Picture quality My DTV/Tivo broadcast programs have gotten much darker and more difficult to watch over the past couple of months. I can't find any control on either my Aquos remote or my DirecTV remote which allows me to control brightness. (Aquos says it has an automatic brightness control built-in to the LCD). My LCD is 2 1/2 years old. I have a 3 year extended warranty. Do you think this is a backlighting tube problem or what? Thanks, Tom

Yes, TIVO recordings store the video using MPEG-2 compression and include copyright protection. To retain its intact video quality, you can use a copy-protection removal program. In this way, protection is removed and the original video will be kept to be compatible with common media player. The program I recommend is Pavtube Video Converter which provides "Directly copy" option. Just input your TIVO access key, choose directly copy and you will get copy-free MPEG 2 video with extreme speed. I bought this program mainly to convert recorded TIVO videos for my iPad 3. This program provides presets for ipad. The output videos play perfectly in my iPad. http://www.pavtube.com/video_converter/

had the same problem was a bad receiver

According to http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html#faq9

How can I be sure that I am buying a digital TV (DTV)?
By law, beginning March 1, 2007, all television reception devices (including TVs, VCRs, DVRs, etc.) imported into the U.S. or shipped in interstate commerce must contain a digital tuner. Retailers may continue to sell analog-only devices from existing inventory, but must prominently display on or near the analog-only device a Consumer Alert label with this advisory:

What is the difference between “Integrated” DTVs and DTV or HDTV “Monitors”?
An Integrated DTV set is a television with a built-in digital tuner (also referred to as “a DTV”). A digital tuner is also sometimes called a DTV decoder or DTV receiver. If you have an Integrated DTV, you will not need any additional equipment, with the exception of a broadcast antenna (either a rooftop antenna or “rabbit ears” connected to the set), to receive over-the-air digital broadcast programming. Integrated DTVs can also receive and display analog broadcast programming, so you can continue watching analog broadcasts.
In contrast, a DTV Monitor is not capable of receiving digital broadcast programming without additional equipment; it is simply a display device without the processing capability for DTV reception. A digital or HD set-top box must be connected between the antenna and the monitor to receive and display over-the-air digital or HD programming.
If you have a digital or HD “Monitor” and would like to purchase a digital or HD set-top box to view over-the-air programming, confirm with your retailer that the set-top box is compatible with your Monitor.

According to http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html#faq9

I hope this soultion is helpful.

How can I be sure that I am buying a digital TV (DTV)?
By law, beginning March 1, 2007, all television reception devices (including TVs, VCRs, DVRs, etc.) imported into the U.S. or shipped in interstate commerce must contain a digital tuner. Retailers may continue to sell analog-only devices from existing inventory, but must prominently display on or near the analog-only device a Consumer Alert label with this advisory:

What is the difference between “Integrated” DTVs and DTV or HDTV “Monitors”?
An Integrated DTV set is a television with a built-in digital tuner (also referred to as “a DTV”). A digital tuner is also sometimes called a DTV decoder or DTV receiver. If you have an Integrated DTV, you will not need any additional equipment, with the exception of a broadcast antenna (either a rooftop antenna or “rabbit ears” connected to the set), to receive over-the-air digital broadcast programming. Integrated DTVs can also receive and display analog broadcast programming, so you can continue watching analog broadcasts.
In contrast, a DTV Monitor is not capable of receiving digital broadcast programming without additional equipment; it is simply a display device without the processing capability for DTV reception. A digital or HD set-top box must be connected between the antenna and the monitor to receive and display over-the-air digital or HD programming.
If you have a digital or HD “Monitor” and would like to purchase a digital or HD set-top box to view over-the-air programming, confirm with your retailer that the set-top box is compatible with your Monitor.

the are some new features that tivo does not support. you still can watch your saved programs. Sadly the older tivos are equipped for the digital transitoins. I know Tivo and Directv are releasing a new receiver in a few months.

I have been able to record down converted HDTV shows on my Panasonic DMR-EH50 recorder directly to the unit's hard drive and/or directly to a blank DVD-R disc.

I do not know of any DTV converter box that can provide the proper codes to the Panasonic DMR-EH50 to allow recording and scheduling of shows using the unit's built in TV Guide menuing functions (the program recording codes are essentially VCR Plus codes in the USA and VCR Video codes in the UK, and this technology was previously owned by TV Guide/Gemstar but was purchased by Macrovision within the past couple of years.)

When the DMR-EH50 is hooked up to standard RG-59/U coaxial TV cable, the cable company provides the specific VCR Plus recording codes, as well as auto setting the time and date information required for the TV Guide recording schedule menus. The VCR Plus recording codes are sent via the cable company through the coaxial cable to the end consumer's recording device. Since Gemstar's VCR-Plus patents are now owned by Macrovision, I am not sure of how this works (or will work) for non-cable/non-satellite customers or if such codes will be made available by Macrovision to record shows when one receives HDTV signals (or down converted DTV signals) from an over-the-air antenna.

Though the DMR-EH50 recorder can only record at Standard Definition (SD) broadcast resolutions, I connect the DMR-EH50 to my High Definition TV using the three progressive scan YPBPR output cables and switch my HD-TV into the YPBPR mode when I want to watch shows from the DMR-EH50.

YPBPR are the analog video signals carried by three color coded component video cables. The green cable carries the Y signal; the blue cable carries the PB signal; and the red cable carries the PR signal. The added benefit of using the YPBPR hookup is that you can 'up convert' a standard DVD disc (non HD Blu-Ray disc) in progressive scan mode to somethin akin to 720p resolution using the DM-EH50 (or any other progressive scan DVD player) to get a better quality image on your HD-TV.

Visually speaking, the same appears to hold true for playback of programs recorded on the DMR-EH50's hard drive even though down converted via the DTV converter box, and when played back on an HD-TV using the YPBPR progressive scan cabling hookup.

I also been able to successfully record programs from the DTV converter box to the DMR-EH50 recorder in both 16:9 wide screen and 4:3 normal aspect ratios, but again only in Standard Definition quality.

For NTSC and PAL formats, the correct aspect ratios for any particular TV (the rectangular height and width of your output resolution for a TV screen) can usually be setup correctly for most any DTV converter box by going carefully through the menus on the converter box. Though the converted DTV often will yield 'better looking TV' than cable, it's certainly not high definition however, as the purpose of any DTV converter box is * not * to yield a High Definition digital TV signal but a lower quality Standard Definition signal for viewing on older SD-TVs.

We must remember that what is happening here is that (by NTSC USA standards), we are transcoding (i.e., down converting) an over the air 1920 x 1080p (progressive scan) High Definition digital broadcast signal, captured by your over the air antenna, back to a Standard Definition 720 x 480 resolution analog broadcast signal (the 720 x 480 resolution is a 4:3 aspect ratio.)

Hope this helps a little -

Greg Loveria
Conklin, NY USA

tivo button is the Directv button (tivo home) at the top of the remote. if u have the new directv remote, the tivo home button is the menu button. remote needs to be on satellite. to program codes.

Hello,
Make sure that you have the correct DTV box selected on the Tivo unit in the Guided Setup.
Make sure that the IR cables are directly in front of the IR eye on the Tivo.

use the advanced options page and reset the factor blue and red convergence defaults then do re apply the auto color defaults color at first it seemed very red (which is good because red was the missing factor in the green picture) but after reseting all the color and tints to the normal ranges I then reset the color auto correct again and all seems fine.