Why is my TV turner on the RR-G so crappy?

[DohBoy]

I'm just wondering why my TV turner quality on my RR-G (to a vanilla G400) is so crappy? In full window view, i'm getting artifacts and dropped frames/and occasional stuttering. I'm wondering if it's just an inherent problem with the RR-G. I highly doubt it's my cable line, because the quality is excellent on my TV.

[Aryko]

Hi there.

The RR-G is going to suffer a bit on the lower-band channels from interference with the power source. I'm in Canada and my channel 3 (Global) has the worst "wavy lines" syndrome. After that, the quality is fine.

As for dropping frames, stuttering and artifacting, perhaps your system isn't up to handling the video flow? Given that it's an overlay, that the computer doesn't process the signal before it hits your monitor, I'm surprised there's a problem. Perhaps post your system specs, maybe there's some IRQ interference.

- Aryko

[coolfish]

tell me about it, i get the same thing. although the interference on my part doesn't seem to be affected by my PSU, but rather the clock speed of my CPU.. if i set my 511mhz to 366mhz, my lower channels clear up nicely, but my higher channels degrade ever so slightly.
it's silly.

Matrox -- is there any way we can "protect" our card from interference?

[Laurie]

Yup, same story here. My lower channels are fuzzy but watchable. I too, would like clearer reception on channels 2-5 (CBC and TSN)- lots of hockey and other sports. Speedvision on ch 48, Space on 46 and Outdoor Life on 44 are crystal clear, thankfully.

Asus P3B-F,PIII 550,G400MAX+RRG



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Laurie
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The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

[Boul]

I'm in Quebec, Canada, and my RR-G is connected to local cable, as is a small TV using a 2 way split. My wavy lines are evident on channel 3, and on channel 11, though less pronounced, on both the monitor and TV (TV is not connected to the pc in anyway, except via the splitter.) I wonder how far the PC would have to be to minimize the effects...

I might try using an old cable tuner and connecting it to the line in port. Anyone try that?

[DohBoy]

Wow, a lot of Canadians here... i'm in Ontario too.

Anyways, i did a search on this board and came up with a couple of things to clear up the reception a bit. I lowered my resolution from 1600x1200 to 1024x768, and that cleared it up a lot as well as lowered the stuttering. Picked up some highend splitters and coaxial cables from Futureshop. My channels are watchable, but I was expecting TV quality or better... am i expecting too much out of this? I remembered back in the Amiga days when I used to use the monitor to watch VHS movies... and I remembered the quality being MUCH better on the Amiga monitor than my TV ever was.
On the RR-G and watching VHS movies, the quality is definitely not up to par with the TV, and I get artifacts at the bottom of my screen. The MAIN reason why I got the RR-G was to watch TV, as I'm a university study that's living off campus.
I also read somewhere on this board that the G400/RR-G combo is inherently worst than the MarvelG400 because of the ribbon cable, which picks up interference. Is this true?
I wouldn't doubt it if my system is causing a lot of interference, because i've got a lot of junk in there. Two NICs, SB Live! w/ digital daughterboard and Live! Drive. DVD-ROM, CDRW, G400, RR-G, Fasttrak RAID w/ two 7200 IBM drives, and a PIII500 and 300watt PSU. When my finals are over I'll fool around w/ it some more... i'll try ripping all the cards out and seeing if the reception is any better.

But my question still stands, am I expecting too much from the card? which was hoping for at least TV quality? Even from a clean signal from a VHS tape and highend performance coxial cable, the quality is still crap.

[This message has been edited by DohBoy (edited 30 March 2000).]

[This_Idiot]

DohBoy,

How does it look if you use your VCR as a tuner and plug it into the RR via the composites instead of using Coax ?

[mgu2]

The overlay picture is rather blurred when you are not recording. This is, interestingly enough, true also for the video out. I have connected my TV to the G400TV v-out and the picture from the Marvel tuner is very blurred and unclear compared to the TV's tuner. When you start recording the overlay and video out pictures get sharp. Why is this happening?

[Michel Carleer]

mgu2,
The bluriness when not recording is quite obvious, and here in Europe where the TV pictures are of higher resolution it is also visible on most TV channels. It is apparently due to the interpolation of each field of a picture which the hardware performs to get a complete frame from each field. I once sent a message about this to Haig and although he did not tell me why he told me they have to change the settings during capture. Anyway, I also have a Pinnacle PCTV card (which does no interpolation) in the same computer and the picture quality is by far far superior to the Marvel's or the RR-G's. The interpolation is intended to remove the feathering artifacts seen on interlaced pictures, and it does so quite efficiently. But to my taste it degrades the picture quality so bad that I would like Matrox to permit me to disable the interpolation in PC-VCR. Matrox, if I want to look at a non-feathered picture or if I prefer a sharper one is a question of personal taste and it should be my own choice, not yours.
Michka

[Athlon_Wise]

Hi guys, I'm from Singapore and our TV-signal is PAL. My TV-tuner rcv only Black & White pictures (looks the same as when my TV is tuned slightly out). I connect the same cable to a TV and the picture is perfect. I've set the TV advance setting to Singapore and also make sure the video setting is PAL. Is there anything else I can do? Thanks.