[mythtv-users] Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD TV Tuner Card 1609 and Pixelation

[Barry Martin]

Jim and Devin:

You mentioned the HVR-2250.  I threw that card away because it could not receive my local PBS station. my HDHR Connect and Quatro can receive that station at ~50%.  My new WinTV Quad PCIe receives that station at 83%.
- -
I would encourage you to be very careful throwing around these numbers
as they are not an apples-to-apples comparison.  Each demodulator chip
exposes it's SNR and signal level in a different format, so the scales
are largely arbitrary (and each of the three products you mentioned
have different demodulator chips).  Knowing that 50% is worse than 80%
is useful for a particular card, but don't think 80% on one product is
the same as 80% on a different product if they have different
demodulator chips.

Thanks for the replies. I found Jim’s comment interesting as I also have 
problems receiving the two local PBS stations – one is 80 KW ERP, the 
other 368 KW – guess which one causes me the most difficulty? Here the 
transmitting antennae are on the same tower which is also shared by the 
three 1000 KW stations, so other than transmitting power and frequency 
the only difference is elevation.


As for the signal strength reading I interpret the display as a relative 
value. It has been probably almost two years since I did the testing but 
I think my system needed a ‘48’ to get a usable signal but was only able 
to get to around ‘90’ as maximum reading. My intent was not to get a 
high number but a more consistently usable signal; if it ended up at 
‘75’ and I could essentially eliminate the pixelation I’d be overjoyed!


As for the the of high-end test equipment and design – Devin provided a 
good explanation. As I suggesting an an earlier post I’m thinking over 
the years improvements have been in tuner technology. While I don’t 
think using a current tuner will magically eliminate all of my 
pixelation issues it appears upgrading will be a worthwhile cost; thanks 
to all for their input. (Now to get the time and money!)


Barry


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