SageTV: some channels record garbage, some are OK

[Robert177]

Many of my stations record OK, but 1-2 of them get a large amount of jitter and garble. Often the garbled screen looks like thousands of pixilated junk and it gets so bad the picture is unviewable. Especially on NBC. Almost anything I record on NBC is an awful picture. It’s mystifying since CBS(HD) is fine. My NBC is mapped to channel “39-1”

My question: what are, generally, the best settings to use in the detailed setup portion of SageTV for the following parameters, so as to have best chance of none-garbaged videos ?
Video Renderer
Mpeg2 Video Decoder Filter
Mpeg4 playback
H.264 Video Decoder Filter
DScaler D. F.
Audio Renderer
Mpeg2 Audio Decoder Filter
3D Acceleration

I really could use any help on these. I have been changing so many of them without success, and the permutations are endless.

Also, could it be the speed of my system(and my O/S) that is the issue?
Would I have better results using Windows 7 on a quad-core box?


What causes the picture to be all garbage and pixels? And how do I know whcih codecs I should install?

Thanks,
RJ



SageTV Media Center 6.6.2.218
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64X2 4400+ Dual Core
3GB RAM
Nividia 6800GS
Boot drive :Intel 80GB SSD
12TB of Seagate SATA data drives.
Hauppage HVR2250 (8891) driver 7.6.27.27323
LG Blu-Ray DVD
Directx 9.0c + updates
Windows XP SP 3 MCE
Time Warner Carlsbad, cable TV

[blade]

Could be the channels in question have a weak signal or your cable company is just having issues with the broadcast. I'm on Comcast and every now and then I have some recordings that are like that. Usually it's the same couple of channels.

[MattHelm]

I agree with Blade. If you get these over Cable, get a good distribution amp.

If you are getting it OTA, there are about 4 things that can be bad.
1. Antenna
2. Antenna amp
3. Antenna aliment
4. Too long of cable