Why does the TV wonder 650 have such bad picture quality?(satelite)

[illuminatirex]

Hi, I am using a 650 tv wonder with a 2900xt, and I have to say that the picture quality isnt the best, i get a fair ammount of "granularity" Im using the analog(cable) connection...is it possible to use the digital input with dish network satellite? i heard the digital input should be much better.
what settings should I use for recording ( I experimented with almost all0 to get teh best picture quality and smallest filesize? im curently using the mp4 option with 99 quality, and deinterlcing.

Thank You.

 

[cwsaaa]

it should not support satellite signal, no satellite tuners included.

 

[bc4]

From the picture I just looked up --- no
It only has 2 "cable" inputs, not a hdmi or other input. None of my audio/video equipment will broadcast a hidef signal through the coaxial cable.
My analog cable is not in Hi Def, if the same is true for you then that is why your picture is grainy.
No matter how good of system you have - a 640 x 480 (or whatever SD tv is) is grainy when shown on a 1650 x 1050 display

 

[basketcase]

Yeah, if you output that SD cable signal to a SD TV, via a S-Video out (if you video card had one) it would probably look really good. The last poster is right, you are view a signal that is equivilant to about 640x480 on a higher resolution monitor. It is not going to look extremely pretty. I have a ATI TV Wonder that has the 550 chip in my HTPC. It is connected S-video (from my old ATI 9600xt) to a SD TV and the picture from my cable looks better than when pumped in directly to the TV.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

You're trying to upscale a 640x480 picture it's always going to look granular.

Either you need a cable connection (the 650 has a QAM tuner), OTA programming (ATSC), or else you need to get a DVB tuner card for your Sattelite if you want anything HD.

 

[illuminatirex]

thx for the info, actually ican save the video as 720x540 if im not mistaken, but i mean the rezolution of teh monitor is 13xx since im not using 1680x1050(only for games), and its just not the best quality
also i used to have a cable (regular box) and the image was the same , sicne i could only hook it up to analog only. oh well i guess this will do for now

btw would a regular antena work with the HD input? or does it have to be some "special" kind of a HD tv antena? for over the air signals?...are theremany stations that transmit in hd? like lets say scifi, history channel? or only local ones?
thank You.

 

[rockbyter]

regular antenna works great for over the air. the 'HD indoor antennas' they sell are just regular antennas, so dont pay a premium for one. Just local channels transmit. SciFi and history are premium pay for channels that you actually pay for with your basic monthly rate for satellite or cable. Fee is very small of course. Cable jack can only do analog cable - not digital. Antenna Jack can only do over the air. otherwise use an external box and video-in features and change channel using box