# Best choice for up converting: Roamio or A/V receiver?



## geodon005 (Mar 10, 2004)

I know this will ultimately be a matter of personal preference, but I am curious to see if there is any consensus among Roamio owners. 

I currently output video from my video at 1080i into my Onkyo 818 A/V receiver, which has what I am told is top of the line video processing with a VHD1900 chip and Marvell Qdeo. Would it result in a better picture if I let the TiVo output at each resolution natively?


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

geodon005 said:


> I know this will ultimately be a matter of personal preference, but I am curious to see if there is any consensus among Roamio owners.
> 
> I currently output video from my video at 1080i into my Onkyo 818 A/V receiver, which has what I am told is top of the line video processing with a VHD1900 chip and Marvell Qdeo. Would it result in a better picture if I let the TiVo output at each resolution natively?


It definitely should result in better image quality. There's no way the TiVo or the TV has a better scalar/processor in it, that's for sure. The big question is really if your tv does anything to the signal when it arrives via the hdmi and before it gets displayed on your screen? If your display is 1080p and has some sort of "native mode" that doesn't add anything at all, then yes. Make sure you turn off ALL so called video "enhancements" in your hdtv's menus and do all video adjustments using your Onkyo.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I agree the Onkyo 818 is very likely the best video scalar. The question becomes if it is enough better that your eyes can see the difference on your TV from where you view it. No one can answer that but you.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

.....but if its there and you paid for it and its better, why not use it?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

HarperVision said:


> .....but if its there and you paid for it and its better, why not use it?


Most likely no reason, really depends on how the Onkyo handles signals from the TiVo when the TiVo is set to native output instead of a fixed 1080i output. If it is seamless fine if there is allot of "blinking" or what I call "noise" each time the TiVo changes resolution then each person needs to decide what they like better.


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## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

I have my onkyo 809 av receiver set at 1080p/24 and my tivo at 1080i,1080p and the receiver upscalling works great! everything looks brilliant! I can see a big difference when using the av receiver, other then just hooked up to my samsung b6000 hdtv. :up:,BUT i use a tivo premiere xl 2, so i think a roamio would look just as good as mine if not better!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

HarperVision said:


> .....but if its there and you paid for it and its better, why not use it?


I have a DVDO DUO scaler/processor but I just use the Roamio to convet to 1080P60. One it is just broadcast Tv which, even though it looks better on FiOS than Comcast in my area, still looks like crap compared to a BD. Plus only sending out one reoslution/frame rate avoids any resyncing with HDMI everytime the resolution or framerate changes.

Depending on what is being shown you can see the difference from the DUO but I would rather not have to deal with the 1 or 2 seconds of blanking everytime the resolution or framerate changes on the TiVo.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

celtic pride said:


> I have my onkyo 809 av receiver set at 1080p/24 and my tivo at 1080i,1080p and the receiver upscalling works great! everything looks brilliant! I can see a big difference when using the av receiver, other then just hooked up to my samsung b6000 hdtv. :up:,BUT i use a tivo premiere xl 2, so i think a roamio would look just as good as mine if not better!


That is similar to how my setup was, TiVo scales everything to 1080i, receiver scales it to 1080p. I think the real question is if we should have our TiVo's doing any scaling or not. When my receiver was working (new Denon X4000 that currently is unusable) I didn't like the way it handled signals when my TiVo output native resolution and I was moving between channels or recordings with different resolution.


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## DeltaOne (Sep 29, 2013)

geodon005 said:


> I currently output video from my video at 1080i into my Onkyo 818 A/V receiver, which has what I am told is top of the line video processing with a VHD1900 chip and Marvell Qdeo. Would it result in a better picture if I let the TiVo output at each resolution natively?


My HD set is six years old -- but I've found that when I have the Comcast STB (or now, my TiVo Roamio Plus) pass the native resolution it takes longer to change channels. For example, when changing from a channel that uses 720p to a channel that uses 1080i. Or vice versa. All my video goes through a Pioneer A/V receiver.

When I lock the pass-thru at 720p or 1080i the time to change channels is much more responsive (faster). I prefer faster, especially since I don't see any difference between 720p and 1080i on this six year old set.

We have a new set in another room, and it changes channels fast whether it's getting a set resolution or a pass-thru resolution.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

All great answers to which I agree with, but the OP's question was if the use of his onkyo would provide better picture quality, not faster channel surfing or picture syncing.


