Fios TV One Picture Quality

[Jedihntr1]

We just upgraded our Fios to the TV One service, replacing our 10-year-old Motorola boxes. Right away I could tell the picture quality on the new boxes were inferior to what we had before. Graphics aren't crisp and clear, motion causes the image to blur a bit, and there's noticeable artifacts all over. SD channels now get so pixelated they're almost unwatchable. We received two Arris DVR boxes and one mini, all connected with coax, all boxes and TVs are on the correct HD settings.

Our installation tech returned and hooked up a new ONT box, but that didn't fix the problem. She called another tech in, who checked the signal strength and whatnot, and said it was fine. Neither tech saw the issues I was pointing out, and both said I was their first customer to complain about the picture quality. Verizon won't send another tech to look because the technical readings are fine on their end.

Has anyone else experienced a decrease in picture quality since upgrading to Fios TV One, or am I really just crazy? I find it really hard to accept that these brand new boxes provide inferior service than my ancient ones. Any solutions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[clem21]

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@Jedihntr wrote:

We just upgraded our Fios to the TV One service, replacing our 10-year-old Motorola boxes. Right away I could tell the picture quality on the new boxes were inferior to what we had before. Graphics aren't crisp and clear, motion causes the image to blur a bit, and there's noticeable artifacts all over. SD channels now get so pixelated they're almost unwatchable. We received two Arris DVR boxes and one mini, all connected with coax, all boxes and TVs are on the correct HD settings.

Our installation tech returned and hooked up a new ONT box, but that didn't fix the problem. She called another tech in, who checked the signal strength and whatnot, and said it was fine. Neither tech saw the issues I was pointing out, and both said I was their first customer to complain about the picture quality. Verizon won't send another tech to look because the technical readings are fine on their end.

Has anyone else experienced a decrease in picture quality since upgrading to Fios TV One, or am I really just crazy? I find it really hard to accept that these brand new boxes provide inferior service than my ancient ones. Any solutions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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The Arris boxes are superior to the old Motorola boxes. So, first is your TV 4K capable and is it hooked up directly to the box with a High-speed certified HDMI cable? If yes then first check: Main Menu > Settings > Audio & Video > Video Settings> Video Format and see if it is set to 1080i Or 1080P, or if you have a 4K TV it should say 2160P. Also while you are there check the Graphics Settings and make sure they are set to HD. Check HDR settings there too and it should be set to off unless you are watching HDR programming.  If it is a 4K tv and you are having issues try: Main Menu > Customer Support > Top Support Tools> 4K Troubleshooter. If none of that helps, let me know and we'll dive into the service menu. Also tell me what make and model TV you have.

[Jedihntr1]

Thanks for replying. The installation tech removed the Motorola boxes and hooked up the Arris boxes with the existing coax and HDMI cables. All boxes are set to 1080i, the 2160p setting won't apply on my TVs as none of them are 4K. Two TVs are Samsung (UN55D6000SF and LN46a550) and one is a Vizio (D32f-F1). The UN55D6000SF gets the feed passed through a Denon AVR-2113CIE3 receiver, which does support 4K. The picture quality is consistent across all three TVs, so it's not an issue with one box or connection.

The TVs are a bit older but the picture really did look much better coming from the Motorola boxes. Let's say I have HDMI 1.4 cables (likely); could it really be possible that high-speed cables would fix the problem?

[clem21]

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@Jedihntr wrote:

Thanks for replying. The installation tech removed the Motorola boxes and hooked up the Arris boxes with the existing coax and HDMI cables. All boxes are set to 1080i, the 2160p setting won't apply on my TVs as none of them are 4K. Two TVs are Samsung (UN55D6000SF and LN46a550) and one is a Vizio (D32f-F1). The UN55D6000SF gets the feed passed through a Denon AVR-2113CIE3 receiver, which does support 4K. The picture quality is consistent across all three TVs, so it's not an issue with one box or connection.

The TVs are a bit older but the picture really did look much better coming from the Motorola boxes. Let's say I have HDMI 1.4 cables (likely); could it really be possible that high-speed cables would fix the problem?

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No, the high speed cables only apply with 4K HDR. Looking at the service menu, you should see exactly what the settings are here except resolution should be 1080i, and color space should be YcbCr:4:2:2. Don't bother with the test, it was written for someone else.

[Jedihntr1]

Just checked the service menu on one of the DVR boxes. The show the box set is to 1080i but the color space was 4:4:4. I left everything as-is and exited. 

[clem21]

It was set to YCbCr wasn't it? Also some TV's can't handle 4:4:4 color space. make sure it is not set to RGB. also sharpness was no higher than 3 right? You might want to try doing a factory reset and see if that helps too. Main Menu > Settings > System>Reset Settings. Unplug box for at least 3 minutes, remove HDMI cable, Plug power back into box, plug HDMI back in.

[Jedihntr1]

It was set to YCbCr and the sharpness was left on default (3). I don't think a factory reset will do the trick, as the picture is the same on all three boxes. The only thing that changed were the boxes; if the video is compressed, and that's a more accurate way to describe how the picture looks, perhaps the Motorola boxes were better at processing that compressed video than the Arris boxes are.

I don't think anything I do on my end will fix the issue. I guess my last option is to decide whether to keep the faster boxes with more DVR capabilities but with inferior picture quality, or revert back to my older boxes which kinda stink but produces a better image. Thanks for your help though, much appreciated.

[clem21 · Accepted solution]

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@Jedihntr wrote:

It was set to YCbCr and the sharpness was left on default (3). I don't think a factory reset will do the trick, as the picture is the same on all three boxes. The only thing that changed were the boxes; if the video is compressed, and that's a more accurate way to describe how the picture looks, perhaps the Motorola boxes were better at processing that compressed video than the Arris boxes are.

I don't think anything I do on my end will fix the issue. I guess my last option is to decide whether to keep the faster boxes with more DVR capabilities but with inferior picture quality, or revert back to my older boxes which kinda stink but produces a better image. Thanks for your help though, much appreciated.

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Sounds like what you have run into is the Arris boxes are optimized for 4K. They may not have the best 1080 performance, where the Motorola boxes were made to optimize 1080. Did you try setting the video format to 1080P? could help. Other than that I really don't have any other suggestions for you. Can you try going with coax direct from the splitter to your TV and try tuning into an available channel to see how the video looks without any cable box. Might give you a better idea of the real quality of the incoming video.

[LawrenceC]

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