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Anonymous | I have a 40 hour TiVo series 2 hooked up to my cable box via (RF) coax cable and s-video to a 50-inch plasma HDTV 1366x768 resolution. The picture through the TiVo (whether live or recorded) is noticeable much grainier than a direct s-video connection from the cable box to TV. Has anyone else experienced or noticed TiVo's degradation of picture quality? |
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New member Username: Landstander7Post Number: 7 Registered: Mar-05 | Yes, yes I have, but most clearly and conclusively in the reverse as your situation. As far as the picture quality itself, I noticed it even before I got an HDTV, just with my regular SD TV. 'Called TIVO, even, and they even confirmed that, yes, TIVO does slightly degrade the picture compared to direct cable feed. That's apparently the price one must pay to have DVR capability, at least with a TIVO. Here's the odd thing, though (and perhaps it's just my HDTV), but the TIVO picture through the coax connection is noticeably better than the S-Video connection. I have a Toshiba 44NHM84 DLP 44" unit, and, while the coax TIVO signal is still not great, it does seem to smooth over the rather sharp pixelation I have experienced viewing TIVO through the S-Video connection (which is the opposite of my experience when using my SD TV, where the S-Video is hands-down better than the coax). In this case, I'm guessing, the lower quality coax signal has the unexpected benefit of this smoothing over effect. S-Video was just way too harsh/pixelated on my HDTV with my TIVO unit (80-Hr, System 2). Lastly, I have had to resort to recording EVERYthing on Best quality to make it tolerable, even with the slightly better coax signal. Anything lower than Best Quality just sucks no matter how you slice it - on my HDTV at least. . . .that's my experience, for what it's worth. . . PS - Note also that I can't recommend my Toshiba HDTV and will probably return it in the next week or so and wait for the new Sony RPTV LCD units, with the speakers underneath the screen (not on the side), and with purported better brightness/dark contrasts. .. . After much tweaking of my current Toshiba (including some very careful adjustments in the service menu), I fear I must sadly conclude that it isn't as sharp as the even current RPTV 3-LCD Sonys, has a subtle pulsating effect that is increasingly annoying, has really really bad grey/black contrast in the shadows, exhibits a grainy effect in the skin tones in all but the hightest HDTV signals/shows, and I do in fact see the rainbow effect in spades with this unit. . . . . |