[lostandconfused]

Hey folks,

Does anyone have some advice on how to improve reception or eliminate interference in my analog cable feed from Eastlink?

I'm getting what looks like cross-channel interference (not ghosting), making the picture a bit snowy or with moving gridlines (if that makes sense).

I'm connecting my coax cable directly to my HTPC using a Hauppauge HVR-1600 tuner.

I don't think it's a signal strength issue - the Digital Cable box (Moto 6200 I think) is fine, and although I do have a splitter in the line (three fees - 1 to cable modem, one to digi box, one to analog tuner), removing the splitter doesn't improve reception at all.

Any ideas/feedback? Does anyone have analogue cable successfully going into their HTPC?

Mods - feel free to move this to HTPC forum if more appropriate (not sure if this is an Eastlink-only problem).

 

[lostandconfused]

Solved - faulty Hauppauge 1600

Swapped out the card with a borrowed HVR-500 - WinTV showed no interference (doesn't work with 7MC).

Went out and purchased an AVerTV Bravo Hybrid PCI-E card to replace the 1600... any one who wants to purchase the older card (works fine with STB/s-video/QAM inputs!) should send me a PM!

 

[lostandconfused]

Wow - I think I'm just talking to myself now, but in case anyone else cares... I found that I still got interference on some channels with the Avermedia card, so I just went out to FS and bought one of everything, with the following results on Eastlink analog (analogue?) cable:

HVR-1600 (2 yrs old) - lots of interference, pretty unwatchable

AVerTV Bravo Hybrid PCI-E - less interference, but still there
HVR-1850 - same as AVerTV
HVR-2250 - same as AVerTV

ATI Diamond Theater HD 750 - no interference

So, YMMV. I have an AMD-based system, with Gigabyte mobo that has integrated ATI Radeon graphics, so it's possible that the ATI tuner card just works better?

The ATI card has the added benefit (over the 1850) of tuning both analog and QAM over a single coax input. And it's really small.

The end.

 

[jeneral]

Nice research there. Myself, I have an ATI 650 PCIe Combo card that gives me the same issues you were having in the first post. It has been this way since day one. That wasn't much of a problem because I had a second combo card in my PC and I primarily used that card's analog tuner. Unfortunately that card (Asus Combo-210) died on me early this year after 2 years of use. Because of the lack of good PCI combo cards on the market (no shortage of PCIe) I bought an identical replacement on eBay. That card died on me 2 weeks ago with the exact same problem as the first.

I find the odds of two cards dying in the same manner more than coincidental so I'm reluctant to purchase a third. I wish I had a free PCIe slot to buy some other model. The only other combo PCI card out there is the 1600 you describe as unwatchable. The Asus Combo-210 is readily available for ~$40-45 on eBay and the picture quality for both units I owned was excellent (with an nice ATSC tuner to boot). I just wish I could find an alternative PCI combo card.