Panasonic TH-42PV80AZ and TelstraClear Digital TV

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Kiwiwolf

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#25367 19-Aug-2008 18:49

Help

I have just purchased a new Panasonic Plasma TH-42PV80AZ and connected my TelstraClear digital tv decoder via S-Video cable and the quality on all channels is rubbish. Images are blurry and out of focus.

Unfortunately they don't have an HDMI output on their decoder.

I do like the channel line up on TelstraClear so I wouldn't consider Freeview.

Is my only hope of getting the most out of my Plasma by switching to MY Sky HDI.

If so, I am intrigued as to how this would benefit me as only 4 channels on My Sky broadcast in HD anyway.

Nety

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#158208 20-Aug-2008 06:38

Make sure the settings are correct on the STB for aspect ratio etc. It may be that you are sending a 4:3 image to the TV which is then stretching it or something.

Although the quality on a lot of channels is not great you should at least be getting good SD image quality from 1,2 and 3.

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Kiwiwolf

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#158236 20-Aug-2008 09:15

Thanks Nety for the reply. I have tried changing aspect ratio's to no avail. Talking to a Telstraclear tech today he tells me that this is something that other customers have complained about and that their network is not up to delivering high quality to a high tech diplays such as plasma. Looks as though I will have to change to MySky.

bcourtney

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#158242 20-Aug-2008 09:36

Kiwiwolf: Thanks Nety for the reply. I have tried changing aspect ratio's to no avail. Talking to a Telstraclear tech today he tells me that this is something that other customers have complained about and that their network is not up to delivering high quality to a high tech diplays such as plasma. Looks as though I will have to change to MySky.

I call BS on that one. I've got a 9 month old 50" Samsung plasma with TCL Digital TV and the image is pretty damn good on the majority of channels (let's not talk about ESPN). I'm really pleased with it.

That's a fairly generalised statement from a "contracted" TCL techie and is clearly not indicative of the TCL network as a whole as I, and many other GZ users can attest to. There may be issues with your node - perhaps congestion? What output on the STB are you using? I noticed a great improvement moving to a STB with s-video out.

Having said all of the above, I'm moving to MySky HDi in a few weeks - although not because the TCL network is underperforming - I just want Formula 1 in HD and the PVR funtionality. If only TCL wasn't so far behind the ball in these aspects...

sbiddle

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#158247 20-Aug-2008 09:43

TCL's picture quality is identical (or better) than Sky's. Anybody who tells you otherwise simply doesn't know what they are talking about as TCL's upgrade has delivered them a fantastic solution for TV.

The problem in part now lies with their current boxes which do have the limitation of only having composite and s-video output. s-video on a good TV however does deliver a reasonable quality image but it certainly is no match for a component or HDMI out. I would suggest checking some of your TV options first - ensure that all MPEG NR or NR or noise reduction settings are disabled for a start, these will typically make a good picture look worse.

TCL's PVR option will be truely sensational when it does appear and I'm sure those jumping ship to MySky HDi will be wanting to move back, unfortunately if you want a PVR or HD option today you will have to jump ship.

Kiwiwolf

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#158252 20-Aug-2008 09:58

Thanks to both for your feedback.

I have tried the TV settings and it has made no difference. The lack of an HDMI output appears to be the issue plus the fact that TelstraClear are pretty much giving up on trying to solve this means I am going to bite the bullet and jump ship to MySky. It will cost bugger all to switch over (the rental package).

Cheers for your help anyway.

sbiddle

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#158260 20-Aug-2008 10:11

Kiwiwolf: Thanks to both for your feedback.

I have tried the TV settings and it has made no difference. The lack of an HDMI output appears to be the issue plus the fact that TelstraClear are pretty much giving up on trying to solve this means I am going to bite the bullet and jump ship to MySky. It will cost bugger all to switch over (the rental package).

Cheers for your help anyway.

Just be aware that Sky's picture quality is part of the problem - even if you have a MySky HDi the picture quality of a large screen TV is terrible. It's even worse once you start watching HD content and realise how good TV should be!

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Kiwiwolf

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#158262 20-Aug-2008 10:17

Ok. Hopefully it can't be any worse than what I am looking at now.

I did check out the plasma display they had in the Sky reception area in ChCh and the quality even on the non HD channels was far superior to mine.