Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 ... very “grainy” video quality (1 Viewer)

[AJHTPC]

Hi all,
Well I wish I had seen this website before I had started setting up my Hardware…..
I have a question, I got myself a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 so that I could utilize the MC functions on Windows 7 (PVR e.t.c…) but I must admit I am a very disappointed with the picture quality of this card it is very “grainy”.
Is this a common thing when using a TV card in a PC? I was expecting to have the same quality as if I were going directly through the TV….
I would be thankful for any “tips or tricks”

Andrew

 

[Parker Clack]

I don't have the 1800 but have the 2250 and the picture quality is great. I have two of them so I can record 4 shows at once.

What type of quality do yo have the record set to? Best, Better, Good? I use the Better function and the shows look like what I see normally from my cable connection. You might want to see if there are any newer drivers from Hauppauge for Windows 7 than the ones you got with your card.

Parker

 

[AJHTPC]

Hi,

Do you mean the record settings in the MC?

Thanks

Andrew

 

[Parker Clack]

Like a VCR or DVD/R you can set the recording speed to Best, Better, Good in your default recording settings in MC setup. I find that Better gives me more recording time and a good picture. The Best setting with give you the best looking copy of your show but will give you less recording time.

Parker

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Are you using an analog input or a digital (ATSC/QAM) input? I have an HVR-1850 in my desktop, and I love it. The QAM channels come in and record crystal clear in HD, but the analog channels are -- as you say -- grainy. This is not the fault of the 1850 card, but rather a problem with analog cable. A good CRT will hide a lot of the flaws of an analog signal, but they will be thrown into sharp relief on an LCD screens. Signal interference (what makes the analog picture look grainy) also trips up the MPEG-2 encoder that the 18xx cards use for analog video, because it minimizes the amount of redundant information in the picture.

There are ways to minimize the signal interference. First, use good quality coaxial cable with connections that have been factory-crimped. Second, use good quality splitters where necessary. A 2 GHz splitter will perform marginally better than a 900 MHz splitter and considerably better than a 500 MHz splitter. Using a powered signal poster will perform the most noticably better. The less interference of the signal going into your card, the better the picture quality from the card. If you have analog cable, try using a splitter that goes into both coaxial jacks on the card. I only pay for analog cable, but my 1850 card picks up the HD feeds for all of the local channels, which Time Warner apparently provides through clear QAM.

 

[AJHTPC]

Hi,

First of all thanks for the Tips so far, at the moment it is connected to an Analoge Rogers Cabel line, I will hook up the Digital SAT next week and see if that is better (which I expect).

On another Topic, I can Stream all of my recorded tv programs and videos to the other pc's in the house, is there a way to stream the "live TV" from the HTPC to another pc over a Wireless network (N)

THX

Andrew

 

[Parker Clack]

Andrew:

You can't stream PC info to another PC like a live video stream as the PC doesn't act as a media center extender. For that you need a Media Center Extender and the best I found is the X Box. You can get a basic model without all the other crap to do the job. I would also recommend getting a Powerline device like the Netgear Powerline to send the stream over your household wiring instead of via wireless N. My wireless N connection would drop the signal a lot of the time while the Powerline
connection works like a charm.

The cool thing with using the X Box is that it gives you the same GUI as your HTPC MC so you can watch anything you have recorded and live TV. The only thing you cannot do is stream DVD/Blu-ray from your HTPC to your Media Center Extender.

Parker

 

[res31]

My Hauppage Win-TV-HVR-1800 gave grainy picture quality on my previous computer (Windows 7-64) but otherwise worked. Now in a new computer I upgraded the software to version 7.2 and the video quality is now superb. However it is very slow to change channels and the one channel I want to watch most often has NO SOUND output! I am baffled and frustrated....
Anyone else experience this problem?
...ray

 

[WivernBC]

I purchased there HVR-1800 video card and out of the box it advertised all the features of the video card including the composite video port. But once I installed the card on my computer the composite video port was not available for use. I contacted the Hauppauge support and was told I have to also purchase the WinTv product from them in order to use the HVR-1800 composite video port. I asked for other options but there weren't any. How lame is that? They hid the fact that this video card is not fully functional out of the box. Otherwise the think works just fine on my Vista 64bit system.