tv tuner has vertical lines

[j511180]

I'm just curious as to what the problem is here. On channels above #30 there are annoying vertical lines that cover roughly 7/8ths of the screen. I'm just using a cheap Leadtek card that I've had for a couple years, but it's ok for watching The History Channel or whatever; I rarely record anything with it.

Weak signal maybe?

Ms. Jolie looks fine

guy in quicksand doesn't look too good

 

[mpilchfamily]

Sure looks like a poor signal to me. Do you have this trouble on any TVs?

 

[Peter]

These vertical stripes originate in poor noise isolation on the card itself. The PCI transfers disturb the analog signal path, hence the vertical stripes. The absence of the stripes to the left of the picture is typical for this, since the card starts transferring line data after the reception of the line has begun (obviously).

The effect is prominent on weaker channels, and often completely unnoticeable on strong ones.

What to do? Try getting better reception - often enough the signal would be strong enough at the antenna, but the in-house cabling is poorly done.
And of course, using a card that didn't cut corners in its design would help too. Your card may have aged - capacitors don't last forever - and the quality of the mainboard and power supply matter too. Digital noise on supply voltages is the root problem.

 

[j511180]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
Sure looks like a poor signal to me. Do you have this trouble on any TVs?

I watched some of the US Open today on a real tv and it looked fine

Originally posted by: Peter
These vertical stripes originate in poor noise isolation on the card itself. The PCI transfers disturb the analog signal path, hence the vertical stripes. The absence of the stripes to the left of the picture is typical for this, since the card starts transferring line data after the reception of the line has begun (obviously).

The effect is prominent on weaker channels, and often completely unnoticeable on strong ones.

What to do? Try getting better reception - often enough the signal would be strong enough at the antenna, but the in-house cabling is poorly done.
And of course, using a card that didn't cut corners in its design would help too. Your card may have aged - capacitors don't last forever - and the quality of the mainboard and power supply matter too. Digital noise on supply voltages is the root problem.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking...the cable comes into the house, where the line is split to one tv, then into another room for another tv...then to another room to a cable modem and then to this pc.

The picture hasn't always been that though. I discovered that the threaded input jack where the cable attaches to the card is loose and wiggles around; turns out that the solder joint is broken where that connector meets the pci bracket. I guess this could be part of my problem

 

[j511180]

I picked up an Ati Theater Pro 550 card at the local Best Buy and all is good - no more vertical lines and the picture seems less pixelated than before. I'm using it with GB-PVR which, after some configuration, is working great.

Just thought I'd give an update 'cause I know y'all are interested