Poor recording quality (asf vs. mtv)

[streber]

Hello!

My A3 is still working very well. The only thing I'm a little bit concerned of is the quality of my external recordings. I plugged the A3 on my HD receiver via the composite input. I recorded with 720x480 and 3 Mbps which should be the best quality setting. When I watch the recordings on my TFT monitor the videos are not very nice. The picture is interlaced and a little bit blurred.

When I record via the DVB-T input the picture is much better, very sharp and nice to watch. Although the DVB-T signal is very strong the receiver still has some dropouts, so I'm not able to record a movie via this input.

So, has anybody an idea how to improve the quality of external recordings? Or, is there any chance to use external antennas for the DVB-T receiver to improve the signal strength?

The DVB-T recordings have a mtv format. Is this the reason why they are looking much better than the asf files?


Thanks!

[Enzyme]

has anybody an idea how to improve the quality of external recordings?

im not sure thats possible as you'd need to add or recreate data that just is not there, i may be wrong though.

is there any chance to use external antennas for the DVB-T receiver to improve the signal strength

absolutely,
generally it's the bigger and higher the better, which is why houses often use huge ones on the roof.
although theres some basic logic to be followed.
its mainly about matching the dimensions of the receiver plates to that of the waves it picks up.

although you can buy a ton of cheap aerial's its good to know what your buying and how it works, it'll defiantly save you
some money and frustration.

i used to have crap reception back in my old house in wales, turns out my 50quid booster aerial was a really poor design, the 5quid basic one i had lying around one was much better and i ended up just using a few parts from it.

removing things like the anti ghosting panels on the back (they were unneeded as i only recieved from one tower).
that and finding i was receiving from a repeater transmitter and aligning the aerial appropriately made a huge difference.

so firstly check for better reception by taking your areal as high as you can go and turning the antennae vertical and then horizontal to see which transmitter type your signal is coming from.
master transmitters work one way, repeaters\extenders work the other.

might turn out that's the only issue.

the other thing to know is that if your recieving to a pc and not a tv box you can get free signal strength monitor software for the dvb-t signal (if its not included with the driver\software you use). that might help narrow down and perfect the position.
and tbh the 20 quid dvb-t usb dongle i bought was vastly superior to any set top box i'd used in the past.

anyways all that info and more will take you 5 mins to learn if you find a good aerial enthusiast site.
it's worth learning as that info will help you and others for years to come, was sooo tired of wrestling aerials for years on end

[streber]

I think you understand me wrong. I used COWON's own DVB-T unit and plugged it at the A3. The thing called "COWON Mobile TV Recorder DT1". So, I didn't record via S-Video or Composite.

The point is, that there is a special plug for the antenna, so you can`t use any other model than the one which is delivered by COWON.

So, these recordings made with the DT1 are much better than the ones made via composite. Maybe because they are digital recorded and the external ones are analog converted.

[Enzyme]

if it gets it's signal over the air then you can use a standard aerial to receive the digital signal, nothing special about them.

except maybe the connector on the cowon :\
im sure thats not to hard to build though.

that whole thing about digital signals only working with special digital signal aerials is sales propaganda.

if your having issues with the dt1 to a3 connection then im not sure.

[Individualist22]

Originally Posted by streber

I think you understand me wrong. I used COWON's own DVB-T unit and plugged it at the A3. The thing called "COWON Mobile TV Recorder DT1". So, I didn't record via S-Video or Composite.

The point is, that there is a special plug for the antenna, so you can`t use any other model than the one which is delivered by COWON.

So, these recordings made with the DT1 are much better than the ones made via composite. Maybe because they are digital recorded and the external ones are analog converted.

From what you said and the fact that all over-the-air tv broadcasting is now digital in the U.S., I would like to ask you: Does Cowon's DVB tuner finally work in the U.S.A. (more specifically, did it really work for you)? I have a Cowon A3 (80GB) and would really like to test this feature here in NYC.

-Thank You