ATV on 58" Plasma

[eziggy3]

I recently purchased my ATV and have been playing around with the settings to get the best quality. I have read multiple posts on quality and have tried just about all of the suggestions. I seem to get very good quality on my iMac, but when I stream to my 58” plasma the quality stinks to put it lightly. I have tried changing to a higher bitrate (3000), changing the quality (60-70) and some advanced setting that were posted. In the picture settings I went with STRICT Anamorphic which gave the following:
Source 720x480, Output 720x464, Anamorphic 853x464

Is there something I am missing that makes the video so crappy on the plasma? My progressive scan DVD player looks much better.

By the way the ATV content does not look that great either IMO.

Zig

 

[pedz]

I have a 60" plasma (pioneer) and my ripped dvd's look great on it through atv. Make sure you set the atv to 720p resolution, when I bought mine it was set to 480p and looked really bad. otherwise it should look good as long as the rip is good quality.

peter

 

[TexasAg]

I've got a 61" JVC HD-ILA (liquid crystal on silicon) and the ATV images look great. More than adequate for the DVDs and TV shows the kids watch.

 

[kolax]

How close are you to your TV? How does the Apple TV quality compare to normal SD TV? I used to play stuff on my Mac and hook it up to the TV - the exact same quality comes from the Apple TV.

How are you connecting your Apple TV? Component or HDMI?

 

[Sean Dempsey]

I recently purchased my ATV and have been playing around with the settings to get the best quality. I have read multiple posts on quality and have tried just about all of the suggestions. I seem to get very good quality on my iMac, but when I stream to my 58” plasma the quality stinks to put it lightly. I have tried changing to a higher bitrate (3000), changing the quality (60-70) and some advanced setting that were posted. In the picture settings I went with STRICT Anamorphic which gave the following:
Source 720x480, Output 720x464, Anamorphic 853x464

Is there something I am missing that makes the video so crappy on the plasma? My progressive scan DVD player looks much better.

By the way the ATV content does not look that great either IMO.

Zig

You're doing something wrong.

Tell us the make and model of your TV. Also, what type of cables you are using and what your Apple TV settings are for video.

 

[eziggy3]

I have a 60" plasma (pioneer) and my ripped dvd's look great on it through atv. Make sure you set the atv to 720p resolution, when I bought mine it was set to 480p and looked really bad. otherwise it should look good as long as the rip is good quality.

peter

I had it set to 1080i and then played around with other settings to see what would happened. No improvement. The only thing that looked decent was the screen saver.

 

[eziggy3]

How close are you to your TV? How does the Apple TV quality compare to normal SD TV? I used to play stuff on my Mac and hook it up to the TV - the exact same quality comes from the Apple TV.

How are you connecting your Apple TV? Component or HDMI?

I judge it by watching from the same position that I normally view DVDs. I used Component and HDMI. Maybe I am just very picky, but it just does not look as well as DVDs from my Sony progressive scan DVD player. The ATV HD content looks almost equal to my DVDs. The SD content to me is unacceptable. I refuse to accept less PQ just to use the ATV. I would rather go back to using DVDs. Maybe I am being unrealistic in my expectations…after all we are taking a 4GB video and compressing it to about half the size.

 

[eziggy3]

You're doing something wrong.

Tell us the make and model of your TV. Also, what type of cables you are using and what your Apple TV settings are for video.

I am using a Panasonic TH-58PX600U. I connected the ATV with HDMI and then component with similar results.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

I judge it by watching from the same position that I normally view DVDs. I used Component and HDMI. Maybe I am just very picky, but it just does not look as well as DVDs from my Sony progressive scan DVD player. The ATV HD content looks almost equal to my DVDs. The SD content to me is unacceptable. I refuse to accept less PQ just to use the ATV. I would rather go back to using DVDs. Maybe I am being unrealistic in my expectations…after all we are taking a 4GB video and compressing it to about half the size.

You are still doing something wrong.

I watch SD DVD's that I rip and encode with handbrake all day long, and they look great on my samsung 52" 52a650. I am guessing it has something to do with the picture settings on the HDMI port that you are using.

But if you aren't happy, just go return it.

 

[jpcos]

The ATV HD content looks almost equal to my DVDs.

I know it's useless for people to tell you what you should be seeing, but this comment makes it clear that there's something wrong with your setup. I am very picky and do not think ripped DVDs are acceptable for discerning viewing, but HD content far surpasses standard DVD content on the Apple TV. If you report that HD content is "almost equal" to upconverted DVD, then something is really wrong with your setup.

