# Help, TiVo - pixelated picture quality (solved by pressing AUX), using Freeview



## Jo.Cassady (Jul 21, 2002)

I am using a Sony LCD with a superb screen - pictures are normally stunning (it is only standard definition sky digital or freeview)

But I have got a new tivo and the pictures are pixelly (is that even a real word?)

I solve this problem by sitting as far away from the screen as possible


Any ideas? I really want the clearest picture possible.


----------



## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

What do you have the video quality set to on TiVo?


----------



## Jo.Cassady (Jul 21, 2002)

ozsat said:


> What do you have the video quality set to on TiVo?


'Best Quallity' in the video recording quality menu


----------



## Jo.Cassady (Jul 21, 2002)

I solved the problem!!

Instead of using the scart lead that came with the freeview box, I used the profigold gold plated scart leads I bought... problem solved... the bloke in the hifi shop wasn't lying! the scart leads make a *hell of a difference!*


----------



## tray (Jul 11, 2005)

Yes good scart leads do make a difference - I like the ones from QED


----------



## Jo.Cassady (Jul 21, 2002)

I was wrong - the scart did improve the picture, but there is still some pixeling. 

I might give this Mode Zero thing a try....is there a 'beginners guide' somewhere please?


----------



## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=286938


----------



## Jo.Cassady (Jul 21, 2002)

blindlemon said:


> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=286938


ermm.. thanks. I think I'll have to get a computer person to help me with that

In a nutshell, is 'Mode Zero' just a setting higher than 'best quality' - so it should minimise pixeling? I have a 160gb hard drive - that should still be plenty of space (im mean I used to cope just fine with the 40gb hard drive)


----------



## chimaera (Nov 13, 2000)

Before doing anything drastic, make sure that the SCART on the TV that you have plugged TiVo into supports RGB. On my last Sony TV, only AV1 supported RGB. If you're getting composite, then the picture won't be very good. Also (goes without saying I guess) make sure TiVo is set to output RGB.


----------



## rwtomkins (Jul 14, 2003)

Can I ask a related question? If you watch live TV through TiVo, are you really watching unadulterated live TV or is your signal processed by TiVo? In other words, if you have your TiVo set on Best Quality, will you only get a Best Quality version of live TV through it instead of a clean one?

The reason I ask is similar to Jo.Cassady's. I've just got a very nice LCD TV, the popular Toshiba 32WLT66, but I'm not happy with the PQ when watching it through Tivo. The main thing is, dark colours are too black - you lose all the detail in an undifferentiated pool of black - and similarly everything is overexposed and bleached out at the white end of the spectrum. There's also more smearing or image trail with moving images than when watching the TV through its internal Freeview tuner.

I'm using a Sony Freeview box with TiVo but I'd be surprised if that was to blame.


----------



## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

TiVo's "Live TV" is a recording - about half a second behind real-time. That's how you can pause it etc..

The default RGB settings on the TiVo are over-saturated and over-contrasty in most cases. On a networked TiVo, this can be fixed by the use of iicsetw to modify the RGB output settings via the I2C interface. If you don't have a network card then you can also install iicsetw but it's more complicated as you will have to pull the TiVo drive and modify it in your PC by mounting the system partition under linux. 

Alternatively, if you buy a pre-configured upgrade drive then you may be able to persuade the vendor to pre-install iicsetw for you - although in all honesty you probably won't get a perfect result that way as the optimum values for contrast & saturation are best set by trial & error as they vary from setup to setup depending on your source etc.


----------



## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

Jo.Cassady said:


> In a nutshell, is 'Mode Zero' just a setting higher than 'best quality' - so it should minimise pixeling? I have a 160gb hard drive - that should still be plenty of space (im mean I used to cope just fine with the 40gb hard drive)


Mode 0 increases the resolution to that of a DVD. When setting up Mode 0, most people also enable VBR (variable bit-rate), whereby the maximum bit rate is higher than Best, but the target (average) bit rate is lower.

With VBR Mode 0, I not only get increased resolution, but I actually increased my storage by up to 100%. 

For ultimate quality, some people stick with CBR (constant bit-rate), but you will lose capacity.

In my case, I get the white flashes (caused by overloading the MPEG decoder) about once every six months or so. Some people will get it much more often.


