New TV - picture quality not so good

[TVisgood]

Hi all. This is my first post so salutations to all.

I just purchased and set up my Sharp Aquos 46" LCD TV and I am having problems with the picture quality when viewing cable TV.

A little background: Regular cable (as in non-HD) is run with a coaxial cable from the wall to my TIVO unit, then from my TIVO to the TV.

First the problems: The picture, seemingly randomly, goes from dark to normal contrast and back to dark etc. Also there are "halos" around some of the brighter images when displayed. A lot of the fleshy tones appear tinged with red as well. Overall color reporduction is probematic. Everything looks a bit dark also.

Ive read the manual and looked through the trouble-shooting section. I cant find anything that describes my problems. I read the FAQs and searched to no success. I spent all this money on my TV and im not impressed with the picture quality at all. I appreciate any help you can give.

[Mr. Salty]

What kind of connection are you using from the Tivo to the TV?

[Xbox69]

Input from coaxial will not give you the best picture quality.

I recall my friend having set-up his HD cable box with component cables to his 42" plasma and the picture wasn't so great. The problem was he hadn't gone to his TV settings and switched the input to component. He still had the coaxial running from the cable box to the back of the TV, which was unnecessary when he added the set of component cables.

I switched the TV source input (to component 1) and the result was 1000% better.

[DVD Josh]

Input from coaxial will not give you the best picture quality.



This is too broad of a statement. If he has a QAM tuner and is receiving HD over coax, the picture quality will be quite good. Even better if said coax is going into a CableCard.

Here are the other issues:

SD looks like shit on a HD panel
Your TIVO may be to blame
You have not properly calibrated the display (for the red push, I recommend knocking down the TINT to -2 green, for the color, down to 40%, for the darkness, contrast up to 65%, for the halos, sharpness down to 20%, but these are just baselines)

I have also heard that the Aqous uses a terrible internal scaler, which would definitely contribute to the issues that you are having.

[SoSpacey]

SD on my Series 2 Tivo looked like crap on my Panasonic Plasma.

SD on my Series 3 Tivo looks much better.

[TVisgood]

What kind of connection are you using from the Tivo to the TV?

Coaxial as well. Soon, I am planning on upgrading to the HD tuner/digital recorder cable box in one unit and hook it all up via the HDMI port. I think this will result in better SD (and obviously HD will then be available).



I switched the TV source input (to component 1) and the result was 1000% better.

Ill check when I get home as to what the TV source input is set to. I dont, however, remember reading in the owners manual about that (the TV source input type) being a selectable option.



Here are the other issues:

SD looks like shit on a HD panel
Your TIVO may be to blame
You have not properly calibrated the display (for the red push, I recommend knocking down the TINT to -2 green, for the color, down to 40%, for the darkness, contrast up to 65%, for the halos, sharpness down to 20%, but these are just baselines)

I have also heard that the Aqous uses a terrible internal scaler, which would definitely contribute to the issues that you are having.

Yea I figured SD looks bad on a HD TV, but this looks really bad. What is a good way to calibrate the display? I remember when my dad set up his TV (cant think of the brand off the top of my head), he had some mode in his TV (or possibly a DVD?) that took him through a calibration to set all the levels. Or is my only option to play with all the levels until the picture looks good? Could you possibly varify and explain a bit about the scaler issue as well?

Thanks for everyone input. I appreciate it!

[DVD Josh]

Yea I figured SD looks bad on a HD TV, but this looks really bad. What is a good way to calibrate the display? I remember when my dad set up his TV (cant think of the brand off the top of my head), he had some mode in his TV (or possibly a DVD?) that took him through a calibration to set all the levels. Or is my only option to play with all the levels until the picture looks good? Could you possibly varify and explain a bit about the scaler issue as well?

Thanks for everyone input. I appreciate it!

You should get DVE or Avia for calibrating, but that probably won't solve your SD issues unless they are over the same input. As for the scaler, I recently helped a friend research LCDs and I read alot of posts that said the scaler (what upconverts the resolution to the native of the screen) on the Aqous was not good and any scaling should be done at the device itself.

[FantasticVSDoom]

Here are the other issues:

SD looks like shit on a HD panel
Your TIVO may be to blame

I think its these 2 coupled together... When I had TIVO (s2), it looked like the exact same problem you had. My TV is much different (Panny 47" RPTV), but similar issues.

[jonw9]

My SD through TiVo is nearly unwatchable. I am on the brink of ordering Dish so I can use their HD-DVR and put the ol' Tivo on a smaller TV.

1) I believe the is an option in TiVo to clean up the RF signal, you may try that.
2) Try composite/s-video from TiVo to your TV. The Red/Yellow/White cables that come with the TiVo may be an improvement, or at least something to try.
3) Make sure you turn the quality up on the Tivo as well. My needs to be set on "Best" quality just to record minimally tolerable picture.
4) You need to "calibrate" your new set.

I am watching a DLP after having a CRT-RPTV for some time. The colors seem so much brighter now, but the way the sets operate is much different. You may have some initial experiences from watching a new type of set as well.

[TVisgood]

Anyone have an idea about the random darkening -> lightening -> darkening ->.... picture?

[jonw9]

If it were a DLP I would say it is some sort of auto iris control to improve contrast on darker scenes.

I do not know if this is true for LCD displays.

[shelland]

Anyone have an idea about the random darkening -> lightening -> darkening ->.... picture?
You don't have the signal running through a VCR or anything, do you? That's one of the symptoms of Macrovision.

[Spiky]

It's macrovision. Sometimes cable/sat signals do that with Tivo or VCRs. It should be cleaned up after a day or a reset, or call them to discuss. I'd bet they put this shit into the analog signal just to piss people off to make them pony up for the digital stuff.

[TVisgood]

So, I dont think the dimming issue is macrovision. I upgraded to the HD/DVR cable box and got rid of the Tivo. The issue occurs even when Im watching DVDs as well as TV, but it only occurs when the scene goes dark.

For example, a movie will cut to a black screen with white letters. The letters will start off very white, but then will dim to a grey. Then the bright scene will start again and it will start darker, but fade lighter. Hope that makes sense.

Also, I have another issue. I got the HD TV set up (with an HDMI cable), but my TV is showing the picture in 480i. I read through my manual, but I cant figure out how to change the source input or the output resolution. How can I get it to show in 1080i?

Thanks again.

[Spiky]

Hmm, that sounds like some sort of contrast adjustment is going on, like an iris adjustment on a projector. I wonder if you could find a thread on this particular TV at AVS or HTS.

What specific source are you watching that you feel should be 1080i?

[TVisgood]

Still have not figured out the contrast deal, but there seems to be a load of info out there on this TV, so I am trying to inform myself as much as possible.

As far as the picture resolution problem, I think I was viewing SD TV when I checked what resolution the TV was showing (woops). I checked again making sure I was on the HD channels and the TV displayed 1080i resolution.

[TVisgood]

Still have not figured out the contrast deal, but there seems to be a load of info out there on this TV, so I am trying to inform myself as much as possible.

Any ideas on the contrast issue? : (

[jonw9]

I take it you didn't find any info on the net?

If you still hive the flickering problem, I would contact Sharp.