Picture Quality

[1downunder]

Hi All,

Have had my Tivo for the best part of a year and I its really working out great for me. I have just upgraded to a LCD screen and it really shows up the pixels in many of my recordings.

I have a couple of questions:

Is it worth upgrading to a Thompsons scenium pvr10uk so that I can have scart inputs/outputs and record/view in rgb?

Because the scenium records via rgb does that mean that its picture quality is higher because the quality of the source input is better or because it uses more pixels to store this information?

Does the Tivo UK software (I think 2.5.5) have any better features/abilities over the tivo 1.6 software?

If I am watching tivo via the Tivox (via the xbox) should I have the xbox output its picture via the svideo or composite leads because that was the format the video was recorded in, or will the picture quality look better via the the component cables from the xbox...

Thanks for your time,

Dane :cool: :cool:

[Darren King]

You are confusing pixelation, which is created due to compression, with video bandwidth response by the various output methods. The UK TiVo does not record at any higher bitrate than the USA one (in fact it is the SAME chipset) so you will still see the pixelation. In fact if you shift to RGB you may even percieve to see MORE pixelation as the video bandwidth will increase making the blocks more prominent rather than as they are at the moment smeared into the surrounding video.

If you haven't already then run palmod_config and up the resolution and see how that goes. Also ensure you have the TiVo set to "Best" quality recording.

In short there is not much you can do. The TiVo is now starting to show it's limitations with monitors/TV's starting to get faster response times.

[1downunder]

However if I were to use the UK unit for RGB IN to improve input quality and then to output the Tivo via composite mode through the scart outs - would this result in the best possible quality? I know it may only be marginal, but I would still like to get a UK unit in any case...

[Darren King]

Ummm, no. Same thing will happen. A cleaner (sharper) picture fed into the TiVo will mean there will be more detail for the MPEG chips to have to deal with compression wise so you just may find yourself thinking there is more artifacts.

But I guess if you want to get a UK unit "in any case" then you can experiment to your hearts content and let us know the best combination that works for you :D

[1downunder]

Oh OK. Well thanks for the heads up then :D :D

[Mahim]

[QUOTE=Darren King;9711]

If you haven't already then run palmod_config and up the resolution and see how that goes. Also ensure you have the TiVo set to "Best" quality recording.

UNQUOTE]

Darren,

How do I run above file or command? Is that from webtivo?

One thing I do not want to do is have to alter software on the HDD, so want to attempt it only if something which is farrly straightforward.

Thanks for your help.

Mahim

[Darren King]

How do I run above file or command? Is that from webtivo?

No. It is from a telnet session. See here: http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view/Howto/TelnetToYourTiVo

[Mahim]

Darren,

Appreciate your advise on which setting/resolution to check in palmod_config

My tuner input setting are set to about midway, I am a bit apprehensive about changing them, so will appreciate your input on what should be the setting for best resolution.

The main issue for me RF output quality. I take two outputs from tivo - AV and RF. RF tuner output is not good (while it looks OK from a distance, at close range TV is specky).

Mahim

[Darren King]

There is no setting to change the quality of the outputted RF video.

Furthermore, the way you describe the RF output is about what I would expect. It's always going to took very second rate compared to anything direct like composite or s-video output (or "AV" as you call it). This is due mostly to the way the RF signal made up as it does not contain anywhere near the resolution bandwidth a direct video output has. Other factors which may help get a little bit better result from RF may be to inspect the cabling between the TiVo and the TV and also the fine tuning of your TV.

Apart from that you are out of luck due to the technical nature of RF in general, sorry.