Native on or Off

[bk63ross]

Is it better picture wise to leave the Native Resolution off and manually select either 720 or 1080? Right now I have Native Off, Pillar Box.

 

[charper1]

It depends on you display but on all of my 720p native displays (see sig), I set the DirecTV receiver to:

Native : OFF
Format: ORIGINAL
TV Res: 1080i Only

 

[bk63ross]

Thanks for the info CHarper. I am using a higher end component cable made by Ultralink going to a Denon 3808 and from there to a Pioneer 5040HD 1080/720 so overall the pic is usually pretty decent. The last download we had with the 1080p message I swear changed the clarity. I also had to do a hard reset to get the receiver to finally power back up and rspond to the remote commands. Does it matter if I leave the receiver on or off when not in use?

 

[ShaqDan]

No, it doesn't matter if you leave it on or not.

 

[BigStein]

Personally, I leave native on, that way the transmission only gets messed with one time, by my TV. I have a 1080p capable TV, so it can display whatever picture is sent to it. I may not understand how it works, but it seems in the case of Charper1 that you would be having your box upconvert to 1080 only to have your TV convert it back to 720 since that is all it can display. I guess it may not have any impact at all but I figure why have the signal messed with more than needed, just pass it through the box and let my TV do the work. The drawback, at least on my Sony, is that it takes an extra second or two when switching channels so that the TV can adjust the resolution to display the signal being sent.

 

[Jimbo]

I prefer to have the Native ON as well letting the TV do the work (Pioneer Elite 60")
but I don't because I don't like the amount of time it takes to change channels.

Jimbo

 

[Rey]

i rather have native off and display set to 1080i. to me it looks best there and the channel changing is faster

 

[gadgtfreek]

Depends on the tv, plain and simple.

My current display performs best with 1080i ONLY.

 

[Jimbo]

Ok guy's,
I get confused for some reason.
If you want the TV to do the work, instead of the rec. , do you turn the Native ON or OFF.

I have mine ON now, because it slows down the channel changing too much, I think this is the D* box doing the work in this set up ....
( when the Native if OFF, the TV does the work, but the Rec. does the work first then the TV does it too, thus slowing down the channel changing) is this correct ?
Is there any way that this could be compensated for on D*'s end ?

Jimbo

 

[gadgtfreek]

Native ON means the box sends the native of each channel to your tv (slower)

Native OFF means it sends a set resolution (faster)

I have my HR20 sending EVERYTHING as 1080i, my tv just likes it better this way.

 

[Jimbo]

Native ON means the box sends the native of each channel to your tv (slower)

Native OFF means it sends a set resolution (faster)

I have my HR20 sending EVERYTHING as 1080i, my tv just likes it better this way.

I would prefer Native ON then, but don't because of the speed.

 

[Rey]

my experience with native on is that not only the channel changing is slower but every time the output is changed to 720 or 1080 etc, etc, my tv also does a switch which is visible showing me that native on makes the tv and box work more while leaving it at 1080i eliminates all this mess for me. no matter what the original res is 720 or 480 or 1080 the box stays at 1080 and so does my tv with native off. so from what i see native on is more work for the tv and the box.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Speed has never bothered me in ON, I just do PQ tests and pick the best one.

 

[IceRunner]

Stupid question: What does it do to your picture if "native" is on and what does it do to it if "native" is off.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Stupid question: What does it do to your picture if "native" is on and what does it do to it if "native" is off.

All depends on your tv's video processing.

My previous 720p tv liked native better, which means it handled changing 1080i to 720p better than the box.

My current 1080p does not like 720p as much (less sharp picture), so I set the HR to 1080i only and let it change the 720p channels to 1080i before sending them to my tv.

 

[dcowboy7]

i do:

native off
1080i only
pillar box

its faster changing channels too.

 

[Rey]

i do:

native off
1080i only
pillar box

its faster changing channels too.

Exact same settings here. love the pillar box for the sd. looks better than stretching it.

 

[bobgunter]

Exact same settings here. love the pillar box for the sd. looks better than stretching it.

What of sports programming? Much of it is sent in 720p vs 1080i to make a smoother and (visually) clearer picture. If you end up converting 720p to 1080i and sending that to the set (which presumably could display a progressive pic in the first place, either 720p or 1080p), aren't you making a worse signal/picture for yourself?

 

[gadgtfreek]

Nope. Some tv's actually reproduce a better picture by sending them 720p converted to 1080i, and vice versa for 1080i.

 

[sarcilla]

I would definitely try native on first since that reduces the chance of a picture getting translated to a different resolution more than once. If you know the resolution of your TV, then I'd suggest a test: set native on and see the quality of both a 720p and 1080i picture. Then set it to native off, forcing the resolution to the TV's native (assuming it's 720p or 1080i or 1080p) and seeing the quality of both 720p and 1080i. If you cannot tell a difference, then run the same test to see if channel changing is any faster with each.

I agree that there may not be a single answer for this question and that's it's pretty dependent upon your TV's hardware.