Absolutely AWFUL SD Picture quality

[Pharos]

So I recommended FiOS to my friend after having it for 1 year, but I only watch HD channels on my living room and my non-HD set top box displays SD channels fine.

He is extremely infuriated that the SD picture quality is INFERIOR to Comcast.  Especially channel 1768 for instance, which is an international channel, looks like is being streamed from the internet using a 768kb connection. I kid you not, it looks terrible! The image looks fuzzy and blurry.

All other HD channels, however, look fine. 

I feel terrible for recommending something that looks so bad.

What the hell is going on here? How does FiOS have "crystal clear"  TV picture quality? Is that a joke? Seriously....

Is it a Set top box problem? Is there a fix for it? It has just been installed, I doubt it's a cable issue. 

Someone please help

[PJL]

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@Pharos wrote:

So I recommended FiOS to my friend after having it for 1 year, but I only watch HD channels on my living room and my non-HD set top box displays SD channels fine.

He is extremely infuriated that the SD picture quality is INFERIOR to Comcast.  Especially channel 1768 for instance, which is an international channel, looks like is being streamed from the internet using a 768kb connection. I kid you not, it looks terrible! The image looks fuzzy and blurry.

All other HD channels, however, look fine. 

I feel terrible for recommending something that looks so bad.

What the hell is going on here? How does FiOS have "crystal clear"  TV picture quality? Is that a joke? Seriously....

Is it a Set top box problem? Is there a fix for it? It has just been installed, I doubt it's a cable issue. 

Someone please help

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How do the SD channels look to you on your HD set?  My SD channels vary in quality, and that's a reflection of the channel itself, not FiOS.    But most are very clear -- on both an SD and HD set.  Is your friend using an HD TV?  Which STB is he using?   It may be the settings of the STB or the TV.  But it's not FiOS.  They simply provide the video they receive -- it is not compressed further, so the picture quality is the same as the programmer provides it.

[Pharos]

Thanks for the response. I just saw the 1768 channel on my HD box (Motorola 7100) and it indeed looks like trash... The image gets blurry all the time. All other SD channels are not as bad, though. 

The weird thing is that in my bedroom, I have a basic Motorola SD STB attached to my computer, and I watch it via Windows Media Center, and the image DOES NOT look this bad, even in full screen on my 28" monitor at 1920x1200.

It looks like there is an issue with the set top box itself. I'm pretty sure it's not the TV, either. And the settings on my HD STB are correct.

Is anybody else experiencing the same problem with SD channels with the HD set top box? 😕

[spacedebris]

Is the pic being stretched by the tv? If the tv is taking a SD pic and stretching it to fit a 16:9 screen the quality will go down, sometimes seriously.

If it looks bad at his house and bad at yours too, I'd say its probably the channel. Computer resolutions are not really a fair comparison. I've got Verizon at one house and Direct TV at the other and I frequently see the same thing. Both will have poor pic quality on the same channels. On my DTV I see a similar problem on a channel. channel 64 here in S. CA is RTV (retro tv) out of Victorville or Barstow (I dont remember which) frequently has a very poor pic. Now I know that my DTV gives me an excellent picture on most other channels and the fact that this channel is showing old programming (mostly from the 60's and 70's) and it is one of those small channel operations makes the quality of this channel questionable. I still watch it as I like the programming, and I am disappointed in the quality but its not the fault of DTV, its the channel thats being sent to them. They just do the best they can with what they see. Now I dont get channel 1768 so I cant compare on mine, but it sounds similar to what I see on others.