Clear Qam Errors/Pixelazation PVR 1850

[gdippel]

My Time Warner Cable is feeding 2 STBs and a Hauppauge PVR 1850 for clear QAM. Lately, the clear QAM channels are experiencing pixelization and numerous errors (though signal strength is adequate or strong) which I confirmed with Hauppauge's Signal Monitor utility. There is no problem with the STBs (one feeds a HDPVR, the other feeds the 1850 via S-Video.) The cable goes through a signal amplifier when being split so strength should not be a problem.

Is Clear QAM carried on different frequencies than the encrypted signal? If so, that may explain it. If not, is my 1850 tuner going bad? Any feedback will be appreciated.

[drewg]

The clear-qam channel should indeed be the same one used by the STB. Did you try swapping the cabling around (swapping the cable feeding an STB for the cable feeding your QAM tuner)?

I'm not familiar with the Hauppauge signal monitor utility. There are 2 factors important to getting good reception. The first is "strength", which is a measure of how "loud" the signal is. And the other is "quality", which is a measure of how clear the signal is. If the signal is strong, but has a lot of noise, that is often worse than a weak signal. Lots of stuff can cause noise (a vacuum cleaner in the next room, a failing PC PSU, a new wireless router, etc). Anyway, if the signal monitor just gives a generic "strength" indicator, and says nothing about quality, I'd look for new sources of noise. Eg, what changed in your house just before you noticed the problem..?

Drew