I use my PC as both a computer and for watching TV/watching movies. Yesterday I bought a PS2 and hooked it up to the computer as well. The only problem is that for some reason my TV tuner card isn't nearly as clear as I would like it to be. If connected to a TV, it'* crystal clear, but through the PC it'* slightly fuzzy. It'* not horrible, just noticable and annoying when I'd really love to have high quality VIDEO. Does anyone have any recommendations for TV tuner cards that are 'crystal clear' or do all of them have a slight ammount of 'fuzziness' to them?

Here are some screen shots so you can see what I mean. These pictures were saved with no compression at all, so they are a true representation of what the game looks like on my screen. Darker areas look exceptional, it'* just brighter areas that appear slightly fuzzy. The card I'm using is the ATI TV Wonder PRO.

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I'm using the component audio/video cable for the playstation, but cable TV goes through the regular coaxial cable. That'* even MORE staticy than the A/V cables by far. here'* a screen shot of Cable TV.
cableshot.jpg

If a regular TV is hooked up, it appears clear..

I have a tuner card on my Sony desktop, and the picture isn't the greatest either.... they are making Hidef cards now though... might want to look into that.

Are you using the SVideo or RGB outputs? If you are using coax..... that would explain it.

(I use an ATI all in wonder 9600..... beautiful pic).

For the PS2 I am using the component cables. (Yellow/White/Red) I could try and get the *-Video adapter from Best Buy for the PS2, it'* $26 so hopefully that clears things up.

Yeah - that will probably do it. I think the yellow is video, red & white are audio. So you might still need to use the red & white.... I know nothing about PS2'* though... but video is video.

Form worst to best:

Coax
Component
SVideo
RGB

Abyway if it doesn't fix it, you can always take it back.

GL,
Matt

Keep in mind how these tuner cards work, they all mostly use mpeg-2 hardware compression so you never get what the tv gets. theres always compression and decompression losses. See if you can turn off hardware compression in the tv card drivers/software.

Another thing to consider is the actual video size, for NTSC the picture information is about 480hx440w, so if you're trying to view this on a monitor doing 1280x1024...well theres going to be alot of pixel stretching or interpolating to get it to fit, so yes it won't look too clear.

I vote with him ^. The video size is a major fuzziness thing. Most cards (including your ATI) use only software compression... which isn't quite the quality of a hardware decoder like a hauppauge tv tuner. HOWEVER the quality improvement wont be noticed if you are still stretching the 480 line picture to 1024 lines....

If anyone is curious, I got the *-video cable for the PS2 and it'* now crystal clear. Switching back and forth, the difference is amazing in picture quality. I'm very pleased with the quality now. It'* on-par with a television easily now.
Here'* some new screen shots from a movie this time.

eurotrip.jpg

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Using a computer monitor as a TV viewing, and PS2 source shows the same problems as using an HD tv on regular analog cable, it'* TOO good for the picture. It shows all of the flaws etc.

When I tried hooking up a game system to my old tuner card, it was noticably behind time wise too, enough to not play a game.

Yea! I win.

Congrats man!