CV HD Picture quality bad, I have a question.

[Igor1080]

I have a question as a result of my new set-up. I
recently bought a Toshiba REGZA 26HL47 with true HD 1080p
capabilities. And I have the iO Cablevision [Scientific Atlanta
4250HD] reciever. What I notice is that the picture with my Xbox which
I use to play DVD's and the HD channel's look great. I have everything
connected with HDMI, I even bought a monster cable, and monoprice
cable to compare the two. I notice the non-hd programming looks
terrible, it has bad picture quality and the TV looks terrible when
you watch it up close, sometimes I even see the "macro-blocking"
pixelation when I watch certain programming. Now my question is, can I
improve the signal some way to be able to have great picture on
standard digital programming as well as High Definition programming.
Honestly I did not expect the picture to be worse with regular
programming than with a regular tube tv. After all the majority of the
programming on Cablevision is not in HD. Is there some way to amplify
or boost the signal to improve it? Maybe If I get the HD DVR box then the picture quality will be better? Or Do I need to get the technitian down here again to take a look at the connection, its running about 50 feet before it gets to my room.

[deplaya]

I think the cable box comes with a upconverter option for regular sd channels? I'm not sure..i don't think its that big of an improvement.

[mkm4]

The upconverter is better in my TV then from the box. So I use the pass-through setting on the box to let my TV do the upconversion. Try that and see what happens. I also use the s-video connection from the box to the TV for SD, you can get a better picture that way sometimes.

But just remember some networks just transmit a bad picture to begin with, like Spike TV.

[fedupwithcablevision590]

Get Fios. Fiber-Optics to the home can carry alot more information than some 20 year old coax can.
I dont even have an HDTV, just a tube set and I cant stand the iO PQ. Anytime there's fast motion it pixelates.
I've seen Fios and the PQ is loads better and there's no pixelation.
I will be dropping Cablevision in a heartbeat as soon as those Fios wires go up on my street.

[Chucky Cheese]

I dont even have an HDTV, just a tube set and I cant stand the iO PQ. Anytime there's fast motion it pixelates.

Your saying your tube tv pixelates anytime theirs fast motion? How? please explain? What your refering to is called pixelation respose time. An LCD or Plasma screen with high response time and significant input lag will not give satisfactory results when playing fast paced computer games or performing fast high accuracy operations on the screen. Your tube must be a magical analog set.

[noturbizniss]

Chances are the picture SEEMS worse simply because you are using a much bigger TV, so u can see many more of the pixels. its a matter of simply blowing up a picture or video without changing the resolution. When u do that it isnt as "clear" as on a small box.

[cableguy79]

how far away from the tv are you sitting when you watch it?....keep in mind, a person watching a 42" hdtv should watch it from 15 feet or more away. In retrospect, you should be watching your tv from about 10 feet away, thats giving a few inches too.

[dm145]

how far away from the tv are you sitting when you watch it?....keep in mind, a person watching a 42" hdtv should watch it from 15 feet or more away. In retrospect, you should be watching your tv from about 10 feet away, thats giving a few inches too.

WOW, you couldn't be more wrong about the viewing distance!
At that distance you are no longer capable of experiencing HD!

[Sean Mota]

I have a question as a result of my new set-up. I
recently bought a Toshiba REGZA 26HL47 with true HD 1080p
capabilities. And I have the iO Cablevision [Scientific Atlanta
4250HD] reciever. What I notice is that the picture with my Xbox which
I use to play DVD's and the HD channel's look great. I have everything
connected with HDMI, I even bought a monster cable, and monoprice
cable to compare the two. I notice the non-hd programming looks
terrible, it has bad picture quality and the TV looks terrible when
you watch it up close, sometimes I even see the "macro-blocking"
pixelation when I watch certain programming. Now my question is, can I
improve the signal some way to be able to have great picture on
standard digital programming as well as High Definition programming.
Honestly I did not expect the picture to be worse with regular
programming than with a regular tube tv. After all the majority of the
programming on Cablevision is not in HD. Is there some way to amplify
or boost the signal to improve it? Maybe If I get the HD DVR box then the picture quality will be better? Or Do I need to get the technitian down here again to take a look at the connection, its running about 50 feet before it gets to my room.

SD programming feed is crap. No matter where you go. These HDTVs (LCD or DLP) doe not a great job with the SD feed. Now let's talk about HD feed:

1- Are you saying that you are getting pixelation on HD feed? Which channels? Does it occur in every channel?

2- How big is your screen? 42" or less should be good enough but as your screen gets bigger expect less quality since any service providers tries to compress the signal one way or another and won't give you a true HD experience as with HD DVD or BR.

3-Make sure that your Box is set to 1080i. Try this first and see how it looks. Change it to 720p and see how it handles it.

4-Sitting a good distance from the TV is another rule. There used to be a rule thumb to do it based on the dimension of the TV. I have a 60" LCD and normally sit 10 feet from the TV. I would say that 8 feet will be my min and 10 feet will be my max. You yourself decide what is best for you. It varies from person to person.

[Chucky Cheese]

WOW, you couldn't be more wrong about the viewing distance!
At that distance you are no longer capable of experiencing HD!

Just sit in front of the set.