# Poor SD Picture Quality on 811



## mpdenk (Dec 1, 2005)

Looking for some help/guidance. Just replaced my 5000 with the 811. Television in Pioneer Plasma 5060. After hooking up the new 811 using componet connections, the SD channels look real fuzzy compared to my old 5000 model which was using s-video connection. Has anyone else had this problem? Is the 942 better for SD. Are there some other settings or connections I can change to improve this. Thanks again.


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## logray (Apr 8, 2005)

mpdenk said:


> Looking for some help/guidance. Just replaced my 5000 with the 811. Television in Pioneer Plasma 5060. After hooking up the new 811 using componet connections, the SD channels look real fuzzy compared to my old 5000 model which was using s-video connection. Has anyone else had this problem? Is the 942 better for SD. Are there some other settings or connections I can change to improve this. Thanks again.


Did you try DVI yet, SD stuff looks much better for me on my 50" DLP than using component or svideo...


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

:welcome_s mpdenk

First thing. 

1) Check the output resolution of your 811. Try both 720p and 1080i settings. With my set 720p looks fuzzy and 1080i looks a lot better.

2) What size is your set? Bigger you go with SD the fuzzier you get, but since this was hooked up before with a 5000 you have a good baseline to work from. 

3) Might be an issue with the calibration on your component input. Make sure you are not set to vivid or something like that. 

My suggestion is connect the 811 using an svideo for comparision. It is possible that the scaler of your TV is better than the internal scaler of your 811.


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## moman19 (Oct 22, 2004)

mpdenk said:


> Looking for some help/guidance. Just replaced my 5000 with the 811. Television in Pioneer Plasma 5060. After hooking up the new 811 using componet connections, the SD channels look real fuzzy compared to my old 5000 model which was using s-video connection. Has anyone else had this problem? Is the 942 better for SD. Are there some other settings or connections I can change to improve this. Thanks again.


I have a Toshiba DLP and while Component cabling actually produces superior HD video vs. a DVI-HDMI cable, I agree that SD looks poor with either cable. You'll find much debate on this subjective topic. I've raised the issue, but it is what it is.

Good luck and hope for more HD content. The 811 does a poor job with SD in either 720p or 1080i IMHO.


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## logray (Apr 8, 2005)

any time you take a low res pic and blow it up on a huge widescreen it's not going to look good unless you paid $10's of thousands of dollars for your set.


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## BFG (Jan 23, 2004)

I dunno where you get that the ammount of money you paid on your set = the quality of SD, but whatever.


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## logray (Apr 8, 2005)

I have a $4k Samsung DLP, my Uncle has some sort of incredibly expensive TV and on his absolutley everything looks unbelievably spectacular, even SD content looks like it's HD. On mine, only 720p looks really really really good. Everything else is just sorta good to pretty fuzzy. Just my 2cents.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well in the case of upcasting material, there is definitely a difference between models and makes and generally more expensive sets handle better than less expesive models. Don't think I have seen anyone make SD look like HD thought.


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## wilme2 (Jul 14, 2005)

mpdenk said:


> Looking for some help/guidance. Just replaced my 5000 with the 811. Television in Pioneer Plasma 5060. After hooking up the new 811 using componet connections, the SD channels look real fuzzy compared to my old 5000 model which was using s-video connection. Has anyone else had this problem? Is the 942 better for SD. Are there some other settings or connections I can change to improve this. Thanks again.


I have both a 5000 and a 811. The 5000 is just a better SD picture. There are a lot of posts complaining about the 811's SD picture... From what I have read, the other HD receivers (942, 921) seem to have good SD pictures, making this an 811 problem...


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## tonyp56 (Apr 26, 2004)

If you've got a HD receiver then why are you watching SD?   

I'm joking, I know, but for right now, the 811 is all we got, hopefully you'll be able to figure something out. I'd try DVI, and or S-Video for your SD channels (DVI of course both HD and SD  ) On S-video, you would have to switch your TV to the S-video channel when you're watching SD. I'd try that and see if you like the PQ better, if not try DVI.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

wilme2 said:


> I have both a 5000 and a 811. The 5000 is just a better SD picture. There are a lot of posts complaining about the 811's SD picture... From what I have read, the other HD receivers (942, 921) seem to have good SD pictures, making this an 811 problem...


Not necessarly. I have both an 811 and a 921. I did not see a huge PQ difference when I had my 921 hooked up to the same configuration as my 811. There are a number of elements that go into improving perceived PQ.

1) TV Size. 
2) Viewing Distance. 
3) Input Calibration
4) Power quality 
5) TV settings
6) 811 Output settings.

Like Tony had mentioned some have seen SD PQ improvement by using the svideo output and letting the TV do the scaling. Depending on the quality of your TV this may or may not improve your PQ. For me I tried both on my Sony GWII and I did not see a noticable improvement.

When I first hooked up my 811 over a 1 1/2 ago I was dissappointed in the PQ. Well after calibrating the input and putting a power conditionair I felt the SD was acceptable. The problem with something like the 811, 942, and 921 that you are watching SD and HD on the same set and the PQ difference really stands out. I don't think think this is any different.

One thing to try and verify. Go to a cartoon channel and watch some cartoons. Reason for this is that they compress really well. See what the PQ looks like and do a comparison. Moving content will be the worse like sports. Basketball, football etc.. Yikes.

Try using switching between 1080 and 720 and see what one looks best. I am not saying that you can get SD looking close to HD. SD was designed for a 36" max TV so it has its limits. However, In my case I have the 811 putting out what I would consider acceptable SD.

I am not sure if the 811 does not upcast as well as a 921 or 942 but from my experience I could not tell the difference.

Like any PQ issue. YMMV and it is very subjective.


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## logray (Apr 8, 2005)

I agree with Ron 100%.


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