DishHD blurry guide writing and picture

[trintay]

Hello,

I have a Samsung LN52A650 LCD with the VIP 722 receiver. I bought the tv and got the dish hd in late august. Picture was stunning. About 2 weeks ago something seemed to change. The menu and guide seemed to lose its crisp focus...almost like the words are slightly out of focus as well as the little menu bar at the top when you change a channel. At the same time my HD programming started to look worse. It to seems to be lacking in clarity. The picture almost has a blur to it, not extreme but the clarity and detail seems to lacking where before it was like looking through the lens of the camera when they filmed it. I've since gotten a second Vip722 and the problem remains. Coincidentally we got a ton of snow around the time this started happening BUT most of that snow has since passed and there is clearly no snow on the dish or lnb. I never lose signal either. I am at a loss. I've tried another hdmi cable with no luck. Don't get me wrong, the picture isn't terrible but it certainly doesn't pop like it used to. The receiver is set to 1080i which is where it should be. I suppose there's a chance it's the tv but it's a pretty good tv and brand new. Any thoughts? Has anyone else experienced a drop in HD quality lately? I'm at a loss.

[HobbyTalk]

Make sure your 722 is still set on 1080i or 720p. Menu > 6 > 8

Oppps, notice you said you checked that. Could be the setting changed on your TV.

[trintay]

Make sure your 722 is still set on 1080i or 720p. Menu > 6 > 8

Oppps, notice you said you checked that. Could be the setting changed on your TV.

I've been through all the settings on the tv a million times already. What setting are you referring to or are you simply saying "some setting" in general. I mostly used the standard default setting as it was pretty good out of the bod and didn't touch much else.

[James Long]

Set it to something else, exit menus, then set it back to 1080i ... just to make sure the receiver has not temporarily lost it's marbles.

[dishguy77]

On digital systems signal strength only effects picture quality in the form of pixelation (blocky chunks of uglyness) so if it's working it should be producing a picture of the same quality as it always has. Like James said, make sure it is actually changing resolutions. Have you changed any of the TV's settings recently? I have a LN32A550 and I use the "Dynamic" setting. It doesn't allow you to change any "detailed settings" but it takes advantage of the TV's contrast ratio. I've never had a problem with picture quality on this set, but it is only 32". It has done an outstanding job of displaying even SD without much of the grain and blockyness associated with displaying 480i on a 1080 set.

If you are interested in tweaking your TV I'd recommend tweakTV (http://www.tweaktv.com/tweak-my-tv/calibration-guide/samsung-ln52a650.html). I thought the picture on my set looked a bit faded with their settings, but it is a good base for you to tweak it to your liking. Personally I'm dying for THX to release the Blu-Ray Optimizer for HDTVs.

[finniganps]

I have them same set and receiver - got mine in October. I have not run into the issue you are describing.

[James Long]

I've had mine "go fuzzy" a couple of times. I don't know if bumping the resolution back and forth fixed it or if cleaning my glasses helped more ... but it is worth a try.

My #1 reason for being fuzzy is not noticing that my wife changed the TV from HDMI input to RF. On the upconverted SD channels RF looks about as "good" as HDMI (I have a good set for SD - it is HD ready so they didn't sacrifice SD in the design). Pressing menu is where I see the big difference and start trying to see if I'm watching HDMI, RF or A/V. :)

[trintay]

I am positive my receiver is set to 1080i. I have set it back and forth numerous times to make sure it is not "stuck". Also, this is the second receiver and the problem continues. The TV says its on 1920 x 1080 @ 60hz. The picture quality just plain sucks, where as before it would wow you. HD programming is very grainy and blurry looking. As far as the settings on the tv, I always used the standard setting and it was perfect. Dynamic is more for sports. I now must keep the hdmi black level set to low. If I set it to normal (where it used to be) the picture brightens to a very grainy/hazy grey and looks like utter crap. Something has most certainly changed. I know the picture this television used to produce and it is nowhere near that now. It is very disappointing. I contacted Samsung and they think one of the boards may be going bad. They are sending a tech out soon to swap one out. I hate the thought of somebody having to come out and crack open my new $2,200 TV. Ugh!