TiVo : TiVo Picture Quality

[Stephen]

It will only output in 1 resolution for hd and sd. You can't pick a different res for each format. My TiVo is set to 1080i for everything

[HDFootyMan]

Originally Posted by Stephen

It will only output in 1 resolution for hd and sd. You can't pick a different res for each format. My TiVo is set to 1080i for everything

My TiVo is set to use 720p and 1080i, and my Samsung TV will switch to 720p for SD channels and 1080i for HD channels.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by paultrademark

I have tried to just select those two from the list it sometimes detects properly and the TV changes between them, but after a while it looses the settings (yet to troubleshoot when/what makes it happen)

That should work. I don't know why it's losing the settings.

Have you tried 576i+1080i or 576p+1080i?

[Lew]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

Have you tried 576i+1080i or 576p+1080i?

I've tried that. It just outputs everything as 1080i if you do that.

[John_taxi]

I had Virgin TiVo installed yesterday, we moved the v+ box to another room.
If you watched an american tv programme, e.g friends, a couple of years ago the picture was very soft and almost blurred looking........Well this is TiVo......I have an lg 42" and have compared the v+ and TiVo pictures..... No comparison v+ 10/10, TiVo 6/10.... Very disappointed however if you are used to watching tv on your pc then TiVo is for you.....I will be returning it today!!!!! Great product, poor picture......I reckon Sky will be breathing a sigh of releif, as for Richard Branson?

[Stephen]

Returning it due to watching a TV prog that is well over 10 yrs old? bit over the top isn't it?

Originally Posted by Stephen

Returning it due to watching a TV prog that is well over 10 yrs old? bit over the top isn't it?

I think you have misunderstood his post Stephen. He says all (sd?) programmes look like that.

Personally, as someone still awaiting installation, I cant understand if the tivo is that bad why there is no consensus on this. It seems to me the majority are saying they cannot see this with some saying the pq is even better. It has to be noted also that some say that they have had to play with the settings on the tv to improve the pq.

[nialli]

Originally Posted by ahardie

I think you have misunderstood his post Stephen. He says all (sd?) programmes look like that.

Personally, as someone still awaiting installation, I cant understand if the tivo is that bad why there is no consensus on this. It seems to me the majority are saying they cannot see this with some saying the pq is even better. It has to be noted also that some say that they have had to play with the settings on the tv to improve the pq.

If John's finding more recently filmed SD shows just as bad or has a preference for older material then he may be better off with the V+. The earlier episodes of Friends never looked good to me on the V+ and even the later ones aren't that great in the PQ stakes. I'm surprised they haven't upscaled them to nearer HD quality like they did for the Seinfeld DVDs a few years back - those look very good compared with the original broadcast versions.
The reason there's no consensus is people have different TVs, sizes and viewing habits. As I said in a previous post on this thread I watch very little SD now and only go there for stuff not available in HD - Rubicon on BBC4 (picture quality good); Justified on Five USA (PQ better than Freeview but not great); and BBC News (PQ variable). For me, a couple of hours a week of SD wouldn't be reason to abandon TiVo, especially as the 720p setting improves things a little. And, ideally, Rubicon would be shown on BBC HD and Justified on Five HD - both are quality imports and would be preferable to the constant repeats on the former and much of the SD tosh on the latter.

[Perfect Choice]

I've been adjusting my TV settings to get the SD picture as best as possible. Have tried selecting both 720p and 1080i from video output option in Tivo. I would say I am at 85% as good as V+ at best, there is a definite reduction in PQ and I am not talking about old programmes but latest series, etc. From posts, it seems to me at least a third of posters are reporting a reduced PQ so that is significant in my view with 2 posts saying they are returning Tivo back to VM. Have posted on the same subject thread on the VM Support forum and wait feedback from a VM representative on that thread, who is raising it with the development team.

So looks like a lottery as to whether Tivo gives you a decent quality picture. Clearly works for some but not for others. Shame really, as V+ was great out of the box with no need to adjust TV settings and a very good SD upscaling and crystal clear HD picture. For me, I just cannot match that with Tivo for SD and HD and I have a decent TV (Sony HX803) with plenty of picture viewing options to try and adjust to improve quality. It is at a level where I will "live" with it, but is the only dissapointment I have with Tivo right now.

Originally Posted by nialli

If John's finding more recently filmed SD shows just as bad or has a preference for older material then he may be better off with the V+. The earlier episodes of Friends never looked good to me on the V+ and even the later ones aren't that great in the PQ stakes. I'm surprised they haven't upscaled them to nearer HD quality like they did for the Seinfeld DVDs a few years back - those look very good compared with the original broadcast versions.
The reason there's no consensus is people have different TVs, sizes and viewing habits. As I said in a previous post on this thread I watch very little SD now and only go there for stuff not available in HD - Rubicon on BBC4 (picture quality good); Justified on Five USA (PQ better than Freeview but not great); and BBC News (PQ variable). For me, a couple of hours a week of SD wouldn't be reason to abandon TiVo, especially as the 720p setting improves things a little. And, ideally, Rubicon would be shown on BBC HD and Justified on Five HD - both are quality imports and would be preferable to the constant repeats on the former and much of the SD tosh on the latter.

