Lousy tv-out

[Smoker]

Boy I'm lucky I guess. Changed to Overlay and then back to VMR9 and the picture quality for LiveTV is very much improved.

However I have what seems like 2 problems left.
First all channels have good picture quality except for channel 2 (my lowest channel). It seems to have alot of static, interference, snow.

The second problem is that gbpvr seems slow to catch on at times. Like changing to a new channel it stutters almost like the cpu is over burdened but I am sure that the Athlon 64 4000+ isn't.

[pastro]

Boy I'm lucky I guess. Changed to Overlay and then back to VMR9 and the picture quality for LiveTV is very much improved.

However I have what seems like 2 problems left.
First all channels have good picture quality except for channel 2 (my lowest channel). It seems to have alot of static, interference, snow.

The second problem is that gbpvr seems slow to catch on at times. Like changing to a new channel it stutters almost like the cpu is over burdened but I am sure that the Athlon 64 4000+ isn't.

If there is a local TV station that broadcasts on 2 it's probably interference. Are you using RG-6 cables? All connections tight?

[Smoker]

If there is a local TV station that broadcasts on 2 it's probably interference. Are you using RG-6 cables? All connections tight?

Yes it is WJBK (Detroit) which the tower is not too far away. Is there something I can do to resolve this ? It is one of my most watch channels.

RG-6 cable ? I really don't know. How can I tell ? It is the coax that comcast installed and from the splitter to the pvr150's is the same cable from comcast that I had one of the service guys make for me (12" each).

[pastro]

Most cables have their RG designation stamped on them. However not all RG-6 cables are alike.

RG-6 might be a cheapo CATV coax that is designed for economy.
This would have with a thin aluminum braid and a copper-coated steel center conductor. There is higher grade CATV coax with an aluminum "quad shield" arrangement, and there is really high grade RG-6 like Belden 1694A.

My guess is you get what you pay for. If you can find some quad shield or better cable it will have better interference protection which sounds important in your case. Make sure the cables connectors are snug. You might try just using one of your PVR150's connected directly to your cable system and see if that gives a better picture as a test.

[WerewolfTA]

This may now be irrelevant, since it looks like most of your problems have been solved, but since you asked, I thought I'd take a stab at answering.

Besides price (you get what you pay for), how would one know a good quality s-video cable ?

IMHO, I'd look for gold contacts, good shielding, and generally a thicker, heavier cable. I can't afford the really good cables, but I try to find a happy medium between cost and quality.

I got this splitter from the Comcast guy roaming the neighborhood. Prolly good ? As for the coax cables from the splitter to the pvr150's, those are about 12" each. I am going to try and run into the comcast guy again and see if he will make me another set that are about 4-5".

Yeah, that should be good. I've worked with some Comcast guys. They have good stuff. Hopefully, your splitter shows how much signal loss is coming off each connector. My 3-way has one that has less loss than the others. I put that on my longest run. There's so much loss for every foot of cable, I don't remember how much. I don't think I'd worry about going from 12" to 4", though. I was thinking more like don't use a 20- or 50-foot cable when a 6-foot would work.

Originally Posted by Smoker
How did you "find" that you need needed a booster ? Are there signs ?

Look for a grainy picture or snow in the picture.

Yep, what Pastro said. Plus, I had one channel that was getting ghosting from something else and another channel that would roll. The booster cleared those up. Plus, I replaced the crappy splitter I had outside with a good one. That improved the reception in my bedroom, also (that was my long run: I put it on the split that had the lowest signal loss).

RG-6 cable ? I really don't know. How can I tell ?

Should be printed on the cable. If it's new, it should be rg-6. If it's older, it'll likely be rg-59 (or worse). rg-59's not really bad unless you're getting into digital channels.

720x480 at the moment but in full screen mode it's like gbpvr is "too big" for the tv if that makes sense.

