S-Video (SVHS) will generally give a sharper picture than the RCA connection. The quality of the color image is largely defined by the quality of the three color signals are fed to the set. In order to retain compatability they are not transmitted in an obvious fashion. Brightness is the R+G+B, The two other signals are called chromiance and Luminance. They are seperated in the Time Domain,but not in the frequency domain, so in order to fully recover the color signals some complex electronics are required. It is called a comb filter. With the best comb filter, SD Analog TV can provide about 370 line resolution within the over the air channel, without it, you are limited to about 260 line resolution. S-VHS can provide 400 line resolution, and component video is capable of the full 480 lines if the source signal is good enough. Most high end TV's and video equipment have internal processing to provide more saturated colors, and sharper edges, particularly on moving objects, so if you have a high end TV, it usually does some internal image processing to try to improve the image for you, but the better quality image you start with, the better quality image you will end up with.
The Signal from the RCA video jack has the color signals encoded as they are on over the air TV. The S-Video jack provides them already split out, so the image quality is not dependent on how good the comb filter is in your TV. In generall the picture quality is best with component video/HDMI, next with S-Video, next is the AV Video, and lowest is the Channel 3/4 output...
And as far as the picture being better on HD, how do you have your STB hooked up to your TV is it RCA or Component. If its Component cables that would most likely be why. Component does a 480p pictures, where RCA is 480i. You may want to hook up your DVD player to component cables as well to get a 480p picture from your DVD'sComponent --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_videoRCA --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_connector
The STB is hooked to the TV through S-Video, I use the component inputs for my dvd player. It's an older Toshiba 36" 4:3 tube set, and I am pretty certain that it does not have progressive scan.
The only logical explanation I can figure for the HD channels to look better than the SD channels on my standard set, Is that the HD feeds are more carefully encoded, while SD feeds are overcompressed somewhere along the line. While I find the picture quality on Showtime HD to be better than Showtime SD, It's not a dramatic difference, but my local channels for ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, & CW, it's night and day, the SD feeds are soft, fuzzy and even suffer paler colors. Maybe the HD channels take the primetime programming feeds direct from the Network providers, while the SD feeds are secondary from the local affiliate?
As far as The Piano looking better than the dvd, upon further thought, It could perhaps be that the HD Cinemax broadcast was maybe sourced from a newly mastered transfer, while the DVD was sourced from the 14 year old laserdisc master?
We talked about this one month ago and expected that patch 1.6.1 would soon come (late Nov or early Dec). Unfortunately, so far the ugly and blurred 1.6.0 is still in place. Anybody can suggest when it is available? Thanks.
@Danny wrote:We talked about this one month ago and expected that patch 1.6.1 would soon come (late Nov or early Dec). Unfortunately, so far the ugly and blurred 1.6.0 is still in place. Anybody can suggest when it is available? Thanks.
Still in testing. No ETA (probably after the 1st of the year now - strictly a guesstimate).
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