ATI TV Wonder 550 & Comcast = :(

[limiter]

I bought two ATI TV Wonder 550 cards and they produce significantly better looking cable TV than my PVR 250 and PVR 500 (which is broken). The problem is Comcast channel 5 and 59 (ABC and Comedy Central) are inexplicably incompatible with the card. 5 has pulsating white lines through it, and 59 repeatedly drops in brightness then over-brightens quickly before leveling out. These two channels do not do this on the PVR250, or when cable is connected to the TV. Both the ATI 550's do this. I tried reinstalling drivers, using only one card, swapping cards, different PCI slots, different PVR software, MPEG2 decoders, and beer. The beer was the only thing that helped, but only because it made me feel better about it all.

Comcast in my area is poor quality so I place all the blame on them, but it is still strange that all the other channels look fine. I messed with the 2d and 3d comb filter for the ATI card, and turned off noise control and neither fixed the problem.

I guess the Hauppauge cards handle poor quality cable TV better.

[flyswatta]

When I had poor quality channels on analog cable, I found the moving the cable "just right" going into the card would resolve the issue - even when it looked fine on TV. I also found an inline spicer outside the house that was corroded. I replaced it and that solved most of my quality issues.

Just giving you something cheap and easy to check before you go buy more hardware

[limiter]

I've looked at cables and made sure everything is connected securely, but I think I've come up with a solution (at least for now) for this problem. I have the two ATI 550 cards, plus a PVR250.

I will use a channel lineup for the ATIs that does not include channel 59 and channel 5. Then I will make a separate channel lineup for the 250 which includes 5 and 59.

I read a post from Sub that said GBPVR generally records on the top listed devices first, so hopefully it will take the ATI cards more often than the 250. If not my plan is to limit the PVR250 to only channel 59 and 5, then it will only record when I request a show on those two channels.

Anyone think this will work, or am I nuts?