ATI 9700 AIW tuner clarity

wayne882000

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Jan 6, 2003
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I find that the picture is not as clear or sharp compared to my sony tv using the same cable. Does anyone else have this problem? I have tried a few things including feeding the cable through a vcr to buffer the signal, unplugging all pci cards, floppies etc to increase power (I have a 300w psu), installing the latest video drivers.

my system is a p4 2.4, 300w psu, asus p4pe board, 512 ram.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 

umheint0

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Feb 18, 2003
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I believe it has something to do with the ability of your tuner card to filter signal noise. TVs seem to have a better decoder to do this, while tuner cards do not.

Monitors are designed to have spectacularely high image quality. It's been my experience that monitors are able to bring out deficiencies in image quality that TVs just can't compete with. If you have lower image quality with the tuner card, it's most likely because of the cable, not your card.

You may want to try a newer coaxial cable with better insulation and see if that helps. It couldn't hurt, in any case.

I have a Hauppauge TV tuner card and it doesn't seem as sharp as my 32" TV, but it looks a lot better than my brothers 15" TV. It's just the luck of the draw. You have one of the best TVs on the market. That's hard for anything to compete with.

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knowan

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Ditto. Other than changing the cable there's not much else that can be done. You may also want to try taking out the splitter and running the cable directly into the AIW. If that increases clarity then get a higher quality splitter as well. Alternatltly try swapping cables, run the one from the TV into your AIW and vice-versa. See if that changes anything.

Your monitor has alot better resolution than your TV, so images may appear more blurry, especially when enlarged. But what umheint0 daid is true as well. The ATI cards have some of the best video capture abilities out there, but they cannot compare to a high quality TV (mid range TV yes).

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Smokey

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Real simple: Your TV has a built in amplifier to boost the signal coming into it. Alas, you graphics card cannot boast the same.

If you really want uber clearer pictures, you're gonna have to boost the signal into your AIW. How? Pick up a coaxial signal amplifier (they also kick but if you use a cable modem, since that can benefit from the boost as well). I saw one in Best Buy the other day for 80$, so I've got to hope you can get it cheaper than that online somewhere.

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jaythaman

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Smokey's right. Without the booster the Tuner can never match you TV's Image quality

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rlemo

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I too have the same problem. My 21 inch Dell trinitron gives a poor picture at full screen. Anything less than full screen is great. My cable line has an amplifier already on it to improve my in house tv reception. I would also like to know the answer to this.
 

14Dx

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I had the same problem with my tuner card, but after making an uber antenna i get fine receptionon all channels (not crystal but it beats spending money). I combined bunny ears, an FM loop and an AM loop antenna and it works pretty good. try this before getting a signal amplifier.

If its not broken, you're not trying hard enough.