HD Home Run Prime Video Quality

[derwin424]

I am having issues with video quality using HD Home Run Prime. I have notice that HD viewing is not as crisp and a bit grainy compared to signals received through my Verizon Fios Set Top Box. My set up is:

1) Win 7 64 bit (I use Windows Media Center)
2) Gigabyte z77 based MOBO
3) Intel I-5 3570
4) GT610 Fanless Graphics Card (1gb RAM)

My TV is 50 inch Samsung Plasma. I did read that the HD Home Run Prime supports 1080i not 1080p. Has anyone else had these same issues? I am going to swap out my HDMI cable for v1.4, not sure if this will make a difference. Any ideas?

 

[Shinsetta]

I have to agree with you. It might be in my head but it seems that it does seem grainier.

But, a Ceton tech already debunked that here and said the signal is all or none. You can't have any degradation in signal.

 

[bjaminnyc]

I have Fios as well and find the picture through my carblecard tuner to be just as crisp as the Fios box.

The 610 is fairly old tech. If you have access to a slightly better card I'd give that a try, the HDMI cable isn't going to do anything for you unless it's a long run.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102994

 

[derwin424]

I upgraded to the gt640; i did not see a material improvement. Interestingly, i built another machine using the amd a10-5700 and MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 Mini ITX motherboard and it provides better streaming hd graphics with no stand alone video card. I am running the Mini ITX machine on a newer Samsung LED Smart TV, so could be the TV. I am going to try swapping the machines to see if the difference is attributable to the TV or the build.

 

[bjaminnyc]

Derwin, have you tried to calibrate your picture. Meaning, use a calibration disk to refine the picture being produced by the HTPC. You may have the ability to do this through the 640 driver. I just calibrated my bedroom 42" LCD, I the difference in picture quality is immediately noticeable.

I realize the problems you've described are likely not due to your screen calibration but it couldn't hurt.

Another potential problem is latency or throughput of your network. Are you running the HTPC via wifi, 10, 100, or 1000? As a test it may be worthwhile to have the router, HDHomerun, and HTPC wired through the router with really short cable runs. Also might want to try a different gigabit router. That ought to eliminate potential network bottlenecks causing signal degradation.