[mythtv-users] PVR-150 quality problems

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 9:02 AM, George Mari
<george_mythusers at mari1938.org> wrote:
....
> The PVR-150/25/350/500 are of an age where many of them may be suffering
> from leaking capacitors.

Not only can (older) caps leak, analogue devices can slowly, over
time, be impacted by component value changes that are due to
heat.  In the (really) old days, it was not unknown for the old analogue
TVs to have problems on really hot days as the component values
changed just enough to be out of range.  This was a short term issue
(open the window, use a fan, etc.).  But there are also long term value
changes due to heat (and the old TVs were really really hot with their
tubes and PS resistors), and eventually the components were always
too far out of acceptable ranges.  Some PVR-xxx boards experience
both those short and long term issues, resulting in poor lock/decode,
since they can end up inside PC cases that are hot, and under-ventilated.

To see if it is a heat issue that you might be able to (short term) mitigate
against, open the case, and use a fan to blow a lot of air onto the
PVR-xxx board to cool it, and see if the symptoms change.

The likely long term solution is to replace the board, but if you like
tinkering (and your time is free), testing and replacing all the analogue
components that are out of spec (including the caps) can be interesting.

Gary