Am I stuck?

[JDeSimone]

I bought a PVR-500MCE because I knew I wanted two tuners. The card I have has 1 Philips and 1 Samsung tuner and the reception is awful. It's worse on the lower channels but still bad no matter what. Has anyone here gotten good enough performance from one of these with the new tuners to get an acceptable WAF?:confused:

I bought it from PCAlchemy and am considering asking if they will accept a return on it if I buy 2 PVR150.

I am going to go buy a signal amp today to see if that gives me acceptable quality. Open to all suggestions.

Lil more info.

Running XP Pro Clean install. All Sp's and updates
3GHZ System, 2Gig Ram GT 6600 Nvidia Card
These Drivers from Website pvr150_500_basedriver_2043_24103
pvr150_22_23257.
Cable signal Brighthouse Tampa Bay FL

If you need me to submit any more information, I know I am forgettting something.

TIA
Joe D

[Braklet]

Check out this thread, perhaps Hauppauge is working on drivers to improve the situation:

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthre...ht=500+mce

[zehd]

I do not belive it's a driver issue. I bought and exchanged two 500s. After the third time, where the tuners either didn't give a picture at all (only snow) or very bad, I exchanged for two 150s. The clerk said that there have been many returns for the 500 as it was probably a bad batch.

Pity. I was hoping it would work, and I'm sure it does for many, but I usually don't let myself get burned more than twice

[zed]

I have a 500 with two Samsung tuners (type B in the picture in that snapstream link). One of them worked fine but the other was snowy like a bad antenna connection. Somewhere in that thread...page 5 or so...they recommend removing the shields (the tops) of the tuners. Sounded weird to me but it's pretty easily done (carefully pry them off with a little screwdriver) so I gave it a try. Damned if it didn't seem to fix it. Both tuners work just fine now. I can't imagine why that would make a big difference (I'd think it would work the other way) but it sure did for me. Perhaps the top shorted out something or de-tuned a tuned circuit...RF at those freqs is kinda weird. Anyway, it's a non-destructive thing to try. As always...YMMV...

[JDeSimone]

I appreciate the feedback. I have been able to improve my signal considerably by just changing drivers. I switched to version 2.0.35.23348. Now most channels are pretty clear although they are still not great. I will continue to play and adjust we will see what happens.