----------



## barbrook2 (Jun 7, 2006)

rwtomkins said:


> Can I ask a related question? If you watch live TV through TiVo, are you really watching unadulterated live TV or is your signal processed by TiVo? In other words, if you have your TiVo set on Best Quality, will you only get a Best Quality version of live TV through it instead of a clean one?
> 
> The reason I ask is similar to Jo.Cassady's. I've just got a very nice LCD TV, the popular Toshiba 32WLT66, but I'm not happy with the PQ when watching it through Tivo. The main thing is, dark colours are too black - you lose all the detail in an undifferentiated pool of black - and similarly everything is overexposed and bleached out at the white end of the spectrum. There's also more smearing or image trail with moving images than when watching the TV through its internal Freeview tuner.
> 
> I'm using a Sony Freeview box with TiVo but I'd be surprised if that was to blame.


I have a Toshiba too (37WLT66) and I wasn't happy with the PQ when watching through TIVO. But a disk upgrade with mode 0 enabled from tivoheaven improved the picture.

But for some reason I get a much better picture when setting TIVO to Pal only (rather than RGB + Pal) on both input and output. With RGB set I get the overexposed whites. The TV input takes RGB but the picture is definitely better when set to PAL. The source is a Sky 'mini' box which doesn't have the option of setting RGB


----------



## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

barbrook2 said:


> But for some reason I get a much better picture when setting TIVO to Pal only ...


My brother had an old Sony that hated RGB. It used to add a ghosted edge to white text.


----------



## rwtomkins (Jul 14, 2003)

blindlemon said:


> TiVo's "Live TV" is a recording - about half a second behind real-time. That's how you can pause it etc..
> 
> The default RGB settings on the TiVo are over-saturated and over-contrasty in most cases. On a networked TiVo, this can be fixed by the use of iicsetw to modify the RGB output settings via the I2C interface. If you don't have a network card then you can also install iicsetw but it's more complicated as you will have to pull the TiVo drive and modify it in your PC by mounting the system partition under linux.
> 
> Alternatively, if you buy a pre-configured upgrade drive then you may be able to persuade the vendor to pre-install iicsetw for you - although in all honesty you probably won't get a perfect result that way as the optimum values for contrast & saturation are best set by trial & error as they vary from setup to setup depending on your source etc.


Aha, thank you blindlemon, that explains a lot. So does this mean that, for best results, I would really need to get a network card AND fiddle around with the iicsetw settings AND upgrade to mode 0? Assuming I'm too ignerrant to do this myself, it sounds like I'm going to need a lot of help from some friendly, all-knowing vendor. I wonder who?


----------



## rwtomkins (Jul 14, 2003)

barbrook2 said:


> I have a Toshiba too (37WLT66) and I wasn't happy with the PQ when watching through TIVO. But a disk upgrade with mode 0 enabled from tivoheaven improved the picture.
> 
> But for some reason I get a much better picture when setting TIVO to Pal only (rather than RGB + Pal) on both input and output. With RGB set I get the overexposed whites. The TV input takes RGB but the picture is definitely better when set to PAL. The source is a Sky 'mini' box which doesn't have the option of setting RGB


Weird but very interesting. Thanks, barbrook 2, I will certainly play around with this. Could be quite useful if it frees up the RGB input on the TV for something else!


----------



## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

rwtomkins said:


> [...]sounds like I'm going to need a lot of help from some friendly, all-knowing vendor. I wonder who?


I have no idea


----------



## rwtomkins (Jul 14, 2003)

barbrook2 said:


> I have a Toshiba too (37WLT66) and I wasn't happy with the PQ when watching through TIVO. But a disk upgrade with mode 0 enabled from tivoheaven improved the picture.
> 
> But for some reason I get a much better picture when setting TIVO to Pal only (rather than RGB + Pal) on both input and output. With RGB set I get the overexposed whites. The TV input takes RGB but the picture is definitely better when set to PAL. The source is a Sky 'mini' box which doesn't have the option of setting RGB


I tried this last night and it works! Thanks, barbrook2. The quality through TiVo (set to Best Quality) is still worse than Freeview direct or DVD but it's much better than it was, and good enough to keep me going until I've save enough pennies to get the TiVo upgraded!


----------



## Jo.Cassady (Jul 21, 2002)

rwtomkins said:


> I tried this last night and it works! Thanks, barbrook2. The quality through TiVo (set to Best Quality) is still worse than Freeview direct or DVD but it's much better than it was, and good enough to keep me going until I've save enough pennies to get the TiVo upgraded!


*
I just tried this too and the difference is phenomenal - wow - excellent!*

Thanks

Aux source - PAL ONLY
Scart out - PAL ONLY

(then signal goes to my Sony RDRHX510) and component video out to my sony lcd

The picture quality is amazing!


----------

