My Picture Quality Stinks After Going HD

[MikeekiM]

OK...so I don't have HD programming yet...

However, my existing SD shows look like crap... Any way for me to improve the situation?

* Will my picture be better if I switch my SD DirecTiVos from the composite output to SVideo? If so, will it be a significant difference?

* Out of curiosity, how would SD look on an HR10-250 with the HDMI out? A little better? Much better?

My next step is obviously to get HD programming...but in the meantime I am trying to eek out as much performance from my existing SD content as possible...

Thanks!!!

[litzdog911]

1. Yes, you should see an improvement moving from composite to SVideo. It won't be as dramatic as true HiDef, though.

2. There's not much difference on the HR10-250 between HDMI and SVideo when viewing SD channels.

You don't mention what sort of TV you have, but often the biggest improvement comes from proper adjustment of your TV's video settings, especially sharpness, contrast, brightness, etc. Using a video calibration DVD, such as Avia or Video Essentials, can make a big difference, even when viewing standard defintion video.

[dtremain]

OK...so I don't have HD programming yet...

However, my existing SD shows look like crap... Any way for me to improve the situation?

* Will my picture be better if I switch my SD DirecTiVos from the composite output to SVideo? If so, will it be a significant difference?

* Out of curiosity, how would SD look on an HR10-250 with the HDMI out? A little better? Much better?

My next step is obviously to get HD programming...but in the meantime I am trying to eek out as much performance from my existing SD content as possible...

Thanks!!!Do you have an antenna. In a major city like San Francisco, you should be able to watch Hi-Def OTA with an uncompressed signal, unlike Directv (or cable) would give you.

[rlj5242]

Using a video calibration DVD, such as Avia or Video Essentials, can make a big difference, even when viewing standard defintion video. Litzdog911's advice will help, but not much. The D* SD feed is optimized for a 32" standard def TV. You now have a much better and probably larger TV. Not only is it able to show you all of the shortcomings of the standard def feed, you are probably viewing it on a larger screen. Lower your expectations and watch HD as much as possible.

-Robert

[Sherminator]

My experience with D* and a HDTV.

It depends on the reciever, although I never had a DirecTiVo, I had 2 D* recievers, 1 ten+ year old RCA box & 1 new at the time (2 years ago) Hughes GAEBOA. The Hughes, presumably using a cheaper chipset, gave a distinctly poorer picture than the RCA box, with the Hughes, there were noticable variances in the color scaling (ie, imagine a 24 bit color JPEG viewed on a 16 bit color screen). The RCA box, whilst the HDTV still showed the shortcomings of SD on HD, the shortcomings were far less than the Hughes system.

In short, the newer boxes, were designed to display a picture which is sufficiently of good enough quality for the type of screen that Robert mentioned, but nothing more.

[mr.unnatural]

Litzdog911's advice will help, but not much. The D* SD feed is optimized for a 32" standard def TV. You now have a much better and probably larger TV. Not only is it able to show you all of the shortcomings of the standard def feed, you are probably viewing it on a larger screen. Lower your expectations and watch HD as much as possible.
Calibrating any TV properly is a major upgrade. I'm not sure where you heard that the DTV SD feed is optimized for any specific TV since they've compressed the hell out of the signal compared to what it used to be. I'd be willing to bet that the set size you claim it has been optimized for has shrunk considerably over the past decade.

SDTV will always look worse on a large screen. It has nothing to do with any optimization standard that DTV may or may not be using, but rather the limitations with SDTV broadcasts, whether it be from DTV, cable, or OTA. Once you get past a certain size screen the scan lines become more readily apparent and the image looks grainier as the display area gets larger.

I've actually seen an improvement with SD broadcasts with my 60" HDTV vs. my 50" SD RPTV. The graininess is not as apparent, probably due to a softening of the image. It's still poor quality when compared to HDTV but at least it's more tolerable than it once was.

[vector1701]

Had the same problem...

Basically, the SD broadcast in 400x400 resolution, which looks fine on your SD sets, however the HD sets have such a high resulution the SD broadcast looks like crap.

Since I don't plan to go HD anytime soon I returned the set....


Look at this thread and learn about it from others and my bad experiances...
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=312535