Poor Picture from Verizon FIOS: HDMI vs. Component Video Cables
We recently had Verizon FIOS installed in our home. Wow. The picture is much sharper than our prior cable service, and compares favorably to satellite as well. The reality is, it’s hard to beat the picture delivered by fiber to the premises (fttp), the underlying delivery mechanism that powers FIOS.
One element of the set up that really surprised us was the best method to connect the converter box to our HDTV. The converter box offers a number of options: composite video, component video, s-video, and HDMI. We expected that HDMI would offer the best picture, since the HDMI specification clearly outperforms its component video and lesser counterparts.
So we hooked up the HDMI cable and… well… we were underwhelmed. The picture simply didn’t look that great. It exhibited some “digital fuzz” and, in general, looked poor in a way that was hard to put our finger on. We tried another HDMI cable… no change. The picture just didn’t look good. So, we decided to hook up the Converter box to the television with Monster RGB Component cables.
The result: using quality Monster RGB Component cables, the picture looked MUCH sharper than when an HDMI cable was used. Our guess is that the decoder built into our early-generation RCA HDTV simply isn’t as good as the decoder in the Verizon FIOS converter box. The HDMI on the Verizon box is essentially a digital passthrough, relying on the TV to decode the picture. When component cables are used, the converter box does the decoding and passes the analog signal to the TV.
If you’re having poor picture quality problems in your FIOS setup, you might give this a try. Amazon sells a high quality set of Monster RGB Component Cables that meet THX standards and qualify for free shipping (over $25 purchase). Here’s the link on Amazon’s site:
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September 20th, 2008 8:23 pm
Your older HDTV is definitely the problem. I just bought the cheapest 32″ HDTV available at best buy, and the hdmi picture is way better than composite cables. RCA is sub-par when it comes to HDTVs, although their tube tv is quite nice.
You should upgrade to a newer model, they are much cheaper and higher quality now so it’s not a bad choice.
Also, how long was your hdmi cable. Once you go over 10-15 feet of cable, the image quality suffers on any cable except for the high dollar ones.
Be glad that you have fios, every other HD provider is downgrading the quality to fit more channels. Verizon cut out all analog channels so they can add 25 more HD channels while maintaining the quiality of the broadcast. Sadly, not all HD channels provide true HD signals. Food network, Discovery, HDnet, and the movie channels are the only ones that offer a full 1080p signal.
September 20th, 2008 9:44 pm
Josh - good comments… and I concur with your assessment on both RCA and the benefits of a new HDTV would provide. Unfortunately, the new TV isn’t in the cards (read: the budget) for us right now, so our RCA will have to do.
Surprisingly, one of the only channels we have problems with is HDNet for digital fuzz (looks like bad throughput somewhere).
In any event, our HDMI cable was only 6′… also, the channels you cited only broadcast in 1080i, not 1080p, as far as I know.