Some Channels Juddering (E4)

I have recently set up a media centre to run the home TV. Everything is
working fine, except a couple of channels (E4, Channel 4) are juddering and
are unwatchable. My normal cheap freeview receiver had no problems with these
channels, but to be sure, I tried a digital TV booster which has made no
difference at all.
All other channels are perfect, it never complains about lack of signal, and
it found the channels straight away in the scan, but they just can't be
watched properly.
I have ensured that I have all the latest drivers, does anyone have any
suggestions of what to try next?

Nigel
Tue Jul 01 03:20:29 PDT 2008

On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:59:00 -0700, Rich <Rich@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

>I have recently set up a media centre to run the home TV. Everything is
>working fine, except a couple of channels (E4, Channel 4) are juddering and
>are unwatchable. My normal cheap freeview receiver had no problems with these
>channels, but to be sure, I tried a digital TV booster which has made no
>difference at all.
>All other channels are perfect, it never complains about lack of signal, and
>it found the channels straight away in the scan, but they just can't be
>watched properly.
>I have ensured that I have all the latest drivers, does anyone have any
>suggestions of what to try next?

We need more information for diagnosis e.g. computer specifications especially
model of tuner & version of driver, model of graphics card & version of
drivers, display device.
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP

Rich
Tue Jul 01 03:37:00 PDT 2008

Sorry, here's the info:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 & 2Gig Ram
VideoMate Vista T500F PCI TV Card
Nvidia Geforce 8400
Gigabyte GA-73VM-S2 Motherboard
2 x SATAII 7200rpm Hard Disks

The drivers for the Graphics Card and the TV tuner are the latest drivers
available.

Nigel
Tue Jul 01 10:12:44 PDT 2008

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 03:37:00 -0700, Rich <Rich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Sorry, here's the info:
>
>Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 & 2Gig Ram
>VideoMate Vista T500F PCI TV Card
>Nvidia Geforce 8400
>Gigabyte GA-73VM-S2 Motherboard
>2 x SATAII 7200rpm Hard Disks
>
>The drivers for the Graphics Card and the TV tuner are the latest drivers
>available.

You don't mention whether you are viewing on a monitor or TV. One problem with
UK PAL TV is viewing what are 50Hz refresh rate video on a 60Hz monitor or TV.
It's particularly noticeable with horizontal scrolling banners as a judder.

However your problem sounds far worse if the picture is actually unmatchable.
As these channels are both on the same Multiplex a signal problem seems likely
although I would expect the same problems with More4 too as that is on the same
Mux.

What are do you live in & which TV transmitter should you be receiving your
signals from?
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP

Rich
Tue Jul 01 13:39:08 PDT 2008

I'm currently using a normal analogue TV with an S-Video cable, however, the
problem still persists when I use my normal LCD monitor. The judder is not
specifically for the video, it also happens with the sound.

I am in the Brighton area and the transmitter I am using is called Whitehawk
Hill. That transmitter is about 2 miles away from me. I have downloaded some
software to test the signal strength, and for all multiplexes including the
E4/Channel 4 one comes back as 100% signal strength.

The channel More 4 is doing it aswell, so it does look as though it is every
channel from that multiplex.

Curious
Tue Jul 01 14:39:01 PDT 2008

It sounds like you are suffering from Stutter not Judder since it also
effects your audio. Digital tuners can be overloaded with too strong of a
signal unlike analog tuners but I don't think that is your problem if your
S-video and stereo output output has no problems.
What resolution are you outputting over what interface to your LCD monitor?
Since you have the latest drivers from your tuner card, graphics card, and
audio card manufactures Websites the drivers are not the problem they could
be the problem if you were using the latest available from MS instead.
Are you running MCE2005 or Vista MC?
If MCE2005 what decoder software are you using?
"Rich" <Rich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3FECCB77-7D43-4C67-A02E-5FEB8D099D7A@microsoft.com...
> I'm currently using a normal analogue TV with an S-Video cable, however,
> the
> problem still persists when I use my normal LCD monitor. The judder is not
> specifically for the video, it also happens with the sound.
>
> I am in the Brighton area and the transmitter I am using is called
> Whitehawk
> Hill. That transmitter is about 2 miles away from me. I have downloaded
> some
> software to test the signal strength, and for all multiplexes including
> the
> E4/Channel 4 one comes back as 100% signal strength.
>
> The channel More 4 is doing it aswell, so it does look as though it is
> every
> channel from that multiplex.

