TV picture pixelating

Roynie

I have recently had to replace the Mboard, CPU and RAM on my HTPC. I kept the Black Gold TV card and reinstalled it.

Beforehand the system was running so slowly it was impossible to watch even movies. Now, I can watch either satellite or terrestrial TV for about 20 - 30 minutes with a good, very sharp picture, then it starts pixilating very badly. I have taken the TV card out and re-seated it and checked the power connection. It has the latest drivers for it and can't find anything wrong.

Other TV's working off the same aerials work just fine.

Can anyone suggest what else I can do to fix the problem?

The Ritz

Have you checked your cpu or graphics card temps, have you noticed any fans ramping up? If the cpu/glue is overloaded it will result in patchy video performance ?

Ritz

Roynie

The Ritz wrote: »

Have you checked your cpu or graphics card temps, have you noticed any fans ramping up? If the cpu/glue is overloaded it will result in patchy video performance ?

Ritz

I have Core Temp installed and that's fine. I haven't got a graphics card monitor, could you recommend one? As far as the CPU is concerned I just installed the new fan with the heat sink paste that was on it.

Roynie

The Ritz wrote: »

Have you checked your cpu or graphics card temps, have you noticed any fans ramping up? If the cpu/glue is overloaded it will result in patchy video performance ?

Ritz

There's nothing wrong with the graphics card, I've just watched a 2.5 hrs film with no ill effects. It would seem that there is a problem with the TV card. I have no idea what, or whether it could be fixed. Any ideas?

The Ritz

Nope, unfortunately , it's literally ages since I've used a TVs card so thats the limit for me. Maybe one of the guys who use this card could help, you could also benefit from asking on avforums.com, theres's a hcpc forum there that might help.

Ritz

Johnboy1951

Roynie wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with the graphics card, I've just watched a 2.5 hrs film with no ill effects. It would seem that there is a problem with the TV card. I have no idea what, or whether it could be fixed. Any ideas?

If possible try diverting some of the airflow to the card to see if that helps.
It might be the card or rather some of its components are over heating.

I use TBS cards and I notice some of the components get too hot to touch.

You could try outputting the card on the LAN and viewing it from a PC/Laptop/whatever ...... if that does not pixelate then it is unlikely to be the Blackgold card.

Roynie

I have had another look inside the case. There are two case fans but only one set of power supply pins on the MB. So I have ordered a splitter to get both working. I have also taken out the bracket for the spare expansion slot between the TV card and the Graphics card. Hopefully that will do it, if not I may have to get another TV card.

tonyfillony

what program are you using to watch TV?
I use my blackgold tuner with kodi using serverwmc and have not pixelation

Roynie

OK, I have now got both case fans going having bought a cable splitter and I have updated the graphics card. I have also installed a temp monitor that gives the readings for the CPU, GPU, memory and other stuff as well.

It is not running hot at all, it's all around 35 - 40 C.

I had to install a new Mb after a BIOS update failed and I couldn't revert. Before hand the TV card worked fine. We can watch films from the hard disk without a problem. But watching from the TV card pixillates. We have Windows 7 and watch using Windows Media Player, which is what we had before the upgrade.

The TV card has the latest drivers. I am begining to think that it's the TV card, but before I go and get a new one, can anyone tell me whether the TV card would be more sensitive the strength of the signal from the Aerial or Sat dish than a normal TV set? We have TV sets in the bedrooms and they work fine from the same signals.

Roynie

OK, I have now got both case fans going having bought a cable splitter and I have updated the graphics card. I have also installed a temp monitor that gives the readings for the CPU, GPU, memory and other stuff as well.

It is not running hot at all, it's all around 35 - 40 C.

I had to install a new Mb after a BIOS update failed and I couldn't revert. Before hand the TV card worked fine. We can watch films from the hard disk without a problem. But watching from the TV card pixillates. We have Windows 7 and watch using Windows Media Player, which is what we had before the upgrade.

The TV card has the latest drivers. I am begining to think that it's the TV card, but before I go and get a new one, can anyone tell me whether the TV card would be more sensitive the strength of the signal from the Aerial or Sat dish than a normal TV set? We have TV sets in the bedrooms and they work fine from the same signals.

Johnboy1951

Roynie wrote: »

OK, I have now got both case fans going having bought a cable splitter and I have updated the graphics card. I have also installed a temp monitor that gives the readings for the CPU, GPU, memory and other stuff as well.

It is not running hot at all, it's all around 35 - 40 C.

I had to install a new Mb after a BIOS update failed and I couldn't revert. Before hand the TV card worked fine. We can watch films from the hard disk without a problem. But watching from the TV card pixillates. We have Windows 7 and watch using Windows Media Player, which is what we had before the upgrade.

The TV card has the latest drivers. I am begining to think that it's the TV card, but before I go and get a new one, can anyone tell me whether the TV card would be more sensitive the strength of the signal from the Aerial or Sat dish than a normal TV set? We have TV sets in the bedrooms and they work fine from the same signals.

The sensitivity of different devices varies, so if you have any niggling doubt about the signal strength going to the card it would be advisable to deal with that first.
A barely suitable strength might not be sufficient after the card heats up .....

Roynie

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

The sensitivity of different devices varies, so if you have any niggling doubt about the signal strength going to the card it would be advisable to deal with that first.
A barely suitable strength might not be sufficient after the card heats up .....

Yes, having had to re-install the Saorview box yesterday I have come around to the conclusion that the aerial and Sat dish may have moved, so it's just as well to check that out next.

Roynie

Well, I have just had the Sat signal and the terrestrial aerial signal bioth checked and they are fine. So it must be the TV card, which is a bloody nuisance.

Thanks for all the advice, all I need to do now is to work out what card to get.

EDIT: The guy who came around to check the terrestrial and Sat signals commented that the 4G signal sometimes interferes with the TV signals. So I looked inside that HTPC case and saw that not only was the TV card next to the Wifi card, there was a spare slot further away from it. I moved it to the spare slot and then had to re-install the card. Lo and behold the pixelation has stopped, so far. It was kicking in after 30 mins or so, but after the guys left it did it immediately. It is now an hour later and it is still fine watching the TV, so here's hoping!

Roynie

An update:

After moving the TV card one slot away from the wifi card and waited for a half an hour or so I went out, leaving the HTPC TV on. When I got back the TGV was still working without pixilation.

All I can say is that it would appear that you should not put a TV card immediately next to a wifi card as the wifi could interfere with the TV signal.

Roynie

Update:

I have now removed the Wifi card and bought a router with a sim slot, and connected it by cable to the HTPC. I have installed Kodi, and tested the satellite and terrestrial signals and they still pixilate. It seems to me that the card is buggered, but I am waiting suggestions from Blackgold techies as they have been very helpful.

In the event that the card need replacing, does anyone have any suggestions for a TV card that has both DVB-T and DVB-S tuners, preferable 2 of each. My current card is a BGT 3600. Is it still a good card or are there better ones that are not too expensive?

Thanks all.

Johnboy1951

Is it possible there was not sufficient air flow around the Blackgold and it overheated causing pixellation?

Roynie

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Is it possible there was not sufficient air flow around the Blackgold and it overheated causing pixellation?

Unlikely. I did have a problem with overheating a while ago, so I added an extra fan and took one the blanking plates off a spare expansion slot, to increase the airflow.

I also have a piece of software which gives me the temperatures and they all seem to read around the 35 C range. I believe that's OK, but I am no expert!