2007-10-11, 07:57 PM
In case other's haven't discovered it yet, Hauppauge recently released a signal strength meter utility for the HVR-1600 (and some others) tuner cards. It works with both QAM cable and over-the-air ATSC.
http://www.hauppage.com/pages/support/su...nitor.html
This simple utility has helped me a lot tracking down problems with my setup. I first used it with my QAM digital cable. The SNR was fairly high (30 and higher), but I received lots of unrecoverable errors. To make matters worse, the SNR would drop below 15 for an hour or two, and then jump back up again. I'm not sure why I was receiving so many errors with such a strong signal, but I wouldn't have known about it without the signal monitor.
I already have an RF amplifier, but it wasn't helping with my SNR values. I even tried connecting the incoming cable directly to the amp, with the single output to my HVR-1600. There was no real change in the SNR or the number of unrecoverable errors. So, I assume there's some issue with my cable service itself.
So, I moved the digital side of my HVR-1600 tuner cards to an antenna, and moved the RF amplifier to that side as well. Thanks to the new signal monitor utility, I was able to experiment with the best aiming of the antenna to achieve the strongest signal. It's a very handy tool.
Anyway, my initial tests today have been quite good. SNR from over-the-air ATSC generally runs around 21 or higher. I get an occasional error, but haven't noticed any unrecoverable errors except when a station is first tuned in.
The only issue I have with the antenna is one of the stations is in a different direction than the others. If I aim the antenna to get that channel, all the rest get messed up. So, I decided just to give up on that channel. Thankfully, I looked through the EPG for the week, and it doesn't appear I record anything on that station anyway, other than an occasional movie. For now, I can always revert to the analog side if I want to record it.
The only issue I have with the signal monitor is it doesn't provide a way to select the tuner card. I have two HVR-1600 tuner cards, and it took some experimentation to figure out which card it was monitoring. Ironically, WinTV appears to use the OTHER card... Figures.
Finally making some progress again...
Anthony
http://www.hauppage.com/pages/support/su...nitor.html
This simple utility has helped me a lot tracking down problems with my setup. I first used it with my QAM digital cable. The SNR was fairly high (30 and higher), but I received lots of unrecoverable errors. To make matters worse, the SNR would drop below 15 for an hour or two, and then jump back up again. I'm not sure why I was receiving so many errors with such a strong signal, but I wouldn't have known about it without the signal monitor.
I already have an RF amplifier, but it wasn't helping with my SNR values. I even tried connecting the incoming cable directly to the amp, with the single output to my HVR-1600. There was no real change in the SNR or the number of unrecoverable errors. So, I assume there's some issue with my cable service itself.
So, I moved the digital side of my HVR-1600 tuner cards to an antenna, and moved the RF amplifier to that side as well. Thanks to the new signal monitor utility, I was able to experiment with the best aiming of the antenna to achieve the strongest signal. It's a very handy tool.
Anyway, my initial tests today have been quite good. SNR from over-the-air ATSC generally runs around 21 or higher. I get an occasional error, but haven't noticed any unrecoverable errors except when a station is first tuned in.
The only issue I have with the antenna is one of the stations is in a different direction than the others. If I aim the antenna to get that channel, all the rest get messed up. So, I decided just to give up on that channel. Thankfully, I looked through the EPG for the week, and it doesn't appear I record anything on that station anyway, other than an occasional movie. For now, I can always revert to the analog side if I want to record it.
The only issue I have with the signal monitor is it doesn't provide a way to select the tuner card. I have two HVR-1600 tuner cards, and it took some experimentation to figure out which card it was monitoring. Ironically, WinTV appears to use the OTHER card... Figures.
Finally making some progress again...
Anthony