I'm starting this thread to try to get the attention of Tivo_Ted and anyone else at Tivo that can help with this. I feel like Tivo owners are probably likely to be AV enthusiasts that care greatly about things such as Picture quality.
First with Hydra there are still issues with the Native video output, it simply just does not work consistently, this worked under the old UI, it should be a simple fix to make it work the same. An even bigger annoyance to me though is that when selecting the 1080p 24/30 pass through output for apps like Netflix and others, it will make the 1080i OTA or cable channels output at 1080p 30. These should stay at 1080i 60, or output at 1080p 60 if you have the 1080p mode selected. This is how it works under the old UI. There is a noticeable drop off in quality when it changes the output to 1080p 30, everything looks like it has some weird edge enhancement turned on. Even the menus look bad and the system information screen will actually report 480p mode.
Second issue, even when things are working correctly and the Tivo is sending the correct resolution, it is downgrading the picture quality slightly compared to other sources. This affects both Hydra and the old interface and probably every model since the Roamio that I can tell from my testing. I've seen this personally on the Roamio, Roamio OTA, Tivo Mini Gen2 and Mini Vox. They all behave the same which makes me believe it has to be a software issue. The picture quality downgrade is not huge, but it is definitely noticeable if you have a big enough TV that is properly calibrated. It is not as noticeable on my 65" Plasma TV but the difference in quality is much greater when I compare devices on my 120" projection screen. The easiest way to see it is comparing a high quality source like Netflix between the Tivo and another device and playing the same video and switching back and forth. At the same resolution, the Tivo, no matter what model looks worse each time in that comparison. There is slightly less detail overall and things look very flat like the video is slightly blurred and dark areas seem to have more noise, the color doesnt' seem to pop quite as much as well. I've even went as far as pulling an OTA HD recording off of my Tivo with KMTTG and then playing back the very same recording via Kodi on my Fire TV. The Fire TV hands down looks better. The quality difference is probably not enough of a difference for most people to notice or complain but if you care about video quality and getting the most of our your HDTV or UHD TV you will want this fixed. You might think you are getting the best image possible now but you are not. There have been posts about this in the past but it doesn't look like it went anywhere. Here are just a few threads.
Soft Picture Quality even with video passthrough enabled
Very soft picture quality on TiVo Bolt
Picture Quality not that great with Tivo Bolt
Anyone else seeing the same thing and want this fixed? I have a feeling I'll be moving back to DirecTV eventually if its not eventually addressed, especially when I make the jump to upgrade my TV's and projector to 4K.
First with Hydra there are still issues with the Native video output, it simply just does not work consistently, this worked under the old UI, it should be a simple fix to make it work the same. An even bigger annoyance to me though is that when selecting the 1080p 24/30 pass through output for apps like Netflix and others, it will make the 1080i OTA or cable channels output at 1080p 30. These should stay at 1080i 60, or output at 1080p 60 if you have the 1080p mode selected. This is how it works under the old UI. There is a noticeable drop off in quality when it changes the output to 1080p 30, everything looks like it has some weird edge enhancement turned on. Even the menus look bad and the system information screen will actually report 480p mode.
Second issue, even when things are working correctly and the Tivo is sending the correct resolution, it is downgrading the picture quality slightly compared to other sources. This affects both Hydra and the old interface and probably every model since the Roamio that I can tell from my testing. I've seen this personally on the Roamio, Roamio OTA, Tivo Mini Gen2 and Mini Vox. They all behave the same which makes me believe it has to be a software issue. The picture quality downgrade is not huge, but it is definitely noticeable if you have a big enough TV that is properly calibrated. It is not as noticeable on my 65" Plasma TV but the difference in quality is much greater when I compare devices on my 120" projection screen. The easiest way to see it is comparing a high quality source like Netflix between the Tivo and another device and playing the same video and switching back and forth. At the same resolution, the Tivo, no matter what model looks worse each time in that comparison. There is slightly less detail overall and things look very flat like the video is slightly blurred and dark areas seem to have more noise, the color doesnt' seem to pop quite as much as well. I've even went as far as pulling an OTA HD recording off of my Tivo with KMTTG and then playing back the very same recording via Kodi on my Fire TV. The Fire TV hands down looks better. The quality difference is probably not enough of a difference for most people to notice or complain but if you care about video quality and getting the most of our your HDTV or UHD TV you will want this fixed. You might think you are getting the best image possible now but you are not. There have been posts about this in the past but it doesn't look like it went anywhere. Here are just a few threads.
Soft Picture Quality even with video passthrough enabled
Very soft picture quality on TiVo Bolt
Picture Quality not that great with Tivo Bolt
Anyone else seeing the same thing and want this fixed? I have a feeling I'll be moving back to DirecTV eventually if its not eventually addressed, especially when I make the jump to upgrade my TV's and projector to 4K.