I need to know the best possible way to improve my cable reception and overall recording capabilities. ok so the way i had to have my equipment set up was the coaxial cable from the cable wall outlet to a 3 way RCA splitter. ok so my coxail went to the cable box. then I used the RCA audio video cable from cable to my Panasonic DVD recorder, then I had a pair go from the recorder to my VCR. and a cable from the vcr to tv. so it was all ok, a little fuzzy.
So then I had my panasonic problems (E-85 went goofy lol, it froze when I switched from dvd to hdd then it took forever to open, then it went into selfcheck and now it come on but only to the last channel it was on, 10. and it like freezes where the channel square thing doesnt leave the screen, the remote won't work, the buttons on the machine won't work. The only one that does is the power and then it freezes at the last power down block and doesnt shut down. I have had it unplugged twice over the weekend for over 16 hours each time thinking itll fix it as others have said it can help.). So I unplugged it and then my set up was the same as before except it went from the cable box's audio/video cords to the vcr, there was a little more fuzziness then when the panasonic was hooked up as it just went down so I disconected it. So I decided to remove the audio/video cords from the cable box to the vcr and I removed the coaxial cable from vcr to tv, and switched them so the coaxial cable was going from the cable box to the vcr and the sudio/video cables from vcr to the tv.
The color bleed from Fox barely noticable, the double images from UPN gone. TheWB is still fuzzy and has minor lines, but less than before and even sci-fi is better, by a little bit.
Just a minor switch and things are a little better. Now just to figure out how to keep the quality once I have to reincorporate the dvd recorder back in. Any ideas??
Any ideas how to improve quality or anything??
Brent
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 10 of 10
-
-
-
Originally Posted by lumis
Brent -
yes, back when i used to have regluar old analog cable i had it going to 5 rooms in my home. only the room closest the the original drop got a clear signal.. after using the radio shack cable amplifier all the rooms got a perfectly clear picture. i had my doubts (which is why i kept my reciept), but after 3 years of using it, it worked fine.. then i got the sat.
it sat in the attic (inside a metal bucket should it decide to get too warm and catch on fire) for 3 years working like a pro.. -
I have one but metal. Works great. You can really see how it works by unplugging it and seeing how that effects the signal.
His name was MackemX
What kind of a man are you? The guy is unconscious in a coma and you don't have the guts to kiss his girlfriend? -
Originally Posted by lumis
Thanks I will definately buy thisIs it true about satilite tv like dish and direct that if there is a storm, be it rain, snow etc that you lose picture quality, and do you get all channels that cable gets like UPN etc??
Brent -
it varies for different setups, people with lower signal strengths tend to have more problems with rain. mine does go out, but only when there is heavy cloud cover & heavy rain.. a normal rain is no problem.. i liked cable, but i kind of outgrew it.. or should i say my cable company is a piece of crap..
it was $40/month for regular analog cable with all the local stations & about 40 cable stations.. it was decent, but i needed UFC PPV's.. my cable company was offering "digital cable".. buuuut, they come in an install a huge dish (about the size of the old primestar dishes) and call it digital cable.. it was kind of a hybrid.. you had regular analog cable for channels 1-60, and everything above was "digital cable".. it required a box for every room (which they charged a monthly fee for).. it was a sad show.. after i heard what they had to offer me i told them this would be my last month.. after i finished with them i called directv, had my dish installed 2 days later.. and i'm in PPV heaven.. on a fun little side note, my cable company came and got their "digital cable" boxes & left their big ass dish... but they didnt disconnect my analog cable.. so every now and then when i do have problems with rain (very rare), i'll switch my tv over to the antenna input (analog cable) and watch it through there.. -
Anybody considering DirecTV/Dish Network:
It is crap. Don't waste your time. I could go on and on about it but I won't right now. Satellite TV is only for people who enjoy getting ripped off. -
go in to it please, i'd like to hear what you have to say.
-
Originally Posted by lumis
First off is their "100% Digital signal" How is this an advantage? This means I have to buy thier $50 receivers for each TV I want to be able to watch. And if it doesn't have reciver you can't watch TV (unless you antenna). Then you have to mount that ugly dish onto your house. This lets everybody know you are the stupidest person on the street. And every time there is even a thougt of rain the damn "searching for satellite TV" error comes on. If you thought the cable guy was always late coming to your house, try getting a DirecTV guy to come out. He was no where near the time promised. And when he did show up, he brought this P.O.S. van with him that almost didn't start up again. Local channels cost extra, and getting them is no easy task. You can argue with the customer service people on the phone for 3 hours, but they won't activate a reciever on the same day you bought it. Then you have to swap the damn cards and If one doesn't work, your screwed. There's no fancy features. With Charter Digital Cable, you get Pay-Per-View movies on demand, which means you can rewind, fast-forward, stop, and play your movies without having any additional equipment, like a TIVO box. They've got a big selection more than just recent releases and the on-demand feature is free! Plus, you can stop and resume a move days later! And if you get HBO, CineMax, etc... those also came with the ONDemand feature. Where was THAT in DirecTV's service? You had to hook it up to a phone to even use Pay-Per-View, so I ended up having to buy a splitter and a 100FT phone cable to hook it up, so there had wire everywhere. With DirecTV, I didn't get any community-related programming, like the School Channel or the parish channel 10. In fact, my money was just being sent out to Arizona. What the hell was that doing to the economy in my state? The Weather Channel was completely useless. I didn't get a "local forecast," I got a "here-you-go-you-stupid-*******" forecast. Why do I want to know what temperature it is in Boston or New York?
And there's no 30-day-trial period. If you want the 3 recievers free, They make you sign a paper for a year, so you're stuck with thier crap for 12 full months. And there "Moving Connection" requires another year. Thier services cost so much more than cable, and if you want thier internet service you've got to buy an $80 dish. Heavy as lead.
I had enough. I canned DirecTV, threw out the crap, and enjoyed Charter Digital Cable. It's 100x better than that satellite TV crap. Other people feel the same way, too, and I've actually talked them out of it. It's just not worth it.
The only use DirecTV has is offshore, or on RVs. Or maybe in rural America, were the cable TV lines don't go.
Great, Now you got me started.