any help me get above 800x600 with my 2250?

[axlrose]

i'm going to post this a few places as i'm not sure when anyone might check each thread again. thanks for any help.

i purchased a 2250 when they first came out and put one on my new computer (built immediately when the gtx 280 ftx came out) and i'm still a total noob to pc tv. i don't understand qam at all, but i'd sure like to.

i live out in the country a bit, so i'm not sure what i might have available (used to live in the twin cities) but i do have a cable box hooked up with digital cable and dvr.

i am super tired of watching 800x600 tv on my 2560x1600 30" monitor. it looks pretty crappy when 800x600 is stretched out to fill a 30" monitor. i'd love to get some hd resolution if you can help me out.

thanks in advance for any help.

[gambitpvr]

Your post is a little unclear on your setup so, I'll try to cover a few general items.

There's two different resolutions at work here. First is the resolution that the video is recorded and second, is the resolution that your computer is using to display on your monitor.

If your tuner card is recording off your cable box, you are recording in standard definition. If you plugged your cable straight from the wall to your tuner card, and just use the straight analog signal (aka, you can get all analog station, typically, 1 - 99), then you are also recording standard definition.

Beyond TV does support clear QAM on your card so, if you cable company has it available, you should be able to use it, but the only way to know is to test it. Basically, just plug the tuner card straight into the cable line (without the cable box) and run the setup wizard. In the wizard, select 'Clear QAM' and let BTV scan for stations. If any are available, it will find them and walk you thru the rest of the setup. All QAM stations are digital and, usually, most are in HD format but it varies by area and cable provider. When you watch a digital station, the status window in BTV that displays the show information will also display the resolution (480i, 720p, 1080i, etc), so you know it's digital (this number is not displayed on analog stations).

The other part of this equation is the display resolution of your computer output to the monitor. This gets a bit more complicated and varies from monitor to monitor. You'll need to play with the settings a bit to find the best picture quality for your hardware.

In general, if you are using a VGA cable, you want to set your PC resolution to the highest resolution supported by your monitor to avoid stretching. However, depending on your monitor, this may or may not be the best connection method. If you monitor has inputs for component (blue / green / red video cables) or HDMI, you want to use those for the best quality. Just plug in the cable and run display Wizard in the Nvidia control panel to set the resolution to the highest HD resolution that your monitor supports. This should eliminate most or all of the stretching effects. Of course, some monitors have a setting to 'stretch' the input and BTV also has a stretch feature. So, you may need to play with a combo of these as well to get the best picture quality.

[axlrose]

thanks for the quick response.

is there a way to find out if i can get any qam channels before dropping $100 on beyond tv? money is a bit tight right now.

monitor runs at 2560x1600 native and on dual dvi. not sure if that has anything to do with what you said about the monitor.

[mayhem70]

You get a 3 week trial I believe now. Otherwise, I believe you can also tune clear QAM with WinTV if you just need to check.
As for your monitor resolution, you are running it at a resolution way higher than 1080i/1080p, unless that your intent...but if you are watching recorded video at fullscreen, you might as well reduce it to 1920x1080.

[axlrose]

if i drop the resolution to 1920x1080, will the picture actually be a bit sharper? that's what i'm trying to get, but that seems backward in my head?

maybe i'll try to see if i can figure out how to search for qam's through wintv.

thanks.

[mayhem70]

Originally Posted by axlrose

if i drop the resolution to 1920x1080, will the picture actually be a bit sharper? that's what i'm trying to get, but that seems backward in my head?

maybe i'll try to see if i can figure out how to search for qam's through wintv.

thanks.

Would it be sharper...I would say that you would notice less fuzzy pixelation.

[axlrose]

well, if i can find a way to get qam, at least it should be sharper than the analog cable i seem to be getting right now i assume.

[mayhem70]

Originally Posted by axlrose

well, if i can find a way to get qam, at least it should be sharper than the analog cable i seem to be getting right now i assume.

I'm guessing you haven't then installed BTV yet at this point?

[axlrose]

no, i'm wrestling with version 7 of win tv which apparently just came out....

[axlrose]

or at least recently came out.