Originally Posted by PhilipL:
“Your comments regarding the picture quality sound very much like issues caused by two lots of scaling, which is why upscaling HDMI SD DVD players for example are just a big waste of money, they rate along side £50 HDMI cables, a con. Have you tried any other Freeview SD HDMI sources with you kit, if so, how did they fair when upscaling?
Having the resolution switch automatically isn't pretty either, I know, I've seen it in action on the Philips PVR. For example, do you switch back up to HD when dropping into the menus, if so this can be annoying if you quickly want to check something, if not, you have rough fonts and graphics somethings, other times it looks great, all depending on if you are watching HD or SD before you go into the menus. Likewise if you are flicking between an HD and SD channel, you've got to wait for the picture to sync up.
Probably better to just make the switch toggle between two preset resolutions and you just switch yourself as required.
Regards
Phil”
“Your comments regarding the picture quality sound very much like issues caused by two lots of scaling, which is why upscaling HDMI SD DVD players for example are just a big waste of money, they rate along side £50 HDMI cables, a con. Have you tried any other Freeview SD HDMI sources with you kit, if so, how did they fair when upscaling?
Having the resolution switch automatically isn't pretty either, I know, I've seen it in action on the Philips PVR. For example, do you switch back up to HD when dropping into the menus, if so this can be annoying if you quickly want to check something, if not, you have rough fonts and graphics somethings, other times it looks great, all depending on if you are watching HD or SD before you go into the menus. Likewise if you are flicking between an HD and SD channel, you've got to wait for the picture to sync up.
Probably better to just make the switch toggle between two preset resolutions and you just switch yourself as required.
Regards
Phil”
Thats a good point Phil, the nice HD graphics look poor on SD so its no real gain. I also get a black out sometimes switching the resolutions all the time - related to the handshake issues.
The best test would be to get another brand HD Freeview box to compare but its a bit impractical.
The only way was the method to play back a HDR recording on a DVD on my Bluray player- but obviously the Bluray player delt with the SD upscale better (as it does with DVD's in general) so to me that suggested the chip is doing a better job than the HDR's.
apart from a laptop with a freeview tuner (which would be completely different) I have nothing else that up scales Freeview apart from the TV itself and its built in tuner.
