV
And on that page you almost certainly want the section labeled " Wrong frequency set in mythtv-setup"

Other things from the " Misconfiguration during setup" section to check, include the video card type (should be mpeg-2 encoder for this card), good channel lineup confiugured and downloaded (If you're in North America this should be zap2it), good input connections that associate the input you're connected to and only that input with the channel lineup.

Only after unplugging and plugging the cable back in? Then I would guess either a bad cable or bad connector on your PVR-350. Assuming the same cable plugged directly into your TV gives a good picture (and continues to do so while/after you move the cable around) then I'd be looking at the 350.

Plugging/unplugging? I hope you're not using push on connectors for your coax, those are known to degrade your signal substantially. See the http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=PictureQualityIssues page on the wiki for a pretty good list of physical connection issues to check.

I am using a screw-on type connector, no push-ons. Those things are awful. However, I do believe it to be the cable, or at least directly related to it. It's one of those white cables that just doesn't feel sturdy enough. I compared the diameter of the wire going through it to the one provided by the cable company and there is a noticeable difference. My guess is that it's making a lousy connection. I will try a better cable tonight and hopefully get better results.

I have tried to plug the cable directly in to the card, but a couple of channels (62, 63, maybe others) still have diagonal waves going through them--not tears, just waves. It doesn't do that when hooked up directly to the TV.

Also, I went through all the settings several times, and they are spot on. I'd hate to think I got a bad card, because it's been more than a month since I ordered it. Besides, aside from the waves it does everything else flawlessly. I've done over 10 installations for MythTV in the past month (for various reasons), and this issue continues to linger. I'll check the connections tonight and report back.

Switched to a different cable, still the same problem. Everything else checks out, too. I'm really stumped by this!

If you're using the us-cable frequency set try us-cable-irc, it's subtly different. After that try fine tuning.

Oh and use the second diagnostic on the CheckingLogFiles page to get the tuner type and let us know what it is.

I was using the us-cable set, and switched to the us-cable-irc. There was no noticeable difference.

I have not found instructions anywhere for fine-tuning. If someone can point me there, I'm all over it.

Here is the output requested:

[17179587.980000] tveeprom 0-0050: tuner model is LG TAPE H001F MK3 (idx 68, type 47)