Have I been a wolly? TV card in computer...
Discussion
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prod...
I just bought a cracking computer (thanks to all of you who helped me on my advice thread). And I decided to get a good screen; 22" 16.7million 3000:1 LG. Result
However the way I justified the cost to myself was to decide to use the monitor as a TV/DVD player too and get rid of my big tele in my room.
So I bought that above TV card. On reflection, it's not a freeview card, is it? It will only get me channels 1 > 4, right?
Second point, I have installed it, and receive a signal and can get channels 1 > 4, however, they're very grainy and horrible! Sound is perfect, visual is not. Puzzling. The aerial is perfect; I plug it into a freeview receiver and into a TV and the signal is 100% perfect, so it's not the signal to the board. Is it just a crap board?
So why is it a poor signal, and am I correct in thinking I bought the wrong card (non-freeview)...?
I just bought a cracking computer (thanks to all of you who helped me on my advice thread). And I decided to get a good screen; 22" 16.7million 3000:1 LG. Result
However the way I justified the cost to myself was to decide to use the monitor as a TV/DVD player too and get rid of my big tele in my room.So I bought that above TV card. On reflection, it's not a freeview card, is it? It will only get me channels 1 > 4, right?
Second point, I have installed it, and receive a signal and can get channels 1 > 4, however, they're very grainy and horrible! Sound is perfect, visual is not. Puzzling. The aerial is perfect; I plug it into a freeview receiver and into a TV and the signal is 100% perfect, so it's not the signal to the board. Is it just a crap board?
So why is it a poor signal, and am I correct in thinking I bought the wrong card (non-freeview)...?
It would appear that the card does not support DVB - Where a DVB card gets a perfect picture an analogue signal may not be as clear, however when the signal weakens further the analogue picture will still be viewable whereas the digital one will just go.
Must admit the advert for the card you have is a bit misleading with 'Digital' in the title.
Must admit the advert for the card you have is a bit misleading with 'Digital' in the title.
gizard said:
advert for the card you have is a bit misleading with 'Digital' in the title.
Must admit, I ordered it quickly while ordering my computer, it was a "while I'm there" thing. Stupidly, I didn't check enough. Prat! What's confusing me though is that with a digital freeview receiver that I had plugged into my tele, it worked perfectly. However the analogue signal that it's now receiving is not perfect. So if I bought a DVB tv card for the computer, would it work perfectly?
TonyHetherington said:
What's confusing me though is that with a digital freeview receiver that I had plugged into my tele, it worked perfectly. However the analogue signal that it's now receiving is not perfect. So if I bought a DVB tv card for the computer, would it work perfectly?
Not all aerials are tuned to get the full spread of TV transmission signals. This may explain some of your problems, but there can be other factors.Check out your local area using ukfree.tv. This will give detail of what transmitters are available and what frequency each channel is transmitted on. This may give you a clue to how to fix your problem.
Try a haupage WinTV Nova T PCI card. apx £35
Thats what I'm using. Along with the same monitor (by the sounds of it) and the picture is perfect. So it must be the analogue signal on your current card that casuses the fuzzyness?
Do you have Media center or you using the packaged software?
Thats what I'm using. Along with the same monitor (by the sounds of it) and the picture is perfect. So it must be the analogue signal on your current card that casuses the fuzzyness?
Do you have Media center or you using the packaged software?
I'm using the packaged software (the Campro one). I started off with Vista but now using XP, as it didn't work with Media Centre on Vista and I was bored of it crashing all the time, so changed back to XP and the computer's perfect but still the card has a really poor picture.
Could it just be that the card is crap? A one off faulty one?
As you guys have said, other cards seem to do absolutely fine! Having said that, I'll be getting another one anyway as I stupidly didn't get a freeview one, only channels 1>4. So, is the £35 WIN PCI card mentioned above full freeview and works ok?
Could it just be that the card is crap? A one off faulty one?
As you guys have said, other cards seem to do absolutely fine! Having said that, I'll be getting another one anyway as I stupidly didn't get a freeview one, only channels 1>4. So, is the £35 WIN PCI card mentioned above full freeview and works ok?
Yup, works fine with the supplied software and the 3rd Party media centre apps I tried. Not tried it with Windows Media Centre (not got a copy) but from what I've read, it works with a small patch to make the remote work properly.
Edit - Fixed the BB code mis-translation
Edit - Fixed the BB code mis-translation
Edited by SlidingSideways on Tuesday 10th July 15:54
Tony,
if you can get hold of a VCR, remember them, here is a test you can try.
Connect the coax output of the VCR to the input on the TV card, insert a cassette and hit play. If the picture is still "iffy" this would suggest that the problem is in the computer rather than the signal through the aerial.
Hope that helps.
Edited to add that, instead of a VCR, you could use any games console with a coax output.
if you can get hold of a VCR, remember them, here is a test you can try.
Connect the coax output of the VCR to the input on the TV card, insert a cassette and hit play. If the picture is still "iffy" this would suggest that the problem is in the computer rather than the signal through the aerial.
Hope that helps.
Edited to add that, instead of a VCR, you could use any games console with a coax output.
Edited by KJR on Tuesday 10th July 21:42
yeah that link is for an analogue card.
I use my old PC as my TV and stereo. Got a Hauppage WinTV PCI card in there, but the supplied software also gives a poor picture.
Far and away the best thirdparty TV Tuner software is DScaler, and its free.It blows the Hauppage software out of the water.
http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/downloads.htm
I use my old PC as my TV and stereo. Got a Hauppage WinTV PCI card in there, but the supplied software also gives a poor picture.
