Poor Picture Quality - Eurovox 5000 PVR

[dravidham]

Hi,

We have been running one of these boxes for a few months now on a Pioneer PDP507-XDE and aside from the annoying hard drive glitch it has generally been good.

One niggling problem which I have tried and failed to resolve is the picture quality. All channels viewed via the Eurovox have a slightly mottled/shadow effect to them. The picture does not pixelate or break up - it's just mottled/shadowey. In addition that, the aspect ration seems to be incorrect on many channels, regardless of the fact that the box is set to 16:9 and the TV to widescreen.

These two problems do not occur if channels are viewed via the Pioneers internal tuner ? just when TV is viewed via the Eurovox.

Do any you know if there is anything I can try in order to correct these issues please?

Thanks,

David.

[Ev0151]

Ive got a EX5100 - and its the same.

Just wanna them things i think.

[dravidham]

Ive got a EX5100 - and its the same.

Just wanna them things i think.

Thing is my Starview 1 box is just the same..... (didn't want to over complicate the thread by mentioning the Starview before).

It's an issue I have put up with in the past, but now the reveiver is hooked up to a 50" screen the faults are so much more irritating then they were on my previous/smaller display.

I can rule out bad scarts as I am running ?60 leads to both the Starview and the EX5100.

Does anybody have any ideas please?

[dravidham]

Bump.......

[HiTeck]

Try using the composite outputs at the back of your box and see if the picture quality is any better.

[dravidham]

Thank you for the reply Hiteck.

Sorry to ask a silly question but what are they?

[HiTeck]

No problem mate,



Give it a try and see if its any better for you.

[dravidham]

I'll source some and give it a go Hiteck - I always thought that RGB leads such as those were a large step backwards from Scart connections but then again who an I to judge

[wilf]

Thing is my Starview 1 box is just the same..... (didn't want to over complicate the thread by mentioning the Starview before).

It's an issue I have put up with in the past, but now the reveiver is hooked up to a 50" screen the faults are so much more irritating then they were on my previous/smaller display.

I can rule out bad scarts as I am running ?60 leads to both the Starview and the EX5100.

Does anybody have any ideas please?

hi dravidham, i dont know about your eurovox cos not had 1 but your starview 1 has always been a problem with picture quality on the larger tv or widescreen, as the 2 settings for screen size if i remember correctly were letterbox 4.3 and wide 14.9 and not 4.3 and 16.9 as on a more modern stb

[dravidham]

Thanks for clearing that up Wilf.

If I could just clear up the shadow/noise effect I'd be a happy man.

[wilf]

hopefully hitecks suggestion willl improve or remove that problem 4 ya.

[RustyMG]

Composite leads will give a terrible picture - the signal it isnt digital, and is effectively the same cables you would use to connect a camcorder to your vhs video recorder 10+ years ago - honestly, if composite looks better you have SERIOUS problems :-(

[HiTeck]

Composite is a sub-set of SCART, using only one of the possible SCART connections (CVBS - Composite Video Blanking Sync). The signal level and impedances are identical, so Composite to Composite, Composite to SCART, and SCART to SCART (if using CVBS which is what eurovox uses) are all identical.

As for the 10 years plus for the composite, how long as the scart lead been out?....since 1977!

As advised give it a try, there's nothing to loose.

[RustyMG]

I must take issue with HiTeck here - composite is absolutely terrible in quality, and to suggest its as good as scart is worrying as well as dangerously wrong. Dont take my word for it - do a google search on any av forum and it will confirm this.

Composite brings back the days of colour bleeding and colour clash.

As for scart being around since 1977 - um, so what? I was trying to give an analogy that everyone could relate to.

Scart is a type of connector. It can carry RGB, svideo (aka Y/C), composite and even component (aka Y/Pb/Pr). Analogue audio and other signals such as widescreen mode switching are also able to be carried via scart. RGB and svideo cannot simultaneously be carried over the same scart cable because they share pins.

For most european consumer equipment, RGB is carried over a scart cable, but other cable/connector types can be used (eg phono or bnc). These other types are often seen on professional monitors and plasma screens.

RGB and s-video can both be described as component signals - NOT to be confused with composite. Chroma (colour) and luminance (brightness) or red/green/blue are transmitted as separate components, although the term component is usually used to describe Y/Pb/Pr signals. Y/Pb/Pr is very closely related to RGB and it is easy to convert between the two in an electrical circuit.
Component is usually carried on 3 x 75ohm video phono cables marked red, blue and green.
S-video signals are often carried on cables terminated with 9 pin mini-DIN type plugs, but scart does the job too, and has the advantage of simultaneously carrying the audio signal.

Composite is kind of the opposite of component in that all the information is mixed up in one signal. A single yellow phono cable or a scart cable is generally used to carry composite. The problem with composite is that it is impossible to separate the chroma and luminance parts of the signal correctly. You can see the effect of poor separation on patterns with tightly packed black and white lines where unwanted rainbow like patterns are displayed, or colours bleeding into each other.

In terms of theoretical quality, component and RGB are considered the best. s-video is next, then finally composite.

It is very difficult (if not impossible) to tell the difference between s-video and RGB on an average TV .Composite, however is easy to detect by shimmering, relatively poor quality of text, and colour bleeding as mentioned above.

[HiTeck]

RustyMG I think you need to read my post again matey, I didn't say that composite was better than scart I said,

Composite to Composite, Composite to SCART, and SCART to SCART (if using CVBS which is what eurovox uses) are all identical.

And this is from a well known av forum

SCART is not a signal type - it is a connector type created for "convenience" by our French friends, which can carry various video signal types (composite and/or RGB and/or S-Video (shares some pins with composite & RGB though) as well as mono/stereo audio and some switching signals. Just because a device has a SCART connector on it doesn't mean it necessarily has all these signals available through it. For example, many TVs have 2 or more SCARTs, but usually only the "primary" one (usually no. 1) accepts RGB AND composite, all the others are often composite only (note often and not every before you start )


And there may lie the answer to the OP question as the eurovox also uses RGB which I missed previous, (apologies).

dravidham

look in TV settings and check you have Video output set to RGB mate or try it in another scart socket at the back of the TV, next try as already said the composite

Let us know how you get on......