Question re QAM input on card

[cjn1962]

Hello:

Am I correct in assuming that I will never be able to take advantage of the digital input on my Hauppauge 1600 card if I have a (Comcast) set top box? My understanding is that the set top box decodes the cable company's signal and converts it from digital to analog, and I am therefore limited to using the analog input on my card.

Also, given the circumstances above, can I also assume that I will always need an IR Blaster to change channels (with the card tuned to Channel 3)?

Thanks for any help,

Chris

[sub]

Am I correct in assuming that I will never be able to take advantage of the digital input on my Hauppauge 1600 card if I have a (Comcast) set top box? My understanding is that the set top box decodes the cable company's signal and converts it from digital to analog, and I am therefore limited to using the analog input on my card.

True, but if you cable company is broadcasting some unencrypted channels, you can put a splitter before the set top box, then have one split going to the set top box, and the other split going to the 1600's digital input.

Also, given the circumstances above, can I also assume that I will always need an IR Blaster to change channels (with the card tuned to Channel 3)?

If you're recording the analog output of your set top box, then yes you'd need a IR Blaster so that the app could tell the set top box to change channels when it needs to.

[cjn1962]

Thanks very much for the fast reply.

That being said, can you make any suggestions that might improve the quality of my picture when connected to the analog input? The live TV and playback quality is poor, even with the card connected directly to the set top box with three different short cables.

Chris

[sub]

I've never seen a HVR-1600 in action myself, so I'm not sure how good its analog functionality, but many others seem to be using them without any serious complaints about quality. Since its having to reencode the signal passed to it from the set top box, you there will always be some loss of quality over what you'd see connecting the set top box directly to the TV.

You probably need to determine if its a capture problem, or playback problem though. ie, is the HVR-1600 analog capture your quality problem, or is it your video card or video decoders used for displaying that video.

[cjn1962]

Thanks again for the help- I never considered that my video card might be the problem.

Chris

[ElihuRozen]

When I tried to use the cable out from the STB, I had problems. I switched to the SVideo out from the STB to the SVideo in on the 1600 & it works really well. Occasionally, when I watch Live TV it freezes at first. If I "Back/Exit" & come in to Live TV again, it works fine. I have a IR blaster to control the STB. For recordings, which I do more than live TV, it never has the freezing problem.

One of the many people on these forums who are smarter than me said something like that when you use the cable out, the STB is converting the signal & then your 1600 is reconverting it back. Using the SVideo saves you from doing the unnecessary conversions.

[TonyXL]

1) Using S-video is a must.

2) Fire up graphedit or graphstudio and build a graph that captures and displays from the analog input. Then access the properties of the HVR-1600 encoder block. You can adjust the sharpness and de-noising to get better captures.