New System - Problems

[jsteele]

What decoder does the Netradio use? I've noticed the same 'rumbling' on the Netradio that I see on some of the LiveTV output.

[sub]

It uses an entirely different one to live tv. It uses the 'MPEG Layer-3 Decoder'.

[jsteele]

Hmmm. Well if I'm still getting the 'rumbling' sounds then it doesn't sound like it's related to the Hauppauge and it's decoders or signal levels etc.

The interesting thing is that the DVD audio is fine, I haven't heard any of this when watching a DVD.

[jsteele]

Well, the latest update. I just installed a high quality 4 port wideband cable TV amplifier, +7 dB per port. The channels that were good are still good, <b>maybe</b> even slightly better. The channels that were bad are still bad. In some cases it's as if there was no signal at all for a given channel; snow, hash, etc. At present the channels that appear to be best are those in the range 50 and up to 75. Channel 2 is very poor, channels 4 and 5 are almost non-existent, channels 7-17 and 46-62 are pretty good, 65 is non-existent but 67-75 are actually quite good (again aside from the audio 'rumble.')

In addition, using the channel up/down function as the channels change there is a noticable lag in the audio for the channel --- people's mouths move and the sound lags the motion. This lag goes away if you exit from Live TV and reenter to the same channel.

The audio 'rumble' is still present on the channels were it was before. Strangely it does not appear to be present on all channels, it is present on NetRadio but not present on DVDs at all.

This is 'making me crazy.' I am running out of ideas. I've changed video and audio decoders, the audio renderer, amplified the signal to a 'fair thee well' checked and rechecked connections, all to no avail.

[jsteele]

Because some of the channels appear to be missing altogether I thought I would run the GBPVR Tuning Assistant to see what it reported. I configured it for the PVR150MCE and US. When it started it reported that it found Channel 2 at a frequency of 72000000. But Channel 2 in the US is located at 55250000. This value is reflected in the HKLM/Software/Microsoft/TV System Services/TVAutoTune key under TS1-0, TS0-1, TS1-0 and TS1-1. Similarly the registry key correctly reflects the other frequency values for the various channels.

It is also interesting that the Tuning Assistant does not lock up on Channels 4, 5, 18-21, 25, 26, 30-34, 65 all of which are on the cable system.

This also raises the question of what the Tuning Assistant does with the data it derives from the scan.

[sub]

This also raises the question of what the Tuning Assistant does with the data it derives from the scan

Absolutely nothing. zero things are changed on your system when you run the tuning assistant.

[jsteele]

Thanks. Doesn't solve my problem but now I know :-)

[HarR]

Have you tried, as a reference, to connect your PC with short cable and as a the only device directly to your cable outlet ?

[jsteele]

Have you tried, as a reference, to connect your PC with short cable and as a the only device directly to your cable outlet ?

Yes, tried that and the results were not as good --- low signal level on the input cable system I think. in may case the amplifier appears to be a requirement for anything approaching usable performance.

[capone]

I forget if you ever tried one pvr card or not.

One thing I've always had luck w/ is troubleshooting. I've found the best approach is kind of the opposite of occam's razor: remove all but the obvious, so whatever you add that breaks it, must be the problem.

In your case, there isn't a whole lot relevant to take out. If you want to test the power theory, too, unplug the DVD drive, too. If you remove enough that you get a good picture on all channels, put thing back until it's bad again.