Live TV looks ok, Recordings look bad for single channel

[dslowik]

Here is a problem I haven't seen before. I've been recording a couple new shows (both on the same channel) for a week or two. I started to watch it and the video looks bad. All of my other recordings have been looking ok. The way I'd describe it is that it appears that each row of video is offset from the next and then they jump back and forth.

So I decided to try and record something else to see if it just that show. I turned on the same channel these other shows were recorded on and it looked ok. I then started recording and also watching at the same time. I've got a Hauppauge PVR500 so I am able to use both tuners. The show looked fine all the way through. When it was over, I looked at the recording and it looked bad. I've also watched the recorded mpg on another nonpvr computer using 3 different media players it looks bad in each. I took the video and cut a small part out and also cut a small part of another show recorded recently from another channel and have uploaded it here. The first part shows the messed up video and the second shows what a good recording looks like.

I've got it set up to record a bunch different shows over the next day on that one channel to see if I can find any that look ok. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[whurlston]

That looks a LOT like electrical/RF interference. Did you have something new plugged into the same circuit while that recording was taking place?

[ram4x4nut]

Is it one of the lower channels? Like 2-8 ? I've seen this on the 150's. If you have a somewhat weak signal the lower channels will look bad. Also some of the older drivers will make that even worse. I would double check all of my cable connections not only for tightness but for quality.

[whurlston]

Is it one of the lower channels? Like 2-8 ? I've seen this on the 150's. If you have a somewhat weak signal the lower channels will look bad. Also some of the older drivers will make that even worse. I would double check all of my cable connections not only for tightness but for quality.

Hmm. Never used a Hauppauge card so I didn't know that.

[peterh]

Is it possible that one of the tuners is not as good or tuning slightly off on that channel?

[pBS]

Is it one of the lower channels? Like 2-8 ? I've seen this on the 150's. If you have a somewhat weak signal the lower channels will look bad. Also some of the older drivers will make that even worse. I would double check all of my cable connections not only for tightness but for quality.

that's the nature of the signal itself...the lower the channel, the exponentially harder it is to transmit/receive...has mostly to do with the wavelength..
even on cable the lowest channels look worse..
not much you can do about that except make sure the whole range is strong...

eliminating any possible reflection sources can also help sometimes..
[actually using a HD antenna will help reflections on analog signals also]

[dslowik]

Lots of good info here. I'll test it out and post the results.

That looks a LOT like electrical/RF interference. Did you have something new plugged into the same circuit while that recording was taking place?

Nope, nothing new.

Is it one of the lower channels? Like 2-8 ? I've seen this on the 150's. If you have a somewhat weak signal the lower channels will look bad. Also some of the older drivers will make that even worse. I would double check all of my cable connections not only for tightness but for quality.

Close, it is channel 10. The good quality video was recorded on 29. I check my drivers and my connections.

Is it possible that one of the tuners is not as good or tuning slightly off on that channel?

Good thought. I can test that out.

[rscheller]

I have a similar problem but it occurs on channel 6. I have two PVR-150's and my suspicion is that one of them doesn't tune quite properly on the lower channels and if I record a show on channel 6 with that specific card, I get this weird vertical rainbow affect over-laying a blocky picture.

I've also seen the same problem when using the Hauppauge Win_TV software to watch live TV on my computer. If the software starts up set to channel 6, I see the rainbows but if I start up on any other channel and tune to channel 6, I see the rainbows for a 1/2 second or so and then the card apparently 'locks on better' and the rainbows disappear.

How do I check the actual tuning on an individual PVR-150?

[dslowik]

I ripped out my drivers and reinstalled the latest PVR-500 drivers. I checked the version number afterwards and the driver itself had the same version number as before. However, the image quality was better. I'm guessing something got updated besides the driver. It's still not great, but acceptable for a 5 year-old (for now). I haven't had time to force a recording on each of the tuners during a single show, but that is still on the list to do.