TiVo : TiVo Picture Quality

[jb66]

Plug a v+ in out of the box put it to 1080i magic... thats what i expect form tivo

[scgf]

Originally Posted by jb66

Plug a v+ in out of the box put it to 1080i magic... thats what i expect form tivo

Exactly! Lol!

[fenman35]

Originally Posted by jb66

Plug a v+ in out of the box put it to 1080i magic... thats what i expect form tivo

Yes but then dont expect a sharp SD picture if you are asking the Tivo to stretch a 4:3 broadcast to fit 16:9. Tivo seems to default on installation to strech to picture to fit the screen

[clinteastman]

Originally Posted by clinteastman

What I have notice is that it handles movement a lot better, things like full screen pans it's the most prevalent and more so on HD but all movement is effected. Its a lot smoother and shows less compression artefacts.

Anyone else noticed this?

Worked out that my Samsung had managed to enable DNIe some how and that is what was affecting motion, now turned back off.

[arcimedes]

Originally Posted by fenman35

Yes but then dont expect a sharp SD picture if you are asking the Tivo to stretch a 4:3 broadcast to fit 16:9. Tivo seems to default on installation to strech to picture to fit the screen

When mine was installed the tech set it to "stretch" . Needless to say on finding that Bloomberg news was full screen I reset it to non stretch.

[HandsOfBlue]

I tried my TIVO on 576i and 720 to let my Samsung TV upscale and 1080. I can't detect any quality difference of note.

It looks like the Samsung is very slightly better - when viewed from a few inches the artifacts are more pleasant. However from normal viewing distance there's no difference in the various resolutions that I can detect (and yes, my eyesight is just fine ).

[clinteastman]

Originally Posted by HandsOfBlue

I tried my TIVO on 576i and 720 to let my Samsung TV upscale and 1080. I can't detect any quality difference of note.

It looks like the Samsung is very slightly better - when viewed from a few inches the artifacts are more pleasant. However from normal viewing distance there's no difference in the various resolutions that I can detect (and yes, my eyesight is just fine ).

My Samsung does a slightly better job of upscaling, only problem is you end up with an upscaled menu too (not native HD).

[Begize]

I've been able to improve things slightly by having a play with the TV settings for stuff like motion flow (turning up to high) and noise reduction (turning off).

It's definately still not as sharp as the old V+, but I think I can live with it now. It's not helping that the pic quality on things like Sky Sports seems to be particularly bad in SD at the moment anyway (verified by comparing with the V+).

[Jayceef1]

Originally Posted by fenman35

One factor that seems to be missed in all this is the setting for display type which is relevant for SD but not HD as all HD broadcasts seem to be 16:9.
There is a choice of 'Full' 'Panel' or 'Zoom' and only 'Panel' will give a correctly proporioned, sharp unstretched picture.

The local head engineer who fitted my Tivo was insistant that Virgin only broadcast in 720p and that any other output needs converting by the Tivo box( make of that what you wish)

That is a very good point. My engineer left it in Full mode and I put it back to panel after he left. If a lot of Tivos are left in Full mode it could explain why a lot of people are saying that SD pictures are not so good if they are subjected to stretch-o-vision.

I have a 54" Panasonic and have no problem with PQ from the Tivo.

[Begize]

Originally Posted by Jayceef1

That is a very good point. My engineer left it in Full mode and I put it back to panel after he left. If a lot of Tivos are left in Full mode it could explain why a lot of people are saying that SD pictures are not so good if they are subjected to stretch-o-vision.

Yeah me too, first thing I changed. It only went from fuzzy stretched pictures to fuzzy ones with bars though.

[jb66]

I prefer wide mode, it worked fine on sa v+.

[DaBoz]

Could it be that people who think the V+ looks same if not worse than TiVo didn't have V+ video output setup correctly? I seem to remember fiddling with the settings on V+ until the pic was right, and then it was excellent.

Also, my TV doesn't seem to upscale the TiVo 520i output very well, so I'm not convinced this is only about upscaling.

Boz

[nialli]

I've got my HD Ready Toshiba set to 720p for SD and 1080i for HD. I'm finding the HD a little better than the Samsung V+, the SD perfectly watchable but a little softer than the V+. Picture size I've gone with "Panel".
I've tried other setting combinations but I'm happy with what I have. My test has been Justified; shot in HD but broadcast on the lower bitrate 5USA. Picture a little soft on the TiVo but still vastly superior to the Freeview version. (It's a real shame the show isn't premiered on 5 HD.)
Someone described the SD picture as "dire" - I don't think that's at all true unless you have a huge TV, in which case any SD will look poor. I also find that now I'm watching 90% of my TV in HD any upscaled SD looks pretty second rate.

[toady]

Originally Posted by DaBoz

Could it be that people who think the V+ looks same if not worse than TiVo didn't have V+ video output setup correctly? I seem to remember fiddling with the settings on V+ until the pic was right, and then it was excellent.

Also, my TV doesn't seem to upscale the TiVo 520i output very well, so I'm not convinced this is only about upscaling.

Boz

Or they had the Samsung V+ and not the superior picture quality of the SA V+

[brava210]

Originally Posted by toady

Or they had the Samsung V+ and not the superior picture quality of the SA V+

True, if you compare TiVo to SA V+, there is probably a bigger difference.
I noticed a big difference when VM changed my SA V+ for Samsung V+, so I haven't seen a massive drop with TIVO