Hi,
I have a panasonic DMR-EZ47V (aka EZ475V) hooked up to a Panasonic Plasma TV TH42PX6u (786,432 pixels). This DVD recorder is hooked up to Comcast cable's wall socket. My TV is hooked into the EZ47V via HDMI and RWyellow video cable. When I set my TV to connect via HDMI, my TV picture quality drops a little. When I set my TV to connect to Video, my picture quality drops a little bit even more. When I set my TV to view via neither of HDMI nor Video, my picture quality is the best. Does anyone know why? My TV only connection is through the HDMI cable to EZ47V (which connects via RF-in to Comcast's wall jack.). I usually do not have the RWyellow video cable connected.
Panasonic's tech support says they will mail me firmware upgrade, but I am skeptical that will help. My model was made in Apr07.

Thanks.

I don't have a hi-def tv, but there is a HDMI tab in the Setup menu..did you go to it and make any adjustments?

I doubt the FW upgrade will make any difference either. The Panasonic upconverts from 480i, so the quality will always be a little worse than the native 720p (I assume) on your TV. You need to set TV Screen - HDMI - Resolution to 720p (or whatever the max is for your TV's native resolution - the number of lines your TV can physically display) in the Panasonic's Setup. The Auto setting may work too, but you may get worse results. If your TV accepts 1080p, then on Auto, the Panasonic will upconvert 480i to 1080p, then your TV will scale it back down to it's physical max of 720p. That's a lot of conversion which can degrade the PQ. Sometimes it's best to feed your TV 480i and let the TV do the scaling. The Panasonic happens to do a better scaling job than my Sony TV, so mine's set to 1080p, my TV's max resolution. You'll just have to experiment to see what works best.

Thanks. mdavej. Say, what do you do for a living? Why are you taking time to help us little guys out? To repay you champions, I will give you two stock tips - buy SKF and SRS - both will go up to $150 and $200 when real estate and Bank stocks crash.

Oh, I failed to mention that my TV views fine when I switch it to RF In (TV then by-passes Panasonic recorder and connects directly to wall socket)

I'm in the software industry. Since I recieve way more help than I give on these boards, I try to reciprocate when I can. My contributions are nothing compared to the likes of Wajo, Westly and countless others. Thanks for the tips.