360 V6 Box video quality

[FGM]

Hello,

I only just finally made the jump from my old Virgin TiVo box to the new 360 software on a V6 box. Quite pleased with it so far after a bit of a learning curve. 

One sort of issue I have is with the picture quality. The issue is I feel the overall picture seems a bit washed out. I have readjusted the settings on my Samsung UHD television which helped somewhat, but I just can’t escape the feeling  blacks are not real black and picture seems a little less well-defined from when I had the TiVo box. Now, I’ve searched the forums and changed the output resolution (now on Automatic) and put the follow frame rate setting to On. I assume previously my television was doing the upscaling from the 1080p of the TiVo box. All this gets me a little closer to quality I’m looking for, but still not quite how I had easily achieved it with the TiVo box, even if I set the V6 to output 1080p and let the Samsung upscale from there (I assume). 
Even the mauve colour of the guide doesn’t have a nice contrast like it had (though this may be more the new design). 

I have worked in AV most of my life, and still do, which included calibrating panels and projectors, so I know what results I’m trying to achieve.

My question to those who might know, when you went from the old TiVo box to the V6 did you notice any difference in picture quality for better or worse? Or now with the new 360 software which has taken away the ability to choose pass-through on the HDMI output resolution from what I’ve read, has that made any difference to your picture quality? 

Many thanks in advance for any insights. 

[jamesredfern]

Even then would you be able to tell the difference between SD and HD after its been through a smartphone camera?

[Nova1989]

I know exactly where you’re coming from!

Picture quality across the Sky Sports channels other than Mix is horrible. Sky movies is washed out, no clarity or detail.

I had an engineer come and level out my signal from outside and it’s actually made things worse with regards to the picture looking washed.

I had problems with the box being ‘offline’ faults showing and then not. It was a never ending cycle.

I’ve managed to get out of my contract early, I’ve given my 30 days. I had someone call me earlier with regards to staying and said I would weigh up the offer. But they failed to call back at the promised time, and haven’t bothered since. So that’s made my mind up.

Save yourself the stress, cancel.

[jamesredfern]

Sometimes it really does make me wonder. I'm half temped to start a little picture/video quiz using my phones camera as requested..... Is this channel an SD channel or an HD channel?

[FGM]

Here’s a picture as requested. This was a non-moving source on the television at the time - it’s worse with movement. 
You may be able to see fuzzy edging and there’s an overall ‘haze’ to the picture that no amount of tweaking get rid of. This does not occur on other sources such as DVD or Blu-Ray and OTA and have matched settings for each input so I know I’m seeing the same settings. 
I have removed any video smoothing/noise reduction as this only made it even more of a blurish image with motion. Again, this does not occur on other sources. 
I still stand by that the decoding chip in these boxes are not great. I’ve never tweaked so much to just get an acceptable image - it’s typically easy for me to do - as mentioned I still occasionally do screen calibration as part of my AV remit at a university, and much more in the past. I know what to look for and what to adjust. I just can’t seem to remove this haziness or softness even on 4K content. 

[FGM]

 

[John_GS]

Hi FGM

Thanks for coming back to us. It shows the box as turned off currently so am not able to run any tests. 

Please can you turn it on and let me know.

Kind regards,

[FGM]

Ok here we go again. Around and around. 
The box is now on. 
I’m not always in vicinity of the box every time I’m asked to turn it on. I’ve asked for a specific time to have it turned on and this was not answered.
This is the last time.
If not addressed, I will be asking for my ‘activation fee’ to be refunded- after all I did all the work and the frustration of these back and forth messages  and possibly out of my contact. 

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @FGM

I'm sorry that we have not been able to give you an exact time, the forums are not an instant service so we cannot guarantee times that we can respond.

I have checked and I can see that the box is not live now, I understand that this may be frustrating for you so I'm going to send you a PM so we can try and arrange this a bit more directly. 

Please keep an eye out for the purple envelope in the top right corner of your screen alerting you to a new message received. 

Thank you. 

[FGM]

So in this continuing private conversation we have still have not achieved  anything.
I am now going to post on here publicly the content of those messages for others to see how hopeless this is. If you others are reading this be aware that if you are not happy with the quality of your V6 box it is likely to do with the chipset used in these - they are of poor quality and HD quality will have a but if softness and not as sharp as it SHOULD be.
You will see that in these messages I was once again given the runaround of providing a picture, leaving the box on, etc with the final straw of leaving the box on for a few days to see if the firmware finishes loading. It’s loaded, it’s on the latest. Period. The box has power saving modes anyway that CANNOT be turned of with 24 hours being the max before it turns itself off. So even leaving it on as suggested for a few days  will not help with any so-called update if I’m gone over a few days.
if you are reading this because you are experiencing similar issues then get the heck out of your contract ASAP and go with Sky. Their pic that I’ve seen at various friends home is superior. It’s not my TV, all other sources look impeccable as well as the old TiVo box. Again, V6 box is using poor quality chips/decoding. Good luck everyone with your issues.
Below are the responses from the private messages:

Hi again,

I'm so sorry that we have had trouble arranging a time for the box to be on, but hopefully via this messaging directly we should be able to arrange this a bit quicker.

Please let me know when the box is on via this PM and I will run diagnostics for it.

Thanks again.

Ash

FGM

Wednesday

Ok box on now.

Thank you that's great, the box was showing as on there for a while but it does now appear to be off again.

If it is switched on are you able to see the white light at the front of the box?

Thank you,

Ash

FGM

Wednesday

Yes, white light is on right now. I’ve turned on the TV to make sure and definitely on.

Thank you, can I also just double check are you noticing this picture issue across all channels including HD channels?

Thank you.

Ash

FGM

Wednesday

Yes, across all channels. I still believe it’s the quality of the decoding chip used in the V6 box, something perhaps a firmware update may fix.

Thank you for confirming.

So sorry if I've missed this in the previous thread but have you checked all cabling and is the box connected directly to the TV?

Are you also able to provide a picture of one of the HD channels and how it looks?

Thank you again,

Ash

FGM

Wednesday

All cabling checked, HDMI directly to TV, all other sources look fine including previous Virgin TiVo box and already provided an HD picture. All this in my posts. I’ve lost patience with this and we are just going around and around. Face it, the box and chip is not up to the task of providing a a crisp clean picture.

Thank you for clarifying.

I'm sorry you feel this way, we do have many customers that are enjoying the services to a high standard and I would like to be able to arrange the same for you as well.

Can I ask why you keep turning the box off? We do recommend leaving it connected so that updates etc can happen.

Are you able to leave it on for a few days so we can see if this helps update the firmware?

Thank you,

Ash

FGM

Wednesday

Is there new FW? I always look. I believe it’s on the latest version.
I turn off as it does use electricity when on, confirmed by my smart meter. It also turns itself off anyway after a few hours.

Is the box set to power saving mode?

Are you able to leave it on for a few days and see if this improves things?

Thank you.

Ash

FGM

yesterday

How would leaving it on improve anything? Can you explain? I’m on the current firmware so that won’t be updated.

FGM

yesterday

and yes it’s on power savings.