360 box quality

[LM001]

I’m a new customer and must say I’m really disappointed with the 360 box so far specifically with clarity of HD channels. I’ve checked the connected hdmi cables, wi-fi, and played with my tv settings for four days straight for hours as it’s bugging me that much. 

The clarity varies wildly via different channels that I have to adjust settings constantly which makes viewing unenjoyable. I’m still within my cancellation period and very willing to cancel and just go with Sky unless this improves. I’ve set my resolution to 1080i and let my tv do the upscaling which has helped a little.

I can get a clear view for example with channel 1-5 but still have some variance where I need to adjust sharpness slightly. Sky Sports I’ve managed to improve and looks fine with live which I’m happy with, but movie channels are AWFUL:

I watched a few movies where the best I could get it was having to bump up sharpness to level 35 out of 50 to get anywhere near acceptable clarity on HD for movies made in 2023 which is ridiculous (no overly sharp image and pixelating on the image as you would get with putting it too high). I usually have all post processing off and sharpness much lower to get the best image as experts advise, but I’ve tried everything in between.

Are there any other tips to improve quality or is this the best Virgin gets?!  

[Ilyas_Y]

Hi there @LM001 👋🏼 Thanks for reaching out to us and a warm welcome to the Virgin Media Community forums. 

I'm sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing with the HD channels on the TV 360 box.  😞
Are you able to let us know which channels are being affected?

Or is this the majority of HD channels? Have you tried a different HDMI cable or with another TV to see if the issue is still there?
Let us know and we can go on from there.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[jamesredfern]

The 360 box does a rubbish job of upscaling - assuming you're using a 4k tv. I have my 360 box set to 1080i and let the tv do the upscaling. Much better. 

[japitts]

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@LM001 wrote:

movie channels are AWFUL

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Which ones? Can you be specific?

And if it's any of the Sky Cinema portfolio, do you have the same issue with the VoD versions?

[LM001]

Hi Japitts. I haven’t watched any VoD yet (Videos on Demand?), so it‘s with the Sky Cinema channels as they are broadcast. Also with judder does the ‘Match frame rate’ help by leaving it on for all content too?  

[roy247]

How bad is the ' judder ' , match frame rate doesn't usually cause a noticeable problem when watching TV, I think it only affects watching netflix depending on if it's 50 hz or 60 hz frame rate and the picture might miss a frame or 2 when it matches the frame rate to the film, if frame rate is set to on best to leave it off because I don't think you will notice any difference.

If the picture is juddering then it could be either a signal issue or the box, it was the old TiVo box when I had the problem years ago, problem was only apparent when watching football on Sky.

[LM001]

Strangely enough everything is perfect now! Really pleased and I have little to no idea why. Only three changes made that could’ve solved this (bearing in mind I already run 1080i and let the tv upscale).

I re-arranged the room slightly and that caused the need for the tv to be moved which ended up only moving it 3 feet. Three possible fixes that were the only changes made:

- Improved reception of signal from position?? 
- I removed the original co ax cable to the tv so no channels directly through my tv and now only the virgin co ax going into the Virgin box…would that have caused some sort of issue using both before? That’s how it was set up and left by the engineer.
- and lastly, during moving it, I unplugged everything so maybe the hard reset helped??

Now EVERY channel works great how it should and it’s a pleasure to watch everything without having to constantly alter settings for each content. 

[LM001]

I haven’t got any more judder than I had without Virgin, but having it on and motion or de judder setting off on my tv seems to work fine. I still get a tiny bit, but that’s modern tvs running 60hz with frame rate and hardly noticeable setting it the way I have now. For me it’s sport that works the best! The problem was just clarity of picture. Please see my reply to Virgin below as it’s ‘fixed’, no idea how apart from the suggestions I made. Every channel is brilliant now, very happy!  

[Roger_Gooner]

A good old fashioned reboot can solve a lot of problems.