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Fandango at Home Forum Guidelines

The Fandango at Home Forums are designed to help viewers get the most out of their Fandango at Home experience. Here, Fandango at Home customers may post information, questions, ideas, etc. on the subject of Fandango at Home and Fandango at Home -related issues (home theater, entertainment, etc). Although the primary purpose of these forums is to help Fandango at Home customers with questions and/or problems with their Fandango at Home service, there are also off-topic areas available within the Fandango at Home Forums for users to chat with like-minded people, subject to the limitations below.

Please post all comments in English. When posting a comment in the Fandango at Home Forums, please conduct yourself in a respectful and civil manner. While we respect that you may feel strongly about an issue, please leave room for discussion.

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For all reviews, comments, feedback, postcards, suggestions, ideas, and other submissions disclosed, submitted or offered to Fandango at Home, on or through this Site, by e-mail or telephone, or otherwise disclosed, submitted or offered in connection you use of this Site (collectively, the "Comments") you grant Fandango at Home a royalty-free, irrevocable, transferable right and license to use the Comments however Fandango at Home desires, including, without limitation, to copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell and /or distribute such Comments and/or incorporate such Comments into any form, medium or technology throughout the world.
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Vudu Image Quality Issues

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    #1

    Vudu Image Quality Issues

    I am running an original Vudu into Pioneer Kuro 60" with HDMI 1.3 cable.

    I have been using the Vudu since it came out, but very little. The image quality is just appaling - worse than a regular DVD played through my Samsung BD-UP5000. The quality is marginally better with HD content, but still unwatchable unless driven by desperation.

    Everything is set up for 1080P through HDMI. There is not much to set up and the Kuro confirms that it is receiving 1080P. The main problem is blocky contouring of continuous surfaces. The actual detail is also missing. I assume that the data stream is indeed 1080P but that a large amount of video compression is going on so that the effective bit rate is low.

    I do not see other people having this experience so is this a bad (early) unit, is there something I am missing about the configuration, or is this just the way it is and everyone else is enamored of video download even at the YouTube level of quality? Is this also true of ATV? I love the concept and would like to use the Vudu more often, even with its limited content. Any suggestions?
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

    I run all my broadcast sources( I include VUDU in that since the quality is a little better) through an Algolith HDMI flea noise reduction box and also through a VP50pro scaler. These do a great job cleaning all images up for me. The larger the screen the easier it is to see defects which are abundant in every HD medium I've looked at since 2001.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

      Originally posted by PNCD1 View Post
      I am running an original Vudu into Pioneer Kuro 60" with HDMI 1.3 cable.

      I have been using the Vudu since it came out, but very little. The image quality is just appaling - worse than a regular DVD played through my Samsung BD-UP5000. The quality is marginally better with HD content, but still unwatchable unless driven by desperation.

      Everything is set up for 1080P through HDMI. There is not much to set up and the Kuro confirms that it is receiving 1080P. The main problem is blocky contouring of continuous surfaces. The actual detail is also missing. I assume that the data stream is indeed 1080P but that a large amount of video compression is going on so that the effective bit rate is low.

      I do not see other people having this experience so is this a bad (early) unit, is there something I am missing about the configuration, or is this just the way it is and everyone else is enamored of video download even at the YouTube level of quality? Is this also true of ATV? I love the concept and would like to use the Vudu more often, even with its limited content. Any suggestions?
      I'm not familiar with your set, I have an Aquos native 1080p/60. My tv will not support 1080p/24 so I have to use VUDU's 1080i out.

      If the picture quality is truly as bad as you describe, I would have to say that I'm not experiencing that kind of problem. I find the picture quality of the VUDU SD Wide screen movies to be DVD quality compared to the DVD's I rent from Netflix and watch from my Samsung Blu-Ray player. And I find the VUDU HD quality to be better than DVD quality but not spectacularly so.

      They both have atrifacts that can be seen if you look at the screen up close. But I see none of the macro blocking or extreme jagged edges you seem to describe.

      You say the setup of your tv is relatively straight forward which suggests you might not be looking at all your setup options. My tv has a slew of framing, color, sharpness, pixel mapping, aspect settings, black level options etc.....

      So without knowing a thing about your set I would definitely check and experiment with your tv's setup options and play with setting VUDU's output options. i.e. maybe your tv's native support is 720p not 1080p, so you might get better results from setting the VUDU out to 720p.

      My evaluation of picture quality is purely a subjective one. I'm not a video phile, but I would consider my standards fairly stringent.

      Anyways hope there's a magic setting that you find to fix your problem. But I would say from your description, your experience is more the exception than the norm.

      Good Luck

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

        Originally posted by PNCD1 View Post
        I do not see other people having this experience so is this a bad (early) unit, is there something I am missing about the configuration, or is this just the way it is and everyone else is enamored of video download even at the YouTube level of quality? Is this also true of ATV? I love the concept and would like to use the Vudu more often, even with its limited content. Any suggestions?
        Welcome PNCD1...I see this is your first post.

