I'm really frustrated with my capture card - please help

[Ardani]

hi all,

I have got P4 1.6, 256 DDR, 60Gid HD, 64meg VGA, Creative Sound Blaster live, and Pinnacle PCTV capture card.

I 'm trying to cpature from TV and I get this really annoying eletrical interference. I tried everything from TV signal booster to indoor antena with build-in booster(amplifier) they are all not doing anything good.

I just want to capture from my Pinnacle PCTV card into VCD(mpeg1). The signal interference is making it worst when i capture into VCD.

Please help, what should I do?

Thanks
Adani

[jdizzy40]

Do you get the same annoying mess when you hook that cable up to a regular TV? If not, then I would suggest swaping out the TV Tuner for another. This is the quickest way to isolate the cause. Good luck!

[Ardani]

Hi again,

when I hook the cable up into regular TV, the picture is perfect. It's just when I plug the cable into the capture card, I get this really annoying electric interference.

Is this the hardware fault, do you think? did you experience the same thing?

I would really appriciate if anybody could response ASAP because the refund policy of my card is nearly over.

Thanks again

[jdizzy40]

One more question, you did run the scan of all your channels and selected the appropriate cable/antenna connection in the Tv Tuner set-up correct?

[gmatov]

jdizzy,
Check, and most likely, replace your cables.
I have problems all the time with the wires to my TV, and to my computer. I don't know if the connectors corrode or what, but when I make a new cable, my problems go away. Till then, I just shake the hell out of the wires, probably cleaning off any oxides, and for a while, I get a good signal.
I have got to get a bunch of RG6 wires and replace the RG59s I am using.

txpharoah,
Hopefully you're there, is there any kind of anti corrosive that you should doctor your wires with, before you screw them together?

[Allan55]

Try grounding everything together with at least 14ga wire.

Are any of your devices powered with 2-wire cords (no ground pin). If so run your finger over the power cord until you find the insulation around one of the wires that has a ridge (multiple ridges?) on it. This is the neutral wire and should always go into neutral hole of your outlet. Newer wall outlets have a wider slot which is the neutral one. For grounded wall outlets: if the ground (round) pin is at the bottom then the neutral is the left slot when looking at the outlet... assuming the thing is wired correctly -- which isn't as good an assumtion as it should be.

Keep all your cable as short as possible. Long cables act like antennas and pick up noise more easily. Try to position signal cable away from power cords and do not run them along-side of power cords.

Use better shielded cables. I wouldn't pay for Monster or any other ridiculously expensive cables. I'm friends with two electronic engineers (they design the kind ICs we use in all this stuff) and they say that that level of "quality" is no better than good quality cables at a fifth the price.

Allan