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Sky + Picture Quality
Hi All,
On Friday Oct 31 I had Sky + installed and my other digi-box relocated. Apart from the noise the fan makes which a friend of mine reckons can settle down (although from some of these threads it may not), I have noticed that the picture quality is very soft focused, almost like everything is filmed with a cheesecloth over it!
Has anyone else noticed this problem? For example on Saturday when watching Gillette Soccer Saturday the type at the side and bottom of the screen were very blurry.
I have a Sony widescreen and before the Sky + it wasn't completely sharp but now its worse.
Any ideas?
Brad:(
On Friday Oct 31 I had Sky + installed and my other digi-box relocated. Apart from the noise the fan makes which a friend of mine reckons can settle down (although from some of these threads it may not), I have noticed that the picture quality is very soft focused, almost like everything is filmed with a cheesecloth over it!
Has anyone else noticed this problem? For example on Saturday when watching Gillette Soccer Saturday the type at the side and bottom of the screen were very blurry.
I have a Sony widescreen and before the Sky + it wasn't completely sharp but now its worse.
Any ideas?
Brad:(
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Comments
Firstly, if it's like my Sony, you'll only have the one RGB scart socket. Make sure the Sky+ is connected to it (usually AV1). Then check the settings to make sure you have output set to RGB.
If all this checks out then you may wish to try a different scart lead.
Dave
I've had exactly the same, previously with my old digibox the picture was a lot crisper. Add to that the problem I have where the picture appears slightly bigger on my tv so I lose the edges it makes Soccer Saturday in particular very frustrating as I miss the bottom line of the vidiprinter and the text I can see is much more blurry.
I'm always a goal behind on the vidiprinter as have to wait for another goal to shift the bottom line up unless Super Jeff Stelling tells me the score I'm missing.
Did notice the vidiprinter text on Saturday was of a poorer quality than normal though last Saturday which was a program fault and not Sky+ as checked it on digibox upstairs and was same, slightly lighter red and not as clear which along with the Sky+ blurness(is that a word!) made for a very frustrating afternoon so I nipped down the local to watch Leeds v Arsenal live on the Dutch feed on his satellite instead. Suddenly after a few pints of the black stuff and five goals to see everything was right in the world, not exactly the answer I was looking for though.
heheh, sounds about the same as what I do on the rare occasions I go to watch Chesterfield now, the words 'like watching paint dry' come to mind.
On the scart front I'm not convinced changing or replacing mine will make any difference as they are the same ones that I used with the old digibox and never had a problem, will give it a go though.
Looks like another visit from Sky is in order!
I've put a couple of previous threads on this.
I've spent ages tracking through this and Pace have confirmed to me that it is a bug in the Sky+ Software and affects ALL v2 boxes. My in-laws have just had Sky+ and theirs also exhibits the same fault.
I have raised it with Sky and they are investigating. However, no-one else has reported it - so they think its just me. I would make a plea for you to report it. Also email me at neil@heyeshome.com and I can forward it on to the person in Sky dealing with it.
See these Pics
SkyPlus Pic
Old Digibox
Neil
I reported it to Sky on Sunday night and they said they would send an engineer round but not for a fortnight so told them not to bother. The CS member I mentioned it to said he knew nowt about it, no surprise there.
If you email me I can forward onto Sky to get it assinged to the same problem in an effort to get it fixed. (neil@heyeshome.com)
Pace confirmed it needs a software download to Fix - so a new box (or an engineer - I had one and the replacement box had the same fault - as all V2s will)
Neil
E-mail sent as requested, hope it is useful.
I called off the engineer the other day as couldn't see the poijt if swapping like for like plus I was worried about getting a re-con V1 only a fortnight after paying for the V2.
No fault with box or the software.
Mat
I was aware the vidiprinter had a fult on Saturday, it was obvious to the eye just looking at it but that wasn't the reason for the last line of my text going missing at the bottom of the screen as I went upstairs to check the other digibox on another tv and the last line was there to see no problem.
