# Roamio OTA picture clarity



## chicofox (Mar 8, 2015)

I bought my first-ever tivo (roamio ota) last weekend. There's lots to love but one glaring thing is the picture quality. I have it connected via hdmi but I find the picture a bit fuzzy compared to my tv with the antenna directly connected which produces a very sharp image.

The tivo is supposed to be capturing and displaying the raw mpeg signal, right? So there should be no encoding/compression issues?

Anyone else experience this? Perhaps this is just the way tivos are and you have to live with it?


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

Here there is no quality difference between the TV's tuner and the TV using Roamio Basic tuners. My TV has a button that shows the video format and they are the same for both.

Check the settings of the Tivo.

Settings, Settings, Video, Video Output Format. 

I've checkmarked several formats as I do not mind the slight delay in switching native broadcast formats as I rarely surf live tv. I almost always watch recorded shows and the delay is fine. Others pick one format to avoid flickering when switching. 

It is probably my imagination but I think my TV looks better using the native formats, particularly native 720p.


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## PCurry57 (Feb 27, 2012)

chicofox said:


> I bought my first-ever tivo (roamio ota) last weekend. There's lots to love but one glaring thing is the picture quality. I have it connected via hdmi but I find the picture a bit fuzzy compared to my tv with the antenna directly connected which produces a very sharp image.
> 
> The tivo is supposed to be capturing and displaying the raw mpeg signal, right? So there should be no encoding/compression issues?
> 
> Anyone else experience this? Perhaps this is just the way tivos are and you have to live with it?


What you are probably experiencing is your tv's picture mode seeing being different for various inputs one is likely set for AUTO another maybe set for games, sports movies.... try cycling picture modes on the TV.


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

I'd agree that it's probably a setting on your TV or the Tivo.

I suppose it's possible that the Tivo has a hardware problem but I'd check all the settings 1st and if the problem continues then maybe the unit needs to be exchanged..


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

chicofox said:


> I bought my first-ever tivo (roamio ota) last weekend. There's lots to love but one glaring thing is the picture quality. I have it connected via hdmi but I find the picture a bit fuzzy compared to my tv with the antenna directly connected which produces a very sharp image.
> 
> The tivo is supposed to be capturing and displaying the raw mpeg signal, right? So there should be no encoding/compression issues?
> 
> Anyone else experience this? Perhaps this is just the way tivos are and you have to live with it?


Keep in mind I like the picture on my basic TiVo, but I sort of agree with you. Until last week I had clear QAM channels. I could use my TV's tuner and switch between the raw QAM and the TiVo's slightly delayed picture. The TV always seemed clearer. My TiVo has its screen and display parameters the same for all inputs except those I have left on Auto, so that may be the cause. It's impossible to account for those Auto settings and their effect. But, if it matters, you never are watching "live" TV since the 30 minute buffer is a factor. Again, if it wasn't for the button that gives my a quick A-B comparison I never would have seen a difference. I have changed the HDMI cable also and have my output set to fixed 1080p since that's what TiVo selected and is the native resolution of the TV.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

JoeKustra said:


> But, if it matters, you never are watching "live" TV since the 30 minute buffer is a factor.


But in the age of digital TV this no longer matters. The TiVo isn't doing anything except copying the bits from the live stream to the hard drive. The signal is exactly the same. Also it's highly unlikely to be the decoder hardware inside the TiVo as all the "quality" parts of temporal compression (i.e. MPEG-2 and MPEG-4) happen on the encode side. As long as the decoder is designed to the spec it should produce identical quality to any other decoder designed to spec.

Now there could be some extra video processing the TV is applying to it's own decoder which it does not apply to HDMI input. Especially with those "auto" options. That might explain the difference. But all things being truly equal there should be no difference between TiVo output and your TVs own tuner.


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## elwaylite (Apr 23, 2006)

OTA PQ on my tivo, to my plasma, is outstanding.


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## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

Fuzzy picture could be due to 720p mode.

Have you checked the Tivo settings or whether the TV reports it as such?


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

elwaylite said:


> OTA PQ on my tivo, to my plasma, is outstanding.


Ditto


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