[mythtv-users] HD, the holy grail...

[Rod Smith]

On Monday 26 February 2007 10:36, Bradley Dorner wrote:
>
> I am having a similar problem as the original poster. My HD works for a
> little while then I need to reboot the computer to get it to work again.
> When it does work I get artifacts and long signal detection times. The
> system it is running on is a Athlon 64 3200 single core processor with the
> pcHDTV 3000. I am not sure what is happening. I am not sure if it is myth,
> the power supply, or whatever. I am wondering if the power supply is
> marginal and therefore creating some instabilities. It only happens when
> the HD card is in use and only after an hour o so.

Are the artifacts you describe appearing during playback or recording? (Do 
they appear in identical spots when you re-play a recording? If so, they're 
probably recording artifacts. You can also download a "clean" HD sample 
recording from various sources on the Internet to check playback.) What's 
your HD source -- over-the-air (ATSC) or cable (QAM)?

The pcHDTV 3000 has known problems with QAM reception. It works fine for some 
people, but for others it doesn't. The discussions I've seen suggest that the 
pcHDTV 3000 relies on strong 5v power, and that some (most, it seems) power 
supplies don't deliver this, and/or other components may degrade it enough to 
cause problems. I have this problem -- with the right components I can get a 
clean QAM recording immediately after booting the computer, but as it runs 
for a while the quality degrades to the point where it's useless. Swapping 
video cards (from a SiS to an nVidia card) makes it worse, too, which is 
unfortunate because the SiS card isn't up to the task of HD playback. 
Fortunately, at this point my HD needs are slim since I'm still using an NTSC 
TV, but I expect to be replacing my pcHDTV card with something better before 
I upgrade to an HD screen.

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com