Far and away the best thirdparty TV Tuner software is DScaler, and its free.It blows the Hauppage software out of the water.
http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/downloads.htm
How spooky. Tonight, for the first time in ages, I have been tinkering with my old Hauppauge WinTV PCI and DScaler. Unfortunately I was tinkering to try and get rid of a colour modulation which must be caused by something in the PC.
To record Glastonbury on Freeview I bought a Freecom USB tuner, not really expecting to get that much from a £20-something USB dongle. It produced some absolutely storming results, and only uses about 8% cpu. This is obviously a still frame, but it didn't drop a frame and behaved impeccably.
To record Glastonbury on Freeview I bought a Freecom USB tuner, not really expecting to get that much from a £20-something USB dongle. It produced some absolutely storming results, and only uses about 8% cpu. This is obviously a still frame, but it didn't drop a frame and behaved impeccably.
The problem can be down to the quality of seemingly unrelated components in your computer. For example, some power supplies can generate enough RF interference to make a TV capture card almost useless. If you tried the same card in a different computer, and connected it to the same signal source you might not see any problems at all.
USB / DVB devices are likely to be much safer as 1) they're digital so it's either a good signal or no signal and 2) you can put them on the end of a USB lead, some way from the computer itself.
USB / DVB devices are likely to be much safer as 1) they're digital so it's either a good signal or no signal and 2) you can put them on the end of a USB lead, some way from the computer itself.
It's really worth spending a reasonable amount of money on a TV tuner. Skimp on it and you'll get crap results.
I've got a lot of experience with Media Center PC's and right now I have one hooked up to my 37" LCD. It takes a LOT of tinkering to get the settings right and even then the picture isn't all that great (apart from with digital).
Firstly, I would only recommend Hauppauge. They provide very good quality products and the drivers are usually kept up-to-date and work well in Vista.
I would then only consider one with a hardware MPEG encoder, otherwise the moment you start recording, you'll sap up your CPU time and the encoding quality is quite poor.
The card I'd recommend is the Hauppauge HVR-1300 (http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr1300.html).
Easy to setup and with full digital and analogue support as well as multiple inputs, it pretty much does everything you need.
The quality is superb having recorded Monsters Inc. at Christmas and it's shy of DVD quality. You'd struggle to tell the difference!
I was really lucky to find mine on eBay and bought two brand new ones for just £20 each, which is a bargain, but you can pick them up retail for £60 which is worth the money.
Hope this helps!
I've got a lot of experience with Media Center PC's and right now I have one hooked up to my 37" LCD. It takes a LOT of tinkering to get the settings right and even then the picture isn't all that great (apart from with digital).
Firstly, I would only recommend Hauppauge. They provide very good quality products and the drivers are usually kept up-to-date and work well in Vista.
I would then only consider one with a hardware MPEG encoder, otherwise the moment you start recording, you'll sap up your CPU time and the encoding quality is quite poor.
The card I'd recommend is the Hauppauge HVR-1300 (http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_hvr1300.html).
Easy to setup and with full digital and analogue support as well as multiple inputs, it pretty much does everything you need.
The quality is superb having recorded Monsters Inc. at Christmas and it's shy of DVD quality. You'd struggle to tell the difference!
I was really lucky to find mine on eBay and bought two brand new ones for just £20 each, which is a bargain, but you can pick them up retail for £60 which is worth the money.
Hope this helps!
Hi,
I was literally just about to post again on this thread!
Thanks VERY much for the info. The result was, of course, that I will need another freeview card because mine, well, isn't. So it will be worth spending the money to do it.
However, as an interim solution I last night managed to hook my old freeview hard drive recorder to the input of the TV card, and just turn it to S-Video for the input on the card's software.
So I'm controlling the freeview receiver which gives me a signal through the TV card and into my monitor. Make sense?
I have to sort the audio tonight but that shouldn't be too much of a problem!
I will, however, at a later date invest in a proper card and the one you mention above, Beanbag, seems like the right way forward!
Thanks again to everyone for the help
I was literally just about to post again on this thread!
Thanks VERY much for the info. The result was, of course, that I will need another freeview card because mine, well, isn't. So it will be worth spending the money to do it.
However, as an interim solution I last night managed to hook my old freeview hard drive recorder to the input of the TV card, and just turn it to S-Video for the input on the card's software.
So I'm controlling the freeview receiver which gives me a signal through the TV card and into my monitor. Make sense?
I have to sort the audio tonight but that shouldn't be too much of a problem!
I will, however, at a later date invest in a proper card and the one you mention above, Beanbag, seems like the right way forward!
Thanks again to everyone for the help
No probs! 
Let us know how it goes!
I'll try and upload some movies samples from my card, however I've only got it hooked up to an analogue source so the quality is miles away from digital.
I'm also going to play around with Media Portal which i've used in the past and the TV quality seems much better than MCE which is disappointing since Media Center is a superb interface. Really looks fantastic on the LCD and combined with HD support (XviD, DivX and mkv formats), really stunning!
The TV handling really lets it down apart from the TV guide which is fantastic.
Anyhow...back down to Earth....good luck!
Let us know how it goes!I'll try and upload some movies samples from my card, however I've only got it hooked up to an analogue source so the quality is miles away from digital.
I'm also going to play around with Media Portal which i've used in the past and the TV quality seems much better than MCE which is disappointing since Media Center is a superb interface. Really looks fantastic on the LCD and combined with HD support (XviD, DivX and mkv formats), really stunning!
The TV handling really lets it down apart from the TV guide which is fantastic.
Anyhow...back down to Earth....good luck!
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