Tuner Troubles?

[Softball Dad]

I have a Hauppauge PVR250 BTV tuner connected to a Motorola DCT-1700 Cable receiver. I run Beyond TV 3.5 with Firefly. All of my digital stations have consistently good video quality. The analog stations are inconsistent. Sometimes they are very clear and sometimes they are choppy. Now for the weird part...

• Channels 7 and up are the analog stations that are okay when the video quality is good. 6 and below are always choppy.
• The analog video quality can be good one hour/day and bad the next hour/Day.
• I am testing now to see if the video quality is related to the heat the tuner card experiences.

Is there a way I can "adjust" the tuner? Can it be done for specific stations? This is very frustrating....

[Deuce911]

Originally Posted by Softball Dad

I have a Hauppauge PVR250 BTV tuner connected to a Motorola DCT-1700 Cable receiver. I run Beyond TV 3.5 with Firefly. All of my digital stations have consistently good video quality. The analog stations are inconsistent. Sometimes they are very clear and sometimes they are choppy. Now for the weird part...

• Channels 7 and up are the analog stations that are okay when the video quality is good. 6 and below are always choppy.
• The analog video quality can be good one hour/day and bad the next hour/Day.
• I am testing now to see if the video quality is related to the heat the tuner card experiences.

Is there a way I can "adjust" the tuner? Can it be done for specific stations? This is very frustrating....

We have Time Warner Cable and the lower 8 channels on my cable system were terrible. I called them and they sent someone out and they had a problem in the line going to my house. The other TV's in the house were just OK but going thru the 250 seemed to have problems. There were days when it was perfect and others when I could not see a picture. When they replaced the line everything is great now. I guess my comment is give the cable guy a call and show him your picture quality, they can hook up a tester and test the signal strength. Give it a shot.


thanks
Mike

[MeGaBoZ]

I have similare issues, the lwoer channels (8 and down) are pretty bad, 40 and up better better, and everything in the middle is pretty good, but I am experiencing this on all my TV's and BTV. However, I have noticed that BTV doesn't seem to record well when the stations have a crappy signal.

[Softball Dad]

Thanks, I'll call the cable company if, after I try a signal booster, there is still an issue.

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by Softball Dad

Thanks, I'll call the cable company if, after I try a signal booster, there is still an issue.

I had digital cable about a year ago, with a Motorola convertor...I can't remember which model. It only had a composite output. Digital channels were all consistently good, but quality of the analog channels was wildely divergent. Reception on most channels was snowy; only a few channels were what I would consider good. On numerous channels, the audio "splashed"...that is, distorted on high frequency sounds and female voices. I canceled my digital subscription.

Then recently, I signed up for the digital package again, and they now have updated their convertors...It's a Motorola DCT-2524. It has an S-video out, which I pump into my PVR-250. The improvement in quality has been very dramatic! My cabling is exactly the same, yet ALL analog pictures are crystal clear...to the point that it is hard to discern the quality difference between digital and analog. Indeed, analog offers some benefits over digital, as sometimes I can see blockiness in the compression of the digital signal-especially when a picture fades to black or fades up from black.

Maybe you could approach your cable company about a better box. I specifically requested one with an S-video out, and it paid off!

[CoJaBo]

I had this problem. Using a Monster brand line conditioner helps(If
you can afford it!), and good cable(TV AND usb for external tuners).

[Softball Dad]

Thank you all for your help. I wanted to let you know how you guided me to finally fixing the Tuner Issue (versus Tech Support!)...

I was blaming the Cable Box or the Tuner, then a few of your responses mentioned the signal. Before I called the cable company (SECTV - a co. local to Sussex County, NJ). I back tracked my cable to the adjustable signal booster I installed 8 years ago (and forgot about). I played with the signal strength and found when I turned it all of the way down, the tuner works perfectly! In fact, the analog signal to all my tv's looked better!

My only guess is that when my cable company went digital about a year ago, the need for the signal booster diminished. Everything worked yesterday, some of my problem was intermittent so I will check each day. If something changes, "I'll be back"!

A big....THANK YOU!