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Poor quality image on TV

S

surefire

Member
Following on from my previous thread about swapping hard drives from one Humax box to another, I have a other enquiry which I hope you chaps could shed some light on.

Some time ago I noticed that the image on the TV had become fuzzy and slightly blurred. It happened for no apparent reason and has been bugging me for a while. It shows this degredation when displaying the epg guide graphics so I'm positive it isn't an ariel or signal strength/quality issue. I recently purchased a second HDR Fox T2 identical in all respects except it only has a 500 Gb hard drive where my original is a 1Tb model. On connecting the newer box the epg guide graphics are crystal clear and there is a marked improvement in the picture quality. This suggests to me that there is a problem with the output electronics from the hdmi port. Opening the original box and reseating all the connectors and generally fiddling with any removable parts hasn't improved matters. Having the spare box gives me the option of using that but I'm faced with decrypting a rather full 1Tb hard drive before I can install it in the newer box. I guess what I'm asking is there anything else I could try to improve the fuzzy image of my original box? It couldn't be a firmware issue could it? By the way my box has the following firmware:

Web interface version: 1.4.0-7
Custom firmware version: 3.10 (build 2734)
Humax Version: 1.03.12 (kernel HDR_CFW_3.10)
Loader Version: a7.33
System ID: 80bc.7e00
Serial Number: 63 7105556 00635
Last Boot Reason: Scheduled event
 
When you press the Vformat button what resolution is your output set to ? Anything other than 1080i or 1080p will reduce the epg overlay from Full-HD to whatever setting you have (720 x 576 instead of 1920 x 1080 when set to 576i).
 
Well how daft do I feel All this time it was just a format error. What a difference it makes when set to 1080. Thank you very much Graham.
 
surefire said:
Well how daft do I feel All this time it was just a format error. What a difference it makes when set to 1080. Thank you very much Graham.
Click to expand...


If only all problems were so easy to fix. :)

And you are right the difference in the epg quality is very noticable. Small text with sharp edges really shows up the resolution limitations.
 
grahamlthompson said:
When you press the Vformat button what resolution is your output set to ? Anything other than 1080i or 1080p will reduce the epg overlay from Full-HD to whatever setting you have (720 x 576 instead of 1920 x 1080 when set to 576i).
Click to expand...

Which of 1080i or 1080p is "better" - the attached TV can handle both.
 
JoeBloggs911 said:
Which of 1080i or 1080p is "better" - the attached TV can handle both.
Click to expand...
The unsatisfactory answer is that it depends. Use whichever looks better to you.
If I remember correctly, the Broadcom chip can't do 1080p natively so there is an extra component on the motherboard to convert. I find 1080p looks better on my TV but YMMV.
 
I can't tell any difference with my Panasonic TV. Basically it depends whether the box or TV makes a better job of de-interlacing the signal. As AF123 says try both and use what you think looks best.
 
af123 said:
The unsatisfactory answer is that it depends. Use whichever looks better to you.
If I remember correctly, the Broadcom chip can't do 1080p natively so there is an extra component on the motherboard to convert. I find 1080p looks better on my TV but YMMV.
Click to expand...

Thanks. A related question: If memory serves, I've had "Video Format" set to "Auto" ever since I got the HDRs two years ago and it used to automatically adjust the display for old programmes broadcast in 4:3. Recently, however, I've had to manually switch the mode to "Pillarbox" to correctly displays these. Keeping it on that setting automatically switches back to 16:9 when necessary. This applies to two HDRs which are configured identically.

If my memory isn't faulty -- a big if -- why does the "Auto" setting no longer live up to its name?
 
It depends on the broadcasters setting the programme flags correctly, and not putting side bars on to make 4:3 into 16:9 (to stop the channel ident being pushed off the screen).

Personally I can't stand 4:3 pictures being made fat to fill 16:9, so I have always used the pillar box setting.

More info here: https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/aspect-ratio.2045/
 
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