TV Wonder Elite, I need Help...

[basketcase]

Ok, I just bought a ATI TV Wonder Elite, and I am having a problem. I hook up my cable, the same cable that comes in clear on my TV, and when I search for channels, the signal is scrambled. I have tried reconnecting it, to make sure it is not loose. I don't have a cable box, and I am not sure if that matters or not. When it is searching, you can see all the channels, but it is all garbled, like it is not unscrambled, by the cable company.

Why does it work on my TV, but not the TV Wonder Elite?

Any help would be gratly appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[basketcase]

Ok, here's an update...
I tried hooking up rabbit ear antenna, and the picture on the few channels I can get is not garbled. So I know it's not the card that is acting up. Do I need a Cable Box to make this work? I have the cheapest cable package and it doesn't come with one.

Does anyone know if that would make a difference?

The other thing is, after I tried the antenna, I reconnected the cable. Originally when I scanned for channels, it wouldn't make a channel list. This time it did. The picture was a little less scrambled, but still not watchable. Could my cable line be bad? But, it still doesn't make sense, since the cable hooked into the TV comes in fine.

I am desparate for help on this, so any input would be great.

Thanks!!

 

[basketcase]

I know... I keep replying to my own topic. But this is really bugging me.

Is there some sort of controls for the TV Wonder Elite I am not seeing? Like something to adjust the frequency that it sees? I don't really know anything about the way cable works, so I am just grasping at straws.

 

[hrvoje_xyz]

and when you watch your TV , is program quality good or not ?

If it is , then I dont know , it could be due tu a cheap cable , but Its quite ridiculous .

maybe you shpuld send an email to WOnder elite itself , that brand ... they surely have a homepage and mail ...

they must know about that problem , if it is not a faulty card.

 

[basketcase]

and when you watch your TV , is program quality good or not ?

If it is , then I dont know , it could be due tu a cheap cable , but Its quite ridiculous .

maybe you shpuld send an email to WOnder elite itself , that brand ... they surely have a homepage and mail ...

they must know about that problem , if it is not a faulty card.

When I hook the cable directly into the TV, the picture is perfect. But, when I put that into the tuner card, the picture is bad, kinda scrambled. But, just to test the card, I hooked rabbit ears but to the tuner card, and that worked fine (as fine as over the air reception can be).

But, I have done a little looking online and I am thinking that there is some interference that the cable line is picking up. I am going to rewire everything when I get home tonight, because I have a mess of wires behind the TV. I am thinking that when I move the cable over to where the computer is, it crosses something that causes the interference. Hopefully that is the problem. I wonder if anything in the computer could be causing the interference also, i.e. PSU... Otherwise, I think you are right. I will need to contact ATI.

But thanks for the reply...

If anyone else has any ideas, let me know, otherwise I will post after I try rewiring everything.

THANKS! :?

 

[hrvoje_xyz]

its a long shot but still you could olso try this (if you have enough time ) :

try un-wire (I dont know the right word for it , I mean put away all cables arround your compter) and move your case , your monitor and your keyboard near , I dont know , window , just put it away from anything that has something to do with electricity .

then plug your computer in .

and then try to connect cable to a tv - card.


As i said , its a long shot , but you cant loose anything except some time ... 8)

 

[Crashman]

ATI's recent products have difficulty "locking in" to weaker signals. They mistune them slightly, resulting in worse reception. The easy solution is to get a signal booster, I picked one up from the electronics isle of my local "super market".

 

[basketcase]

ATI's recent products have difficulty "locking in" to weaker signals. They mistune them slightly, resulting in worse reception. The easy solution is to get a signal booster, I picked one up from the electronics isle of my local "super market".

I am going to have to try the signal booster. I tried rewiring and isolating the cable cord as much as possible and it made no difference. Is any particular brand or type of signal booster better?

Thanks!

 

[Crashman]

I just got a cheap one, but some people recommend Motorola.

 

[basketcase]

I got an RCA one from Best Buy, and that worked!!

Now I just need to find some good PVR software. Powercinema is pretty bad.

 

[Crashman]

ATI Multimedia Center has supported the TV Wonder Elite for a while, and has the added features most people need like program guide and so forth.

 

[bauerb2]

glad you got it working with that booster. could you tell me which one you got?

 

[illuminatirex]

iv been using ati's tv card for almost 2 years and i have a very long (100 feet coax cable conected to the tv tuner and it pased behind my tv, through my entire house, to my pc and i have no interference problems, once i decided to get one of those cable amplifiers to check it out, it didnt make any difference for mt cable box hooked up to the tv but it made teh tv tuners visual quality so bad, and grainy, lol i wil not get another one from radioshack lol, but those other ones which have a electric "enhancement might" work.

 

[Crashman]

That's called over-amplification. It depends on how strong the original signal is.

 

[illuminatirex]

it did depend on the channel i gues some were ok others were "snowy" but after i aded it all of them were "snowwy" or in some other way unwachable. but now im thinking about just cutting the coax cable to make it shorter, i have a big tied up "roll" of it lying under my desk lol, so maby by cuting it and making it shorter the visual quality will increase, but honestly i cant complain i like the quality so far, even while recording it on the lowest possible setings the quality is quite ok, i dont even remember trying to record on the highest video quality. lol