Stutter/Jitter using A180/Vbox and OTA? Check signal "Strength" not "quality"

[svemuri]

Hello all,
I've been fighting with SageTV + A180 with stutter/jitter on some channels for a while. I've been following all the threads about this and tried every thing. I've even bought VBox 151 to see if it is an A180 only problem. But nothing worked.

Both Sage and AverTV were showing 100% signal on all channels

I noticed that VBox has a signal meter utility on its website. Downloaded and gave it a whirl.

Here is a hard to believe fact: The "Signal" meter in Sage and AverTV (probably others based on BDA drivers) are not showing signal "strength". They are showing signal "quality".

The VBox utility showed both (only for Vbox cards). While the quality is 100% on all channels (don't know how it is measured and it only changes in 25% steps), channels I was having trouble only showed a signal strength of 1000-4000mDB. Good channels were at 9000-12000mDB. This is with an attic mounted RCA VHF+UHF antenna.

So I went to Fry's and bought a Channel Master 4228 (UHF only), and replaced the RCA antenna. With a little bit of alignment (using Vbox utility), I was able to get all channels above 7000mDb (including the one VHF channel in Atlanta).

This almost solved all my stutter/jitter problems (except on CBS, but its signal is still weak at 7000 and some times dropping down to 5000). I guess I'll now go and buy a Channel Master preamp and see if that solves CBS.

I also came across the following at avsforums(turning off HT on P4).
Check thread 615144 (can't post URLs yet).

So, if you are having problems with stutter, try and check the signal "strength".

Good Luck.

Sarat.