# 4K TV Resolution Question



## Phil T (Oct 29, 2003)

I have a new Bolt VOX and use it with a 4K Sony XBR-65X750D with a cablecard on Comcast/Xfinity. When I set the resolution to 4K on the Bolt, I get a jittery picture, not noticeable most of the time, but very noticeable on NFL football telecasts. If I set the resolution to auto, the TV defaults to 1080P and the problem disappears. 

How do most of you set the resolution on your 4K TV's? I know Xfinity does not carry any 4K so should I just keep it on Auto?


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## rbronco21 (Nov 1, 2005)

Phil T said:


> I have a new Bolt VOX and use it with a 4K Sony XBR-65X750D with a cablecard on Comcast/Xfinity. When I set the resolution to 4K on the Bolt, I get a jittery picture, not noticeable most of the time, but very noticeable on NFL football telecasts. If I set the resolution to auto, the TV defaults to 1080P and the problem disappears.
> 
> How do most of you set the resolution on your 4K TV's? I know Xfinity does not carry any 4K so should I just keep it on Auto?


If you've got a modern TV, which you do, I'd trust it to scale better than any source. Let your TiVo serve up whatever it has and let the TV decide what to do with it. I am not sure what auto actually does. Mine is set to output all the resolutions except 1080p 24/25. I'm not sure where the TiVo would get that kind of video.


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Sounds like your problem is the TV and NOT the TiVo. Virtually all 4K UHD televisions have issues with motion jitters (also called judder and lots of other things). Some brands/models are MUCH worse than others. This issue is so bad that ratings of these TV models usually have specific discussions about how bad the issues are. You can often make the issue much better by messing with various TV settings for things like auto motion smoothing. On my relatively new Samsung 65" UHD, I get the best picture quality with all those related settings totally DISABLED.

Note that various signal sources are affected by this problem in different ways, as are different types of video (old film vs old TV vs modern digital, etc.), so it is often hard to pin down the real problem. I suggest you find a recorded program where you can reproduce the exact issue you see by just hitting the 8-sec rewind button, then use that scene to repeatedly check for changes each time you adjust something in the TV settings.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

rbronco21 said:


> Mine is set to output all the resolutions except 1080p 24/25. I'm not sure where the TiVo would get that kind of video.


1080p/24 is from movies on Amazon or Netflix (and others). That's why it only works on streaming content.

I can't be sure, but it seems that auto is the resolution that you will see as preferred. For my Sony TV, which can do 1080p, it sends 1080i even for 720p or 480i content.

From the 20.7.4 video resolution screen when you move over the auto option:
Auto (recommended)
Auto provides the best
possible quality on your TV.

When switching between
shows at different
resolutions, you may see a
brief flicker.

Auto for your TV includes:
1080i

On my Sony 40W600B, Sony EX700 and Sharp/Roku TV all indicate 1080i as preferred. This is the output of Roamio and Mini boxes. A Bolt may be different. Current video resolution is also displayed in System Information.

The source resolution can be seen with the Info display.


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## Phil T (Oct 29, 2003)

A little more info. With this set on DirecTV I used a setting called "native" that passed through what ever the source was. Fox 720P, CBS 1080I, etc and that is the resolution the TV displayed. 4K displayed 3840 x 2160p which was only one channel.

The Bolt seems to lock the TV on only one resolution. On AUTO everything shows 1080p If I select 4K everything shows 3840 x 2160p so there seems to be no native type setting. Checking or unchecking the other resolutions does nothing, even the ones that say "pass through".


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Phil T said:


> A little more info. With this set on DirecTV I used a setting called "native" that passed through what ever the source was. Fox 720P, CBS 1080I, etc and that is the resolution the TV displayed. 4K displayed 3840 x 2160p which was only one channel.
> The Bolt seems to lock the TV on only one resolution. On AUTO everything shows 1080p If I select 4K everything shows 3840 x 2160p so there seems to be no native type setting. Checking or unchecking the other resolutions does nothing, even the ones that say "pass through".


If you want every resolutions to be sent as they are received, check all resolutions. The "pass through" box only applies to streaming content. Your TV will always display everything in its native resolution, as will every TV.


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## Phil T (Oct 29, 2003)

I tried checking all resolutions. Yet the TV only shows the highest resolution checked (3840 v 2160p) on every channel.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

This is one of the bugs in Hydra. Native resolution output. If 1080i is checked as a resolution, then it should be output in 1080i if that is the resolution of the broadcast.
As well as 720P should be ouput as 720P.. But it is outputting at 1080P30 or 216030 for 1080i content and 1080P60 or 2160P60 for 720P content.


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## Puppy76 (Oct 7, 2004)

I guess I'll post here since I'm basically asking the same-ish thing...

When I set up my Bolt a year ago (NOT Hydra interface) I checked all the resolution settings. 

Works fine, though it does mean I have to wait maybe 5 seconds when I change shows displaying at a different resolution, for it to flick to black and come back.

I read someone say to just set the TiVo to only output 4K @ 60FPS, that the TiVo will handle upconverting/deinterlacing everything fine and get rid of the annoying waiting 5 seconds after changing shows? Which is better to do, because from this thread it sounds like people are saying the opposite.

To the OP-Sony and I think then Samsung are BY FAR the best at upscaling, deinterlacing, all of that, so any issue you're seeing isn't the TV per se. They do it faster, and do it way, way better than worse sets (which is one of the reasons I won't mess with anything else). 

Make sure you've got that "motion flow" or whatever it's called on your set turned off. It's HORRIBLE, makes stuff look unwatchable. It's making up frames in between real frames, which just makes things look terrible. You may have to manually turn it off for every single video source (including for streaming "apps" on your TV too, quite possible). 

That might be the cause of any weirdness you're seeing. Can also try turning on Game Mode too and see if you like that, which obviously for games you want, but even for other content you might prefer it, turns off more processing. (And again input lag is another area Sony/Samsung shine. Review sites that track it...I've LITERALLY seen a Sony that was like 20-30ms in game mode, like 60 out of it, and another set that was 80ms in GAME mode...like literally the Sony was faster OUT of game mode than this other set was IN it, which is...why I do not mess with other stuff lol)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I used to hate the frame interpolation. But I forced myself to get used to it with my Sony TV. Since the Sony TVs do an excellent job of eliminating judder. I just keep the frame interpolation at it's lowest setting so you don't get that video look.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

aaronwt said:


> I used to hate the frame interpolation. But I forced myself to get used to it with my Sony TV. Since the Sony TVs do an excellent job of eliminating judder. I just keep the frame interpolation at it's lowest setting so you don't get that video look.


I found frame interpolation to really be necessary on my LG OLED TV. OLED has so little blur that the natural judder of films looks particularly harsh and jerky. Have to turn de-judder up to 2 or 3 (out of 10) to take the edge off.


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