[jambu]

My HD pq is generally excellent on my Samsung 46 inch TV however I have noticed that I am sometimes now getting what I can only describe as speckles showing through on some of the darker shots. I do not get this on my Tivo setup in the other room. Does anyone have any idea of what this might be? I replaced the HDMI cables with more expensive ones but that has not changed anything.

[Deacon1972]

What colour are the sparklies?

If they are blue a search suggests it needs a logic software upgrade and adjustement to VS voltage/VSC voltage resistance.

LG's sometimes suffer sparklies, this can be down to the zsus board, I have no idea if this can affect Samsung's too.

[brangdon]

How long is the HDMI cable run? You mention "the other room"; if a single TiVo is driving two TVs and one is far away, that could be an issue.

[Alan Thew]

The artefacts you describe do sound like signal level problems, and HDMI signal boosters are available for running HDMI cables usually of around 10m or more; but you shouldn't be getting these problems connecting two pieces of consumer equipment with a cable around the 1.2m mark. The fact you say you're "now" getting them suggests you didn't use to get them. Which makes it sound like either your TV or your TiVo is playing up. (I assume you've got two TiVos? You don't actually say what is connected to the Samsung, only what is connected in the other room.) Since replacing one of these will be free and replacing the other will cost you money, I'd speak to Virgin in the first instance.

[jambu]

Apologies i did not make myself clear. i have a tivo in both rooms, they are not connected to each other. i am getting the silver speckles on the Samsung TV but not on the Panasonic. As i said, they are mainly showing on the dark pictures. i have only recently gone onto cable but did noty get these when i was on Sky. i do notice them more on CH 5 hd, not sure whether that is anything to do with it. i am due to have a line pull done on the 24th Aug so will see if the new cable makes thinbgs any better. Thanks for the replies so far.

[dannylau]

Try swapping the boxes over and see if the fault moves or stays with the TV

[jambu]

Good idea, I will try that.

[RobHughes]

Thinking of switching from Sky to Virgin Media, I have a 32 inch HD-ready (not full-HD) TV, could anyone tell me if the picture quality on SD channels is likely to be better on Tivo than Sky?

[dwarfofpoison]

Originally Posted by RobHughes

Thinking of switching from Sky to Virgin Media, I have a 32 inch HD-ready (not full-HD) TV, could anyone tell me if the picture quality on SD channels is likely to be better on Tivo than Sky?

Having a HD ready or full HD TV makes absolutely no difference if the HD is provided by the supplier (ie Sky or Virgin) as long as your TV can accept a HDMI input and can show 1080i resolution (all HD in the UK is supplied in 1080i).

I don't have Sky but the current picture quality from Virgin is exceptional, it wasn't that good to begin with on TiVo but they seemed to have rectified the problems seen.

SD pictures is mainly where people were so upset, I remember thinking what's all the fuss about HD because like you I have a 32inch TV but had a Virgin V+ machine which upscaled so well I couldn't see much difference between HD & SD. I'm not in a position to do a side by side comparison but the rectified upscaling now done on the TiVo is equal to or better (IMO) than the V+ DVR.

So if your only worry about signing to Virgin is SD picture quality then there really is nothing to worry about.

[brangdon]

There was a bug in SD upscaling which ruining the picture, but that was fixed 9 months ago and it's fine now. But I'd expect it to be about the same as Sky, not better.

[jambu]

I can genuinely say that the pic on my 32 inch TV has been just as good as Sky, if not better. The jury is still out on my 46ich.