Have sent email to you. Seems there is a growing army of us with blurry eyes!
I did figure that the vidiprinter at the bottom of the screen on Saturday was particuarly bad, but it still isn't right. Last night for example it was back to its regular soft focus look!
I know I have a widescreen tv so the stretching out of the picture will affect it in one way but as i've said before, not nearly as bad as it is with this new box.
Brad
Actually when I got the box I thought it was the telly. As I rent, I phoned the renter and got a new TV (saving £15 per month which was a bonus!) and the problem is slightly worse on there as the tube is clearer!!!
It is definitely the box as Pace have confirmed this is a problem for ALL v2 systems so I am surprised more people can't see it.
The only thing I can think is that its only the later revisions of the V2 system as mine says its a v2.3 system?
I did get the engineer back and the replacement (new) system he brought was also the same.
Neil
As you said Neil they did however have no idea whatsoever of a problem with the picture. I specifically asked them to let the CS supervisor know of the problem and the call I made though, just in case they do they electronic equivalent of binning it!
I also mentioned that Pace had confirmed a problem and that only succeeded in confusing them more, he did say that there was meant to be a software download at the end of last month, I didn't ask what it was just in case it was the dual recording download and didn't want ridicule from other Sky + members!
Brad
Besides i'm not paying Sky £50 a month to impair my eyesight when Caffrey's or Strongbow does the trick perfectly!
One of the big pluses for Sky+ is that it records digitally the exact same data stream that the normal digibox displays. When you play a recording on Sky+ back, there should be no loss of picture quality whatsoever (when compared to watching the same broadcast "live").
If you and your mates really have got bad pictures on your new Sky+es it's either a setup problem (scart leads, video vs s-video vs RGB vs AV socket setup on the TV) or you've got faulty boxes.
One description you gave of the picture fault sounded to me a bit like what you see if you feed a composite video signal into a TV av socket that's expecting S-video. This can happen if the scart lead is not a fully wired one. If the scart lead only has pins for composite video, the extra pin needed for s-video is missing so part of the signal is missing at the TV. You end up with a mostly mono picture with a fine mesh of dots making it look like a veil has been drawn over it. You may still see some colour due to cross talk in the scart lead.
Other thoughts: Is the video output set to 16:9 on your new box? You could be getting a blurry picture because the TV is zooming in on a letterboxed 16:9 image in a 4:3 frame.
Is the brightness/contrast setting on the Sky+ the same as it was before? (There is a low/medium/high contrast setting on digiboxes). Things can look more "blurry" if there's too much contrast (bright whites tend to "bloom"), especially on older TVs. This can happen if the Sky+ is set low, so you have to turn up the contrast on the TV to compensate OR if the Sky+ is set high, making the signal too strong for the TV. Either way, make sure it the same on your Sky+ box as it was on your original Digibox.
Hope that helps.
Graeme
Everything is set up exactly as my previous digibox and the picture on that was crystal clear, same scart etc so I don't see how it can be a set up problem and if Pace have admitted it is a known fault requiring a software update I tend to believe them being the people that made it after all.
Graeme
Its amazing what people will put up with because they got something new to play with! the slight picture degredation either goes un-noticed to the not so keen eye OR is consider just an un-fortunate side effect of their new gadget!
I'm no expert but think it's got to be the box because when I plug my DVD into the (only) telly scart that takes RGB (usually occupied by Sky +) the picture is crystal clear. Old Grundig digibox will be tested at the weekend to confirm.
No probs Graeme, appreciate your input.
Believe me I've tried everything I can to rectify it but if it's a system problem then I've been p*ssing in the wind really. Heres hoping for that infamous 'software download' to rectify it, that's if Sky are even looking in to it at all.
It does affect ALL v2 systems.
The best way to see it is to look at QVC and look at the information bar on the left hand side - the text goes from blurred to clear to blurred again.
Neil
They said exactly the same about the PACE TWIN they released for Freeview, makes you wonder how much code the two seperate pieces of hardware share or maybe a common component which is flawed and needs a work around.