Sky Q UHD 2160p makes HD content/menu softer?

[LukeF]

Hi, I recently got Sky in my new house alongside a brand new LG OLED tv. Of course the first thing I did was set the sky box to output 2160p10bit, however instantly noticed that it made the sky menu look slightly blurred and soft compared to 1080i/p, and also has the same effect on any on-screen writing (ie news bulletins)? I think it is also making any HD video softer, although this is harder to pick out than any writing/menus which the difference is clear as day. Surely this isn't meant to be like this? Sounds like the Sky upscaler is doing a far poorer job than the LG upscaler, but have seen reports on here that people with the same set up cannot see any difference? I have spent countless hours going through my LG picture settings and cannot do anything that makes a difference. The obvious answer is to set it to 1080i/p for HD and then manually set to 2160 when I put on anything UHD but surely I should be able to leave it on 2160 and it be fine for everything? UHD deep colour is enabled on the tv and I have done the usual swapping hdmi ports and cables. Anyone else have this and any advice? 

[TimmyBGood]

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@LukeF wrote:

Sounds like the Sky upscaler is doing a far poorer job than the LG upscaler

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One might reasonably hope (and indeed expect) the relevant silicon in a 'brand new' £1000+ television is rather 'better' than the video chipset in an increasingly elderly* £100 set-top box?

*as far as we know the component specification for Q hasn't changed since 2019 (and that was only for the 1TB UHD/HDR model) so even a 'recent' Sky Q installation is effectively using four-year-old hardware at best.

[Laing1]

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@LukeF wrote:

Hi, I recently got Sky in my new house alongside a brand new LG OLED tv. Of course the first thing I did was set the sky box to output 2160p10bit, however instantly noticed that it made the sky menu look slightly blurred and soft compared to 1080i/p, and also has the same effect on any on-screen writing (ie news bulletins)? I think it is also making any HD video softer, although this is harder to pick out than any writing/menus which the difference is clear as day. Surely this isn't meant to be like this? Sounds like the Sky upscaler is doing a far poorer job than the LG upscaler, but have seen reports on here that people with the same set up cannot see any difference? I have spent countless hours going through my LG picture settings and cannot do anything that makes a difference. The obvious answer is to set it to 1080i/p for HD and then manually set to 2160 when I put on anything UHD but surely I should be able to leave it on 2160 and it be fine for everything? UHD deep colour is enabled on the tv and I have done the usual swapping hdmi ports and cables. Anyone else have this and any advice? 

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@LukeF as @TimmyBGood says most TV's now adays will do a better job of upscalling than the Q box so the option that a lot of people use is leave the box zset on 1080 and let the TV upscale but then change to 2160 when you want to watch anything in UHD

As you say some people don't see a massive difference could be fo a number of reasons so they leave the settings set on 2160 

the choice is up to you really 

[Chodley]

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@LukeF wrote:

Hi, I recently got Sky in my new house alongside a brand new LG OLED tv. Of course the first thing I did was set the sky box to output 2160p10bit, however instantly noticed that it made the sky menu look slightly blurred and soft compared to 1080i/p, and also has the same effect on any on-screen writing (ie news bulletins)? I think it is also making any HD video softer, although this is harder to pick out than any writing/menus which the difference is clear as day. Surely this isn't meant to be like this? Sounds like the Sky upscaler is doing a far poorer job than the LG upscaler, but have seen reports on here that people with the same set up cannot see any difference? I have spent countless hours going through my LG picture settings and cannot do anything that makes a difference. The obvious answer is to set it to 1080i/p for HD and then manually set to 2160 when I put on anything UHD but surely I should be able to leave it on 2160 and it be fine for everything? UHD deep colour is enabled on the tv and I have done the usual swapping hdmi ports and cables. Anyone else have this and any advice? 

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I have to look pretty closely at my Panasonic OLED to see any difference but can well believe there is one. It's not enough to make me put up with changing output res for UHD content and back again.

I wish Sky would reprise the "Auto output resolution" feature - more useful than Reminders anyway. Yes I went there.

[LukeF]

I 100% agree I have no idea why they would get rid of auto output resolution, seems like the perfect scenario to resolve the seemingly increasing gap between set top box and TV tech. Surely it's something that can be added in software without a new generation of box?

[TimmyBGood]

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@LukeF wrote:

 Surely it's something that can be added in software without a new generation of box?

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This has been raised since Q was released: the answer we've always had back from Sky is that the time taken to switch resolution would be almost entirely dependant on the specification of the connected television rather than the Q box, but subscribers would inevitably blame Sky for the resulting blank screen time (and almost inevitable HDCP errors)

[Chodley]

Bad decision but it ain't going to change so 🤷‍♂️

[Chodley]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

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@LukeF wrote:

 Surely it's something that can be added in software without a new generation of box?

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This has been raised since Q was released: the answer we've always had back from Sky is that the time taken to switch resolution would be almost entirely dependant on the specification of the connected television rather than the Q box, but subscribers would inevitably blame Sky for the resulting blank screen time (and almost inevitable HDCP errors)

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and of course, that's exactly what happens when HDR content is played (and when you switch back to SDR)