Poor picture quality vix 4.2

[tappari]

why? Which settings?


That's about the worst possible setting you can think of. Now all video is being downscaled by the box to that extreme low resolution, and then again upscaled by your telly. Both scalings are not lossfree.
Why would you choose such a setting? If you're happy with the result you're either very far away from your screen (over 5 meter), or your eyes are very bad.

I am also using autoresolution with settings HD interlace Mode = 1080i and HD Progressive Mode = 720p. My video enhancement setup is Scaler sharpness = 20, others default.

[Joe_90]

I am also using autoresolution with settings HD interlace Mode = 1080i and HD Progressive Mode = 720p. My video enhancement setup is Scaler sharpness = 20, others default.

You said in your previous post that you were using 576i as the resolution setting and did not mention autoresolution. My recollection is that the AV settings require either a specific resolution OR autoresolution If you set it to 576i, then you will reduce even HD channels to SD resolution in the box and the TV will not be able to display them properly. The TV will "scale" the picture to fill the screen, but it can't re-create lost resolution if you remove it in the STB. The autoresolution settings introduce all sorts of variables into the picture quality which may cause issues for some TVs but I presume you are happy with the results. In my case for DVB-S/T viewing (I only using my STB for TV/radio) I leave the AV settings at 1080i 50Hz. The box seems to be as good as the TV at scaling SD resolutions so it suits my situation.

[DaMacFunkin]

So you turn off all TV "tweaks" ? The only good tweak on a TV is to use either a THX calibrated display option(which will turn off all the tweaks) or get it properly calibrated

Even a THX preset mode is not that involved, it just means that the contrast, brightness and colors where tuned to not be clipping using rec 709 & 2.4 gamma as a very rough guide when leaving the factory, it in no way will be as accurate as a full calibration, and in many peoples set ups will leave the picture looking to dark.

[DaMacFunkin]

TBH honest both of my main TV's do a better job of scaling SD channels via their internal freesat tuners as any of my VU+ boxes do, I don't think auto resolution plug in works on solo4k, it certainly didn't the first time i tried it, no biggy as the amount of SD TV i watch is next to none.
A decent tv will always scale better than a box, it is possible that some boxes inbetween driver versions have changed scaler sharpness, some people see it more than others, some peoples panel's respond to it in different ways.
Also settings for one Manufacturers box might not match another, some tuners's zero point for sharpness is 20, anything below softens, everything above sharpens then introduces noise.
Some tuners have 50 as zero point.

[Rob van der Does]

Lets hope xtrend can resolve the kernal/driver issue then.

I wouldn't hold my breath for that to happen. the 8k & 10k are end of life and so far Xtrend has clearly shown no interest in them any more. Even the regression that took pace with the actual drivers has never been fixed.

[Rob van der Does]

A decent tv will always scale better than a box,

That is absolutely not true. Many tests on several forums have proven that is is seldom (if ever) possible to see any difference in PQ, comparing STB/TV scaling. And some TV's actually even do a far worse job in this respect.
Autoresolution has the disadvantage that you'll always have to wait for the TV to switch.

[kryton]

I wouldn't hold my breath for that to happen. the 8k & 10k are end of life and so far Xtrend has clearly shown no interest in them any more. Even the regression that took pace with the actual drivers has never been fixed.

What a shame.
Looks like it could go up for sale then.
Cheers mate

[DaMacFunkin]

I agree, but exceptions exist unfortunately. I've had a fair few screens from several brands, my old Samsung LED scaled SD well, the much newer Samsung plasma I got to replace it was awful at scaling SD, it genuinely looked terrible. The Panasonic's of the same year wiped the floor with both. For the Samsung plasma the best solution I found was to use the box scaler and feed the screen native resolution content, with that it was fine and looked loads better. Sharpness should be as low as possible and edge enhancement off (ideally use movie/THX/cinema as it turns off most of the screen processing crap). We're way past the point where it was in any way useful.

If I owned one of the boxes (it mainly seems to be Xtrend) that was affected i'd probably look to an image that made use of the older driver and ideally had plugin support (not that it's particularly hard to add them manually), the change log should tell you what you need to know.

