OK, so I recently recieved an HDTV along with HD Cable from Time Warner New York City. Up until two Thursdays ago, it looked great. The suddenly, the picture went terrible. I have tried both HDMI and Component, and with both I get a ton of graininess and blurred images. In the darker colors, there is no detail at all. I have 3 other HD systems hooked up, including the PS2 through component and the PS3 through HDMI, and both look fine. The cable man came over when I was in school, and what he told my mom, who was the only one home, that it looked fine. It obviously doesnt. So before I call them back again, any suggestions?

Start with some basic information when asking for help.

What is the make and model of your cable box / dvr and TV?

Sorry about that. The box in a Scientific Explorer 8300. The TV is a
32" Samsung LN-S3238D.

Turn off the 8300. On the front of the unit, hold down the info and guide buttons at the same time. Choose Advanced setup. Enable 720p, 1080i, and 480i resolutions.

If that doesn't improve the picture, then it sounds like Time Warner has increased the compression on its system to make room for additional channels, degrading quality. The satellite providers do this, and some cable providers suffer from the same problem, but not to the same degree.

Call to complain. If Verizon FiOS is available in your area, then you have an alternative that doesn't overcompress its high-def. If you do decide to switch, however, make sure you call and tell TWC that you are leaving them because they degraded the picture quality of their high-def. Otherwise, they'll have no idea what the problem was or why you are leaving.

Its an 8300HD, just to clarify. I did what you said, but no menu seems to come up. How long do i have to hold them for?

What sort of guide software do you have on your box? TWC Navigator or Passport?

Passport Echo

With NYC's TWC Passport system/8300HD you can set up output options (480i, etc.) with the remote (SETTINGS, MORE SETTINGS). Keep mine set at 1080i only output, but using a 64" CRT RPTV for display, which doesn't involve display scaling/deinterlace.

Heavy grain/noise and blurred images clearly suggests something's wrong with the display (malfunction), the settings, or the cable signals. Often it's a setting that's changed. If the cable input in bad (most/all channels)--I've had outside hallway connections go bad (lose)--it might show up with poor images even with direct cable inputs to any analog NTSC tuner/display. Assume the cable person would have caught something like that. -- John

Setting it to 1080i only has definitely made the picture look better, but the flaws are still there. It seems to only happen with dark colors, like grays and blacks. Whenever they appear, they have absolutely no detail.

Setting it to 1080i only has definitely made the picture look better, but the flaws are still there. It seems to only happen with dark colors, like grays and blacks. Whenever they appear, they have absolutely no detail.
Reads like the brightness/contrast settings are off for the 8300HD input (no detail in dark areas). If you can substitute another HD input in place of the 8300HD and it appears okay, that suggests the YPbPr 8300HD output is malfunctioning. If possible, substitute a 2nd set of component cables just as a check. Check picture settings and menus for the 8300HD display input to ensure something didn't become misadjusted.

If you get HDNet, might DVR their 6:50 am ET test patterns Sunday morning and see if the pluge patterns (dark-to-light bar groups) and color test bars appear normal. Some threads and outside links outline how to use the patterns; search on scan the calibration forum here. -- John