Does the length of a s-video cable really matter? 25feet vs 6 feet. Need Sheilding??

[\AX]

I have direcTV. i capture power rangers wild force. the broadcast on any tv (even hidef) doesn't look that great to begin with. But im capturing with a 25foot svideos cable right now. This one is a single shield..your basic s-video cable. Should i get a higher priced one that has more shielding to run 25 feet? and would there really be any noticable difference in picture using a shorter s-video cable 2x^ shielded or not?

Im wondering all this because some noise is gettting thrown in there from the satellite box to the pc. I have a huappauge, pinncale pro, a canopus dv(with pinnacle dv200 card), a ati vivo 64ddr, a nvida, and a ati all-in-wonder. Ive tested it with all these device's and the same noise is apparent.

Some how im getting that rainbowy translucent effect on the white writing too. with the hauppauge and the pinnacle.

i use the btwincap universal driver and cap at 704x480 (there's now way this show is even broadcasted from the studio at anything above 640x480 either so im not loosing any res so i know that's not it)

[droolian01]

Hi there.

I would suggest that you move your computer into the same room as your stb and use a short cable if you have one - just to test - if the problem dissappears then you know its your cable.

If it is your cable a cheaper alternative would be to buy cheap 75 ohm tv cable and use 2 runs of it and solder your own s-video plugs up. Try google for pinout charts. Cheap tv cable is certainly beefy enough to carry a s-video signal with no attenuation and the screening would be good too.

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

Originally posted by droolian01
Hi there.

I would suggest that you move your computer into the same room as your stb and use a short cable if you have one - just to test - if the problem dissappears then you know its your cable.

If it is your cable a cheaper alternative would be to buy cheap 75 ohm tv cable and use 2 runs of it and solder your own s-video plugs up. Try google for pinout charts. Cheap tv cable is certainly beefy enough to carry a s-video signal with no attenuation and the screening would be good too.

that's good solution if /AX detects that really is cable problem:

i myself use coaxial (tv antenna ) cable to connect VCR & capture card
(VCR is in another room...) ie. to supply capture card with composite video to card's "video-in" chinch connector...

that's for 1 VCR,for another VCR i just use homemade ( very crude )
"twisted pair" cable....no interference there too....

i didn't use it specially for that (buy cable,make connections etc.):just that the that antenna cable was always laying around,so i used it.....

Ivo

[\AX]

Your using a composite cable to cap??? don't you loose lines that way??

Anyhow i don't think now it's a cable issue...but a grounding looping issue.

My setup is this.

Satellite box in other room. 25foot s-video cable from box, through the wall, to pc. I could be getting interferance from the wall through put. I have going through the same wall jack this:

l/r audio cables
3 cat5 cables
2 coaxial cables (one is from the satellite dish to the sat box...other not being used)
2 composite cables
30foot dv cord
and a good old telephone line

There could be some interferance from all those cords...but im going to highly doubt that. I doubt that because if i take the coaxial cable instead from the sat box and the s-video cable from the sat box the same noise is apparent. If it was a interferance problem i would imagine..and probably most likely right...that one or the other would have less interferance being a different connection type and shielding would be different. This would be not the case if i had like 2 1000watt hk amps and 2 15" dcm speakers (BIG magnet's) right next to the sat box of course..but i don't.

I remember having a grounding loop last year when i posted here right as i first started to cap analogue video. This loop was created buy a vcr. A vcr is expected to throw a curve in the capturing system for it can supply several frequencies and if the vcr is on there is a emf filed not that would not be there. However...this noise from the loop was beyond what emf from any device lower than 100watts. It was the fact that i had used the vcr to feed the video to my tv and to my computer and at the same time the feeding the video from my ati card to the same tv. so i had a loop-t-loop.

The noise i am experience i know is either from a grounding/looping issue or just plain and simply the card. Im going to radio shack to by some grounding tools tommorrow for my computer. The sat box is already grounded.

If the grounding attempt tommorrow does not solve the problem then it is either the s-vid cable (which i doubt...but never sure) or the capture card.

