Just moved from Sky to Virgin - picture quality noticeably worse!

Jamesyboyjim · 15 Apr 2019 at 11:02

I had a F&F code very kindly given to me from MissChief 18 months ago which has since expired. Sky's offer to keep me as a customer wasn't great so we ended up signing up for Vermin, 350mb bb, 2x v6 boxes with movies + sport in HD, UHD BT Sport and a full house phone line for less than 100 a month.

Far cheaper than paying 70 odd a month just for TV with sky. Had it installed over the weekend and already its annoying me, the PQ is so poor compared to Sky. I can directly compare as I still have my Q active until the end of the month so both are connected to my TV with the same settings. Virgin's HD streams look like SD in comparison to Sky, a very soft and furry image.

I did expect Sky to be superior but I'm shocked at how much of a difference there is! Am I being a fusspot or is there really that big of a difference?

Currently running the box at 2160p with passthrough enabled, is that the best setting it should be?

Also Tivo isn't close to Sky Q as a ui but I'm paying less so I can live with that. The other massive gripe I have is the fan in the bedroom v6 ramping up throughout the night and waking me up but according to the Vermin forums, that shouldn't be happening so I'm going to report that.

TheMightyTen · 15 Apr 2019 at 11:12

Run the TiVo at 1080p the internal upscaler is appalling. There so little 4K content that it's just not worth running at 2160p. In the video options tick 1080p, 1080p passthrough and if you do use the (useless) in built Netflix app also do still tick the 2160p and 2160p passthrough as that is one app that will actually switch the resolution up for 4K content, aside from that resolution switching doesn't occur on anything else.

Jamesyboyjim · 15 Apr 2019 at 12:32

TheMightyTen said:
Run the TiVo at 1080p the internal upscaler is appalling. There so little 4K content that it's just not worth running at 2160p. In the video options tick 1080p, 1080p passthrough and if you do use the (useless) in built Netflix app also do still tick the 2160p and 2160p passthrough as that is one app that will actually switch the resolution up for 4K content, aside from that resolution switching doesn't occur on anything else.

Thank you, I'll give this a try! So with 1080p also ticked, will it run the box at 1080 and only jump up res to 2160 if I'm using Netflix 4k or put BT UHD on? Or will it just run all TV at 1080 and only Netflix will jump to 2160?

TheMightyTen · 15 Apr 2019 at 12:56

Only the Netflix App will res switch to 4K (although not always guaranteed to switch back to 1080p on exit :rolleyes:

). They really haven't implemented resolution features on the box very well but it is after all a Liberty Global company and they don't give a flying **** about customers, usability and features

Jamesyboyjim · 15 Apr 2019 at 13:06

TheMightyTen said:
Only the Netflix App will res switch to 4K (although not always guaranteed to switch back to 1080p on exit ). They really haven't implemented resolution features on the box very well but it is after all a Liberty Global company and they don't give a flying **** about customers, usability and features

Thank you! There I was excited about getting a 4k box :rolleyes:

If 1080p looks better though I'll be happier as like you say, there isn't much 4k content available.

jpaul · 15 Apr 2019 at 14:34

TheMightyTen said:
They really haven't implemented resolution features on the box very well

so do you do anything for the sd content eg. film4 ? or let the box upscale to 1080 ?

(this topic reminded me my humax box picture is similarly poor, but I never tried forcing it to sd/576 on sd channels to see if the image could be as good as freeview on the tv)

Rannoch · 15 Apr 2019 at 14:37

Something wrong there.

My dad watches BT sport in 4K with his VM box and the picture is brilliant. Not as good a proper UHD Blu-ray movie though.

jpaul · 15 Apr 2019 at 14:47

Vargas said:
Something wrong there.

he's talking about non-4k - HD virgin content

TheMightyTen · 15 Apr 2019 at 15:02

jpaul said:
so do you do anything for the sd content eg. film4 ? or let the box upscale to 1080 ?

(this topic reminded me my humax box picture is similarly poor, but I never tried forcing it to sd/576 on sd channels to see if the image could be as good as freeview on the tv)

The upscaling to 1080p isn't to bad so I leave that as my lowest res, at first I was extremely anal and had the TV do all upscaling but found the TV vs v6 at below 1080p was inconsequential as most things will have a blur either way

Jamesyboyjim · 15 Apr 2019 at 15:23

Vargas said:
Something wrong there.

My dad watches BT sport in 4K with his VM box and the picture is brilliant. Not as good a proper UHD Blu-ray movie though.

Yes BT Sport UHD looks good, but all the other regular 1080i HD content is terrible. i.e. Sky movies HD and Sports HD are very blurry compared to the same channels on Sky.

rolypolyman · 15 Apr 2019 at 22:59

Mmmm....had SkyQ and now have Virgin, cant say one is worse than other. Also had the same 4K Panasonic TV with both with the TV doing the upscaling, both great pictures to be honest. Something not right in your setup would be my guess.

Rozzy85 · 16 Apr 2019 at 00:27

Sky Movies on Virgin is broadcast at a lower bitrate than on Satellite although not by much on average (1.5Mbps less). The biggest difference is the peak bitrate which makes a big difference during the brief high action scenes (Virgin is 8Mbps max, Sky is double that at 16Mbps). Overall the bitrates Virgin are using are some of the lowest I've seen for HD streams.

Jamesyboyjim · 16 Apr 2019 at 11:57

TheMightyTen said:
Run the TiVo at 1080p the internal upscaler is appalling. There so little 4K content that it's just not worth running at 2160p. In the video options tick 1080p, 1080p passthrough and if you do use the (useless) in built Netflix app also do still tick the 2160p and 2160p passthrough as that is one app that will actually switch the resolution up for 4K content, aside from that resolution switching doesn't occur on anything else.

Quoting this again as I had a play with the V6 last night. This has made a noticeable difference! TV looks a lot better now the TV is doing the scaling and not the V6! I can still see a light difference between Virgin and Sky, but at least it isn't the blurred mess it once was so thanks again!

You're also right about the V6 not scaling back to 1080p once you've watched some 2160 content :rolleyes: