TiVo : TiVo Picture Quality

[Element137]

I have recently had TiVo box installed - the SD picture quality is terrible- had a Samsung V+ before, the PQ on the Samsung box on SD was far superior - not at HD levels - but - a very, very good SD image - the Tivo picture in SD is very soft, lots of smearing on motion- i real step back in my view which has spoiled the enjoyment of upgrading - its like watching on SCART !.

I am using a 55'' Samsung LED TV - so dont expect anything to special with SD material - but, the difference from the Samusng V+ to the Tivo is very noticeable.
I am personally gutted, how can this not be picked up before launch ?- surely releasing a premium box/service should enhance the customer experience ?

Very Disapointed. Its like a TV box version of my Superhub experience - great upgrade offer, take it on, disapointing result as the products not meeting expectations.
I really think VM have got there stuff together now with a overall product/service proposition to better the offering from Sky - but bad product launchs like this let them down badly.

[Stephen]

Not everyone suffers from this issue, I certainly think TiVo pq is great. Have you checked the settings of your tv to see if turning off some of the processing effects help?

[Perfect Choice]

But there are plenty that do as well. There is a known filtering fault which wasn't picked up on trials, see VM Forum statement below.

A beta trial of Tivo software is about to start which includes a fix for this issue. But personally I am not expecting to see this update until September at teh earliest, as it includes feature enhancements as well, so will take time though beta testing.

So a case of either put up with the picture for 3 months or go back to V+. With TV adjustments, I've managed to get my picture to a state I can tolerate (still see the "softening" effect though) so I will wait for the update as enjoy have 1TB capacity so always record in HD (where softening effect is only minor) when possible.

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...ty/td-p/500443

Originally Posted by Element137

I have recently had TiVo box installed - the SD picture quality is terrible- had a Samsung V+ before, the PQ on the Samsung box on SD was far superior - not at HD levels - but - a very, very good SD image - the Tivo picture in SD is very soft, lots of smearing on motion- i real step back in my view which has spoiled the enjoyment of upgrading - its like watching on SCART !.

I am using a 55'' Samsung LED TV - so dont expect anything to special with SD material - but, the difference from the Samusng V+ to the Tivo is very noticeable.
I am personally gutted, how can this not be picked up before launch ?- surely releasing a premium box/service should enhance the customer experience ?

Very Disapointed. Its like a TV box version of my Superhub experience - great upgrade offer, take it on, disapointing result as the products not meeting expectations.
I really think VM have got there stuff together now with a overall product/service proposition to better the offering from Sky - but bad product launchs like this let them down badly.

Speaking as someone who as experienced similar problems I sympathise, I can tell you what helped me

My installer left my picture setting as force "full screen" by default, so SD programs designed for 4.3 had to be stretched to fill the screen

This made them look awful, I changed the setting to "Panel", it did improve the PQ , it also took me time to adjust to PQ, and I must say over the past 7 weeks I have seen an improvement

It may be just that I'm getting used to it, but I do believe it as improved,
Hope that helps

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Perfect Choice

But there are plenty that do as well. There is a known filtering fault which wasn't picked up on trials, see VM Forum statement below.

A beta trial of Tivo software is about to start which includes a fix for this issue. But personally I am not expecting to see this update until September at teh earliest, as it includes feature enhancements as well, so will take time though beta testing.

So a case of either put up with the picture for 3 months or go back to V+. With TV adjustments, I've managed to get my picture to a state I can tolerate (still see the "softening" effect though) so I will wait for the update as enjoy have 1TB capacity so always record in HD (where softening effect is only minor) when possible.

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...ty/td-p/500443

I know that however it seems to depend on the way the TV outputs the image and simply by changing the TVs image processing effect you can improve or fix it totally. I would say from the posts I have seen Sony TVs are among the worst affected and Samsung TVs haven't been effected as much.

I think its the way the box outputs the images and puts the frames in the wrong order causing the blurring or soft image. Some TVs seem to pick it up fine and change it back and others output as recieved. hope that made sense lol.

[Perfect Choice]

Originally Posted by Stephen

I know that however it seems to depend on the way the TV outputs the image and simply by changing the TVs image processing effect you can improve or fix it totally. I would say from the posts I have seen Sony TVs are among the worst affected and Samsung TVs haven't been effected as much.

I think its the way the box outputs the images and puts the frames in the wrong order causing the blurring or soft image. Some TVs seem to pick it up fine and change it back and others output as recieved. hope that made sense lol.

Yes I have a 12 month old Sony TV and have to say it just cannot be eliminated as an impact on PQ, just reduced to a level when I can tolerate it waiting for the fix.

Samsung TVs seems to be less affected with some people posting that they have seen no difference, so suggest working on the picture settings to try and reduce the impact.

In the end there is a fix coming but I would say still 3 months away to being deployed generally to all Tivo users.

[DaBoz]

Originally Posted by Perfect Choice

Yes I have a 12 month old Sony TV and have to say it just cannot be eliminated as an impact on PQ, just reduced to a level when I can tolerate it waiting for the fix.

Samsung TVs seems to be less affected with some people posting that they have seen no difference, so suggest working on the picture settings to try and reduce the impact.

In the end there is a fix coming but I would say still 3 months away to being deployed generally to all Tivo users.

My toshiba 32 with 720p HD has no signal processing capabilities whatsoever. My SD picture is dreadful, as described above.

[devilincarnate]

Can I just ask a really stupid question here? When the beta-testers were given the TiVo box were they all given a new TV as well ( The same model? )

[nialli]

I don't think I'd call the TiVo's SD picture "dreadful" or "terrible" - it's a little softer than the V+ to my eyes but nowhere near as dire as has been suggested by some posters. It's better with the 720p setting than the 1080i if that helps.
I still think it's superior to the Sky+ HD box's SD handling and is certainly influenced by the bit-rate of the source material. I've been watching BBC3's Glastonbury coverage over the weekend and it looked fine and I'm frequently watching BBC4 and not noticing the PQ being particular poor. Of the SD I've seen of late, only 5USA (home of the excellent Justified) looked too soft to my eyes, but that looks even worse on Freeview. It's criminal that such excellent TV isn't being shown on 5HD instead...

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by devilincarnate

Can I just ask a really stupid question here? When the beta-testers were given the TiVo box were they all given a new TV as well ( The same model? )

They will have signed NDA's so you'll never know.

[Element137]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Not everyone suffers from this issue, I certainly think TiVo pq is great. Have you checked the settings of your tv to see if turning off some of the processing effects help?

I have turned off all processing effects with this TV from day one of owning it as it makes for a very artificial image IMHO -
The whole point of this is that with the same settings on the TV, the same input ( ie, SD, at differing bit-rates ) - there is no doubt in my mind that the PQ is inferior to the Samsung V+ Box ( which was/is superb ) and now resides in my bedroom !

Its positive that VM have recognised the issue - just wish that I had been aware before upgrading - would have happily have waited -

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Element137

I have turned off all processing effects with this TV from day one of owning it as it makes for a very artificial image IMHO -
The whole point of this is that with the same settings on the TV, the same input ( ie, SD, at differing bit-rates ) - there is no doubt in my mind that the PQ is inferior to the Samsung V+ Box ( which was/is superb ) and now resides in my bedroom !

Its positive that VM have recognised the issue - just wish that I had been aware before upgrading - would have happily have waited -

It seems to be the US built stb having issues with the UK signal and displaying the framees in the wrong order. I think that is the simplest way to describe what a lot of people are seeing. However some TVs seems to be better at other in fixing or masking it.

I've still got a Samsung V+ connected and really don't see any difference between that or the TiVo in terms of PQ.

[WDLaserjetGLOVER]

Doesn't seem too bad on my 50" Panasonic plasma.

[Lew]

The easiest way to check to see if your TV is affected by the problem is to tune to channel 999 and look at the text at the bottom of the screen.

If it looks like this your TV is not affected by the picture problem:

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

If it looks like this your TV is affected:

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Note that this will only be the case if your TiVo is set to output 1080i. It won't be as noticeable if it's set to 720p, although you may find that the text flickers.

[cupcakes aka dd]

Mines a Sony and the picture is just as good as with the V+