Poor Freeview picture through DVD Recorder

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benfolds

32 posts

Geek

#36514 26-Jun-2009 16:26

Hi,
I have the extra Terrestrial HD tuner which gives a great picture on the Full HD tv, however when I view it through my dvd recorder the picture quality is distinctly worse. As I tend to record most stuff and not watch it live this is highly annoying.

I have a HDMI cable from the Freeview box into the tv and then another from the tv to the dvd recorder. I still have the outside aerial plugged into the dvd recorder so I can watch Prime and another channel if Freeview is being recorded. I don't know if this is degrading the picture in any way.

any help is appreciated!
Sean

hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#228741 27-Jun-2009 10:05

so your going from STB to TV via HDMI, then using your TV Output (on the tv) to DVD Recorder? Doesnt your STB have both HDMI and RCA/Scart? there should be a way of outputting from both outputs on the set top box instead of using the TV Output on the actual TV.

but anyway, your dvd recorder cant record a HD signal, so its a downscaled version.

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Spyware

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#228759 27-Jun-2009 11:51

benfolds:
I have a HDMI cable from the Freeview box into the tv and then another from the tv to the dvd recorder.
Sean

Any (HDMI implied) cable between TV and DVD takes signal out from DVD to TV in one direction only so you haven't explained how your DVD gets any signal from the DVB-T freeview box. Typically you would use an analog interface on the extra T for this but downscaled analog out from an extra T box is noted as poor.

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Jaxson

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#229102 29-Jun-2009 09:18

The official zinwell box has very good analogue output. Many of the other boxes have poor output that looks very blocky. There's nothing you can do to improve this with the box you have.

However you seem to be feeding your recorder directly from your TV? So in this case it looks like your tv does a poor job of down converting from the hdmi in to it's analogue out.

benfolds

32 posts

Geek

#230906 4-Jul-2009 00:04

sorry i'm only a geek in training so i'm probably not explaining myself well....

There is a HDMI connection between the STB and the TV and another between the DVD recroder and the other HDMI slot in the tv.
I then have an analog (RCA) between the STB and the DVD Recorder.
I'm assuming the analog connection is the problem but I can see no other way of connecting the STB and the DVD recorder. The ET box has no Scart connection but the DVD Recorder does.

How does everyone else connect this? Is S video an option?

The Freeview picture is significantly worse when viewed through the DVD Recorder so this is highly annoying.

Doesn't help i'm lumped with the ET lemon.
Thanks for any further help!!!

hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#230928 4-Jul-2009 08:37

there will always be a difference no matter what, like i said, your dvd recorder cannot process a HD signal, so your getting SD.

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Nety

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#230942 4-Jul-2009 10:39

What other connections does the STB have? If the DVD recorder has Scart then you can get cables that go from scart to svideo etc.

Using RCA is the second lowest (worst quality) connect you can use. above that is svideo and the component before you get to digital like HDMI.

However as mentioned above your DVD recorder is incapable of recording in HD so it is never going to look anywhere near as good as the HD signal from the STB. However you should be able to get DVD quality.

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Jaxson

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#231650 6-Jul-2009 14:23

Jaxson: The official zinwell box has very good analogue output. Many of the other boxes have poor output that looks very blocky. There's nothing you can do to improve this with the box you have.

Sorry, but the problem you are seeing is due to the output of your brand of set top box.