[mythtv-users] Recording/live-tv video quality (aka do PVR150 encoders suck?)

[Scott Traurig]

I appreciate all the responses so far, but most have been a bit off the
mark. Without a blizzard of long quotes I'll try to summarize and then maybe
we can regroup on this one:
 
My STB has only a composite video output.
 
The comparison is made by moving the composite video output cable from the
back of my TV to the PVR150 input hence all things are equal for the
comparison, i.e. no problem with the composite video cable connection.
 
There can't be an encoding rate mismatch because we are in the analog domain
at this point.
 
This issue has nothing to do with the tuner. I expect that to be
substantially worse. Let's discuss PVR150 encoding of baseband video.
 
I'm not saying DVD output is better than TV (of course it is) but only that
by playing a DVD that looks good that validates the path from the myth
decoder on out, i.e. it's a PVR150 input processing problem.
 
And finally the difference is quite gross. Everybody in the family can see
it and comments quite negatively on it. One other point of comparison: I
have a Pioneer DVR appliance that was replaced by the myth box. Recordings
from the STB video output made by it are substantially better in quality.
 
I've received some replies suggesting a) move the PVR card to a different
slot in the chassis or b) improve grounding. Somehow I doubt either will
help. I have 2 PVR cards in different slots and they are both equally bad.
This also suggests that I do not have a broken card, i.e. 2 broken cards
broken the same way is unlikely.
 
At this point it seems that most myth users must be insensitive to quality
and I am in a minority here. It also seems the only way I'll ever know is to
upgrade my cable service to HD so that I can use either the S-video or
firewire outputs on the HD STB.
 
Thanks,
 
Scott
 
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