Tivo HD Video quality

How do others find Tivo HD’s picture quality compared with a direct source or other HD PVR’s?

I recently moved to Tivo HD from a Beyonwiz PVR. While the UI of Tivo and the EPG is far superior I believe the image quality ‘outputted’ is inferior to the Beyondwiz; simply the HD picture is not as sharp and clear (both use 1080i HDMI fixed to TV)

How can this be quantified technically? EG How loosy is the compression used by Tivo compared with the Beyondwiz ? Bit Rate? Impact of Tivo encryption? And whatever else influences picture quality.

I understand a number of factors influence the final image quality (particularly the actual broadcast/source); however the Beyonwiz is consistently better.

I would like to believe this is all in my head; but can’t continue to ignore it..pls help I’m considering plugging the Beyonwiz back-in and selling Tivo :-(

AJ

I can't see a difference between TiVo and FTA direct on my 52" full HD LCD.

I also have the TiVo set to fixed 1080i and use component direct to the TV and also HDMI via an Amp back to the TV. Both these connection methods also look the same to me.

Maybe the beyondwiz produces a softer picture so less grain/detail is visible, or you may even have a faulty TiVo?

Do you see a difference on both SD & HD?

Peter.

I was using a toppy 5000 with scart to component before my tivo (HDMI)...

The component 'seems' to have more colour balance, the hdmi looks a bit more washed out..

Then again, this is probably down to the tune of the TV (NEC 50 Plasma) rather than the devices...

I did have a guy come up from Melb to Syd to tune the tv when I first got it, it made a huge difference and I remember that he had different settings for each input...