Fuzzy Channels - New Information

[mike1961]

Hello - I posted a thread a while back about some channels coming in fuzzy and it was determined that it was a frequency issue that could be resolved by changing entries in the registry.

Well - here's something that now has me totally confused. I have my main server now that I'm starting to configure and I have 2 WinTV 500 cards and 1 WinTV 150 card. The WinTV 500 cards even have channel 11 all fuzzy but with the WinTV 150 card channel 11 is totally clear. Any ideas as to what is going on and what I can do about this?

Thanks,
Mike

[sfisher]

Mike is it the same kind of fuzzy as in not tuned in? If so I'm at a loss... The only thing I can think of is, that you are driving 5 tuners now, and the 150 is getting twice the signal the 500s are because the signal is split on the card for the two tuners in the 500 cards. Assuming your using a single 4 way splitter externally and not a combination of 2 2way splitters to give you 3 connections which would have even more of a difference possible. You might need a Bi-directional RF Amp to get enough signal strength, I know I did with just my 2 500s, The signal was there, just somewhat fuzzy picture, sound was OK for the most part.


-Steve

FYI: every 3db on the on the splitters used = 1/2 the power of the signal.

[stevech]

try viewing with a TV one of the outputs of the splitter to see if your signal is too weak. If so, expect snow and some interference. A 4-way splitters costs 11dB per port. Each 3dB is half-power.

If you wire up the Amplifier to drive only your splitters for the tuners, you probably don't need a bi-directional amp. Bi-directional means that it provides an unamplified path in the reverse direction (to cable company) for your digital cable box and cable modem. A decent amplifier can be had for $25.

otherwise- tuners inside a PC can pick up PC microprocessor/memory noise because it is plentiful in there!

[sfisher]

The TV Idea may not work because the 150 seems OK to you. But the 500s need more power because they have another splitter on the board, so the 2 tuners on the same board only see half the power inputted to the board each.

As far as Bi-directional or not, it is best to amplify the signal before the signal is degraded to start. That would preferably be before the first splitter in your house. That being the case, if you have any cable boxes, cable modems, cable phones your going to want a bi-directional amp. The adjustable 20db amp I bought cost about $40.

-Steve

[mike1961]

The splitter problem is ruled out...as you may recall we found that everything is clear using the WinTV software so how can it be a problem with the splitter? Also, could it really be a problem with the splitter if some channels come in perfectly clear while some right next to those channels are totally fuzzy? At the present time I have 2 Win TV 500's and 1 Win TV 150 but I don't have them all hooked up. I only have two hooked up right now on a splitter that accepts two cables. If I ever get this along with all the other problems resolved, I may eventually get this hooked up. For now, it's just taking more time to resolve ...this problem with the fuzzy channels is really terrible.

By the way - I'm not sure if this is a hardware problem or not but I am finding that one of the tuners in one of my Win 500 cards seems to often have a conflict in the drivers when I start the server. If I then disable and renable the device, it works....is it a sync problem or a problem with the card? Anyone else have this problem? I haven't yet tested just that one card alone in the computer to see if there could be something wrong with that one card....(but this has nothing to do with the fuzzy channels because again...some channels come in just fine and this happens on any tuner card).

Thanks,
Mike

[sfisher]

Hi Mike, That was what I was trying to say in my first post above, if you are still referring to the tuning issue as "fuzzy channels" I can't explain why the 150 card is working and the 500s aren't. It wasn't clear that you were describing the same issue; as I thought we had at least come to an understanding of that one.

"Fuzzy channels" is not a very helpful terminology, as any kind of signal degradation could cause "fuzzy channels". It would be better to refer to your kind of problem as a tuning issue (as you can tune in the channel manually)

As you said channel 11 works on the 150 and doesn't on the 500s... Have you tried tuning the channel in on the 500's with freqshifter and then seeing what the picture looks like on the 150? I be interested to know if the 150 looses the picture or not. I'm not sure exactly what it would mean yet, but it would be some sort of clue.

=========
If only one of the 500s has the driver conflict it pretty much says there is a problem with that card. Is it something that happens from a restart? If so see if it happens from a complete shutdown. I have a Hard Drive (1 of 3) the computer won't recognize on a restart, but works fine from a power up. Its some sort of timing issue in the start-up sequence. I just don't restart the computer, but always power down and power up.

until you resolve the tuning issues above though, I put that card on hold or replace it.

-Steve

[mike1961]

I'm not sure yet of the details...this all takes so much time to test but I'll get back to you with all the details shortly. Before I got the 500 cards I know that more channels were getting fuzzy without sound (slightly off what appears to be the correct frequency).

Thanks again for the support and I'll get back soon with the details.

Mike

[sfisher]

Support might be a bit of an overstatement :-) I'm just shooting in the dark: maybe with just a bit more troubleshooting experience...

-Steve

[mike1961]

Here's the latest: I have noticed that the Frequency Shifter works but here's the really interesting thing....It seems that the Adelphia frequency for almost all my channels above 23 is slightly off by about 1,500,000. So, it was relatively easy for me to right a simple program to create a frq file with all the new values shifted for channels 23-99. Here's the interesting thing: Let's say I ONLY shift one channel in the registry say channel 53. Next, I go into Sage and I then look at say channels 23-99 EXCEPT channel 53...then they are all fuzzy. But, if I then look at channel 53, it is perfectly clear which is to be expected since I used the Freq shifter. However, now I can tune in all the other channels even without having loaded their default values. It's only after turning 53 that I can do this. Naturally, I'm going to load all the other default values but I found that interesting because I don't see why with only one default value Sage will recognize all the other channels but only after tuning the default one (ie: 53 in the above example).

Mike