Does having your mobo stuffed with 5 hdd's, 2 floopies, 4 cdroms and 5 pci slot's cause a problem in this??? I don't see why it would. Im sure many of you out there have more than this in your pc anyhow and i have not seen and posting's about such...atleast here or anywhere else ever.


I can see how you guys use a s/vhs vcr in the mix. I'm not a video guru and you all obviously know that and i would never claim to be EVER! But i have never heard any professional tell me that using a vcr can increase image quality. Then again i have never asked that ?.

Now on the flip side of that...although i don't see a proffesional suggesting that for top performance...ive done it. I have also seen that it can increase performance. I know when i captured with a composite cable via cable box->vcr->composite to pc it cleaned up the picture alot. But i did notice the lesser lines. Now i really don't see how it could decrease line's because it's just passing the signal right?? atleast that is what i think, but i just noticed it to be lesser...im not saying, claiming, or stating it does...just IMO.

So if i buy new svhs player and take the satbox to svideo in on the vcr...then to the pc will there be less noise???

How about a old...i mean october 87' old...svhs single CCD camcorder due?? it has s-video in and out...and ive have already tested it so it can pass the single through...and it work's. Or should i get a newer vcr or whatver device that has s-video for the filter/pass might be greater??

NOTE: some terms of glossary i have used here are either what i thought felt best, made up, or plain wacky. (loop-t-loop??? who's this guy??)

[droolian01]

Hello again.

I don't own an s-vhs vcr (although i wouldn't mind one!). I have digital cable (i live in the uk) and the stb has a scart jack in it which can either output composite or rgb component. I select rgb and pass this to a rgb-to-s video converter which is then sent upstairs to my computer via a 12 metre s-video cable. I think ^^-+I4004+-^^ mentions his vcr because he is obviously capturing from video tape!

Remember that s-vhs is a video recording format/hardware type that gives you more resolution than ordinary vhs video recorders whereas s-video is a word used to describe a video signal (2 different things!). Composite sigals carry video down one cenral cable and this signal has colour and brightness info mixed together. S-video uses 2 signals (hence they use 2 cables) one for colour and one for brightness. Why people rave on about s-video is that the tv set must have the colour and brightness signal separated to display a picture, the gizmo that does this in a tv sometimes can't separate the signal properly and you get 'dot crawl' (white subtitle text will appear 'smudged' - sometimes like the effect you describe) and you don't get this with s-video as it is already separated at the start. Just make sure you aren't mixing up s-vhs and s-video, and make sure that the satelite box really does have a S-VIDEO output and you aren't trying to feed a composite signal into a s-video input on your capture card.

Hope this is helpfull

p.s. Thank God i have never had any of these sort of problems you describe because they can be very tricky to solve - you could try to view the signal that arrives at your pc on a tv instead of inputing it into your capture card just to see if these lines are present still, if they go then it could well be your card or lack of grounding in your pc at fault.

[\AX]

O yeh...i know the difference between s-video and svhs of cource. If i didnt' know that i wouldnt even know how to capture video at all from any source.

the reason i mentioned the svhs player is because some people (and i aswell) that pass the signal through a svhs recorder can clean the picture some. I have not seen this affect on svhs but have seen it on vhs.

sometimes the coaxial cable from the box can cause interferance. not to mention a lesser of line's. then is composite on up, then s-video, then rgb, then dv, etc. etc...

thanks for the help...im pretty sure it's a grounding issue. Although the device's and wire's i bought today i have already taken back. they did not solve the issue. although i feel im pretty sure it is a grounding issue (like the kind when you put a computer in a car and hear the noise when playing music from it without it being attached to the car frame)..although im pretty sure...i have already purchased that tv@nywhere card that has the new conexant 10bit chip many have described.

