I do not know if this is the right place to ask this question, but I frequent the board a lot and get good feedback so here goes nothing...

Recently I got a 37 inch Sharp Aquous HDTV. Very nice. We have a comcast hd/dvr box set to it right now. The TV does all the resolutions (420i, 420p, 720i, 1080i, 1080p). I understand how certain channels broadcast in different resolutions (i.e. ESPN=720p, CBS=1080i)....

My question is, what should I set my cable box settings to in the menu mode? I have a choice between 420p, 720p, and 1080i (we have Comcast Cable in Chicago). I would like to be able to have certain channels broadcast in their native resolution (like ESPN convert to 720p and CBS to 1080i). Is there a pass through mode that I can turn on, because there is not an option for one in the cable box menu mode.

I guess my follow up question would be, if there is no "pass through" mode, what should I set the cable box settings to? If i keep it at 720p does that mean that the 1080i broadcasts will show in 720p? Is this even possible?

A very long question, but for the most part I can figure this stuff out my own but I am need of some help here. I apprecaite the time you all have for reading the post and helping me out. Thanks in advance, I appreciate it!

My cable box is a Comcast Motorola DCT3416. Dual Tuner DVR/HDTV capable. Any help would be greatful.

Some of these boxes have a "pass through" or "native" mode which will do what you want. If this receiver doesn't have this then set it to the native resolution of the set. Check with your cable company technician about a pass through mode on this receiver.

Zillo, I have a motorola 6416 III dual tuner dvr HD box that is similar to yours. On my box there is no pass-through mode for HD signals. I have the HD set to 1080i but of course when watching 720p channels, the signal gets de-interlaced by the moto box and then downconverted to 720p at which point the signal is sent to the TV. My TV is a 1366x768 display and that causes the signal to again get processed and upscaled to 1366x768. All this processing causes the image to look bad as compared to 1080i channels. The motorola boxes don't seem to have a passthrough option readily available to the user. I'm wondering if there's a service menu which may have this option.

p.s. for 4:3 override, set it to 480i so that it doesn't touch the signal and gets passed to the TV natively.




I do not know if this is the right place to ask this question, but I frequent the board a lot and get good feedback so here goes nothing...

Recently I got a 37 inch Sharp Aquous HDTV. Very nice. We have a comcast hd/dvr box set to it right now. The TV does all the resolutions (420i, 420p, 720i, 1080i, 1080p). I understand how certain channels broadcast in different resolutions (i.e. ESPN=720p, CBS=1080i)....

My question is, what should I set my cable box settings to in the menu mode? I have a choice between 420p, 720p, and 1080i (we have Comcast Cable in Chicago). I would like to be able to have certain channels broadcast in their native resolution (like ESPN convert to 720p and CBS to 1080i). Is there a pass through mode that I can turn on, because there is not an option for one in the cable box menu mode.

I guess my follow up question would be, if there is no "pass through" mode, what should I set the cable box settings to? If i keep it at 720p does that mean that the 1080i broadcasts will show in 720p? Is this even possible?

A very long question, but for the most part I can figure this stuff out my own but I am need of some help here. I apprecaite the time you all have for reading the post and helping me out. Thanks in advance, I appreciate it!

My cable box is a Comcast Motorola DCT3416. Dual Tuner DVR/HDTV capable. Any help would be greatful.

Thank you so much for the response. Currently, I have the box set to 1080i and I have to say that all the HD channels look pretty nice. It's very werid that Comcast DOESNT have a "pass thorugh" mode on these boxes. It would be very nice to have certain channels set to 1080i and some 720p. But, with the 1080i right now I guess I really have no complaints....

Thanks for the advice of the 4:3 option....Why should I set the box to 480i as compared to 480p? Isn't 480p a better picture quality than 480i? Just wondering.

Thank you so much for the response. Currently, I have the box set to 1080i and I have to say that all the HD channels look pretty nice. It's very werid that Comcast DOESNT have a "pass thorugh" mode on these boxes. It would be very nice to have certain channels set to 1080i and some 720p. But, with the 1080i right now I guess I really have no complaints....

