[mythtv-users] Poor Signal Strength

[Devin Heitmueller]

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 11:56 AM, Andre Newman
<mythtv-list at dinkum.org.uk> wrote:
> I did some research a year or two ago with several DVBS & S2 cards, the receiver sensitivity was pretty poor compared to a modern decent make set top receiver.
> The Nova S+ was around -65dBm which is as bad as the old QualiTV receivers from an age ago or the newer cheapo Fortec Star Passion.
> The HD-S2 & HVR-400 was a little better at -72dBm but still nothing like a decent stb receiver, better than -78dBm is common now.
> TT3200 was -68dBm.
>
> So yes, most PC sat cards need more signal than a good modern stb, I'd like to know if the recent cards are any better or maybe worse but I don't have access to a calibrated signal source anymore.
> You'd need a significantly bigger dish to make up the difference between -65dBm and -78dBm!!
>
> Of course there are lots of other factors especially inside a PC and sensitivity varies greatly across the frequency range, all the same I overspecced our communal sat feed system here to ensure I wasn't going to have loads of glitchy recordings.
>
> Andre

It's not just the hardware.  For the most part, the driver developers
do "just enough" to get the board basically working, with very little
time spent on fine-tuning the performance.  Fine tuning the driver is
a huge investment in time, whereas most people will never notice the
difference.

It's an unfortunate reality, but there are so many products out there
that need support we cannot even keep up with just making them
basically work.

There are exceptions of course, such as cases where some commercial
party needs a particular board to work very well, and pays a developer
to take the time to do the optimization work.  Finding a developer
willing to burn forty or fifty hours doing such for no compensation is
a bit of a challenge though.

Devin

-- 
Devin J. Heitmueller - Kernel Labs
http://www.kernellabs.com