WDTV Live photo image quality is BAD

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

Photo quality of the WDTV Live is really BAD. I have bought the ASUS OPLAY HDP-R1 (realtek 1073dd) and the photo quality is just AMAZING (even with 2x and 4x zoom). 

I use the WDTV Live (v1.02.21) just for movies and the ASUS for movies and PHOTOS!

Watching the same photos directly on the TV (40" Samsung LCD) is also a LOT better than with the WDTV Live.

Why???

Note: all my photos are .jpg files from a Panasonic TZ5, 9MP. When I watched the photos on the ASUS HDP-R1 I thought they were taken with a DSLR :slight_smile:

2

What is the image quality like when you view HD movies?  Is it better, worse or the same as your ASUS?

And how are you connecting to your Samsung?  If via HDMI, what resolution have you set the Live to (in HDMI settings)?

3

In HD movies, the image quality between the Live and the Asus is similar, great on both boxes (the Asus seems to be a little sharper). The resolution on the Live is 1080p 60hz (forced and auto is the same) via hdmi high speed cable (v1.3c).

The settings on the TV are the same for both media players.

If I do some zoom (2x or 4x) on both media players the difference is even more evident. The image quality on the Asus is a LOT better, with more definition and sharper.

It seems that the Live reduces the image quality of the image files before presenting them to the TV.

Someone already post this issue on the Ideas thread.

4

And what are the pixel sizes of the images you notice this bad quality on?

I ask because when I display HD still images (anything 1980x1080 and up) everything looks great to me.

5

Out of interest, what is the photo scaling set to in your Photo setup on the WDTV.

6

I tried all the settings (“keep original”, “fit to screen”, “full screen”), the image quality is about the same. I think the problem relies on a limitation of the chipset, since the WDTV Live (Sigma 8655) is able to reproduce images up to 2048x2048 (specification on the manual)  and the Asus (Realtek 1073DD) is able to do 8000x8000. The photos from my DSC are 3552x2368 (9Mpixels), so the WDTV Live is downsizing the photos before presenting them to the TV and degrades the image quality. This makes sense, since I have photos with resolution of 2048x1536 (from a 3MP camera) and the image quality is identical on both players. 

If I zoom 2x a 9MP photo on both players, the difference in image quality between both players is abysmal. The Asus is a LOT better.

As in movies the resolution is up to 1920x1080, the image quality between both players is identical.

7

Well, since that explains it (and since there’s nothing the Live can do about it given the hardware limitations) you might want to mark this thread as solved and your own answer as the solution.

8

Done. :slight_smile: