Poor HD quality several channels
GreyhoundGuy
Newbie

Have a new Samsung UN50EH6000 LED TV which is connected via HDMI to the Arris VMS1100. Had a very nasty banding issue with the original panel that Best Buy refused to see until I purchased a Blu Ray calibration disc which made the defect easily visible. Thought it was the problem since it existed on both Blu Ray & FIOS. Best Buy replaced the panel. Calibration was reran and now Blu Ray looks amazing, FIOS HDTV, not so much. for lack of a better description, it looks like curtains during fast moving/panning scenes which is most noticable on more solid colors such as the browns and greens of a baseball diamond. CSN looks horrible, the Phillies are almost unwatchable. Same with the Eagles. It also manifests on shows like Ice Road Truckers. Some stuff looks amazing, Network feeds, MLB HD exhibits the same "curtain" effect, but to a lesser effect. I had a service call where the tech was to replace the coax since the phone support tech said the S/N ratio on the channel itself, which was 40 Db was "not where they like to see it". The other S/N ratio stays around 26-27 Db which as I understand is normal. Can someone tell me if the individual channel S/N is better higher or lower. I have compared the values for several channels and have found them to vary between 40 - 43 Db. I would guess the higher numbers indicate stronger signal? Next step is to call again and beg them to upgrade the cable and/or replace the box.

Thanks in advance 🙂

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Re: Poor HD quality several channels
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

Each input on the Samsung has seperate calibration.  Suggest pluggin in your Blu-ray player to where you normally have your Arris.  Run calibration then replug in the arris.

The problems you mention do not occur on most channels, although a few are notorius for artifacts.

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Re: Poor HD quality several channels
GreyhoundGuy
Newbie

Aah grasshopper, I did not fall off the turnip truck yesterday. That has been done. Both the FIOS box & Blu Ray feed into a Sony Reciever which does the HDMI switching. I have tried running HDMI direct to the television, no change. Changed HDMI Inputs, no change, changed cables etc. I have not tried using component cables, which kind of defeats the purpose topping out at 1080i.

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Re: Poor HD quality several channels
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

Try tuning down sharpness (often to 15 or less) and try different modes.  For example the TV may be trying to create in-between frames (picture at 24 or 30) and screen refreshing 120 times a second.  Some times the created frames cause such image problems and its better to go back to turn off such settings as film mode.

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Re: Poor HD quality several channels
GreyhoundGuy
Newbie

I have the HDMI Input set to DVI and the sharpness is at 0. I have calibrated the set using the Disney WOW disc. I am convinced it is the box and or cable. I did the "fix set top box problems" from the remote and when the box came back, S/N on Comcast Sports Net 576 was 41.9 DB. Started watching baseball and noticed a great improvement, but not complete. Signal sank to 41 DB and then to 40.9 DB within minutes. Does  that help?

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Re: Poor HD quality several channels
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

Those s/n are more than adequate.  Something else is wrong.  Of course it could be the box.  Do you have more than one to test with?  And some channels are notorious for either poor feeds to Verizon or something being badly reencoding from mpeg-4 to mpeg 2.  Some of the bad channels reported in the past are the for AMC ones (AMC IFC, WE TV and SundanceTV).

ps:  remember this is peer to peer.  If you need Verizon help you don't want to use this forum.

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Re: Poor HD quality several channels
GreyhoundGuy
Newbie

After the FIOS tech visited again and confirmed no issues, I called Samsung directly. Told them Best Buy had replaced the LCD but refuses to do anything else. "Pradeep" then told me I had violated my warranty. After attaching my head back on my body, I phoned Best Buy and spoke very nicely with Ian, the manager. After explaining my situation, he agreed to take back the set and give me store credit. I picked up a new set and 99.9% of my issues had vanished. I still experience some crappy HD, mainly Comcast Sports Net. Watched HD football on all networks and it was stunning. ESPN had issues during MNF. Thanks for the advice. Sorry to have wasted everyones time.

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