Why can't they have 'smart' resolution switching?

[csalmon]

I have had a 921 for almost a year now and have fortunately never had any real problems with it. I set the receiver to always output in 1080i format to my tv which looks great for all HD content. Problem is that SD channels look mediocre when the unit displays them at 1080i. If I change the receiver to output 480i with SD, the image quality is greaty improved (this makes perfect sense to me because there is litte or no interpolation like is required to generate the SD image in 1080i).

My question is why can't they implement some sort of 'smart' resolution switching so that SD content displays in 480i (or whatever you want) resolution and HD displays at 1080i (or native or whatever you want) resolution? It seems they would greatly improve overall picture quality this way.

 

[BobMurdoch]

I'm guessing becaue the receiver can't sense what resolution your monitor is capable of. As many have EDTVs, they might not get a usable picture if it were "autosensing" what resolution was coming from the program provider.

 

[TuxCoder]

I would love if the receiver would just show the resolution of the HD content it's receiving.

 

[wilme2]

I would love if the receiver would just show the resolution of the HD content it's receiving.

Yes, yes, yes. Native pass-through. And do it now via firmware!

 

[DarrellP]

Many older RPTV's can't accept 720P.

 

[csalmon]

I'm guessing becaue the receiver can't sense what resolution your monitor is capable of. As many have EDTVs, they might not get a usable picture if it were "autosensing" what resolution was coming from the program provider.

They could have a simple setup menu where you could tell it what your TV is capable of. Like a checkbox next to each resolution that you can display. I guess I am dreaming but it seems like it would be pretty simple.

 

[sfollenius]

The Charter Moxi DVR box does this. You check which boxes your tv can accept and it changes the resolution when you change channels.

 

[kb7oeb]

Cox cable box has special start up mode where it tests each resolution and you can uncheck the ones that don't work.

Most of the CRT sets I looked at recently did not support 720p

 

[TuxCoder]

Yes, yes, yes. Native pass-through. And do it now via firmware!

No, that's not at all what I meant. I guess I could have chosen a better word than "show". I meant it would be nice if my receiver (921) would "tell" me, in its display banner or somewhere convenient, what the resolution is (1080i or 720p at the moment) for the HD content it is receiving. I'm fine with it always outputting (and at times converting to) 1080i as I have its output resolution set to.

 

[John Kotches]

Here's a thought....

Interlaced --> 1080i
Progressive --> 720p.

This would scale SD to 1080i and send 1080i untouched out at 1080i. It would scale 480p (is anyone still using 480p since Fox went to 720p) to 720p and send 720p untouched out to 720p.

Probably too complicated, eh?

Best,

 

[bhchan]

i just want a 'don't do anything' choice in addition to the ones already available.
displaying the native resolution on the info area would be nice too

 

[Carl B]

I have had a 921 for almost a year now and have fortunately never had any real problems with it. I set the receiver to always output in 1080i format to my tv which looks great for all HD content. Problem is that SD channels look mediocre when the unit displays them at 1080i. If I change the receiver to output 480i with SD, the image quality is greaty improved (this makes perfect sense to me because there is litte or no interpolation like is required to generate the SD image in 1080i).

My question is why can't they implement some sort of 'smart' resolution switching so that SD content displays in 480i (or whatever you want) resolution and HD displays at 1080i (or native or whatever you want) resolution? It seems they would greatly improve overall picture quality this way.

The 921 allows you to select 480i? My 811 only allows 1080i, 720p, and 480p via component or DVI. The only way to get 480i on it is to change to s-video or composite input.

That said, I'd love to have the option of selecting "native". I have that and a host of other options w/ my LG LST-4200A HDTV receiver and it is wonderful. I think the problem is that the signal has already lost its "native" resolution when Dish encodes it, so the receiver can't tell what it was. You chose one of the 3 choices on your Dish receiver and the receiver converts whatever E* is sending to the resolution you chose. Ya Think?

 

[KKlare]

The 921 set to 480i outputs only on the composite/S-video connectors. On the 480p/720p/1080i settings it outputs only on component/DVI. Using the HD/SD button (when it works) forces 480i temporarily, "permanently" if you reboot in 480i. (You can force 480p and 480i simultaneously by holding the front-panel output button more than a few seconds.)
-Ken

 

[roachxp]

The VOOM STB actually had auto sensing option.

I miss VOOM :river

 

[Jimmy J]

Do you guys think the next gen., rcvr's will have selectability, or at the very least a pass-thru option? I hope the engineering dept., at E* monitors this thread!!!

What we need is to be able to have rcvr's with the option of resolution selectabilty, either thru checked boxes, and/or a simple pass-thru option.

Not to mention making 480i available over DVI & component.

Being the user of 2 811's myself, 480i being scaled to 1080i then output over DVI looks incredibly soft, almost blurry. While on the other hand 480i over s-video looks much better, but with some serious ringing! Catch 22!!! It's a real pain having to go into the menu, & change resolutions. Not to mention grab the TV remote (if you can find it) to change over to the s-video input.

Simple fix...make the next gen., rcvr's resolutions selectable and/or give them a pass-thru option via DVI & component.

 

[yottabit]

VOOM had the auto-change feature, though I never used it cuz my HDTV doesn't show 720p.

The main problem I see with auto-sensing is that dumb-ass broadcasters like we have here in Columbus upconvert all of their SD programming to 720p or 1080i when they broadcast because they're lazy. Thus the receiver doesn't actually know the program is SD...

 

[Carl B]

Do you guys think the next gen., rcvr's will have selectability, or at the very least a pass-thru option? I hope the engineering dept., at E* monitors this thread!!!

What we need is to be able to have rcvr's with the option of resolution selectabilty, either thru checked boxes, and/or a simple pass-thru option.

Not to mention making 480i available over DVI & component.

Being the user of 2 811's myself, 480i being scaled to 1080i then output over DVI looks incredibly soft, almost blurry. While on the other hand 480i over s-video looks much better, but with some serious ringing! Catch 22!!! It's a real pain having to go into the menu, & change resolutions. Not to mention grab the TV remote (if you can find it) to change over to the s-video input.

Simple fix...make the next gen., rcvr's resolutions selectable and/or give them a pass-thru option via DVI & component.

Yes, give us the setup option of "Native" resolution for HD/DTV. As for 480i, DVI doesn't need to pass it native for it to look good. The 811's problem is the "budget" scaler used to scale the content to 1080i. When I view scaled-to-HD 480i content w/ my LG LST4200A OTA HD receiver, I get a beautiful picture.