# Roamio Pro Picture Quality / Sound Quality diminished?



## jdaniels1982 (Jan 15, 2011)

Recently jumped from my old 2 Tuner Premier XL to the new Roameo Plus 6 tuner.... I cannot shake the feeling that the video and audio quality in general seems diminished on the new box compared to my old 2 tuner unit...Color doesn't seem to pop as nice...and the overall picture seems darker, particularly on the premium movie channels. The audio seems quieter with diminished base with the overall sound much "tinnier"...I have turned the TV volume up to compensate but it doesn't seem as good.

When I refer to picture quality I am NOT referring to the HD interface...I'm just talking watching TV or recordings.

Could the diminished quality overall be the result of the cable signal splitting 6 ways instead of 2?
Anyone else noticing?

Appreciate any help
Joe


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## jdaniels1982 (Jan 15, 2011)

Keep in mind also I am using the same cable card that worked great in the XL...so I can't blame the cable card.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Is the Roamio set for pcm or Dolby Digital output? IF set for PCm it will output in stereo and what you describe is what it sounds like. Any TiVo I have connected to a TV I keep it set on DD since the TVs can handle the 5.1 DD audio since that is what is sent from the broadcast channels as well.

Otherwise the audio from my Roamio Pro seems identical to my Premiere and Elites. I have not critically looked at the picture yet. It might be a little darker, but if it is, it is only slightly. I'll need to get some test patterns transferred to my Roamio PRo one day and see what things look like using Chromapure with my X-Rite Display 3 PRO Colorimeter. But I'm not really in any rush to do it.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If the audio is set to DD output then the audio is passed through to your receiver or TV untouched, so it would be identical between the Roamio and Premiere. If it's set to PCM then it's being decoded and there could be a difference.

Are you using the same input on your TV? Most TVs have different calibration settings for every input. So if you switched to a different input then it could be that the settings are different and that could be why it looks/sounds different.


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## jdaniels1982 (Jan 15, 2011)

I used the exact same hdmi cable and hooked up to the same hdmi input on my Samsung tv that I had been using on my old 2 tuner tivo premier xl, so it's definitely not the cable or the tv.

Also the picture is not just darker...I have noticed some of the channels appear slightly more pixelated thin the Roameo then on the old 2 tuner Premier. Definately a much more "digitized. Look". 
For example Bravo channel on Cablevision has always looked somewhat compressed with minor pixelation, but now on the Roamio that same pixelation seems to be worse, almost like the signal splitting to 6 tunershas further reduced the quality...

What do u think? Am I totally off on the cause?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

OK so the audio should be identical. Unless you had that PCM setting set on your old Premiere. You may want to look at the old Premiere if you can, or just try the setting on your Roamio and see how it looks.

For the picture quality there could be a difference. The Roamio uses a different scaler. How did you have the video outputs set on your old Premiere? Did you have multiple resolutions checked? Or did you force everything to 1080i or 720p?

The pixelation could be a signal problem. You have to remember that you're going from 2 tuners to 6 tuners, so internally the signal is being split more. SO if your sign strength was right on the edge then it could be worse in the new box. You should check the signal strength meter and see how it looks. If you regularly see channels with a strength below 70 then you might want to consider getting a cable amplifier.


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## jdaniels1982 (Jan 15, 2011)

Signal strength meter on the old primer was always between 85-91
For some reason all six tuners on the Roamio always show 100 percent across the board.
I have a cable Motorola cable amp I bought last year which I'm not using since I moved but I will try it. Still doesn't explain why everything is darker....
Should I exchange the box?

Thanks btw


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If the signal strength is 100 then it might be too strong. Try throwing a splitter into the mix just to see if you can get them to drop below 100.

The darkness could be from the scaler. Which resolutions do you have checked on the Roamio, which did you have checked on the Premiere?


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## jdaniels1982 (Jan 15, 2011)

Well I just exchanged the box for another Roamio plus...gonna start fresh. I'll keep u posted how it turns out


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## dnadrifter (Aug 31, 2013)

I too am noticing what I believe to picture quality issues. I am replacing a comcast motorola box as this my first Tivo. Going through the exact same hdmi cable. Just got it set up, paired the cable card.

The picture quality though just doesn't look as crisp. It looks flat and just not crisp. I am going to go back to the comcast box to make sure I am not imagining it, but so far I am surprised as I didn't think quality would be impacted. The TV shows 1080i coming in from the receiver. I should probably check to make sure my receiver isn't doing something to the signal from the tivo (although it was fine with the comcast box).


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

jdaniels1982 said:


> What do u think? Am I totally off on the cause?


Yep.

