I have a Sony Wega, been having issue getting the picture desent(still SD signal) to somewhat likable quality. If I am watching something, anything especially animation or text like a phone number for a commercial perhaps, it has a grainy look to it. Not only is it grainy, but it seems to 'move' almost and is more noticable at the transistion of lines of colors, if that makes sense. I have smoothed it out as much as I can in the TV menu. Is this line noise, can running the RF cable(RG6) it too close to power cause this. I have also noticed that where to sat. dish is mounted is very very close to where the power comes into the house like 12 inches or less. Actually the RF cables from the dish actually cross over (on top of) the conduit. And also the multi switch has a screw on it with a hole, should I run a ground wire from this to a ground ? I know that it is not the TV because when I view things like the TiVo menu it is clean and very smooth. Will be upgrading to HD soon but need a the advise I can get first .

Thank you !

This isn't line noise. I have seen this problem in the TiVo systems by DirecTV. What type of video cables are you using? You should try composite cables if you are using S-video. I have found the S-video outputs to cause a grainy picture. Also, in your tv picture setup, you may have a video DNR setting. If so, turn it off. The video distortion I have seen from the tivo by DirecTV looks like heats waves around the images. Some tv's like the new RCA's may look better using the RF cable. While other's look better with the above mentioned composite. But, none have looked better using the S-video.

It seems that TV manufacturers are cheaping out on the NTSC portion of TVs these days, and those images look bad in general. We have made a point of using A/V receivers that upconvert NTSC to 480i component, and some now do 480p component. While that does not improve the quality of the original image, it plugs it into the section of the TV that the manufacturer took the trouble to make work correctly, so the picture looks better. If you aren't looking along the line of an A/V receiver, maybe an upconverter, transcoder, whatever, that can probably be gotten in the $300 - $500 range can make your TV look as good as it can.

I currently have a Denon that does do up-converting. I have S-video running from TiVo to Receiver then componant to TV.

YOur problem is not the Tivo, cables, noise or dish. It is the terrible video processor built into all of the mass market TVs. The processor is the single most important part determining SD picture quality (although all elements are important).

The processor is responsible for translating a picture of different shape and resolution (much lower than the screen) to fill all of your HD screen. The cheaper the processor, the worse it damages the piture being fed to your HD screen.

The only alternatives that will make a signifigant improvment (although the other suggestions here are a good start) are these:
- Use an outboard video processor (like the DVDO or Lumagen units)
- watch more HD material where possible

Hope that helps.

?????...... What is that?

The thing is that with the new micro display tv's because the picture size is much larger than what you are normally used to seeing it not the tv fault.

The old ntsc signal has only so much resolution/pixels. You blow that you with a much larger tv than a 32" etc and you see the weakness.

Normally the Rg6 because it is shielded you should hardly ever get any interference. On the larger older C band satellite that we used to install power wires are run right beside the rg6 to move the arm and feed and there is no interference.
Once you get hdtv your tv will shine. :)