HVR-1600 Success...just one minor thing

[steelfanatic]

Hello, just wanted to say this is a fantastic program, I have gbpvr working well. I have as follows (2) HVR-1600's working for analog and QAM. Also the Hauppauge IR blaster running my STB. (Thank you to a member on here for letting me know that Hauppauge had a bad batch of IR blasters out there).

There is one minor thing: My QAM: and I'm thinking it's a connection issue?: All of my QAM stations are "jumpy" and stutter quite a bit. I have a Motorola amp before them and a 4 way splitter. I just can't seem to find out the issue here. Should I go with an ATSC antenna instead?

Thanks for any comments/help in advance.

EDIT: Computer Hardware: Video Card: Nvidia 7600GS 256 MB

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, 2 GB RAM

[Anthony]

I have a similar setup with two HVR-1600 tuners, and like you, I could not get a stable signal with QAM cable. I tried an amplifier too, but it didn't really help. The picture was perfect, "when it worked", but it stuttered, lost sync, and crashed often. After a couple of months, I just gave up trying and switched to an Antenna (See my other thread about the best tuner for weak reception).

I've tried everything from a piece of wire poked into the antenna connector, to a desktop HDTV antenna, to my current setup with the amplifier and an attic mounted DB2 antenna. I'm only 20 miles from the towers, which are all in the same general direction. There really isn't much difference in SNR between the piece of wire and the fancy antenna setup, but the one or two point increase in SNR at least lets me record shows "most" of the time. I still have occasional problems when the SNR will drop below 20 and the picture stutters and skips badly.

I've tried about everything there is to try with the HVR-1600's, so I'm thinking they just aren't that great of a tuner. I know the analog side certainly isn't as good as my old Hauppauge tuner, so the digital side is probably about the same.

I have an OnAir GT tuner on order that should be here next week to see if it will do any better. We'll see...

Anthony

[steelfanatic]

Well, here's an update: I can get great HD reception on FOX and NBC HD, Military Channel, Discovery Times (digital) but, ABC, CBS, and PBS pretty much suck. Maybe it IS the 1600 Tuner or still immature drivers for it.

Anthony, thanks for the response, and PLEASE let me know how the OnAir GT goes as I will consider it myself.

And I must again thank sub for this fantastic program and his time.

[sub]

Well, here's an update: I can get great HD reception on FOX and NBC HD, Military Channel, Discovery Times (digital) but, ABC, CBS, and PBS pretty much suck.

I have one thing in mind for the next release that may help with this, but I cant tell for sure yet.

[Anthony]

Steelfanatic,

My OnAir GT came today. Despite being touted as the best tuner for low signal levels, it actually works worse than the HVR-1600's. Lots of stuttering and skipping on EVERY channel, whether I connect it to my antenna or my cable connection. So, I will most likely be returning it.

However, since the OnAir GT is USB based, I'm thinking of hooking it up to my laptop temporarily to experiment with different antenna locations and fine tune the aiming.

I also contacted Comcast cable about my weak signal for QAM. The representative I chatted with said he could see my signal was low (how?) and is having a tech come out tomorrow morning to adjust the signal level. So, there may be some hope in that area as well. I'll let you know how that works out.

Anyway, I recommend sticking with the HVR-1600's, as they seem to perform better than the OnAir GT does.

Take care,

Anthony

[steelfanatic]

Anthony, Thanks for the update! Keep trying....let us know how it goes..

I seemed to get better performance when I tried an antenna in the past,but, as my luck goes I can get a good UHF antenna and get almost all HDTV stations in my area, but ABC Digital operates at VHF and is about 38 miles in the opposite direction from here.:mad:

SOoOoO..I would need a directional VHF antenna (called antennas direct) and a UHF/VHF combiner........

This is why I was trying so hard to get QAM working.....

[Anthony]

Steelfanatic,

See my other thread about "best tuner for weak signals".

I returned the OnAir GT as it performed worse and cost the most.

My cable company came out and checked my signal levels and said everything looked good. So they replaced the splitter and cables I was using with the HVR-1600's. The signal level did not change, but the number of errors went down dramatically.

So, I have new cables, splitters, and connectors on order so I can slowly upgrade the rest of my cables snaking under the house. Hopefully that'll clear up the last of any problems.

For now, I went back to the antenna hookup so I didn't have to reconfigure my tuner setups in GBPVR. But once the cable updates are finished, I'll probably switch over to QAM again.

I'll keep you updated...

Anthony