Certain channels only - studder / hesitation Avermedia A180

[pgitta]

I hesitate to describe it as a stutter, because it’s more regular in nature. I have seached the forum and have not found this type of stutter described.

Here's the best way I can think to describe it:

While the audio stays constant and skip free, the video starts to lag behind increasingly like slo-mo for about 3-4 seconds, then JUMPS suddenly and catches back up to the audio for a nano-second, then does it all over again.

This goes on in a very regular loop. Not talking random skipping here.

Tried so far:

64K clustered the HD
Tweaked registry NUMBUFF
Audio decoders
Video decoders
DirectX
Shut down services
Reloaded everything
Overlay, underlay, interlay, outerlay....AHHHHHHH!!!!

NOTHING even made the slightest improvement!

And this is on just TWO of my channels. All others are flawless. 1080 PBS recording is FLAWLESS.

My only clue at this point is the two channels are at the low end of the band

Here's my signal strength as reported by RCA DTC-100 (which tunes everything perfectly)


WB ch. 19 - sig. 88................lag/jump
WCIU ch. 26 - sig. 62................slight lag/jump - not always
NBC ch. 29 - sig. 76................lag/jump
FOX ch. 31 - sig. 78................no issues
PBS ch. 47 - sig. 51................no issues (other than audio barely audible)
ABC ch. 51 - sig. 65................no issues

There are others scattered between with lesser signals, but still OK.

My junk:

Avermedia A180
P4 2.4GhZ
700+ RAM
nVidea GeForce 64MB
Windows 2000 Pro

I am halfway to the top of the clock tower.

Only YOU can keep me from reaching the top.

[cummings66]

Two things come to mind.

What SATA controller do you have? The card you have does have known problems with some controllers, read the AVS forum for a poll on it and you'll find lots of problems.

Second, on an analog channel for the digital station you're tuning, do you have ghosting? That type of problem can also cause issues with digital, but I'd bet your HD if it's SATA is the cause. Without MB specs or controller specs I can't suggest more. Just use current drivers etc...

[pgitta]

Why wouldn't every channel have the problem if it was a controller issue though?

This is what is baffling me.

[cummings66]

I don't know why, but I know it's happened and why I got the Vbox card instead of the A180. Too much bad water under the bridge with no fixes in site for that card and SATA.

So, does that mean then you have SATA? If I was you I'd look into the avsforum.com site and research the card, lots of data on it and your particular problem. Never did see if there was a solution beyong what many have done which is to either install another controller card for SATA or revert to the older IDE drives instead.

For one reference that seems to talk more about it look here;

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...t=a180+stutter

However, that said, do you have ghosts at all?

[pgitta]

No. No SATA. Plain ol' IDE

Will Sage take back this card that was included in the bundle so I can get something that works?

[cummings66]

If you're not using SATA then the A180 should be fine.

In your post you said the RCA DTC100 had stuttering problems on some channels, are those the same ones that stutter with the A180?

Some things to verify, make sure you have a defragged drive with 64k clusters. If you've got Norton or McAfee Virus protection get rid of them, they tend to cause issues with HT IME, use AVG instead.

Make sure you're not running any other software and turn off any enhancements you're using on the video card. I find the video card will also cause stuttering issues. What type of settings do you have in Sage for this, overlay, VMR? What codecs are you using? The Nvidia ones work well for me and I use VMR with FSE.

[pgitta]

No, I never get a stutter from the set-top box, unless the signal drops below 45 or so. Then it's not even a stutter, but the ol' "satellite in a rainstorm" pixelization.

I was up till 2AM this morning reloading on a completely different PC with different hardware...same crap, and it does it in its native application before Sage is even involved.

I have a 4228 and amp coming today, and if that doesn't fix it, back it goes.

Does the VBOX run in Windows 2000?

[dfitz43]

CM4228 is the bomb, it will solve many (most?) signal strength and stability issues, unless you're living in Antarctica or something. Hope your experience with the CM is as good as mine has been. Currently, I have no issues whatsoever, even in tremendous thunderstorms, etc. I'm about 30 miles from my transmitters and have the CM4228 attic-mounted and coupled to a CM7777 preamp.

cheers,
Dave

[pgitta]

Well, I haven't had a chance to mount it yet, but I DID connect the 7775 pre-amp to my current Rat-Shack antenna and I'm getting about a 30% stronger signal at my set-top box so I must have had some serious loss through cabling, etc.

Now here's a pattern that's developing.

Before the pre-amp, the two channels that were giving me trouble on the A180 were two of my strongest, and the others were fine. These channels were far from overpowering though. 75-85 range on my set top Proscan receiver.

Now post-pre-amp, almost ALL of the former medium strength channels (60 - 65 on Proscan meter) are now high 80s and the A180 is lagging, de-synching on ALL of them!

