HD looks wonderful on my Panasonic EDTV plasma (even though I'm not *really* seeing HD)! 12' from a 42" looks like HD to me 
Anyway, my 2 issues are:
1- Oddly enough, the SD picture from both component and S-video from the VIP211 looks worse than the S-video from my old 311
The VIP211 just has a softer, grainy SD picture. This REALLY sucks because I watch so much SD. I comparing the two STB's on the same TV, so the TV itself isn't a factor. I also compared S-video to S-video, so that isn't factor either. Basically, SD material through the VIP211 is making my plasma look like an LCD Anyone else experience this?
2- I like to watch SD using either "full" or "just" on my TV to make 4x3 material fill the 16x9 TV screen. I like to let the TV do the "stretching" rather than the STB. I just happen to think that the TV does a better job with this. Therefore, I have had to set TV aspect ratio in the "HDTV setup" of the VIP211's menu to "4x3 #2". With this setting, I use "HD stretch" on the VIP211 to make HD stretch vertically to fill the screen. My TV's aspect setting is set to "full". When I watch a SD channel, the image fills the screen. Is this OK? I'm not losing any HD resolution with this am I?
Anyway, my 2 issues are:
1- Oddly enough, the SD picture from both component and S-video from the VIP211 looks worse than the S-video from my old 311
The VIP211 just has a softer, grainy SD picture. This REALLY sucks because I watch so much SD. I comparing the two STB's on the same TV, so the TV itself isn't a factor. I also compared S-video to S-video, so that isn't factor either. Basically, SD material through the VIP211 is making my plasma look like an LCD
Anyone else experience this? 2- I like to watch SD using either "full" or "just" on my TV to make 4x3 material fill the 16x9 TV screen. I like to let the TV do the "stretching" rather than the STB. I just happen to think that the TV does a better job with this. Therefore, I have had to set TV aspect ratio in the "HDTV setup" of the VIP211's menu to "4x3 #2". With this setting, I use "HD stretch" on the VIP211 to make HD stretch vertically to fill the screen. My TV's aspect setting is set to "full". When I watch a SD channel, the image fills the screen. Is this OK? I'm not losing any HD resolution with this am I?
