Poor quality for Live TV

[jussi]

I seem to be getting poor quality when viewing Live TV. I'm running a cox to a Haup PVR150 and then DVI to HDMI to my 50" LCD. If I view an avi,divx,h264,etc video it comes out great but in Live TV it's grainy and the picture seems to be shrunk a bit. I was watching the NBA game last night and the pic was shrunk and bars were placed on the sides. Not the case when I watched it with the stb hooked up directly to the TV.

[sub]

To be honest, I wouldnt expect an analog capture to look that great when blown up to 50". You'd find you get much better quality out of a digital capture card.

All analog devices capture video as 4:3, so when then this is played back on your 50" widescreen LCD, I'd expect to see black bars on the left and the right (otherwise the picture would be stretched). If you dont care about maintaining the correct aspect ratio, and just want it to fill the screen, then press F7 a few times until you're in the 'Fill' aspect ratio mode.

[jussi]

What card do you recommend? I'd like to capture HD in the future.

And on a side note, does GB allow you to record multiple shows if you have multiple tuners? I notice I can't do it with my single 150 card right now but if I add another can I do it?

[sub]

What card do you recommend? I'd like to capture HD in the future.

The Hauppauge HVR-2250 seems popular in that part of the world with GB-PVR users. It has dual tuners, with each tuner capable of either digital (antenna or digital cable) or analog.

And on a side note, does GB allow you to record multiple shows if you have multiple tuners?

Yes.

I notice I can't do it with my single 150 card right now but if I add another can I do it?

A PVR150 only has a single tuner, so thats correct - it can only record one thing at a time. Yes, if you add another card it'll be able to record multiple things at the same time.

[jussi]

Just checking out the specs of the HVR 2250. I notice it doesn't have a IR socket though. Why is that? Does that mean I'll need to leave the PVR 150 to be able to use the remote that came with it?

[johnsonx42]

the version of the 2250 that comes with a remote uses a usb receiver. if you get the version with no remote, then yes, you could leave the PVR150 in for purposes of using the remote.

[jussi]

Do they make aftermarket usb ir blasters? Who makes them?

[johnsonx42]

several are listed here (USB-UIRT, RedRat3, Actisys IR200L):
http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Hardw...nelChanger

[Kamikuza]

To be honest, I wouldnt expect an analog capture to look that great when blown up to 50". You'd find you get much better quality out of a digital capture card.

All analog devices capture video as 4:3, so when then this is played back on your 50" widescreen LCD, I'd expect to see black bars on the left and the right (otherwise the picture would be stretched). If you dont care about maintaining the correct aspect ratio, and just want it to fill the screen, then press F7 a few times until you're in the 'Fill' aspect ratio mode.

Does that mean that when coming from a STB into the PC, that the digital capture card will get better quality than the analog one? Dang I wish I'd known that before I bought the PVR150!

[JonnyCam]

Does that mean that when coming from a STB into the PC, that the digital capture card will get better quality than the analog one?

no, not really. (it won't work)
The digital card is for capturing straight from the broadcaster - atsc, qam, DVB-S or DVB-T

all analog coming out of your STB will look quite rubbish, due to the STB taking the digital signal, converting to analog, the PC making an digital MPG of that signal, then sending through youtr tv card.
(possibly another step depending on how the TV is conected)

There are HD-PVR (think thats what they are called) which will capture analog highdef out of a STB, with much better quality.