Totally. You need to do some work in a text file. Well, xml file to be perfectly honest. Go to C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr, or wherever you installed gbpvr. Open config.xml with notepad or similar text editor. You're looking for the following section:
<!-- overscan control (border size in pixels) -->
<OverScanBorderX1>23</OverScanBorderX1>
<OverScanBorderY1>0</OverScanBorderY1>
<OverScanBorderX2>25</OverScanBorderX2>
<OverScanBorderY2>0</OverScanBorderY2>
To fine tune your picture, those numbers are what you want to play with (yours should be all 0's, those are my adjustments). If I'm not mistaken, those numbers are the number of pixels you're increasing the border and consequently shrinking the visible picture in the order of left side of the screen, top, right, bottom. So, if your picture is running too far off the edge of the screen, this will shrink it up. Or if it's the opposite, I believe you can use negative numbers.

[pastro]

Should be printed on the cable. If it's new, it should be rg-6. If it's older, it'll likely be rg-59 (or worse). rg-59's not really bad unless you're getting into digital channels.

For the short runs you are doing, the cable designation probably isn't that important, although the shielding still plays a role. You don't really have much of an antenna at 40Mhz with a 12" piece of coax but in conjunction with the splitter you could still have an issue.
That said, if the connection looks good without the splitters and additional cable, you might need to spring for the Belden 1694A cable.
If the picture still sucks without any additional cable or splitters then it's an issue with the PVR150.

[Smoker]

Most cables have their RG designation stamped on them. However not all RG-6 cables are alike.

You might try just using one of your PVR150's connected directly to your cable system and see if that gives a better picture as a test.

The coax coming into the house has nothing on it so I don't know if it's rg-6 or not.

If I understand you correctly I am going to connect the coax coming into the house right to the pvr150 and see if that helps.

Since I have 2 pvr150's I was wondering which one is used for LiveTV and which for recording. Or better asked is how does one know which tuner is used for what in the gbpvr environment.

Also, another thing I have to mention is that this is a clean install of xp pro sp2. The only thing I have installed is the O/S, updated drivers for the components, the pvr150 software and gbpvr. My thought here is that maybe I need a better or different mpeg decoder ?

[pastro]

The coax coming into the house has nothing on it so I don't know if it's rg-6 or not.

If I understand you correctly I am going to connect the coax coming into the house right to the pvr150 and see if that helps.

Exactly. That way you can tell if the problem can be solved with better cabling, splitters etc. If it's inherent in the cable distribution or the PVR150, you might be out of luck. That said, you still might be able to amp the signal outside and see some benefit if the signal level is low.

Since I have 2 pvr150's I was wondering which one is used for LiveTV and which for recording. Or better asked is how does one know which tuner is used for what in the gbpvr environment.

If you double click on the G icon on the tray, it will tell you what is recording on which tuner. Same goes for live TV.
You will need to run GBpvr in a window to do this.

Also, another thing I have to mention is that this is a clean install of xp pro sp2. The only thing I have installed is the O/S, updated drivers for the components, the pvr150 software and gbpvr. My thought here is that maybe I need a better or different mpeg decoder ?

For the bad reception on channel 2, this won't help. If you still think the picture doesn't look good in general this could help. There is a trial version of the pure video decoder available and if you did a little searching you should be able to find a license generator for it.

Btw, I didn't think much of the video out of my ATI 9550 until I upgraded the video card drivers.

[Smoker]

Totally. You need to do some work in a text file. Well, xml file to be perfectly honest. Go to C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr, or wherever you installed gbpvr. Open config.xml with notepad or similar text editor. You're looking for the following section:
<!-- overscan control (border size in pixels) -->
<OverScanBorderX1>23</OverScanBorderX1>
<OverScanBorderY1>0</OverScanBorderY1>
<OverScanBorderX2>25</OverScanBorderX2>
<OverScanBorderY2>0</OverScanBorderY2>
To fine tune your picture, those numbers are what you want to play with (yours should be all 0's, those are my adjustments). If I'm not mistaken, those numbers are the number of pixels you're increasing the border and consequently shrinking the visible picture in the order of left side of the screen, top, right, bottom. So, if your picture is running too far off the edge of the screen, this will shrink it up. Or if it's the opposite, I believe you can use negative numbers.

What resolution should I have for the tv-out then before I putz with the xml file ?

[pastro]

Kids are watching Smallville so I can't get at the machine but I'm pretty sure it's 720x576.