[mythtv-users] PVR 150 Quality Issues

[Brian Wood]

On Wednesday 23 December 2009 07:05:42 am John Drescher wrote:
> > The bottom line is that the PVR-150/250 cards are just terrible.
> 
> I disagree. Mine looks better than a Tivo and also better than all
> other PVRs I have seen and that is at 720x480 and 2.2 GB / hr.

I'm running the same configuration with similar good results. Obviously 
recordings made using the S-Video input are the best. Using the RF tuners it 
seems the PVRs are very sensitive to input signal level, but once you give 
them the level they want they do a good job. I have found that you want to hit 
them with between +10 and +15 Dbmv, a level sometimes hard to get from a cable 
system, especially if you are splitting the signal.

I can see MPEG artifacts in the recordings, but others in my family think I am 
seeing things. Certainly the recordings are quite watchable, and it is hard to 
see the difference from a direct connection to the TV.

Certainly the PVRs are the "standard" for SD systems with Myth. I wonder if 
Hauppauge realizes how many of these they sold to Myth users.

I suspect John is using the RF inputs with low signal levels, if he describes 
them as "terrible". I will say that captures made with a PVR-350 do look a 
little better than the ones made with the 150s, but it's not a really big 
difference.

Haupauge used many different tuners over the life of the PVRs, and there are 
many variants of the PVRs, again using many different tuners. This may explain 
the varying reports of quality as different tuners may want different input 
levels and react to other factors on a CATV system differently.