Would a digital tuner improve quality?

[stou0220]

Hello, I have a question that I was hoping some of you could provide some insight into. I receive my TV signal from my phone company. It is digital video over IP (IPTV), and each TV has its own digital stream from the phone company's central office. I currently use a PVR250 for capture, but was wondering if another card would give me better picture quality. There is noticable degradation on my HD monitor using my PVR versus my other tv not using a PVR. Is there a tuner you guys would recommend? Here is my setup:

BTV 4.1/BM 1.1.1
Firefly 1.2
Hauppauge PVR 250
Windows XP SP2
2.8 GHz 800FSB
1 GB RAM
300 GB HD Space
IPTV using Myrio software and i3 Micro Mood 200 STB

Thanks for the suggestions.

[bits]

I have been using the PVR250 for about 18 months and I usually record using a constant bit rate(CBR) of 7-8Mb/sec. With this setting there is some degradation in the form of a slightly softer picture but it is still quite acceptable.

What settings are you using for recording?

I record analog, digital and HD from my cablebox which is connected to my PVR250 via an 'S' video cable. Naturally, the HD stuff is actually recorded as SD but it is still quite good.

You mentioned a show viewed on your 'Other' TV looks better than the same show that was recorded with the PVR250 and then viewed on your HD monitor. Is your 'Other' TV the same size and type? If not you may not be comparing apples to apples. If for example your other TV is smaller then most SD and digital shows will look better on it than on your larger screened HD monitor. Just a thought!

[stou0220]

Thanks for the reply. You are right, I am comparing a 42 in HD monitor to a 27 in, so maybe this is not the most accurate gage of degradation. However, if I bypass my PVR and hook up my STB directly to my monitor, this picture is crisper. Like you said, it is still OK, but I didn't know if a digital signal could retain it's quality by using a different card.

As far as my 250 settings, I am using the defaults. I'm not as knowledgeable on this subject as many here on the forum, so I am hesitant to explore. Besides, BTV is buggy enough to frustrate my wife by messing up recording or locking up, and I don't want to contribute to her frustration by screwing up the picture! However, if there are accepted recommendations that most people use, I will certainly try those.

Thanks for the help on this matter.

[bits]

I forgot to mention that I record the 'program stream' instead of the default. I am not sure this makes any difference but a friend of mine, who has a 250 and a 500, says it does. If you choose the best quality default setting, that will of course result in a larger file but the quality will be better. The difference between DVD quality and best is probably not that noticeable. But the difference between LP and DVD or Best will be quite noticeable.

I use BTV mostly as a scheduler for recordings and not for viewing video files or live TV. I use a Linkplayer2 to view my video files on my 50" HD monitor via a LAN connection. My HD monitor is on the other end of the house from where my PC is located. Typically I record shows, cut commercials and then view them from my HDD on my HD monitor. After viewing, delete or store for another viewing later on.

[mattl]

Hi bits,

The issue you've raised is quite mired in a thread I started earlier and will be posting more on tonight.

Frankly, I do not think that the picture coming out of the WinTV cards is anywhere near the picture coming out of digital cable.

Presumably, if you're in America, your service is sending D-NTSC 720x480 video (the same that DirecTV sends me). It's my argument that the Hauppauge cards are designed for good ol' 640x486 "classic" NTSC, and they haven't change the decoding since the original WinTV cards.

Ironically, Hauppauge does make a D-1 PAL card that captures at 720x576... so why not in America? Only they know, though I presume it has something to do with the ReplayTV/TiVo court cases striking a little fear in their bellies about the reproduction of digital content.

Anyway, my new pulpit around here is that most of us don't even need tuner cards: Odds are decent that you're going to be using their tuner box and only need to feed the A/V signals to your PC -- which negates the need for a tuner altogether. All you need is a capture card... and there are far better options out there than WinTV.

-Matt

[stou0220]

Mattl,

Thanks for the reply. What capture card do you think provides the best picture?