 

[MikieMikie]

I, too, find your statement about upscaled DVDs looking as good as rented HD movies impossible to accept unless something in your system is terribly wrong.

I have ripped and encoded some of my DVD collection, and they appear as DVD quality when streamed over my LAN to the Apple TV to a 1080p 57" DLP Samsung.

When I tune to, say Universal HD channel on my Comcast cable, my TV seems to disappear, and it's like you can put your hand through the screen. And when I watch live sports in HD, let me tell you, I can see the difference.

Can you?

See, the reason I state it this way is as follows: when I have rented HD movies from Apple, for the Apple TV, they look as HD as anything Comcast has provided. I can see the clear difference between SD and HD, regardless of the level of compression Apple/the Studios apply to the streamed HD rentals.

If you cannot, then something is wrong with your home theater.

BTW, if you're using an intermediate device, like an A/V receiver, eliminate it from the equation to see if that's the issue.

 

[eziggy3]

I know it's useless for people to tell you what you should be seeing, but this comment makes it clear that there's something wrong with your setup. I am very picky and do not think ripped DVDs are acceptable for discerning viewing, but HD content far surpasses standard DVD content on the Apple TV. If you report that HD content is "almost equal" to upconverted DVD, then something is really wrong with your setup.

Thanks for the info, I agree with you about ripped DVDs, but the setup is fine. My SAT HD content looks amazing. In comparison the ATV is not so hot with HD even going direct to the TV.

 

[eziggy3]

I, too, find your statement about upscaled DVDs looking as good as rented HD movies impossible to accept unless something in your system is terribly wrong.

I have ripped and encoded some of my DVD collection, and they appear as DVD quality when streamed over my LAN to the Apple TV to a 1080p 57" DLP Samsung.

When I tune to, say Universal HD channel on my Comcast cable, my TV seems to disappear, and it's like you can put your hand through the screen. And when I watch live sports in HD, let me tell you, I can see the difference.

Can you?

See, the reason I state it this way is as follows: when I have rented HD movies from Apple, for the Apple TV, they look as HD as anything Comcast has provided. I can see the clear difference between SD and HD, regardless of the level of compression Apple/the Studios apply to the streamed HD rentals.

If you cannot, then something is wrong with your home theater.

BTW, if you're using an intermediate device, like an A/V receiver, eliminate it from the equation to see if that's the issue.

Appreciate the feedback, but I doubt it is my system. My DTV HD looks simply amazing and my DVD player looks as good as any I have seen. The ATV HD leaves much to be desired. Maybe I just got a bad unit.

 

[omni]

So I rented, 'I Am Legend' over the weekend and walked away with some interesting results.

Prior to renting, 'I Am Legend' I had the AppleTV hooked up to the TV in my bedroom - a Panasonic 42" plasma via component. The picture quality looked really stunning.

So I hooked up the AppleTV to the TV in my living room - 50" SXRD (the one with the ears) via HDMI and it was a world of difference. Not even to myself but to the woman as well. The picture was very soft and not very, 'crispy' (her words...haha not mine). It looked more like a blu ray but with a layer of scotch tape over it. Definitely watchable but no where near as good as it was in the bedroom. The SXRD is definitely a better TV which unfortunately in this case shows off the flaws of AppleTV.

BTW - the HDMI cable that I stole to temporarily hook up the AppleTV belongs to the PS3 and blu ray looks gorgeous.

So I decided to do a little more testing and rented, 'I Am Legend' from Xbox Live. While more expensive (480 points which is like..$6 versus AppleTV's $5) the quality was noticeably better.

The main section I tested for both was the beginning where he is in the mustang chasing after the deer. Has a lot of good shots of his face in the light.

The biggest variable that I haven't tested yet is AppleTV to the SXRD via component mostly because it's going to be a bitch to unhook something just to slot it in.

So in summary - on my Panasonic 42" AppleTV looks better than upscaled DVD. On the SXRD it is on par plus or minus a few 'points' depending on the movie if you know what I mean. Also ripped DVD's from Handbrake look excellent on the Panny and about average on the SXRD (House Season 2 is what I tested). I was planning on buying a 2nd AppleTV for the living room but after this pretty sure I'm not going to. There is absolutely nothing wrong with AppleTV as I *LOVE* it in the bedroom.

So after wasting $11 (had already seen the movie) all I really came to the conclusion was that the living room was a better TV (which I already knew) and that I now need to find something else to buy with my apple gift card haha.