Tivo Series 2 and Comcast Setup - picture recording quality crappy?

[felixdacat]

Hey everyone, new to the forum...

I tried searching but came up w/nothing. I'm familiar w/setting up my tivo and Comcast cable box etc..... But for some reason the picture output is pretty crappy.... I was told that the recordings you record should look exactly as you record it. But for some reason my videos come out crappy or worse when recorded. Here's what i have:

- F-pin from wall to Comcast Cable box
- S-Video from Cable Box to Tivo
- S-Video from Tivo to TV.

I'm pretty sure this is the best setup i can get for the Tivo, but still the picture quality sucks. It looks pixelated (blocks of squares in the picture), especially when the picture is black...

Is this the way it's supposed to be or is there another setup i can do to get better picture quality? What's the best combination to get? Should i just stay w/S-Video, or should i use F-pin/RCA?

Has anyone else experienced this????!!!

Any suggestions please!

thank you!

[ZikZak]

If this is a Series 2 tivo, then the picture is not "as you record it." It's MPEG compressed, which always involves some pixellation. Nevertheless, it should still be a pretty good picture with "Best" quality level. In "Basic" quality, the picture is pretty terrible, yeah.

Try a higher recording quality, and turn the sharpness control on your TV all the way down. Stick with S-Vid.

If the picture is crappy in "Best," then you may have a defective unit. Or really demanding taste. :)

[felixdacat]

If this is a Series 2 tivo, then the picture is not "as you record it." It's MPEG compressed, which always involves some pixellation. Nevertheless, it should still be a pretty good picture with "Best" quality level. In "Basic" quality, the picture is pretty terrible, yeah.

Try a higher recording quality, and turn the sharpness control on your TV all the way down. Stick with S-Vid.

If the picture is crappy in "Best," then you may have a defective unit. Or really demanding taste. :)

ZikZak,

hey thanks for the reply... Another question if you could answer please or anyone else.... Again here's my setup:

- F-pin to cable box
- S-video from cable box to tivo
- S-video from tivo to TV
AND DVI from Cable box to TV

so in other words I'm using the DVI to watch my HD channels in the DVI input of the TV and using the S-video to record everything in SD in the Video input of the TV.

Since the motorola box is putting out 2 outputs (s-video to tivo and DVI to TV) can this also sacrifice the picture quality to the Tivo? or is this ok? Am i making sense?

[ZikZak]

I don't think using two video outputs from the cable box is going to affect the picture, no. But too many splits in the coax cable before the cable box (like in your walls maybe) will degrade your picture.