Quality Problem -- Need help quick!

[houseonfire]

Dude. I said it is Digital.

[JonnyCam]

is your ATI TV 650 the PCi or PCI-e version?

650 - PCI:
Single hybrid tuner offering tuning for:
Off-the-air / Cable Analog TV
Off-the-air Digital TV / HDTV1
FM Radio

650 - PIC-e
Two built-in tuners offering combo tuning for:
Off-the-air Digital TV / HDTV1
ClearQAM Digital TV / HDTV 2
Off-the-air / Cable Analog TV
FM Radio

So if you have the PCI version, it looks like it wouldn't be able to use HDTV cable, and only supports HDTV through OTA. At least thats how I read it, someone from the US must be able to say if they use this card with digital cable or not.


EDIT: Looking at http://www.cox.com/arizona/cable_hd_phx.asp there is a list of the HDTV channels in Phoenix through Cox, and the 2 stations you have given screenshots of are not listed in there (tbs & USA?)

In addition to this, http://www.cox.com/arizona/cable_lineup.asp lists TBS as being in the basic cable package, and USA is the expanded package - neither of these is listed as being part of the digital programming tiers - so maybe it is analog?

[zehd]

I have to weigh in..

First I should say that the 'Friends' picture does not look good. That said...

There are so many variation in signal that could be happening, and that's why we're asking question.

Digital doesn't mean it should look good. Many HD channels, broadcat some SD content (in 4x3) and it is down converted., Looks pretty bad. I would always prefer catching the same analog broadcase over a downsampled digital broadcast.

Next, If you have HD, you need a Set Top Box, to get the picture into your Tuner card. Usually that very process will down convert the picture too. Is this the case?

Next, There are two things we are trying to discern: whether the tuner is receiving a bad picture or whether the Video card is displaying a bad picture, or both. Playing with catalyst drivers is dealing with only a display issue. If you are able to playback downloaded content well, then you don't have a display problem.

Next, I currently have only analog coax feeding my tuner card. I get a better picture than your sample. BUT I had to use a video signal amplifier.

Before I used a Set Top box that supposedly provided a digital picture. Having worked for the local Cable company, I knew full well that there was an analog passthrough. All the regular Analog channels were not broadcast in digital.

Now with the advent of cable companies changing over to all digital, it doesn't mean a better picture. It just means the same crappy analog picture is sent out through digital channels, and those channels are just not available through analog anymore...

This is not always the case. Some TV Stations upscale their output and send that 'better' picture to the cable provider for distribution...

ANYWAYS!!!!

It is my guess that you are having a bad analog signal, in spite of the cable company calling it a digital signal.

It's probably due to splitters or bad connections.

I would suggest trying a connection directly to the main line comping into your house, before splitters. I know that that may prove inconvenient, but it would tell you right away whether you should get a 50 dollar video amp...

On a side note: the videos that you download that look great, are HD recordings, that were multipass transcoded. The guys that upload that stuff spend several hours on a single file, getting it just right. Comparing those downloads to analog and/or composite tuner MPG recordings, is apples to oranges...