# Bolt Blurry Picture



## wguyette (Aug 23, 2009)

Hooked up Bolt last week. TWC-Spectrum. M Cable Card and Tuning Adapter. Picture is unacceptably blurry, especially when compared to crystal clear picture from Spectrum Box.

Don't think TiVo support knows what they are talking about. Claimed S/N was too high. Hmm I'm an engineer and have never heard of a high S/N ratio causing problems-that is usually a good thing. Anyway, at their recommendation, I placed a 6 Db attenuator in the cable line going to the TiVo. Brough the S/N to within TiVo "specs", dropped signal to 72% from 93%. No improvement in picture. 

I'm thinking it's the TiVo. Any suggestions or comments?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

A signal of 90% is what AGC strives to achieve. But that has nothing to do with poor PQ. If it doesn't change by switching the HDMI port on your TV (assuming no AVR), then given an apples to apples comparison, something is bad. Sorry I can't be more specific.

Same resolution being sent?

In Settings, Diagnostics, each tuner's information is displayed. If the VID is MPEG-2, I give up.


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## wguyette (Aug 23, 2009)

Problem solved!! Beautiful picture now with TiVo bolt.

Turns out that TWC-Spectrum is just starting to roll out tuning adapters for switched digital channels in my area-Bowling Green, KY. Service technicians will not start training on the tuning adapters for about 2 weeks. They won't be sending any switched digital channel information for about 2 weeks. Without these signals the tuning adapter will not function properly.
I knew the tuning adapter wasn't functioning and that I was missing 20% of my channels. What I didn't know was that without the tuning adapter, when the TiVo was set on a "low" number channel, for example local affiliate NBS channel 7, which is sent in both Standard Def and High Def, the TiVo will see only the SDef. Hence the blurry picture, which I now know is what a SDef signal looks like when viewed on a High Def television. For now the problem is solved by tuning to these stations in the 900 channel range, which are High Def only.

Kudos to the Spectrum cable card call-in line. The people answering the Cable Card call-in, (866) 532-2598‬, are extremely knowledgeable and well trained and really interested in solving whatever problem you are experiencing.

Tivo call-in support is a joke. Untrained people reading from a script. They are still repeating the company line that the S/N is too high, if it is over 35. This is just absurd. What you want is a high *signal to noise* (S/N) ratio.

Right now I am very happy with the Bolt and have just ordered a second TiVo mini.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

I’d suggest removing the SD channels from your Channel List. That way, the TiVo will not pick them unless you specifically force it to.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

wguyette said:


> I knew the tuning adapter wasn't functioning and that I was missing 20% of my channels. What I didn't know was that without the tuning adapter, when the TiVo was set on a "low" number channel, for example local affiliate NBS channel 7, which is sent in both Standard Def and High Def, the TiVo will see only the SDef. Hence the blurry picture, which I now know is what a SDef signal looks like when viewed on a High Def television. For now the problem is solved by tuning to these stations in the 900 channel range, which are High Def only.


Hmm there have been some other reports of display issues with Bolts (bad picture compared to what it replaced). Wondering if in some cases others were making the same assumption as the cable device autoswitched to the HD channel when tuning to an SD channel number but the Bolt would not (although if you get both the SD and HD version of a channel it should prompt you to switch to the HD channel when tuning the SD channel).

Scott


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

It does but it is subtle. “press D to watch in HD.”


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