In the review's i have see for the tv@nywhere...~20...the problem with the card is not video quality related..but remote control, the bundled software, etc....not driver's or video quality. In fact, every single review on it i have seen says it has better picture quality than what they where using before, which where mainly geforce/ati GPU's or a bt8x8

thanks for replying...i didn't however know how the cable itself was made. I understood why it was better as far as the seperation...but didnt know the inside of the cable. So you enlightened me on that...thankyou

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

i ment just this : i'm not using any tuner that would/will
be located in the inside of my PC!
i just had one of them (ati aiw) but it wasn't useable


if i capture tv programme i use VCR's tuner and hook that upto my capture card with composite cable & "video-in"
if i had svhs i would use svhs' tuner & connect it to "svhs-in" on
capture card

i just don't believe you'll get decent picture with tuner on capture card,that's all....

if your video source has "video-out" or "scart" ,use that.....

[\AX]

true true

like i mentioned..i don't have a tuner. I guess the sat box is good enough of a tuner, don't you think?? Im not sure

my source is whatever the DirecTV broadcast's as. I get a 98-99% signal strength so it's pretty much all there. I take it from the s-video out on the sat box DIRECTLY over the s-video to cap card.


Do you think i should throw in a s-vhs player into the mix to see if that can help??? a new one.

my 87' camcorder has this feature but it implement's it in a old fashion...or so i believe. Because it doesn't need to be powered on to pass the signal. It can pass the signal with or without power. I have seen svhs player's that pass the signal...newer one's of course...but none that can do it if the svhs player is off.

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

Originally posted by \AX
true true



my source is whatever the DirecTV broadcast's as. I get a 98-99% signal strength so it's pretty much all there. I take it from the s-video out on the sat box DIRECTLY over the s-video to cap card.


Do you think i should throw in a s-vhs player into the mix to see if that can help??? a new one.



that's good!do NOT pass that signal through another machine....you'll get signal loss!

my "no-tuner in PC" means just that!it doesn't talk about passing through.....just don't use tuner inside PC....

any pass-through is redundant & destroys signal.....keep it direct!

cheers

Ivo

[\AX]

I imagine i shouldnt...but ive totally forgot to mention why i notice the noise im talking about...i should of mentioned this along time ago.

The noise i have on/in my capture's is not noticable on the tv set. After i have the svideo from the sat box i then also have a s-video cable out to my tv. To watch while i cap or after i cap. So one is going to the cap card and another s-video out to the tv. Ive disconnected the svideo cable that connects to the tv on both the tv and the ati card...but the noise still exist's.

The noise become's more noticable on certain channel's...which leads me to belive it has something to due with how it's broadcasted. On the other had the noise is not apparent at all on the tv on any channel when i feed it out from the ati card. So i have one in to hauppauge or whatever card and another svideo out on the ati card to the tv. Like ive mentioned i have disconnected the svideo cable from the ati on both the ati and the tv but didnt due anything.

This noise that is apparent more on other channels is ( i don't know the technical term) like it's shadowing objects. Like there blurry and when you look at somebody you can see a shadow of them. Like here's a rough scetch of a box that might have it

,_______,_,
|-------|~|
|-------|~|
|-------|~|
`¯¯¯¯¯¯`¯`

it's the area with the atilla's (~) that is the noise. This is not apparent on all channel's, but on some. But the channel i mostly worry about because it's the channel i cap, does not have this noise, but has the noise that was mentioned by some other's...just blurry alittle. It's really noticable on text on the screen and if there is a logo that is outlined in white you can see like a rainbow effect in it. Like water passing through a rainbow.

This problem i can fix with my ati GPU capture card by adjusting the sharpness...but cannot with any of the BT8x8 card's...it remains.

This is why i thought it could of been the cable. Since svideo carry's the chroma and luminace differently...but i guess both chroma and luminance have nothing to due with that "rainbow" noise. And the blurry noise i have NO NO IDEA WHAT it is.

Again this noise is not apparent at all on any channel when i feed it from the ati card to the tv...only i guess...inside the machine between the capture card and the ati card...somewhere.

So this is why i was wondering if i should use a svhs player...to see if it would stop these noise's...but i figured like you said...it would only decrease the quality.