[shemsterism]

I have installed my HVR-1250 to my HTPC and have my coaxial cable hooked up to it directly from the wall. Everything seems to be working fine, but the quality is lacking in WMC. Is there any other option I have to make the quality better. I DO NOT have a cable box, just a coaxial cable that gets around 40 channels that comes free with my apartment.

 

[CountryBumkin]

Can you watch TV throught the Happauge WinTV program (skip the WMC) and see if the picture is better that way? That might help you figure out if it is the tunner, source, or WMC.

 

[gtgray]

I just typed a very long response and clicked on the wrong button and sent it off to byte heaven.


If what is coming from the wall is analog not digital there may not be much improvement to be had. Some of the tuners have hardware based analog to digital mpeg encoders and produce better images. Garbage in Garbage out at best. From what I read and recall the HVR-1250 had a software analog to digital mpeg encoder and not a very good at that. Not that long ago I had analog cable and all my PC had cards that could handle it the HVR-1250 was the only software based one and it was by far the worst.


There are number of TV cards with hardware based NTSC (analog) encoders out there that do a much better job than your card. The AMD based ones come to mind and there were some Nvidia ones that were legendary. The Nvidia are treasured by people who use them as capture cards. You probably won't find an Nvidia but the older AMD cards are very common. Models like the 650 for example work well for analog cable.


You do need to realisic, analog sd cable does look great when scaled on to a big screen. Sure if you have a Tivo HD and high end Vdieo Processor lke the Iscan Duo it can make it tolerable on a large screen but the some 40 dollar obsolete TV card can only do so much.

 

[Andrew Hornfeck]

FORGET the analog tuning from the FREE wall outlet and get an indoor antenna to watch your local ATSC FTA channels! Or, scan the ClearQAM channels on that cable and see what they have in digital!

 

[shemsterism]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CountryBumkin /forum/post/20812378


Can you watch TV throught the Happauge WinTV program (skip the WMC) and see if the picture is better that way? That might help you figure out if it is the tunner, source, or WMC.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gtgray /forum/post/20812393


I just typed a very long response and clicked on the wrong button and sent it off to byte heaven.


If what is coming from the wall is analog not digital there may not be much improvement to be had. Some of the tuners have hardware based analog to digital mpeg encoders and produce better images. Garbage in Garbage out at best. From what I read and recall the HVR-1250 had a software analog to digital mpeg encoder and not a very good at that. Not that long ago I had analog cable and all my PC had cards that could handle it the HVR-1250 was the only software based one and it was by far the worst.


There are number of TV cards with hardware based NTSC (analog) encoders out there that do a much better job than your card. The AMD based ones come to mind and there were some Nvidia ones that were legendary. The Nvidia are treasured by people who use them as capture cards. You probably won't find an Nvidia but the older AMD cards are very common. Models like the 650 for example work well for analog cable.


You do need to realisic, analog sd cable does look great when scaled on to a big screen. Sure if you have a Tivo HD and high end Vdieo Processor lke the Iscan Duo it can make it tolerable on a large screen but the some 40 dollar obsolete TV card can only do so much.

so basically, get a new tv tuner?

 

[shemsterism]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Hornfeck /forum/post/20812800


FORGET the analog tuning from the FREE wall outlet and get an indoor antenna to watch your local ATSC FTA channels! Or, scan the ClearQAM channels on that cable and see what they have in digital!

I will try this as well