If the settings are the same, then there is zero difference (and the whole nature/point of "digital").


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## dnadrifter (Aug 31, 2013)

dnadrifter said:


> I too am noticing what I believe to picture quality issues. I am replacing a comcast motorola box as this my first Tivo. Going through the exact same hdmi cable. Just got it set up, paired the cable card.
> 
> The picture quality though just doesn't look as crisp. It looks flat and just not crisp. I am going to go back to the comcast box to make sure I am not imagining it, but so far I am surprised as I didn't think quality would be impacted. The TV shows 1080i coming in from the receiver. I should probably check to make sure my receiver isn't doing something to the signal from the tivo (although it was fine with the comcast box).


I think I was imagining it. I bypassed the receiver and had the same picture. I put the comcast box back on and I think I had the same picture the tivo box had. It may have just been some of the channels I was watching as some looked better than others.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

Did you check the output settings under video?

I thought mine was a little worse then when I went into the menus, it was set at 720p, not 1080p.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

To compare apples to apples you would need to have the same output set as previously. The TV or scaler could have different settings for each resolution sent. I know this is how my scaler is. I had never input 1080P60 in the input my TiVo was on before. So my scaler came up with the default settings. With my previous TiVos I needed to increase brightness a little to get the proper level.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

crxssi said:


> Yep.
> 
> If the settings are the same, then there is zero difference (and the whole nature/point of "digital").


If you're using fixed output res that totally depends on how well the new Tivos are scaling the output. Agree that with native res on both it should be the same, but even that depends on brightness levels for output etc.

For example, my Elite and my Xboxes are all set to 1080i fixed, but when using the Xbox as a WMC extender the output looks washed out compared to the Tivo so I have to have different input settings on the TV for both. Same TV, same source material.


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## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

was your tivo premiere xl 2 tuner the THX model? maybe your an audio/videophile and can really tell the difference in quality


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## jhill8 (Jul 31, 2014)

The OTA (over the air) bandwidth for a single 1080 stream is 12-16mb/s as far as I can tell.
source:
http://usjvc.com/blog/?p=263

The 3tb model boasts 450 hours (not 3000) of HD recording.
Source:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/tivo-roamio-pro-dvr/1504026.p?id=1219052966264&skuId=1504026

If my math is correct, that works out, the tivo records HD at 15mb/s
if these specs are right.

So.. Theoretically, the DVR playback quality should not be diminished when compared to live OTA HD broadcasts.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

jhill8 said:


> The OTA (over the air) bandwidth for a single 1080 stream is 12-16mb/s as far as I can tell.
> source:
> http://usjvc.com/blog/?p=263
> 
> ...


OTA broadcast bitrates can vary wildly. Just like cable bitrates can.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

jhill8 said:


> The OTA (over the air) bandwidth for a single 1080 stream is 12-16mb/s as far as I can tell.
> source:
> http://usjvc.com/blog/?p=263
> 
> ...


Yes and no.

The TiVo doesn't "record" anything. It just stores stuff (it takes it from the air or cable and writes it to the hard drive). It stores it at whatever bitrate which it gets (up to the max in the allowed OTA/Cable specs). If it gets 8mb/s, that is what is stored.

There is no set bitrate for OTA or Cable broadcasts... the operators decide what they want.

Cable companies routinely downsample (transcode) high quality OTA streams to much lower bitrates [so they have more room to add stupid channels nobody cares about]. Cox absolutely does this.... and you can easily tell on a large TV, especially with lots of rapid movement. So an OTA capture is usually (but not always) higher quality than cable... sometimes much better.


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## efisal (Dec 4, 2010)

jdaniels1982 said:


> Well I just exchanged the box for another Roamio plus...gonna start fresh. I'll keep u posted how it turns out


I wander if you got any better results after changing your Roamio box.

Thanks.


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## WorldBandRadio (Dec 20, 2010)

jdaniels1982 said:


> ...Also the picture is not just darker...I have noticed some of the channels appear slightly more pixelated thin the Roameo then on the old 2 tuner Premier....


When I switched from a two-tuner Series3/HD to a Roamio Pro, the Roamio Pro had pixelation issues on channels that the Series3/HD had no issues with.

Comcast had to roll a truck to fix some signal issues --- squirrels had chewed into the drop line from the pole to my house.

Once the drop line was replaced, the Roamio Pro had a great picture.


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## skasol (Apr 23, 2009)

This is good to hear as I just replaced my Tivo HD for a Roamio and my picture quality isn’t that great. The end of my coaxial cable came loose from the back of my Tivo I am going to try to fix it so that it can properly be plugged in 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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