How is picture quality on SD for Passion+

[nmalik]

I see that fortec HD receivers are the only FTAs with 7 day EPGs, but I have a standard definition TV. How is picture quality on SD TVs for Passion+ ??

thanking you

Norman

[Bspks]

Generally, if the broadcast is good quality, such as BBC1 at 720x576 then it's pretty good.
If, however, the broadcast is of a lower quality, such as ITV1 at 544x576 or (Shock horror!) movies4men2 at 528x576 then, of course, it's noticably worse.
It holds up well in comparison to my Sky+ box, but, on my Panasonic plasma anyway, I find it better to let the TV do the upscaling rather than the Pash as the result seems a bit wishy-washy in colour, detail and contrast by comparison.
I've found that the easiest way to do this, rather than keep changing the HDMI resolution, is simply to use Scart RGB when watching SD and HDMI for HD.
Of course, the result will vary from TV set to TV set, but, if the TV has a good quality processing engine such as Panasonic's V Real3, Sony's Bravia, Phillip's Pixel Perfect etc. then this will usually do a much better job of upscaling the SD picture than the Passion+ one as the TV's own is obviously designed to get the best from it's particular display panel.
If you have a cheap supermarket type branded set with poor SD performance from broadcast sources then you may achieve better results letting the set top box do the work.

[Bspks]

Sorry just re-read the original post and see you only have an SD set.
In that case then using the Scart in RGB mode should give the same good results with good quality SD and HD broadcasts.
Obviously the same caveats apply to poor broadcasting sources although, if the screen is not too large, the quality problem will not be as noticeable.
I actually have a lead running through the wall from the composite phono video & audio connections to the 15" TV in the kitchen and even that gives an excellent picture on all but the most overcompressed pictures from bot SD & HD channels.