[mythtv-users] Capture card with best tuner - BT8x8, SA713x or PVR-250?

[Richard Lee-Morlang]

On Sat, 2003-08-23 at 02:54, Joe V wrote:


> Now that I've dropped the capture resolution down to
> 352x480, the pauses (when one actually happens) are
> only a couple of seconds long (not as bad as before). 


Even at 720x480 (only tried with RTJPEG, mind you) I get no frameloss
unless something extreme is happening with the video or there's
something else going on in the OS. 


> The only interference I can think of is that the PC is
> next to the TV, and has it's side panels off.  That's
> because it's a temporary case, and I don't have proper
> cooling in it.


I assume your cable picture looked much the same before you setup your
computer anyway? 


> Anybody who wants to look at the images can go to
> http://www.vulturesnest.net/catv.html.  I have enough
> of a transfer cap that plenty of people can look at
> them.  Feel free to check out the rest of the site
> too.  :)


Your picture quality isn't that far different from my worst channels,
though for me it's more like random noise/static and less like a regular
interference pattern as yours appears. In any case, I don't get stutter
problems like what I see in your video clip unless I've got something
disk or interrupt intensive going on in another thread.

If a point of reference would be useful, I can put up some screen
captures for you to compare with. At this point, if I were you, I might
try buying a different capture card from a store that will accept
returns without too much hassle. It might be worth taking a closer look
at your video card, motherboard, and X setup too. Of course, maybe the
culprit is your signal, so perhaps you'd be better off leaning on the
powers that be to get it improved. 

The only other thing I can suggest is if you've got more than one
video/audio signal coming into the back of your TV, disconnect
everything except the signal from your computer and see if that helps. I
doubt it would clear up the stutter problem, but in my case it
significantly cleaned up the picture. Might also be worthwhile trying
some different cables out. I've got one S-Video cable that picks up
noise like crazy...

But if your picture quality using the TV tuner alone straight from the
wall is about the same as it is with the setup you have now (excepting
the stutter) then none of that will make any difference. :-(

I don't know what else to suggest, but I wish you good luck.

Rick





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