Upscaling

rowanmoor

Member
I think I may know the answer to this from the little I could find searching, but it wasn't completely clear so I just wanted to confirm.

If I have the Humax set to 1080p (or i) then it is upscaling all the SD channels to 1080p (or i). However, I have done a few comparisons and there is a noticeable difference in the upscaling quality with my TV. The TV does the better job (it is a recent panasonic which are known for having some of the best upscaling around). I haven't noticed a different with the interlaced to progressive, but the SD to 1080 is noticeable.

Is there any way to get the Humax to output the native resolution of the source material (tuner/recording) so that the TV handles any required upscaling? Or would I just have to use the button on the remote to keep switching for different recordings/channels?

I suspect the latter and it really isn't worth it. The other option is to play back everything through the TVs media player and DNLA but that doesn't allow deleting when finished etc.
 
Yes, that is the case (and something which has been lamented before). In past times the Humax upscaler was regarded as better than many TV upscalers, but there is a possibility you are confusing artificial sharpening with better quality.
 
I have all sharpening turned off on the TV. That was the second thing I did after turning it on - the first being to change away from 'vibrant' or whatever the mode was :rolleyes:

It is possible that the Humax is doing some sharpening on its upscaling and that could be what I am seeing. The TVs upscaling just looks a bit more natural than the Humax from normal viewing distances. I haven't studded it closely to see what the differences actually are.

The difference isn't enough to worry about if there is no option though. I have been using the Scart from the Toppy as I don't have the HDMI version and that has much more noticeable issues than the difference in upscaling between the TV and Humax. And no matter what the connection type the compression on many of the channels renders any differences irrelevant.

Thanks for the info.
 
For what it's worth, I decided to record as much as possible in HD, despite the space usage, simply on the assumption that the BBC etc have better upscalers still.

That may not be a sensible assumption; thoughts?
 
I am recording everything in HD that is broadcast in HD (that was why I got the T2). I also assume that the broadcasters should have better upscaling equipment that our consumer boxes and much of what we record from the main channels is now filmed in at least 1080. However, my TV does sometimes report some older programs on the HD channels (ITV is what I have noticed) as not being 1080 - I presume it is 720 but the TV only reports 1080 or not and I haven't looked further.

Having said all that we do watch quite a few things from Channel 5 (US dramas etc) plus the occasional thing from a lesser channel or some things have to be done from the +1/+24 channels due to clashes.
 
If you bring up the I-plate when watching live on the Humax (press the i button), the current broadcast format is shown in the right hand corner. Pressing the VFORMAT button once gets you an announcement of the current format being sent from the Humax to the TV (without changing it).
 
Thanks, I've seen it shows the format in the info, but I haven't had a chance to look at some older programs on ITV etc yet to see how they come up compared to the TV. The TV just gives and indicator for 1080i/p and some some programs on the HD channels I have noticed that it is not there making me think they are broadcasting that program in 720 (or even less for all I know). At some point I intend to see what the Humax says compared to the TV at times like that - just out of curiosity.
 
No UK broadcaster transmits uses 720P, 1080i was and is always used though Freeview-HD now has some 1080p25 content. 1080i 1440 x 1080 used to be fairly common (including the BBC), afaik all 1080i content is now 1920 x 1080. 720P particulary 720P50 can in fact look really good.

Only source of 720P other than net downloads/paid for streaming services is the BBC iplayer HD service in 720p25, which is pretty good considering the bitrate they have to use.

Your TV is reporting the signal the box is outputting not the signal it is actually receiving. You can change this using the box output options which will rescale the broadcast to whatever you specify. If you have the box set to output 1080i the TV should report 1080i even if an external box is tuned to a 576i SD channel.
 
I meant the TVs internal tuner not reporting 1080 on some programs on the HD channels. If they never do 720 then do they sometimes not upscale SD content on the HD channel? Of course it could be some quirk in the TV causing it not to report 1080 when it should.
 
All content afaik is 1080i/1080p on any HD channel. I can record the free HD channels and certainly none of the recordings has been other than 1080i/1080p. Your TV should report 720p anyway if it ever gets any ? Does the TV not have some sort of info display. If you can think of an example and I happen to have a recording I can post the exact details.
 
I can't remember what the examples were. They were old films and the like - I think all were ITV HD. I didn't look too closely at the quality etc at the time and being old material the quality was degraded in terms of colours and sharpness anyway.

The TV only reports 1080 or not on the info display. If I watch iPlayer or stuff over the network which is 720 then is just doesn't display the 1080 marker. It could just be a bug that sometimes it is not showing it when it should on the tuner. Something I can check on the Humax now when I next see it.
 
For Info in case anyone find this thread in the future: The Panasonic TV reports 1080i in the info, but (on the internal tuner at least) 1080p content causes the 1080i indicator to turn off and makes it looks at though it is not getting a 1080 signal.

I proved that last night when 2 of the 4 main channels had 1080i and the other 2 1080p (as reported on the Humax) and I compared what the TV showed.

I think other inputs cause it to display 1080p but it obviously doesn't expect Freeview to be sending that.
 
I double checked for updates and the firmware is up to date. It tells me if one is available every time it turns on anyway, so I was pretty sure.
The 2014 models may be different in this regard - mine is a 2013 model. Panasonic may not even realise that there is a bug, and to be honest it doesn't bother me enough to report it to them. I suspect most people wouldn't even notice let alone think about it enough to get confused by it.
All other inputs report 1080p correctly, so it is just the internal tuner that does not.
 
Back
Top