[jdlhead]

Hello - I hope I am not posting something already discussed but I could not find it. I have a Tivo 80GB Series 2. It worked fine with my old 27" Sharp tube TV. But when I upgraded to a Sony Bravia HDTV (40"), the Tivo picture is especially bad. In fact it's almost unwatchable.

DVD and regular cable are fine, they are not great, but much much better than Tivo.

Is there anything simple I am missing or can do to improve the Tivo picture short of upgrading cable and Tivo to HD?

Thank you,

-john

 

[JimSpence]

Larger screen sizes exacerbate picture quality. Turn down the brightness, contrast and sharpness to alleviate the problem.

 

[jdlhead]

Thanks. I take it by the response that the answer is really no. Non-HD Tivo on an HDTV just looks terrible, even when recorded at top quality?

 

[dianebrat]

Thanks. I take it by the response that the answer is really no. Non-HD Tivo on an HDTV just looks terrible, even when recorded at top quality?

Pretty close to correct.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=360525
has a lot of good thoughts on the subject

Diane

 

[gregpg]

Thanks. I take it by the response that the answer is really no. Non-HD Tivo on an HDTV just looks terrible, even when recorded at top quality?

Older Sony HD TVs with analog tuners have a feature called Digital Reality Creation that apparently does some pixel interpolation and smoothing when upconverting the broadcast picture to HD resolution. If the Bravia has only a digital tuner, it probably doesn't have DRC, hence the poor quality picture from lower resolution sources. So, doing as JimSpence said may make the picture a little more palatable until you get an HD TiVo.

On the bright side, the virtual surround must make your old TV sound like an old transistor radio by comparison.