Rich
Tue Jul 01 14:54:02 PDT 2008

when it was plugged into the LCD monitor it was 1440 x 900, on the Television
it is 800 X 600.

The version is Vista Media Center.

Curious
Tue Jul 01 15:50:44 PDT 2008

Are you running Vista SP1 yet? It has a better MPEG2 decoder then Vista RTM
has.
"Rich" <Rich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B78FF0D5-4FB2-488E-99D2-6B67C60989C7@microsoft.com...
> when it was plugged into the LCD monitor it was 1440 x 900, on the
> Television
> it is 800 X 600.
>
> The version is Vista Media Center.

Rich
Tue Jul 01 15:55:01 PDT 2008

Yeah, I've installed Vist Ultimate 64bit with SP1

Nigel
Wed Jul 02 06:07:18 PDT 2008

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 13:39:08 -0700, Rich <Rich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I'm currently using a normal analogue TV with an S-Video cable, however, the
>problem still persists when I use my normal LCD monitor. The judder is not
>specifically for the video, it also happens with the sound.
>
>I am in the Brighton area and the transmitter I am using is called Whitehawk
>Hill. That transmitter is about 2 miles away from me. I have downloaded some
>software to test the signal strength, and for all multiplexes including the
>E4/Channel 4 one comes back as 100% signal strength.
>
>The channel More 4 is doing it aswell, so it does look as though it is every
>channel from that multiplex.

Mux 2 amongst others from Whitehawk Hill looks iffy even if you are only two
miles away http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=TQ330045 The low transmission
power means that you need to be really careful about aerial alignment &
ensuring that you have good cables.

One problem that can be encountered with Media Center & DVB-T (Freeview) is
that it 'locks on' to a more distant transmitter with a weaker signal than your
intended local transmitter. Normally when it does a scan it searches every
channel from 21-63 but it is possible to edit the registry & restrict scanning
to just the 6 Multiplexes of your local transmitter. This also dramatically
speeds up the time it takes to perform a scan. Full details can be found here:-
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/133114.aspx
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP

Rich
Wed Jul 02 09:41:00 PDT 2008

Hi Nigel,

I Changed the registry to include the new Key and the appropriate
frequencies and unfortunately no change.

However, as a result of finding out the frequencies, I was able to use the
ComproDTV 4 software that came with the TV card and tell it to scan the
frequency. Previously it could not find E4, but now it can and this software
has no trouble playing the chanel whatsoever.

Could their be any problem with encoding within Vista Media Center?

Nigel
Thu Jul 03 23:10:07 PDT 2008

On Wed, 2 Jul 2008 09:41:00 -0700, Rich <Rich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi Nigel,
>
>I Changed the registry to include the new Key and the appropriate
>frequencies and unfortunately no change.
>
>However, as a result of finding out the frequencies, I was able to use the
>ComproDTV 4 software that came with the TV card and tell it to scan the
>frequency. Previously it could not find E4, but now it can and this software
>has no trouble playing the chanel whatsoever.
>
>Could their be any problem with encoding within Vista Media Center?

I doubt it.

Is the problem the same with both Live TV & Recorded TV?
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP

Rich
Fri Jul 04 11:30:00 PDT 2008

AHA! I did try this the other day, but I don't think I gave it enough time.
It only does it for the first few seconds when recording those channels, then
the recording is fine. So in short, no it doesn't do it for recorded TV.

What does that mean?