Can this thing not handle a strong signal? I thought one of its weaknesses was a LOW sensitivity issue!!

And what will this mean when the CM4228 goes up? And what happens when I get PBS (currently around 40-50) up to 85?

Is the NBC (currently 90) signal going to go to 175 and start the A180 on fire or what?

I have never noticed an analog ghost anywhere, ever with my setup.

This card is going back.

[mlbdude]

Quick question, have not read the thread, have you tried playing back the recordings on another PC? Are you sure it is not just 1080i based playback issues?

[cummings66]

I have heard of a lot of dissatisfied people with the A180 card.

I believe the Vbox only works under XP as well from what I can tell by reading the requirements. Lots of stuff has issues with anything other than some XP variant.

[pgitta]

I don't think so. We have a channel called MeTV which is a sort of OTA Nick-at-Nite showing non-stop classic dead people TV in SD.

That channel was fine until I boosted the signal, and now it lags / jumps too.

And the signal is far from being TOO strong. Maybe 65-70 on the Proscan power meter.

Was 45-50.

Also the Avermedia application is unstable as hell.

[pgitta]

I guess I'll try the fusion then. W2K support.

This is getting crazy. I should have just plopped the $500 down on the Sony HDTV DVR and been done with it. I'll end up spending more in the long run anyway.

No aspect, resolution, decoder, encoder, video, tuner, compatibility, memory, HDrive, DirectX, driver, blah...blah...blah...

This stopped being fun around the 350th man hour. Wife has stopped talking to me. (the only positive aspect in all this)

I thought PC DVR tech had come along farther than this since a couple years ago when I messed with it. But nope.

Just like internet video conferencing. It's a joke. Nobody's works as well as an integrated unit designed for this sort of thing, no matter how much they say so.

[chrisc16]

Sorry you've had so much trouble getting your HTPC up and running. But if you think that a homebrew PC built from off the shelf parts will ever be as plug-and-play as a consumer PVR that was designed and built from the ground up SOLELY for that purpose, you need a reality check. YES, building your own PVR is more challenging (some might say fun), but don't forget all the extra benefits you can enjoy once you get it working (internet access, gaming, upscaling of DVDs, etc.) that the Sony PVR can't do.

Just my 2 cents...

-Chris

[cummings66]

I'd agree, a homebuilt HTPC is not as simple as buying a couple parts here and there, then slapping it together.

A little research will show you that XP is the OS of choice for one.

Then you'll find out about motherboards and what cards are compatible with it and the OS of choice, then you'll have to find driver versions that work, codec's that work, etc.

It's not quick nor easy on the first one and you'll fall into a lot of potholes. In the end however you'll find a better solution vs the storebought in many cases. Sometimes you'll discover what you thought you could do you can't do, and with HDTV that's more and more common with QAM for example. On some cable systems you're stuck, need to use firewire etc.

Soon you'll find you need Vista to do anything and will have to upgrade. It's a never ending battle.

In fact I'm using a Beta version of Vista right now to test a couple things out, not for my HTPC of course as it's running MCE. However I'm using it now to test how stable things are with the Beta, so far I like it and it's not as slow as I was led to believe. I'm using it on an old P4 2.5 Gig machine with 1 Gig of ram, FX5900 Graphics card and an older Maxtor 160 Gig PATA drive. So far it's slick.

I'm testing this to see how it works for the future in other words. That's the deal with computers and hardware, it's fun if you're got the time and if not buying premade is sometimes better.

[pgitta]

Well, I'm probably to blame for most of my frustration.

A couple weeks ago I suspended my DirecTV service for the summer because all the series are in hiatus. Then it occurred to me and my wife that we pretty much watch 99% network TV. So I said, "Well, we could save around $900 a year by making a PC DVR" and she was all for it.

The thing is, if it were me, I would have gone out and bought everything I needed to build a nice machine. But the wife uses typical female logic that "spending a lot a once is more expensive than nickle and diming it"

(paying $60 a month for a year to DirectTV saves a bundle over spending $720 once)

You know the logic. $10 here, $20 there $40 here is way cheaper than $70 all at once.

So I'm trying to put this thing together with existing hardware while the wife and kid ask every 10 minutes "How much longer?"

Not something to attempt on a time limit.

Anyway...it doesn't matter now...lighting came along yesterday and fried everything im my house that had a chip in it.

[tarsosis]

See my post on HD NBC (I think I we are seeing the same problem). A few questions are the files from NBC a little larger than the others? If so look at the properties of the video file (I did it with VideoRedo). I noticed that the BitRate of the NBC files was much higher than all of the others.

PS
I haven't really recorded anything from WB because I split my input signal so many times and the signal str is to weak to get it now (have to get an amp). So the problem may also be occuring for me on that station also.