A few questiond re HD DVR..
Jay401
Newbie

Hi All,

I have the 7216 HD DVR connected to my 53" Toshiba HD tv and have a few questions.

1.  The tech connected the dvr to my tv using a coax cable.  My tv is a bit older and doesn't have an hdmi port, but does have component.  Should he have used component cables?  Am I still getting an HD signal through the cable he used?  Would component give me a noticably better picture?

2.  The dvr makes a noticable "whirring" noise (not sure how best to describe it).  When the sound is muted, you can hear it from about 10' away.  Is this normal?

3.  What's the deal with the black bars?  I understand the bars at the top and the bottom, and although that is bad enough, some shows display with a black border all the way around.  That is a little difficult to deal with.  Any way around this?  This is my first HD DVR, do all of them do this?

Thanks for any help!

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Re: A few questiond re HD DVR..
Hubrisnxs
Legend

@Jay401 wrote:

Hi All,

I have the 7216 HD DVR connected to my 53" Toshiba HD tv and have a few questions.

1.  The tech connected the dvr to my tv using a coax cable.  My tv is a bit older and doesn't have an hdmi port, but does have component.  Should he have used component cables?  Am I still getting an HD signal through the cable he used?  Would component give me a noticably better picture?

2.  The dvr makes a noticable "whirring" noise (not sure how best to describe it).  When the sound is muted, you can hear it from about 10' away.  Is this normal?

3.  What's the deal with the black bars?  I understand the bars at the top and the bottom, and although that is bad enough, some shows display with a black border all the way around.  That is a little difficult to deal with.  Any way around this?  This is my first HD DVR, do all of them do this?

Thanks for any help!


1.  Yes, if you have a component (red/blue/green)  then you should go ahead and use that,  at worst it will give you 480i cleanly, vs a coax 480i.  and at best it will give you the optimal output that your TV can handle, maybe 720 or 1080 - that depends on your TV.   if you get the manual or at least a model number you can look it up at retrevo.com and get a manual and then see what display resolutions it supports.

2. It has a hard drive built into it, so it's reasonable to hear something.  If it's abnormally loud then that is something to call and ask them to send you a new one, but like I mentioned, it has an HD built into it so you will always hear something, it's just a matter if it's abnormally loud vs simply on and working.  

3.  The black bars are brought to you by the provider.  Some channels like will display their company logo on the right and left bars because a lot of people were confused and thought it meant that what they were watching was not in fact HD.  So some broadcasters don't care and leave it black, some fill them in with something in general.  

HERE is the thing on that.  IF it's standard definition programming you can get rid of it by telling the DVR you want a stretched image on standard definition.  To do that you have to go to your FiOS menu and hit "menu->settings->video settings and then SD Override.  Set it to stretch.    *note  the image is stretched, it will look a little bet less clear if you stretch it.  Think of stretching a picture on a pc, it looks a little funny sometimes.  So try it and if you like it, keep it. 

IF it's HD The DVR from Verizon will only give you TWO high definition settings, 720p and 1080i and I don't think either of them stretch the image.    My TV does stretch the image, so if you REALLY want it stretched on High definition badly then look on your TV for a picture mode setting that allows you to stretch the image, I wouldn't recommend doing it on high definition personally.   Some channels will have it on the right and left, some will have it surrounding the boarders, and some will look clean like a wide screen movie..  Verizon sends you the signal unchanged from the broadcaster, so that is the way they want the show looking for best picture quality.   I would go with it personally, but the above is your option off the top of my head.

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Re: A few questiond re HD DVR..
prisaz
Legend

@Jay401 wrote:

Hi All,

I have the 7216 HD DVR connected to my 53" Toshiba HD tv and have a few questions.

1.  The tech connected the dvr to my tv using a coax cable.  My tv is a bit older and doesn't have an hdmi port, but does have component.  Should he have used component cables?  Am I still getting an HD signal through the cable he used?  Would component give me a noticably better picture?

Component should give a better picture if you are able to set the DVR output to a TV supported format prior to connecting it. I would never use coax to the TV. At the very least Video and Audio cables.

2.  The dvr makes a noticable "whirring" noise (not sure how best to describe it).  When the sound is muted, you can hear it from about 10' away.  Is this normal?

If DVR is making a noise, it sounds like a cooling fan that is failing. At worst a hard drive getting ready to crash. Call them and tell them the noise gets loud and it disturbs your viewing. They should change it out for you.

