[Loren]

Occasionally when I am watching NBC (New York City, RCN cable) through my replay, the image is fairly poor and staticy, but if I switch to my TV and watch it without the replay, it is fine. Clear as a bell.


I typically notice this on Thursday nights.


No problem on any other channels.


I haven't noticed it lately, but I might just be used to it, or ignoring it. I'll have to take a look when I get home.


I was just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience.


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Loren Finkelstein
http://Loren.Finkelstein.Net

 

[jleavens]

What often looks fine to the screen does not mean it's a good signal. Anytime you're digitally encoding a signal, you are susceptible to imperfections in the signal that wouldn't otherwise show themselves on a TV screen. For instance, Macrovision tweaks the video signal so that it appears (usually) fine on a screen, but throws off the VCR when it tries to record.


Not saying this is absolutely the case, or even that if it is the case that it's not Replay's fault for being so susceptible to poor quality signals....

 

[riker]

Not true, it definitely can be the problem. A poor or unstable or oversaturated signal driven through a tv tuner may not look very bad to the human eye on a small to mid sized normal HTSC television. But, the encoder circuitry in the PVRs is MUCH more sensitive to problems, and those problems can be much more noticable. So it doesn't really prove anything that it looks ok without the Replay. If it looked ok through a Tivo and not replay, then it might be more of a replay problem.


But a problem I have firsthand experience with is similar and not related to PVRs. My gf's new apartment's cable system has a problem. On her nice relatively new Sony tv, channels in the 40s and 50s are VERY snowy, while all the other channels are just fine. The same cable run into another tv, the vcr, or the replay does not have this problem. You'd think it's the tv, but the tv worked just fine before at the old place, and the previous occupants of the apartment had reported the same problem, as have a couple others in the neighborhood. The cable company came out, checked the signal and all, replaced the line from the pole to the house, and still nothing. When they hooked up their 'test' tv it was fine, so they said it was the tv and didn't do anything else. But it shows that some tuners are sensitive to some problems that others aren't, and so it could very well be a signal problem that replay just doesnt handle as well as the simple tv tuner.


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-=- Glenn -=-

 

[JANVideo]

I have the same problem on our cable system in upstate NY, Time Warner cable. I think what you are seeing is this:


The cable company has recently switched to digital. Certain channels have indeed been digitized, but not all. The digitized signals are then converted back to analog and sent over the cable. The artifacts you are seeing is due to poor bit rate settings being used for this conversion back and forth. They are not allowing enough "bits" to be used for the digitization. This shows up worse on anything that has a lot of movement in the picture and is worse on live broadcasts because sharp edges in the picture represent higher frequencies that need more bits to be converted properly. Film suffers less because it's a "softer" image.


Now, when you try to further digitally process an image already compressed and suffering from poor digitization thru the MPEG2 process in the Replay, well the image becomes a basket case and may not be viewable. I remember some experiments I did in the early days of developing audio compressors (similar to MP3 or ATRAC used in MiniDisk) when a compressed signal was recovered and sent back thru the compressors 2 or three times. The effect was dramatic and very wierd!


If this is what is happening, the only cure is to have the cable company see it for themselves and try to fix it. Good luck on that one!

Joel N.

 

[TexasCap]

I noticed the same thing last night. I'm in Austin on Time Warner Digital Cable.

 

[toomeypj]

I have Time Warner Digital cable in Orlando, FL. The lower number channels come through in analog, and I have two inputs, direct cable and through the cable box (Pioneer Voyager). Channels 4, 5, and 6 are often terrible through the Replay, so bad that I record ST Voyager on a vcr, which looks much better on viewing. The distortion is hard to explain, it seems to be a mosaic of digital artifacts. People's faces are all patchy, even in live viewing on the Replay. On the tv (61" projection) it is unwatchable on Replay.

My higher channels are fine to record on Replay, even in standard mode. I record off SciFi (channel 74 in my area) and the results are very acceptable in standard.

It may have something to do with the frequency band of the lower numbered channels, because this is the only problem I have with recording or watching Replay "live".

 

[SuperDave]

I think its just basicly poor cable service. RCN service in Jersey, varies so greatly that one day to next, a station is clear then snow. I have been thinking about satelitte because of this.

 

[Loren]

Quote:

Originally posted by Balascak: I think its just basicly poor cable service. RCN service in Jersey, varies so greatly that one day to next, a station is clear then snow. I have been thinking about satelitte because of this.

Can't be. When I bypass the ReplayTV it comes out fine.


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Loren Finkelstein
http://Loren.Finkelstein.Net