Thanks for the advice of the 4:3 option....Why should I set the box to 480i as compared to 480p? Isn't 480p a better picture quality than 480i? Just wondering.

If you set the moto box to 480p then what you're doing is telling the box to de-interlace the signal and send it via 480p to the TV. The TV will then have to upscale to 768p or whatever resolution your particular TV uses. It really comes down to who you want doing the de-interlacing duties. Typically, most modern TVs will have a better de-interlacer but it depends on your TV. Some TV's have horrible de-interlacers. What brand and model TV do you have? also, the short answer is to try both and see which is better.

The two TV's that Im having the problems with are

1) 32 in Sharp Aquous 1080p TV

2) 30 in Samsung 1080 HDTV (circa 2004) Model TX P3064W

Thanks for all the advice. I appreciate it!

Zillo, I have a motorola 6416 III dual tuner dvr HD box that is similar to yours. On my box there is no pass-through mode for HD signals. I have the HD set to 1080i but of course when watching 720p channels, the signal gets de-interlaced by the moto box and then downconverted to 720p at which point the signal is sent to the TV. My TV is a 1366x768 display and that causes the signal to again get processed and upscaled to 1366x768. All this processing causes the image to look bad as compared to 1080i channels. The motorola boxes don't seem to have a passthrough option readily available to the user. I'm wondering if there's a service menu which may have this option.

p.s. for 4:3 override, set it to 480i so that it doesn't touch the signal and gets passed to the TV natively. I believe you meant when watching a 720p channel and the moto box is set to output 1080i, the 720p gets uprezed to 1080p and then interlaced to 1080i. This 1080i is then sent to the TV. The TV will deinterlace the 1080i to 1080p and scale to 768p. (This is what happens if your set has a decent video processor. - - If the set has a poor video processor it will discard one 1080i field and uprez the remaining field to 768p)

You're right, I wrote it wrong. It upscales to 1080p and then interlaces. By the time the TV downscales to 768p the image looks poor. My TV does de-interlace properly but all the scaling and upscaling messes up the image.

I believe you meant when watching a 720p channel and the moto box is set to output 1080i, the 720p gets uprezed to 1080p and then interlaced to 1080i. This 1080i is then sent to the TV. The TV will deinterlace the 1080i to 1080p and scale to 768p. (This is what happens if your set has a decent video processor. - - If the set has a poor video processor it will discard one 1080i field and uprez the remaining field to 768p)

So is there a definitive answer as to why the motorola STBs do not include a native passthrough mode?

After searching through this forum, it seems that people have been waiting for this feature for several years with no luck. If you ask about it, Comcast will blame Motorola and Motorola will blame Comcast. Is it true that Motorola STBs used to have this feature in the past?

Is it possible that there is some kind of patent held by Scientific Atlanta that is keeping this feature from being implemented on other boxes and/or forcing it to be removed?

Will US customers ever have the ability to buy their own STB?

So is there a definitive answer as to why the motorola STBs do not include a native passthrough mode?

After searching through this forum, it seems that people have been waiting for this feature for several years with no luck. If you ask about it, Comcast will blame Motorola and Motorola will blame Comcast. Is it true that Motorola STBs used to have this feature in the past?

Is it possible that there is some kind of patent held by Scientific Atlanta that is keeping this feature from being implemented on other boxes and/or forcing it to be removed?

Will US customers ever have the ability to buy their own STB?

it is a motorola thing. There seems to be a service menu within the regular menu but it is deactivated. I'm wondering if there's a way to activate it and get inside of it.

Will US customers ever have the ability to buy their own STB?Yes, right now. Any CableCard device... for choice:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8386999&st=tivo&type=product&id=1180743545252

1) Can you still get on demand?

2) I didn't think that Tivo supported native passthrough either...

1) Can you still get on demand?No, but you can upgrade the hard drive and make your own "On Demand" box over time.

I didn't think that Tivo supported native passthrough either...Both the Tivo Series3 and new TivoHD support native passthrough. You're probably thinking of the first-generation DirecTivo HD released in 2004; that one didn't support native passthrough.

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