Mmm one of those Panasonic plasma's you mention i think i own, check my sig, TBH it pretty much wiped the floor with most things, especially when calibrated after a decent run in period, a lot would argue it was even better than it's replacement.
Even though i own a 65" HDR 4K TV i sometimes look at that VT50 and go all dough eyed.

[DaMacFunkin]

That is absolutely not true. Many tests on several forums have proven that is is seldom (if ever) possible to see any difference in PQ, comparing STB/TV scaling. And some TV's actually even do a far worse job in this respect.
Autoresolution has the disadvantage that you'll always have to wait for the TV to switch.

Look Rob there are £500 40" tv's and £4000 65" tv's, thats what i'm basing my results on, and i never said that they did a better job from an native SD input over HDMI as opposed to SD scaled to 1080i pumped in via HDMI, i said the internal tuners.
I can also point you to forums for lots of media players where it is proven that most 4k TV's will do a better job at scaling 1080p than the box itself, The Nvidia shield is a prime example, it's 4k scaling of 1080p content is not the best, with spmc you can get the box to use Lancoz3 as a scaler by hacking the advancedsettings.xml but it still isn't as good as most Tv's, as even the Kodi and spmc developers will testify.
Also yes i know auto resolution is a pain and you need to wait for the TV to switch, that is why i don't use it, also the only SDchannels i watch need to be decrypted by the box, so i couldn't watch them on the TV anyway.
Just because one person can't see something, doesn't mean another can't, i still know lots of people who can't tell the difference between watching a scaled SD channel and a HD channel, me i could probably shoot the nads off a nat at 400 yards.

[twol]

The trouble was that Samsung blew away the competition and killed Panasonics plasma,s through cheap LCD,s - now perhaps Samsung are reaping the "benefits" with LG's OLED (plus more and more brands using LG Oleds) threatening their business, coupled to their recent and ongoing phone issue - couldn't happen to a nicer company

[Joe_90]

My Samsung is having its second panel replacement in six months tomorrow. I think it's panel delamination as there are dark smudges when it is displaying bright images. First panel lasted 11 months. Maybe an LG next time?

[Rob van der Does]

Look Rob there are £500 40" tv's and £4000 65" tv's, thats what i'm basing my results on, and i never said that they did a better job from an native SD input over HDMI as opposed to SD scaled to 1080i pumped in via HDMI, i said the internal tuners.
I can also point you to forums for lots of media players where it is proven that most 4k TV's will do a better job at scaling 1080p than the box itself, The Nvidia shield is a prime example, it's 4k scaling of 1080p content is not the best, with spmc you can get the box to use Lancoz3 as a scaler by hacking the advancedsettings.xml but it still isn't as good as most Tv's, as even the Kodi and spmc developers will testify.

We were talking about E2-STB's, not about mediaplayers etc.
All Broadcom SoC's have very good scalers, and even my OLED TV (LG EF950V) doesn't do a better job in this respect tham my STB's.
Anyway: you have the choice to let the TV do the scaling by using the embedded AR.

[tappari]

When I´m

My Samsung is having its second panel replacement in six months tomorrow. I think it's panel delamination as there are dark smudges when it is displaying bright images. First panel lasted 11 months. Maybe an LG next time?

When I`m talking about tv, I`m talking about proper tv, not Samsung.

[Joe_90]

When I´m
When I`m talking about tv, I`m talking about proper tv, not Samsung.

What's "proper tv"? I think Samsung were one of the biggest manufacturers of LCD panels. There are fewer and fewer panel manufacturers now, so Samsung and Panasonic are using Chinese panels or have moved to OLED. My TV is LCD with LED backlighting. OLED for my next TV, but not just yet! We'll see how long this replacement screen lasts...

[tappari]

What's "proper tv"? I think Samsung were one of the biggest manufacturers of LCD panels. There are fewer and fewer panel manufacturers now, so Samsung and Panasonic are using Chinese panels or have moved to OLED. My TV is LCD with LED backlighting. OLED for my next TV, but not just yet! We'll see how long this replacement screen lasts...

The calculated lifetime for your Samsung tv is around two years. After that electrolytic capacitors in power-supply unit will finish it.
Let me tell this more exactly. The way is to place capacitors that normally have to be wet, you place them next to the heatsinks of powersemiconducters. That will dry them in two years. And you will by another tv.