        I don't run as large of a pannel as you do but I do have some questions:
        • Is image enhancements turnd off for the interface that you have the VUDU plugged into?
        • Have you compaired HD content to SD content? Do you see a difference?
        I find the VUDU's SD content better that a SD DVD and VUDU's HD content a lot better than SD content but not as good as HD DVD content.

        One other question. What led to the "Limited Content" comment? There are over 5000 movies, over 3000 rentable and over 100 HD movies at this time.

        If you are unhappy with the VUDU there is the 30 day money back garentee.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

          Originally posted by PNCD1 View Post
          The main problem is blocky contouring of continuous surfaces. The actual detail is also missing. I assume that the data stream is indeed 1080P but that a large amount of video compression is going on so that the effective bit rate is low.
          Odd. Can you give examples of movies with this kind of blocky contouring? It's possible you are watching movies with poor source content but there aren't that many that are that way. All the current run releases are generally from excellent source content. Please state an example and at what point in the movie you see this. I will then rent the movie myself and check it out.

          Also, 1080p does not reference a data stream rate but instead a resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels.


          I do not see other people having this experience so is this a bad (early) unit,
          Well, I have had very early units in my hands before they were even for sale and I never saw what you state. So there's nothing about the units being "early." The hardware on all units is pretty much the same. Even the XL boxes with the Terabyte drives in them are still pretty close to being the same with a few minor tweaks.

          You may have a bad box, but that has nothing to do with it being early. I am surprised you did not call customer support about this in the past. I would do that. Perhaps they can swap boxes for you.

          is there something I am missing about the configuration, or is this just the way it is and everyone else is enamored of video download even at the YouTube level of quality? Is this also true of ATV? I love the concept and would like to use the Vudu more often, even with its limited content. Any suggestions?
          Video quality is DEFINITELY NOT of YouTube quality. It's quite good. Same holds true for the AppleTV. I can use my AppleTV and watch You Tube videos on my 50" LG and believe me, the Vudu quality is so superior to that of YouTube it's not funny. YouTube uses Flash while the Vudu uses H.264 with file sizes of approximately 1.5 to 2.0 GB for SD content and 3 to 4 GB for HD content.

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

            Even the SD content at 480p I think looks pretty good. I get annoyed typically at watching SD content over my DirecTV, but I think the Vudu looks great.

            My TV will do 720p but I don't have an HDMI cable run through the wall yet.

            (my point being I suspect there could be a problem with your setup or settings)

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

              Others on this site, myself included, have noticed and mentioned seeing the blockiness when you have a large expanse of a similar color, low detail image (e.g. sky, wall, etc.). I would agree that you don't typically see this on DVDs. However, the image quality of the areas of the picture that have high detail appear to be significantly better than the DVD.

              So, IMO, the Vudu picture is different than DVD. It is better in the detail area and not as good in the low detail area. Overall, I would say though that the picture quality of Vudu is better than the DVD and the blockiness for the small percentage of the time, which is most likely due to compression, is a reasonable price to pay for the overall picture quality and the VOD capabilities.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

                I should have mentioned my screen is 46" - I know that screens over 50" can sometimes suffer quality issues that don't show on smaller screens.

                I think we should all just standardize on 100" screens and shoot for that.

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

                  My screen is 110", but I can use the zoom feature on my projector to come down to 100" if necessary...

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

                    Originally posted by Nded View Post
                    My screen is 110", but I can use the zoom feature on my projector to come down to 100" if necessary...
                    Don't you usually Zoom to make something really tiny look bigger??

                    (Some earlier Zooming technologies include the magnifying glass and in extreme cases the microscope. BTW It is "not" recommended that you Zoom with a magnifying glass in direct sunlight. )

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                      #11
                      Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

                      I am viewing on a 61" Samsung and while not true HD the picture is still good

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

                        If you see this issue on all the content (which is what it sounds like), I'd check the settings on the TV to see if there is something enabled that messes up the picture on Vudu. There's gotta be a thread for your TV on AVS Forum, so I'd try there.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

                          Here is an earlier thread where I described exactly what seems to be described here:

                          http://forum.vudu.com/showthread.php?t=1905

                          I really think it is fairly universal (it happens on all 5 of my Vudus going into different TVs, etc.) I honestly don't know why there are so many posts seeming to say that they never see it, especially becuase it has been acknowledged and explained in multiple earlier threads as probably caused by compressing a 4-7 GB file down to 1-2 GB (~20 GB to ~4 GB for HD). I think most of us are just used to it and find the overall picture quality better so don't think of it as a big deal.

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

                            Yes but the orginal post said it was "You Tube" quality. I have never seen VUDU deliver "You Tube" quality video. That is what I was responding to.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: Vudu Image Quality Issues

                              Originally posted by RonV View Post
                              Yes but the orginal post said it was "You Tube" quality. I have never seen VUDU deliver "You Tube" quality video. That is what I was responding to.
                              I saw that but took it to be an exaggeration. I guess we would need some more information from the poster to determine if he is really seeing something that horrible, or if it's just a perception thing. In any event, it seems like a good thing to have people indicate that they are seeing these artifacts so the OP might consider that possibility. As I have been reading this thread, it has really stuck out, to me at least, that there is very little mention of them. I would get the impression that nobody was seeing them.

                              Comment

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