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## MScottC (Sep 11, 2004)

Harper, sometimes a person asking a question doesn't always ask the best question. No offense to the original poster, but we may not realize all the issues involved. In this case, "Which provides the best quality?" may not be the best question. The better question may be "What setting provides the overall best viewing experience." In this case, while letting the receiver do scaling may provide better picture quality, in many cases, letting the TiVo handle the scaling provides a better overall experience. The people providing that answer were doing a better job at answering the original poster, IMHO.


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## k2ue (May 9, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> I have a DVDO DUO scaler/processor but I just use the Roamio to convet to 1080P60. One it is just broadcast Tv which, even though it looks better on FiOS than Comcast in my area, still looks like crap compared to a BD. Plus only sending out one reoslution/frame rate avoids any resyncing with HDMI everytime the resolution or framerate changes.
> 
> Depending on what is being shown you can see the difference from the DUO but I would rather not have to deal with the 1 or 2 seconds of blanking everytime the resolution or framerate changes on the TiVo.


What he said.


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## geodon005 (Mar 10, 2004)

MScottC said:


> Harper, sometimes a person asking a question doesn't always ask the best question. No offense to the original poster, but we may not realize all the issues involved. In this case, "Which provides the best quality?" may not be the best question. The better question may be "What setting provides the overall best viewing experience." In this case, while letting the receiver do scaling may provide better picture quality, in many cases, letting the TiVo handle the scaling provides a better overall experience. The people providing that answer were doing a better job at answering the original poster, IMHO.


With all due respect, I actually _was_ asking about picture quality, not overall viewing experience. And, after trying several variations, I came to the conclusion that setting the Roamio to natively output all resolutions did indeed result in a better picture when scaled by my Onkyo. However, my wife objected strongly to the delay caused by the switch in resolutions, so it's back to one single resolution output for me.

Thanks for everyone's opinions. This forum is truly a godsend!


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

geodon005 said:


> With all due respect, I actually was asking about picture quality, not overall viewing experience. And, after trying several variations, I came to the conclusion that setting the Roamio to natively output all resolutions did indeed result in a better picture when scaled by my Onkyo. However, my wife objected strongly to the delay caused by the switch in resolutions, so it's back to one single resolution output for me.
> 
> Thanks for everyone's opinions. This forum is truly a godsend!


Yeah MScott, what HE said! I said I agreed with all the suggestions and I've done exactly those myself when the image quality for TV wasn't noticeable enough to overcome the frustrations of syncing.


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

My receiver doesn't offer upscaling so i set my roamio to fixed 1080p. On my lcd 1080i content looks better on 1080p. After using 1080p for a while and then going back to 1080i, i seem to almost get a head ache. As if my eyes can detect the flasing screen of a less refreshed image. Also 720p content seems to me to look better on my 1376x768 plasma tv when roamio is fixed to 1080p. This is an unexpected pleasant surprise roamio gave me since my plasma previously took an interminably long time to switch rez when i had it set to auto with my premier. I had to swap out an hdmi cable for the 1080p signal though. Apparently 1080p uses more bandwidth. On my 40 ft hdmi run with 3 hdmi cables and two couplers i would get intermittent audio dropout using 1080p until i replaced one of the 3 hdmi cables.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

leiff said:


> My receiver doesn't offer upscaling so i set my roamio to fixed 1080p. On my lcd 1080i content looks better on 1080p. After using 1080p for a while and then going back to 1080i, i seem to almost get a head ache. As if my eyes can detect the flasing screen of a less refreshed image....


I don't see how that can be the case. If you're watching on an LCD panel, the 1080i image that you're inputting is being deinterlaced to 1080p before it hits the panel anyway, so all you're seeing, if deinterlacing is done properly, is the same 1080p signal. The resolution is the same, only the frame rate changes. All you're doing is deciding which unit to use to deinterlace the signal, your tivo or your LCD.

Sounds to me like there's some sort of motion interpolation and/or frame rate "enhancements" going on with your LCD panel when it gets a 1080i signal and must be disabled when fed a 1080p from the Roamio which doesn't add that voodoo magic to the signal.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

HarperVision said:


> I don't see how that can be the case. ...


Actually he stated his TV isn't a 1080p set so the TV should be taking any signal (1080i or 1080p) and down converting it to the TV's native resolution (1376x768).


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

Im actually mirroring my roamio to both a 720p plasma and a 1080p LCD. Fixed 1080p looks best on both sets to me.


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