 

3.  What's the deal with the black bars?  I understand the bars at the top and the bottom, and although that is bad enough, some shows display with a black border all the way around.  That is a little difficult to deal with.  Any way around this?  This is my first HD DVR, do all of them do this?

The black bars at the top are letter box. The bars at the sides are some times refered to as barn doors, and happen when a program is on an HD channel and in a 4:3 video format instead of 16:9. If you go into your settings on the DVR, it will allow you to setup the Video output format, and a feature called SD overide that some like and some do not.. But with the output using coax it may not do much for you. Get rid of the coax to the TV.

Thanks for any help!


One more item. If you have an older TV like the one Sony tube TV I have, it will not allow you to stretch the picture and the TV is not wide screen. The 4:3 format will make the picture look small like you say. Try to use the component cables to componenent input if your TV supports the 720 format. Also setting the DVR for a 4:3 format output or playing with the SD Overide may help.

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Re: A few questiond re HD DVR..
Jay401
Newbie

Thank you very much for the replies.

Should the tech have used component or at least left them with me?  Or do I have to purchase them myself?  Seems strange to pay for an HD DVR and they don't provide the hd cable, no?

I guess the noise is tolerable.  I'll monitor it, if it gets worse or I just can't take it I'll call support.

My tv can stretch the image, but I don't like to do that.  It can distort the picture like you mentioned.  I'll double check the settings tonight.  I know it is on the 1080 setting, but not sure about the sd override.  I'll take a look.

Thanks again for your help.

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Re: A few questiond re HD DVR..
Hubrisnxs
Legend

@Jay401 wrote:

Thank you very much for the replies.

Should the tech have used component or at least left them with me?  Or do I have to purchase them myself?  Seems strange to pay for an HD DVR and they don't provide the hd cable, no?

I guess the noise is tolerable.  I'll monitor it, if it gets worse or I just can't take it I'll call support.

My tv can stretch the image, but I don't like to do that.  It can distort the picture like you mentioned.  I'll double check the settings tonight.  I know it is on the 1080 setting, but not sure about the sd override.  I'll take a look.

Thanks again for your help.


Yes, I think the tech should have used and at the very least left component cables with you.   If he didn't, then I can't think of a good reason why he wouldn't - even if he had a good reason, he should have let you know what that is.   You can call tech support and they may be able to get you component cables at no cost, or if you don't feel like waiting for them to mail it to you, then you can buy your own.  

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Re: A few questiond re HD DVR..
Jay401
Newbie

Great, thanks for the info.

I don't seem to be able to use the links on this site to contact tech support, so I'll have to call tonight.

Thanks.

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Re: A few questiond re HD DVR..
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

1. no they should not have used coax under any circumstance. You will not get HD at all using coax. You need to use component cables if you want a HD picture.

2. yeah the whirring noise if the Hard drive. quite normal. (as long as it is not too loud)

3. The black bars. The ones on the left and right are what are called pillar bars, these show up when you are watching a SD picture on a HD TV. SD picture is 4:3 (square) while the HD Picure is 16:9 (rectangle). Since you are using coax cable, you are not getting the HD picture, hence only getting the square, not rectangle picture.

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Re: A few questiond re HD DVR..
ekem015
Specialist - Level 1

If the tech used coax as the connection (which he shouldn't have), then your HD channels are going to show up as windowboxed (i.e. black bars on both sides AND top and bottom) because the TV is only receiving a 4:3 signal because it's coax, but because it's an HD channel it's 16:9, so 16:9 squeezed into 4:3 = window box.

You should use component cables as your connection. Then your HD channels should fill your entire 16:9 screen in true HD quality.

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Re: A few questiond re HD DVR..
jmw1950
Specialist - Level 2

For those unfamiliar, this should give you some idea of the picture quality available  from the various connections:

Modulated RF (channel 3/4)   260-330 lines depending upon the quality of the modulator, and Comb Filter in the TV

Composite Video  260-330 lines depending upon how good the Comb Filter is.

S-Video   Up to 400 lines (does not need a comb filter)

Component Video/HDMI   Up to 1080 lines

So there is a huge difference in image quality between Component Video/HDMI and either modulated RF or Composite Video.

One other thing to be aware of. On the HD DVR products, all video outputs are active simultaneous. In theory you could connect the Component Video, HDMI, S-Video and composite Video all to different devices and run them all at the same time.


I have an S-VHS VCR that is connected to the DVR via the S-Video output and Y-cables for the audio.

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