What antenna are you using? Sounds like your signal is low.

I have the 1600 and it runs perfect for me.

signal is fine, shows 100%. i have a tower antenna. also run to my tv which shows signal ranging from 88-100% through the spectrum of available channels.

takeaim, are you running any other apps/processes/tools on your PC when frames are dropping? Are you running XP? Vista?

o/s- xp

i don't think anything else was running, at the most perhaps explorer.

Hmmm... is your PC a main brand model? If so, what's its brand and model #?

If its not, can you provide a list of model numbers of your PC's hardware (such as the model # of Pentium, the hard disk, the mainboard)

Something in that mix is causing the bottleneck since you don't seem to have any other apps or software running.

have to do this off the top of my head-

cpu- intel 3.2 gHz processor (whatever the regular chip is, not celeron)
harddrive- wd 200g drive, don't know the exact model
board- asus p4p800 deluxe
graphics- radeon 9800
ram- .5 g

lmk if there is anything else.
tried watchhdtv last night, again live tv was perfect, but recorded had dropped frames. basically recorded about 30 secs from hockey last night. loaded it into tmpgenc and it seemed that every other frame was lost. audio was perfect, no blimps there, but video is losing every other frame.

takeaim
Are you recording using the wintv application? are you recording analog or HDTV.
Watchhdtv records great for me Wintv is a POS for both analog and HDTV recording. If you haven't tried recording using WatchHDTV give it a go.
choppy recording in OTA DTV from my experiance is signal quality based as no action is acted on the streams is is merely a direct path to the hard drive.
Even strong signal as you indicated can still have a high amount of corectable errors ( multipaths) and this would be hard to see live if it is at the cusp of near uncorrectable thus meaning frames are dropped by another proccess when replayed back, live they jump a mil sec ahead or freeze and we can 't see it.
Here is a neat example if your tv is close to your computer then tune is the same DTV station on both you'd expect complete sync right give it a go unreall the amount delay the stream is so loaded a sec or two is repeated to compensate for reception issues hoping to give a good image on the screen.
Same stream same station same antenna and each unit has its own first frame to beging the processing.
It you are recording mpeg ( analog ) on the 1600 it is software based unless you actually activate the mpeg on the card that process is at the UK site none the less for your issue if it is analog then background cpu usage would be the main reason for dropped frames.

To turn on the mpeg encoder there is a diectory which is utilities and it below the main directory the wintv software created and in there is a ulity to turn on the mpeg encoder as I don't have the software loaded I am going from menory on that one.

I have a VisionTek TV Wonder HD 650 PCI Express (kicks major buttski!!) and a Vista View Saber DA-1N1-I PCI (ok). They are both superior to my old ATI HDTV Wonder. My 650 PCI-E (NOT the PCI model!!!) is excellent at receiving ultra weak stations. I have no trouble getting WNYO-DT reliably using that card. The other tuner, which has the much vaunted 5th Gen LG chipset can't receive that channel. I bought that tuner because many users at another forum recommended it. I'd love to hear from someone who has the ATI 650 PCI-e and some other tuner. I'm not loyal to one particular brand - I just want the most reliable signal possible.

I use the built-in Vista MCE (included with Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate). Like I said, it's great for TV and so-so for media playback.
jeneral :
Are you using the software that came from the visiontek box ?

I've looking for any feedback for anybody who uses them...specifically if there is
(1) support for EPG for OTA HD channels
(2) closed caption support and if they are recorded as well

Thanks in advance.

ok, to update and answer danbcman

update to my video card- it's actually the 9200 (not the 9800 as previously stated)


yes, i'm trying to record with watchhdtv and had the dropped frames. fooled around a little tonight and shrank the preview window, closed a couple background apps with task manager and it appears that there aren't any dropped frames (looking at the video with tmpgenc), however video was still choppy and thus not watchable once recorded.

anyone with other ideas? i don't think it's all a signal issue (if that at all). could there be something else for me to try?

perhaps i do need new hardware. ie. video card upgrade?

thanks

Okay lets say you play it back in the software you recorded it in watchHDTV
you need to install the DVR-MS filters and WatchHDTV Transport Stream Filters using the file watchHDTV Info which in the directory where watchHDTV installed.
After that is done give the file a run in the watchHDTVplay utility.
good luck

hello...what kind of atenna are you people using?

i'm want to pick up a visiontek tv tuner hd 650.

what kind of attenna would you recommend to be used in doors?

thanks.

justinwu86, this is not the right thread for that question. Click on the link in this post to the OTA Forum Knowledge Base & FAQ, which will tell you the best of all TV antenna models in the Antenna Chart (in English or French).

yes, i have those filters installed, i'll give that a try tonight and see what happens. my assumption again will be choppy video :(

ok, playback with watchhdtv is perfectly fine, so it's something in the other programs that's causing choppy video. anyone pinpoint what that problem might be?

different codecs being used? hardware issue? something else?

if works with one program and not another then it is most likely a codec issue.

Hi all:

I just built an HTPC, it has the Gigabyte 780g mobo. I have Vista ultimate loaded, but plan to downgrade to xp MCE 2005.

I'm having trouble deciding between the subject tuner cards. They are identically priced at my local computer store. I will be connecting a CM4221 to this card and an FM antenna. I primarily want to record OTA HD content for later playback. I plan to use my HDTV's tuner for watching TV (meaning a coax splitter to HDTV and tuner card).

Can users of these two cards please pass on their recent experience ? I'd really like to hear from those who have my mobo/OS combination. I've seen a ton of threads saying both these cards are fantastic or garbage, difficult for me to decide.

Dave

What program are you using to do the playback that chokes?
Good to hear it played fine in the watchHDTV program.

I've seen a ton of threads saying both these cards are fantastic or garbage

Well you did your homework now you get to decided. I advise you to get one try it if good then good choice if not return asp use the other hopefully it would be good for me I have found my use of one card or another is best decided after I have used each.:)

playback worked fine in watchhdtv and windows media player now. so excited to have progress there.


choppy in tmpgenc, reason i want this to work is this is the program i was hoping to edit with and eventually convert some stuff to be able to author onto dvd. ideas?