Poor picture quality with plasma, DirecTV & R10

[Reeko17]

I have a 42" Panasonic plasma HDTV, but do not have HD service. I currently have DirecTV with the older R10 DirecTV/TiVO box. My picture quality is pretty good, but occassionally anything 'black' shows up as a bit spotty. Does anyone know if upgrading to a newer DVR box (be it TiVo itself OR a newer DirecTV box) would make a difference in the picture?

[AlbertZeroK]

No, Not really, but upgrading to HD would make a huge difference.

[litzdog911]

Welcome to the wonderful world of compressed MPEG2 standard definition (480i) video magnified to full 42" HDTV glory :)

It's not very pretty, huh. You can improve things somewhat by optimizing your TV's video settings (especially contrast, brightness and sharpness). A good video calibration DVD, such as Avia or Digital Video Essentials, makes that easy. Your TV may also have some "noise reduction" settings to improve SD video on its HD display.

[freebird01752]

Really a SD box is giving you poor picture on a HD plasma TV... Please say it aint so.

Upgrade to HD service if you want a great picture.

Freebird