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<blockquote data-quote="solas989" data-source="post: 368081" data-attributes="member: 87399">Since you are on cable tv - only the major networks will be available in most cases (results will vary as when I did have cable I was able to get DiscHD, TNTHD and others) and depending on your cable franchise may be heavily compressed.&nbsp; Most likely your TV has support for QAM too, as most &quot;digital&quot; tv's do.&nbsp; There are Encrypted QAM and Unencrypted QAM, 95% of pc tuners can only do Unencrypted QAM.&nbsp; PC tuners generally need more of a signal to get a lock than built in tv tuners or set top boxes.&nbsp; Is there anyway you can check signal strength (either via tv, set top box or pc software)?&nbsp; Do you live in a heavily populated area (apartment building, near apartments etc) or do you live out in the booneys? If so, log what times you notice the drop outs. It could be the fact that more people are turning on their tvs reducing the cable signal (possibly).&nbsp; I had this issue when I lived in an apartment and the circuit was overloaded.&nbsp; During the day it would be fine, then come around 6PM, it would fluctuate beyond means.&nbsp; Cable co would do nothing because it was at &quot;max&quot; power (mmm Simpsons).&nbsp;&nbsp; For your card...the top input (analog aka NTSC), will not receive any digital channels. This is one tuner built only for analog (ie for cable tv channels 2-99 with out a set top box in most cases).&nbsp; The next input is the digital input (aka ATSC) and you can only get digital channels on this input - aka HD channels in some cases.&nbsp; With digital, you get a picture or you dont. Maybe you get a pixelated picture (blocks, choppy), this is the case of bad signal just on the verge of locking in.&nbsp; In this case, the more people turning on the tv, the less likely you will be able to lock your digital channels. For your TV, it does have two tuners, but uses an internal splitter to get a feed to the two tuners with one input. Not always the best solution, but simple for the customer.&nbsp; What are the &quot;few&quot; digital channels you are getting? I would assume you should get CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, PBS and maybe CW (and possibly others).&nbsp; Plus, &quot;On Demand&quot; channels are unencrypted - at least it was in our franchise. So is someone on your circuit started playing a movie from On Demand, I could pick it up if I scanned for new channels.&nbsp; Cool, but then once it was done playing, I had a dead channel.&nbsp; I hope this made sense and did not confuse anyone.&nbsp; FWIW, I have an OnAir GT and I just bought a HDHomeRun - on its way. So I will be able to record two channels and watch another - wohoo!! - I just now need more HardDrive space - .5TB is not cutting it!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="solas989, post: 368081, member: 87399"] Since you are on cable tv - only the major networks will be available in most cases (results will vary as when I did have cable I was able to get DiscHD, TNTHD and others) and depending on your cable franchise may be heavily compressed. Most likely your TV has support for QAM too, as most "digital" tv's do. There are Encrypted QAM and Unencrypted QAM, 95% of pc tuners can only do Unencrypted QAM. PC tuners generally need more of a signal to get a lock than built in tv tuners or set top boxes. Is there anyway you can check signal strength (either via tv, set top box or pc software)? Do you live in a heavily populated area (apartment building, near apartments etc) or do you live out in the booneys? If so, log what times you notice the drop outs. It could be the fact that more people are turning on their tvs reducing the cable signal (possibly). I had this issue when I lived in an apartment and the circuit was overloaded. During the day it would be fine, then come around 6PM, it would fluctuate beyond means. Cable co would do nothing because it was at "max" power (mmm Simpsons). For your card...the top input (analog aka NTSC), will not receive any digital channels. This is one tuner built only for analog (ie for cable tv channels 2-99 with out a set top box in most cases). The next input is the digital input (aka ATSC) and you can only get digital channels on this input - aka HD channels in some cases. With digital, you get a picture or you dont. Maybe you get a pixelated picture (blocks, choppy), this is the case of bad signal just on the verge of locking in. In this case, the more people turning on the tv, the less likely you will be able to lock your digital channels. For your TV, it does have two tuners, but uses an internal splitter to get a feed to the two tuners with one input. Not always the best solution, but simple for the customer. What are the "few" digital channels you are getting? I would assume you should get CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, PBS and maybe CW (and possibly others). Plus, "On Demand" channels are unencrypted - at least it was in our franchise. So is someone on your circuit started playing a movie from On Demand, I could pick it up if I scanned for new channels. Cool, but then once it was done playing, I had a dead channel. I hope this made sense and did not confuse anyone. FWIW, I have an OnAir GT and I just bought a HDHomeRun - on its way. So I will be able to record two channels and watch another - wohoo!! - I just now need more HardDrive space - .5TB is not cutting it! [/QUOTE]

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