My new TV Tuner card I am not impressed with

[pcslookout]

Picture quality just doesn't seem right. I mean its ok but not great. I use to get better picture quality by using my VCR as a type of VCR tv tuner through my Geforce 4 ti Myvivo video card.

Maybe its the PVR software I am using or the drivers ? Should the Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-150 PCI Interface Tuner Card - Retail provide good video quality from cable tv ?

 

[Mogadon]

I got a PVR-150, picture quality is great. On my Viewsonic VX2025M it looks as good, if not better, than the regular TV I have.

 

[Synomenon]

The PVR150 is one of their low end models isn't it? Anyway, I have an ATI Theater 650 Pro. and even with that, TV on a computer monitor just doesn't look as good as it does on a real TV unless you have digital / HD cable.

 

[ZLK2000]

What is the best resolution one can get on their monitor through a TV Tuner? Can a TV tuner have built-in HDTV tuner so one can get 1080i resolution on a computer monitor, making it better looking than a regular TV? Or does a computer monitor to withstand high definition signal? I have a 22' Acer AL2216W. I was wondered this..... thx

 

[andre1rocha]

you have to buy a hdtv tuner! not just plain tv tuner.

 

[bendixG15]

Originally posted by: Mogadon
I got a PVR-150, picture quality is great. On my Viewsonic VX2025M it looks as good, if not better, than the regular TV I have.

:thumbsup:

 

[Markbnj]

Originally posted by: andre1rocha
you have to buy a hdtv tuner! not just plain tv tuner.

HDTV tuners let you get over the air (and with some, like the HD Home Run, QAM-based digital cable) HD channels, it's true. And those channels will come across in a much higher resolution, typically 720 lines progressively scanned, or better. But that's still only a few channels, and without an STB its just the network rebroadcasts that the FCC requires the cable provider to transmit in the clear. Everything else, ESPN, Discovery, INHD, or whatever, is encrypted.

Someone asked about resolution. NTSC formats that you get through tuning standard VHF or UHF television signals generally provide around 720 columns by 480 lines. Considerably coarser than even 800 x 600, which most people consider to be low resolution these days. It really doesn't matter how high res the monitor is, as this simply means more than one monitor pixel is used to construct a single pixel from the frame. It more or less looks just as blocky on a CRT television in the family room as it does on a CRT or LCD monitor in the office. What makes the set in the family room look a bit better is: a) it isn't compressing the video through MPEG; and b) it has analog color response. There are no colors it can't display. Well, from a technical standpoint there are, but compared to a digitally reproduced image the color depth is essentially infinite.

I have a 550-Pro based tuner card from ATI, and using Beyond TV 4.6 with the Intervideo MPEG-2 codec, the quality is more than acceptable from the distances I view it at. That's another thing worth remembering: if you're sitting at the desk watching it, you're much closer than you generally would be to the set in the family room. Go stand close to that, and it will look like crap too.

Bottom line: there is only so much data in the NTSC signal to begin with, then you lose some of the color information in digitization, and then lose more information in compression. I would just sit back and lower my expectations a little . On the other hand, if it really bothers you (and it probably bothers you when you watch DVDs on the comp too), then you can play with tools like ffdshow and try to get a nice upsampling pipeline running. The results can be impressive, but not usually across all sources, the setup is complex, and the upsampling takes a buttload of CPU.

 

[Blain]

Still having problems with your TV card?