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360 box image quality declining over time.

Lancasters
On our wavelength

I was an early adopter of v360 and I like it more than dislike it. When first installed I added +2 clicks of sharpening to my TV to match the previous v6 sharpness. Freeview always looked artificially sharp on the same TV. In the last few days, I have had to add +6 or 7 sharpening to keep pace with an apparent decline. All other settings are the same. Freeview on the same TV has not softened at all.  Matches at -3 still. Anyone else have this observation? 

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japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Which SW build are you currently running on?

Are you seeing this issue on, say, live TV? OnDemand? Recorded programmes? Streaming services? If live TV, any particular channel(s)?

Have you eliminated your HDMI cable and TV port as a potential cause?

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8 REPLIES 8

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Which SW build are you currently running on?

Are you seeing this issue on, say, live TV? OnDemand? Recorded programmes? Streaming services? If live TV, any particular channel(s)?

Have you eliminated your HDMI cable and TV port as a potential cause?

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

Thanks for your reply.

The issue is that a perfectly acceptable image has degraded within a functioning and stable setup. The software running is 4.3.1
It is broadcast HD from all channels that has softened. Streaming apps are as they were - no change.
It is quite a shock to switch from BBC2 on V360 to Freeview Ch102 via an hdmi hub that I have had without issues for a few years. On my usual sharpness setting the image is soft. I am compensating by adjusting the TV sharpness only for Broadcast TV Channels. I turn the sharpness back down again for streamimg apps which is a pain. I will experiment by recording a programme and see if a recorded result needs sharpening.

Thanks for setting me experimenting!

newapollo
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Hi Lancasters,

Does the picture improve if you remove the HDMI hub from the equation and connect the HDMI directly from the 360 to the TV?

Dave
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Thanks for looking in.

The hdmi from V360 goes to my av amp which switches between sources, V360, freeview, bluray, amazon prime box. There is no change in the hdmi path since I had a V6 box over 3 years ago, the box was updated to be V360 in the early invitations last Autumn. The v360 box only has an issue with live broadcast TV. I have not tested recordings. I am not even sure if recordings actually are stored on the v360 hard drive these days - are they?

I have jiggled the hdmi inputs around and the issue is still there plain to see (for me anyway!)

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@Lancasters wrote:

I am not even sure if recordings actually are stored on the v360 hard drive these days - are they?


Yes - recordings are stored on your box's hard drive. The only exception is 360 multiroom boxes which are minis - these stream recordings from the master box.

As for your troubleshooting, newapollo's question is entirely valid - do you get the same problems if you connect your 360 directly to your TV without any other kit in-between?..... If nothing else, it'll eliminate the HDMI-hub as a potential cause.

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Thanks for your points and information on recordings.

I have tried a direct hdmi to the tv for the v360 box. Looked at some HD channels at my ususal +2 sharpness, then gone direct via hdmi from the freeview box. The sharpness and quality difference is there for me and I need to drop the freeview sharpness down by 2 to get an acceptable image. This is on HD channels only like for like.

This matches the drop in quality I saw when just using my AV receiver to change from v360 to Freeview in my previous post.

I will leave it there as I feel we have logically and thoroughly investigated what I can see in image quality differences. I will just have to up the sharpness for v360 by an exte 4 or 5 points and decerese it to  just +2 for streaming apps and to -3 or 4 for the rare times I watch Freeview HD after switching form All4 on my freeview box, which is not available on v360 yet.

Thanks again for your inputs and help re. recordings, much appreciated.

I can't help thinking that you are making the wrong adjustments to your TV. Increasing the sharpness control doesn't increase sharpness, rather it increases edge enhancement which can diminish the fine resolution in the image you're looking at. Quite often the best setting is 0 with a click or two up if it's too soft for your liking. I suspect that you need to adjust contrast and brightness.

Furthermore on a lot of TVs the movie preset is the best for you, so you only have to select this.

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Thanks R_G I will have a play to try to get it back to where it was a while ago. It could be so many things. At the moment I'm too hot to watch!