Low quality, but signal is ok

[sww]

Hello!
I use NextPVR 5.2.3.211114 with two tuners: old NOTV TV5Deluxe and new Rebel KOM1060 Astrometa*. The old one works fine, but I encounter problems with the new one.

The video from KOM1060 is pixelated. I have a very good quality signal (2km from 100kW transmitter) and all TVs and NOTV tuner work fine.
I tried to detect any sources of noise (moved computer, power source, used USB extension cord). I found nothing.

Then I tried to work with different software. I found that the signal is pixelated only in NextPVR (using client, Kodi or website - doesn't matter). If I run TVRplayer (the software I 've got with the tuner) the quality is fine. I looked into NextPVR logs and I found nothing interesting - no errors or any information about wrong codecs, etc.

What can be the reason for low quality in NextPVR?

--EDIT--
* i found that this stick is just another Astrometa DVB-T2 with Realtek chip. Probably the problem is related to buggy software. How can I deal with this?

[sub]

Unfortunately you'll probably find previous discussion of problems with these Realtek devices. It seems to be some non standard stuff these drivers are doing. There isn't anything NextPVR can do about it. Maybe see if you can find different versions of the drivers in hopes that one of them works better.

[sww]

Thanks.
Unfortunately, the Realtek driver is from 2017 even in the newest package (2020). :-(
I wrote to support. We'll see whether they offer some solutions.

[mvallevand]

I saw that @NumberFive reported exactly the same quality issue https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=62334 and the note about the pre-amp is the likely cause.

Martin

[sub]

If you've got a Linux machine, or NAS drive, you could probably try it there, in case the Linux drivers are better than the Windows ones.

[sww]

I read the forum of Linux users. They encountered problems with MPLP (Multiple Physical Layer Pipes), whatever it is. ;-) They were able to modify the Caffeine TV player to work with the Astrometa driver. Based on this, I think that it is possible to modify NextPVR to work correctly with Astrometa. But I understand that developers may have more important things to do than add not standard ways of communication with drivers.

[sub]

But I understand that developers may have more important things to do than add not standard ways of communication with drivers.

Yeah, pretty much this

Given I also don't have one of these devices (so no way to test it), and any information on what type of special treatment it needs, there is very low likelihood of a NextPVR workaround coming for problems with these devices.

[sww]

Ok, so the solution is clear. What not expensive USB sticks do you recommend as 100% working with NextPVR?

I need DVB-T2/HEVC and support for Windows 10. The hardware is poor: Intel i3, 8GB RAM, some old Nvidia card. Avermedia TD310 requires I5 and Nvidia 970 - this probably won't work. I can't find other sticks or even PCI cards in my country. But maybe there is something on Amazon?

[sub]

I usually use Hauppauge tuners. In stick form I quite like the dualHD. No idea if it’s cheap there or not.

[sww]

Will Hauppauge Win TV-soloHD work ok? I'm in Europe.

Link: https://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/product...l#overview