# Bolt picture quality



## gsol (Dec 13, 2010)

Does the Bolt have better graphic processor? I just installed one on a 4K Sony and looks like the picture is sharper and more vibrant tan the Roamio Plus on same TV. My imagination?


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

gsol said:


> Does the Bolt have better graphic processor? I just installed one on a 4K Sony and looks like the picture is sharper and more vibrant tan the Roamio Plus on same TV. My imagination?


The Bolt is 4K capable and outputs 2160p, so what you're seeing may be due to the Bolt doing a better job of upscaling than sending the 4K Sony a 1080i/p signal from the Roamio and doing the scaling there. Plus the fact that your Sony may be seeing it as a new signal and hence not using the settings you had already setup for the Roamio. Maybe these settings have the sharpness, contrast or colors overblown and fooling you into thinking it looks "better". That's the tricks they use in the showroom too.

What resolution is your Bolt set to, and what was the Roamio's? Only way to really tell is to calibrate each one and its input and then compare.


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## SolomonJ (Dec 5, 2015)

I let mine use all the resolutions so they go natively to my Sony 4K tv. My TV is still doing the up scaling. But if this helps answer your question, my picture looks significantly better with the Bolt than my previous cable box provided by my cable company, which was one of the latest Cisco DVR's. I don't remember the exact model number, but it was something like 8642 I think. So, yes, in my opinion the Bolt just plain gives a better picture than at least some other devices. Maybe that includes the Roamio, not sure...


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## rjrsouthwest (Feb 19, 2016)

The bolt does a very good job of upscaling 480i. 720p and 1080i to 4k and looks better than my Roamio did upscaling everything to 1080P and then displaying it on my 2016 P series Vizio. I have to say the new Vizio P series is a great TV but upscaling 480i and 720p to 4k on the TV is not as good as what the Bolt does.


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## aspexil (Oct 16, 2015)

We got our Samsung 4k UHD TV last year and after testing I left the Bolt to do the upscaling. Does look better than the TV's upscaling.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I typically let my Sony do the upscaling to 2160P since it seems to do a better job than the scaler in the Bolt. Although I do change it up from time to time but I eventually switch it back to the Sony TV doing the upscaling after a few days or so.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

aaronwt said:


> I typically let my Sony do the upscaling to 2160P since it seems to do a better job than the scaler in the Bolt. Although I do change it up from time to time but I eventually switch it back to the Sony TV doing the upscaling after a few days or so.


And to let your TV do the upscaling, you chose "Automatic" on TiVo's display menus, correct?


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## Steve (Apr 24, 2003)

thyname said:


> And to let your TV do the upscaling, you chose "Automatic" on TiVo's display menus, correct?


I could be wrong, but I believe "automatic" will scale everything coming out of the TiVo to whatever the TiVo senses your display resolution is.

To let the display do the upscaling, you'd have to check all resolutions, if I'm not mistaken.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

thyname said:


> And to let your TV do the upscaling, you chose "Automatic" on TiVo's display menus, correct?


No I manually select only the 2160P options for the Bolt to do the upscaling. When I have the TV do the upscaling I select 720p, 1080i, 1080P options and 2160P options.


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## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

sony 4k tvs are known for their great upscaling signals to 4K!


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## Rocka2 (Jul 28, 2008)

The noticeably better picture quality is one of the reasons I am loving the Bolt. I don't have a 4K set but I have really good 1080p and the picture quality from the Bolt is noticeably better than the other devices. Did I say, "I love the Bolt".


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## apw2607 (Nov 17, 2012)

rjrsouthwest said:


> The bolt does a very good job of upscaling 480i. 720p and 1080i to 4k and looks better than my Roamio did upscaling everything to 1080P and then displaying it on my 2016 P series Vizio. I have to say the new Vizio P series is a great TV but upscaling 480i and 720p to 4k on the TV is not as good as what the Bolt does.


Personally, i think its the opposite. For 1080p upscaling, 720p channels are soft with the Bolt. Thats exactly how the old premier was but the roamio seemed to do a good job.

1080i channels upscaled to 1080p however seem to look fine on the Bolt.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

apw2607 said:


> Personally, i think its the opposite. For 1080p upscaling, 720p channels are soft with the Bolt. Thats exactly how the old premier was but the roamio seemed to do a good job.
> 
> 1080i channels upscaled to 1080p however seem to look fine on the Bolt.


720P upscaled by any device looks soft because it's a much lower resolution. And the picture has to be blown up even more to fill the screen.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

apw2607 said:


> ........ 1080i channels upscaled to 1080p however seem to look fine on the Bolt.


That's because 1080i has the same pixel resolution as 1080p. The only thing that changes is that the TiVo de-interlaces the signal, merging the odd and even fields of the picture. How well a video processor does this is what determines how good it is, not its scaling ability, because there's nothing to scale in this instance.


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## alleybj (Dec 6, 2000)

Unlike some, I don't like the Bolt's upscaling-- it tends to smooth out the picture too much for me, so I have it set to send all signals through in their native format. With Hulu, however, there appears to be no way to prevent the Bolt from upscaling to 2160. Is this correct? If so, I'll definitely be watching Hulu on another device. Thanks


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## apw2607 (Nov 17, 2012)

HarperVision said:


> That's because 1080i has the same pixel resolution as 1080p. The only thing that changes is that the TiVo de-interlaces the signal, merging the odd and even fields of the picture. How well a video processor does this is what determines how good it is, not its scaling ability, because there's nothing to scale in this instance.


I understand how it works. Merely describing my experience and found the roamio improved with 720p material.


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## jstevenson (May 6, 2007)

I'd actually agree wth this.

I hooked a Bolt up and the picture on a 1080i channel is way better than what I had been getting on my Roamio Plus.

Gonna do some experimenting this weekend and see if it's actually better or a setting difference


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