Will my LCD TV Image Improve?

[joe123]

I currently have 2 MVP extenders and recently bought an LCD HD TV.

The SD recordings on the LCD TV look horrific now compared to the old TV.

If I buy a SageTV Thread HD and plug it to my LCD TV using HDMI cable, will the SD recordings look better?

I know I should record in HD to fully appreciate HD on the LCD TV, but I cannot afford the switch over all at once.

So my first step would be to get the HD extender IF my SD recordings will look better on the new LCD HD TV.

Anyone has any experience with this?

[HelenWeathers]

How old is your LCD TV? It takes a while for all those little pixels to break in and achieve top performance ie. faster response times in motion/color changes.

That said, some LCD TVs scale (convert 480 to 720 or 1080) better than others. I've seen some Sony's that were a waste for SD playback. I generally like Samsung.

How does the TV look with a High Def source?

I havn't used my HD-200s with SD sources so can't answer that directly.

[joe123]

The HD LCD TV is 4-5 months old.

When I watch HD recordings via the Time Warner HD box, it looks great so I know the TV can produce really good picture.

Like you said about the Sony HD TV and watching SD recordings, it is a lot worse now and I mean REALLY BAD watching SD recordings via the MVP on the new HD TV than on my old SD TV.

So I was curious to see if using the new HD extender, if SD recordings would look better?

[HelenWeathers]

I mean REALLY BAD watching SD recordings via the MVP on the new HD TV than on my old SD TV. So I was curious to see if using the new HD extender, if SD recordings would look better?

There have to be some here who converted from MVP to HD-200. Maybe they'll chime in with an answer.

[Taddeusz]

It depends on your source and what kind of quality those recordings have. When I switched from a MediaMVP to my HD100 There was a noticeable improvement in the playback quality of SD recordings from my PVR150 which was connected to a cable box via S-video. When I had the same card connected directly to the cable TV line I got anywhere from good recordings to bad recordings depending on the channel.

If you stick with the MVP makes sure the video is connected to your TV with s-video and NOT the yellow composite cable. You get a sharper picture that way.

But overall, yes, you should get a better picture with the HD200 but it will depend solely on your recording source.

[joe123]

I checked and my MVP is connect via the S-video (round) cable (not yellow RCA jack).

Well, I hope that upgrading and using the HDMI cable significantly improves my SD recordings.

[stanger89]

I would not expect a significant improvement in SD with the HD extender. The scaling on the HD extender isn't anything to write home about, so I don't see you getting a lot of benefit there. And the MVP already output a pretty good SD image. HDMI isn't magically going to make your picture better.

If all you're playing is SD MPEG-2 recordings, I think you'd be hard pressed to justify swapping to HD extenders.

[Taddeusz]

What is the source of your SD recordings and how is it hooked up?

[Clift]

What is the source of your SD recordings and how is it hooked up?

I think that's the issue here. Not all TV tuner cards are created equal and usually, capturing from the cable jack directly to the tuner produces a crappy picture, especially on HD TV's.

The best bet in your situation may be to capture using S-Video from the cable box if you have one available.

[joe123]

I have two PVR-150 tunner cards. One capturing with S-Video and on the MVP, it outputs with the S-Video.

My SD recordings that are recording on the S-video tuner card and output on the S-video MVP look really BAD on the new LCD HD tv.

[Taddeusz]

I have two PVR-150 tunner cards. One capturing with S-Video and on the MVP, it outputs with the S-Video.

My SD recordings that are recording on the S-video tuner card and output on the S-video MVP look really BAD on the new LCD HD tv.

What is your recording quality set to for both cards?

[joe123]

What is your recording quality set to for both cards?

3GB an hour.

The SD recordings look fine on our old non-HD TV. The same SD recordings now look like crap on our HD TV.

When I watch HD programming straight from our HD time warner box on our new HD TV, it looks great. When I watch Sage SD recordings from the MVP on our new HD TV, it looks like crap.

PVR-150 recording via S-video from our Timewarned HD box. MVP playback through S-video with Sage.

[Taddeusz]

3GB an hour.

The SD recordings look fine on our old non-HD TV. The same SD recordings now look like crap on our HD TV.

When I watch HD programming straight from our HD time warner box on our new HD TV, it looks great. When I watch Sage SD recordings from the MVP on our new HD TV, it looks like crap.

PVR-150 recording via S-video from our Timewarned HD box. MVP playback through S-video with Sage.

Comparing HD video from your cable company to recorded SD video is not a fair comparison. A better comparison would be how good SD programming from your Time Warner box looks on your HDTV? How does that look in comparison to your recordings from the MVP?

When you say it looks like crap do you mean the image is fuzzy? How does it look bad? SD video is not going to look great on an HDTV.

No amount of "upconverting" is going to change the fact that the video you're seeing is 720x480 resolution compared to the 1280x720 or 1920x1080 of HD video. An HDTV isn't going to magically make your SD video look better.

Of course the SDTV is going to show the recordings quite well because they are in fact the resolution that the TV was made to display. Displaying an SD picture on an HDTV is going to result in a fuzzy picture because the image needs to be scaled to fit the screen. If it weren't scaled you'd end up with a sharp picture but a tiny box in the middle of screen. That's just not what you want though.

It sounds like you're just unhappy with the way an SD image looks on your HDTV. If that's the case then it will be something you'll have to live with or upgrade your system to be able to record HD and only HD.

[stanger89]

3GB an hour.

The SD recordings look fine on our old non-HD TV. The same SD recordings now look like crap on our HD TV.

When I watch HD programming straight from our HD time warner box on our new HD TV, it looks great. When I watch Sage SD recordings from the MVP on our new HD TV, it looks like crap.

PVR-150 recording via S-video from our Timewarned HD box. MVP playback through S-video with Sage.

That doesn't sound terribly odd/wrong to me.