HTPC vs. TV Signal

nintenjo · 20 Aug 2013 at 19:42

Hi, I have had my HTPC for about 2~3 years now and in general it has been very reliable and nice setup. However one thing that has always bugged me is the TV reception seems extremely poor when i connect it to me internal tv card. (Hauppauge WINTV NOVATD 500 DUAL TUNER).

I know that my TV aerial reception is pretty strong as when i connect the aerial directly to either of my TV's i get almost every Freeview channel. The TV card can find about 40% and even some of them are so choppy its unwatchable.

After reading various help forums i was informed it could be a internal device on the PC itself causing interference or the aerial cable. I have tried to eliminate all these and non resolved the signal drop outs. (couldn't remove mobo or PSU as i have no alternatives).

Anyone have any suggestions as to what else i can try??

Would an external USB style TV tuner resolve this??

MY rig as it stands is:

Toshiba SSD 128GB HDD
GA-MA78GM-S2H MOBO
AMD phenom 945 @ 3ghz
2GB RAM
Hauppauge WINTV T500

Conanius · 20 Aug 2013 at 23:43

It will be the fact that it is a dual tuner, so splitting the signal.

It sounds like, if your existing tv can't get all the channels that an aerial upgrade will be the best option. Otherwise, just get a single tuner card, or a decent booster. This won'y be foolproof though, as a booster boosts everything, including interferance

oceaness · 21 Aug 2013 at 11:01

Firstly what OS are you running this card under? I'm assuming Windows.

I have just set one up on a Linux backend and I had to manually force the system to activate the LNA (Low Noise Amplifier). On Windows this shouldn't be an issue, due to proper drivers.

Assuming you are using Windows I would agree with Conanius that an aerial upgrade or possibly just a re-positioning if it's out of position at all.

nintenjo · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:59

If its aerial related why is my signal perfect when connected to my tv directly. Would a single tuner card resolve the issue? I have a booster but made almost no difference... cant do much about the aerial as its rented property.

nintenjo · 21 Aug 2013 at 18:01

And yes Windows 7 OS.

oceaness · 22 Aug 2013 at 08:55

It may partly be down to the particular card, I think they struggle a little with less than ideal signal strength, mines sitting at 69% strength but 100% quality (which is the important variable). Does your TV give you a read out on these two? Does the PC software you're using also give you a read out?

A single tuner may resolve the issue but it's possible a different dual tuner may also be OK. Unless it is components in the PC generating interference, in which case neither may help, if this is the case I would guess the most likely culprit would be the PSU, but it doesn't necessarily need to be the computer. Are there any other electrical devices near the PC?

A couple of things you could do to test are try your tuner card in someone else's PC or borrow someone else's TV tuner (obviously needs to be a different card) and see if you can receive more channels, if either is possible.

Boosters generally don't help because they boost both the good and bad signal, so at best you end up with exactly the same quality of signal you had before, albeit it stronger, which if you're feeding it a good signal, can be useful if you needed to do a long cable run from attic to living room for example, but it wouldn't help in this situation at the end of that run.