But most people do still watch quite a lot of sd and they have been saying, in the threads I am reading that sd isn't worse. I can only go by posts in forums as I've never seen a tivo in action.

---------- Post added at 09:52 ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 ----------

Originally Posted by Perfect Choice

I've been adjusting my TV settings to get the SD picture as best as possible. Have tried selecting both 720p and 1080i from video output option in Tivo. I would say I am at 85% as good as V+ at best, there is a definite reduction in PQ and I am not talking about old programmes but latest series, etc. From posts, it seems to me at least a third of posters are reporting a reduced PQ so that is significant in my view with 2 posts saying they are returnuing Tivo back to VM. Have posted on the same subject thread on the VM Support forum and wait feedback from a VM representative on that thread, who is raising it with the development team.

So looks like a lottery as to whether Tivo gives you a decent quality picture. Clearly works for some but not for others. Shame really, as V+ was great out of the box with no need to adjust TV settings and a very good SD upscaling and crystal clear HD picture. For me, I just cannot match that with Tivo for SD and HD. It is at a level where I will "live" with it, but is the only dissapointment I have with Tivo right now.

I would agree that there is a significant minority saying pq is worse. You have to take into account though that people are more likely to complain if they have a problem rather than post about a problem that doesn't, for them, exist.
I agree though that VM should look in to this and make some comment. I hope they sort your problem out.

[Perfect Choice]

Originally Posted by ahardie

I would agree that there is a significant minority saying pq is worse. You have to take into account though that people are more likely to complain if they have a problem rather than post about a problem that doesn't, for them, exist.
I agree though that VM should look in to this and make some comment. I hope they sort your problem out.

The problem (in comparison to V+) seems to be a fundamental issue of video feed from Tivo. I will just wait to see if anything can be done, maybe fundamental as the chip set used within the Cisco box or how the Tivo software utlises box resources for upscaling. Seems strange though that even HD is not quite there as well. Will just have to wait and see if anything comes out of the VM support thread. But if people are returning Tivo boxes because of this, then even thought they are few, that should be serious enough to require investigation by VM. This is meant to be their premier box after all and Sky plus the press would love a story like this to promote!

[macguru32]

Hi All,
TiVo installed yesterday and after reading these threads before the install I was concerned about the SD PQ. Have to say very pleasantly surprised. One thing is clear though, it varies from channel to channel. My Sony TV and TiVo detected each other perfectly and the default 1080i setting is definitely the best option after playing with the output settings.
This is really hard to define as it's a personal judgement thing, but I would say that all the 'modern' channels showing recent content look great, so all BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and Discovery channels. Any channel showing any US content looks softer, Eurosport and Sky Sports are very soft.
However, overall the majority of SD channels for me are either the same or slightly better. The channels that were a bit soft and blurry before are actually a bit worse.
At this time though, very pleased and confused as to how some customers are considering sending their TiVo's back. The PQ problem if it exists is not across all channels and content at least not on my home setup.

[paultrademark]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

That should work. I don't know why it's losing the settings.

Have you tried 576i+1080i or 576p+1080i?

Hi,

Think I have managed to get it to keep the settings after much playing about with it. It is currently set as 720p, 1080i only and the TV does switch between them when going from SD to HD channels.

Not sure if this is related but another problem I have noticed is when I switch my TV off at night, when it is switched on in the morning it is defaulting to EXT1 (Scart) and not HDMI1 which is what the V+ defaulted to.

I do have the Scart cable connected from the TiVo to a DVDR and when it is disconnected the TV does automatically switch on to HDMI1 but not sure why this affects it.. can someone a bit more technical explain or offer a solution/fix?

[John_taxi]

BBC iplayer on v+ pq is excellent....on TiVo is poor, no channel is as good as v+, the worrying thing is that the picture quality of sky on my iPad is now better than TiVo hd on my lg 42"!!

[Stephen]

I have just got a new 46" TV and having spent a long while adjusting all the TVs settings TiVo looks amazing on it. Most SD channels look really great and the HD channels are super amazing looking.

Personally the iPlayer stuff I've watched has all been in HD and looks brill. TiVo iPlayer is taken from the same servers as the BBC web iPlayer where as the V+ iPlayer stuff is recoded and stored on VOD servers I think.

So personally I think TiVo looks better than my Samsung V+ which is still set up on the Same TV and I can easily switch between the two.