tv tuner working... but bad quality

[frozen.ice]

hi guys

you might remember me from the "impossible problem" thread, well, the problem was solved by getting a similar model tv tuner, it works, but there are weird wavey lines all over the picture. Im getting the signal from my dual view dstv decoder form the composite out of tv 2. the "coxial" (i dont know how to spell it) tv is also connected to another tv. the composite cable is about 20m long. is the length of the cable causing the bad quality.

ps, i use it in windows 7 and ubuntu, but the picture looks exactly the same

i would post pics, but i dont know how to, can anyone please help?

 

[Lounger]

Try getting the signal direct from the dish. There are some free channels. See if it makes a difference.

 

[RonnieZA]

Try changing your uhf frequency from the decoder. Had the same problem with second tv with something interfering with the signal

 

[frozen.ice]

how can i change the uhf frequency? i havent seen that option before. can a cable from a dish be pluged directly into a tv/tv-tuner? i suppose the dstv channels wouldnt work then

 

[Lounger]

Yes, plug the cable into your PC card and rescan. You should pick up some other channels that don't use encryption.

 

[Captain Beer]

Does you card support DVB-S?

 

[frozen.ice]

im not really sure what dvd-s is, its a normal card as far as i know, its the videomate m1f. But i dont really wan tto use the free channels, its mostly for dstv, is there anyway i could use my tv tuner and pc to recieve dstv?

 

[MickZA]

I don't know how to change the UHF channels on the dual view decoder but I get a decent picture on channels 1, 4, 10 (SABC), 39 & 41 (DSTV) on TVtime/Ubuntu using two DSD 1110 decoders & a UHF aerial into about 40m of UHF coax leads.

Start a new thread on the DSTV etc forum here re picture quality, the guys there are pretty clued up.

Edit: I'm using a KWorld PVR-7134 cheapie PCI capture card.

 

[vinodh]

The yellow (RCA) output from the decoder connected to the TV Tuner will give the best quality. The RF (co-axial) connection is poor with S-Video in between. The compro website shows that your card has a yellow (RCA) video input. The red and white audio outputs from the decoder can be connected to a amplifier or PC speakers or directly into the tuner using a rca to 3.5mm audio cable. Also, it seems as if your card uses a software based video encoder and will there yield a poorer overall video output as compared to a hardware based encoder card.

 

[Lounger]

There are very few hardware-based tuners around now. Skystar was one of the last. I think it struggled with intel p111 or 4s. Not such an issue now tho.

 

[vinodh]

There are very few hardware-based tuners around now. Skystar was one of the last. I think it struggled with intel p111 or 4s. Not such an issue now tho.

Actually, there are still many, many hardware based tuners. Hauppauge and Compro make lots of them. The main reason for using them is to offload the CPU. I had a Compro that was software based that I bought to replace my Hauppauge PVR-150. Turned out to be a piece of sh#t! Poor quality (pixellation) in fast moving scenes and audio synching. I replaced it with a Hauppauge HVR-2200 and never looked back. Software based cards are cheaper than their hardware based counterparts but really crappy if you demand quality. Here's some links to a few hardware based TV Tuner cards:

Hauppauge HVR-2200 Dual Tuner
http://www.mceshop.co.za/index.php?option=com_oscommerce&osMod=product_info&Itemid=2&catID=3_7&products_id=135

Hauppauge HVR-1700
http://www.mceshop.co.za/index.php?option=com_oscommerce&osMod=product_info&Itemid=2&catID=3_7&products_id=135

Compro E600
http://www.take2.co.za/electronics-compro-videomate-e600-mce-with-hardware-mpeg-encoding-7273144.html

Compro E800F
http://www.take2.co.za/electronics-compro-e800f-videomate-tv-tuner-pci-e-1x-4166408.html