Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

I'm learning the ropes with my Pioneer DVR-225 (it's like the 320-S, but
without the firewire input). It's been a mixed bag so far -- some good
results, but erratic with DVD-RWs, some of which have errors that nothing
will fix. I'll probably stick with DVD-Rs, and eat the cost of the extra
disk if I need to edit and re-burn. Still experimenting with the media.

But that's not what I'm posting about.

Does anybody find that the Pioneer recorders have disappointing tuners and
poor picture quality from cable input?

When I use the Pioneer to view or record broadcasts off the cable (it's not
digital cable), the picture looks like it's viewed through a fine-mesh wire
screen, at a 45-degree angle. Not grossly distorted, but fuzzy -- more so on
some channels than others.

The cable goes from outside to a splitter, and from there separately to the
VCR (which in turn goes into the Pioneer via component cables), and from the
other side of the splitter to the Pioneer's coax input. The thing is, the
VCR gets a perfectly clear picture on all channels. I've tried swapping the
cables, and temporarily removing the splitter, but it doesn't help. It's not
an issue of the picture losing quality between the Pioneer and the TV,
because good DVDs look fine when played on it. Also tried re-doing the tuner
set-up, hoping the Pioneer might re-learn the channels' frequencies better.
But the VCR, or the TV itself (using coax input through the powered-offf
VCR) still get much sharper pictures from cable, on some channels, than the
Pioneer.

When I want to record, I can use a workaround: set the Pioneer to record
from channel L1 (the component input from the VCR), and make sure the VCR is
on the channel I want. This works, and gives me a clear picture. But it
seems a work-around that shouldn't be needed. If I wanted to record 2 short
shows to DVD off 2 different channels while away, I'd have to program both
the VCR and the DVD Recorder. Do-able, but...yuck.

I guess what I'm looking for advice on, is whether this seems to be a
characteristic of the DVD recorder (extra sensitive to sub-perfect cable
input?..., although if so, that seems to be cured by passing the signal
through my VCR); or whether I simply got a unit with a bum tuner, and should
return it to BestBuy for a new one.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Ted Kerin" <noone@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:gwY5e.4360$sp3.2653@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> I'm learning the ropes with my Pioneer DVR-225 (it's like the 320-S, but
> without the firewire input). It's been a mixed bag so far -- some good
> results, but erratic with DVD-RWs, some of which have errors that nothing
> will fix. I'll probably stick with DVD-Rs, and eat the cost of the extra
> disk if I need to edit and re-burn. Still experimenting with the media.
>
> But that's not what I'm posting about.
>
> Does anybody find that the Pioneer recorders have disappointing tuners and
> poor picture quality from cable input?

YES. That is what I am finding. In addition, there is a lot of video
stutter in the recordings because of the noisy tuner input relative to
marginal cable signals applied to a Codec that seems insufficient.

I wondered if I was just alone in this observation.

To be fair, the Panasonic I had before did have some problems in this area,
just not as frequent. Unfortunately, the ROMS of Panasonic led it to reject
discs and lock up. I gave up with it after a year.