1080p LCD monitor and Replay 3000 series

[oceanman]

:confused: I have been using a Replay 3000 series for several years and have upgraded the Hard drive and everything seems to working fine. I was using a 42 inch Rear Projection Mitsubishi Tv. I now purchased a 42 inch LCD Monitor with 1080p resolution for HDTV use. My questions is:
Will the current Replay 3000 series give me a decent picture or do I need to upgrade to something else. I also have Optimum Cable (Southern NJ area) and have one of their HD PVRs on another set. I hate to give up my lifetime Replay subscription, but I will if it is worthwhile to upgrade. I am even considering connecting a Computer to the LCD and using that as my PVR. Any comments, input or whatever would be appreciated. At this point I really don't watch many HD shows, mostly movies, but I want the best picture I can get.
Thanks for you input

Jim

[wrench]

I just got a Sony 40" LCD KDL-40V2500 and the display from my Replay's is very good. Granted, the recordings must be from a decent source. I'm experimenting with the quality right now to chek the differences.

YMMV.

[Bigjohns]

I think with the 3k series the best output you get is Svideo. It should not be too shabby if you're recording everything in medium or high, but it certainly won't be HD.

My JVC tv has a built in scaler, so it upconverts for me. Most shows look pretty darn good - at least if the SOURCE was decent to start with.

John

[oceanman]

Thanks for you input. I will give the new monitor a try next week with my current rtv and see how it goes.
My son is trying to convince me to use an Apple mini and do the recording from that.
Jim

[icecow]

emphasize

check in to the specs of your new tv's scaler and learn about scalers in general

as far as I can determine most tv scalers do not scale composite, svideo inputs. not sure about component.

I never could get the info I wanted about the scalers that come in tvs, and what I figured out is dating itself.

[adone36]

Also to save a buck, many new big screens are being built without half the filters, etc present in SD sets to clean up the picture.

[Bigjohns]

The scalers in my JVC work quite well with either Svideo or Component

[RFontenot]

If you want to record and view HD cable programs, get a cable HD DVR. If you are only interested in HD programs from network TV, try an OTA HD setttop connected to your ReplayTV via S-Video. The picture quality for OTA HD recordings is DVD quality, and you can playback in widescreen 16:9 by using the anamorphic setting on the HD settop. The Samsung units work best and you can get one off eBay for about $150.

A Mac mini really isn't much better. Although it does have DVI and Digital Audio out, it doesn't have any video in. To turn a Mac mini into an OTA HD or analog cable DVR you will need to add Elgato's EyeTV Hybrid. Unfortunately, you can't really use it for recording satellite or digital cable as it has no IR blaster to change channels, nor does it support CableCard.

As for myself, I've had my 50" HDTV for almost a year now. I've recently ditched digital cable and gone back to analog cable with OTA HD settops on my RTVs. It's cheaper and more functional than cable HD DVRs and I still get excellent picture quality when recording OTA HD. Most of the stuff I do record is from network TV and DVD quality is more than good enough. Most of the stuff I watch in HD is sports, which I never record, so not having an HD recorder is no great loss.

RF

[oceanman]

does the latest update shown on the RTV download hack site (I believe #65) do anything for the 3000 series RTV that isn't already downloaded automatically to it already? like codex update for better quality rendering etc?

Thanks
Jim

[unclebubby]

I just recently acquired a 37" LCD. I'm using S-Video out of a 5500 series and it looks pretty good. Component was a little better but the TV can't display closed captioning if it's being fed the component signal (not sure why) so I used the component out for my DVD player.

Two pieces of advice:
1) Turn the sharpness ALL THE WAY DOWN to improve your SD picture. You might also use the THX video setup on a DVD like Hitchhiker's Guide to tweak the other settings.
2) Check out this thread in the DVD player forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=477740 It is a FANTASTIC primer on HDTV and upconverting

[oldnacl]

I have 2 HD TVs/monitors. The PQ is better on the Sony 55 (1080i) than the Westinghouse 37 (1080p) from RTV 55xx recorders. Generally, the PQ is better on the Sony overall, so I think it depends on the quality of the TV set more than the quality of the RTV output. As an aside, I replaced the connection cables (S-Video going to both) with new cables from Monoprice.com and saw a significant PQ improvement over my former hodge-podge of RS and OEM cables.

[replayrob]

Ultimately, the Replay can only output either 480i through S-Video, or 480p through the progressive outputs. 480p can look pretty good, but as already mentioned- it depends on the source. Some TV's have automatic stretch issues with 480p through progressive/component which would force you to use S-Video @ 480i with sidebars on the TV. So, it also depends on your particular TV.

[oceanman]

OK, I messed with my new westinghouse 42 inch 1080p monitor all day and my Replay 3000 series. I also upgraded my Cable Vision reciever to a HD version (no extra cost). I am using component rgb into my from the HD box to my Monitor directly as one input for live viewing. I plan to upgrade that connection to a DVI as soon as cable arrives.

As for my replay setup, I am using S-video from HD reciever box to RTV and S-Video from RTV to Monitor for my recorded shows and pause viewing.

As per cablvison optimum, they suggested I set format on HD reciever to "Fixed"
The picture quality looks good, some cases very good and better than my 4 year old Rear Projection Mitusbushi . It does vary by program though.

My question now is what do you all recommend for my HD Reciever picture format setting assuming that 70-80% % of my viewing will be passing through the RTV. Am I better off using one of the other settings like "pass through" or up convert 1 or 2? I have not yet seen my new recorded shows coming thru as "fixed format" yet.

My Final option will be to subscribe to get a Cablevision HD PVR, but it hurts me pay $13.00 more a month extra when I have liftime RTV.

I also have some color and other adjustments to make in monitor to optimize, but I want to get the input settings optimized first. My main viewing with RTV are Movies. I am not a big sports viewer or TV news viewer for that matter.

[replayrob]

My question now is what do you all recommend for my HD Reciever picture format setting assuming that 70-80% % of my viewing will be passing through the RTV. Am I better off using one of the other settings like "pass through" or up convert 1 or 2? I have not yet seen my new recorded shows coming thru as "fixed format" yet.
The "pass through" or "upconvert 1 or 2" steeings only effect the DVI and component out from the cable co's STB. The S-Video out is unchanged no matter how you set the STB res settings. So, if you're recording from the S-Video out- it's never ever going to be anything other than 480i regardless of anything you do to the cable box. If you use the cable box component or DVI out directly to your HDTV then set the output to "Pass through" as this will give you the best overall picture quality without the cable box doing any internal scaling.

[oceanman]

Thanks, just what I was looking for. Noticed that my older replay recordings look better than before and the newer recordings do too. Do you think the HD Reciever would help even with S-Video. I switched to Pass through this morning and I do some improvement and seems more consistant also. Now I need to get a programable remote and get things organized. Thanks again.
Jim

[Ace987]

My Final option will be to subscribe to get a Cablevision HD PVR, but it hurts me pay $13.00 more a month extra when I have liftime RTV. I don't know about the Cablevision HD PVR, but I got an HD PVR from Time Warner. Talk about a pile of crap. If it wasn't for the awesome picture (and the HDMI output), I'd toss it in a second.

That being said, I doubt I'll get rid of it anytime soon. While the Replay still looks good on my 50" Plasma, it can't compare to a true HD picture. Of course, the Replay doesn't have a cable box at all, so I'm just recording a plain SD signal. I'm sure it would look a little better. But at $8.95 for a cable box, I'll just use my $14 a month HD box for HD and digital channels while recording the rest on my Replay.

You might wanna look into the difference in cost between the HD DVR and HD receiver. It might not be too bad, especially just to try it out.