Discussion Fix PQ Issues on Airtel Xstream box due to HDR

  • Thread starter Siva
  • Start date
  • Replies: Replies 169
  • Views: Views 82,309
After I upgraded to XStream box, I too noticed drastic change in the picture quality. Contrast and saturation levels are too high in video output form this box. I have this Panasonic TV, which does not have HDR settings in it. So, I am not sure what else can be done here. Any advice?
Do contrast settings
Make sure it on 0 to 20 level
This step can make your tv experience a little bit better
And this is not permanent fix
I’m too facing this issue
Airtel should take this seriously otherwise this box will be flop
Internet tv box is much better than this sh*t box
 
I am not sure whether AirTel team is in position to understand the problem forget about solving it. It is not solving audio issues raised earlier in forum. The recording facility has also not started. Pathetic!!!
 
Hey All,

You might have seen my post on the other thread about the availability of this box at my place and getting it installed for my friend.



He was having an Internet TV box and upgraded to this box for a few reasons.

1. Remote on this box is much better
2. To get rid of ugly smart card on the Internet TV box
3. Box is much better looking and compact

As soon as the installation was done, we were shocked to see the DTH channel picture quality on this box. It was absolutely poor with high blacks on faces and blurry images, almost SD like on HD channels. My friend was extremely disappointed with the PQ and was talking about the options to return the box. As we both have the same TV (Sony 49W772E), we took the box to my home and tested it there. To our surprise, the PQ was on par with my Flextronics box at my home. After some research, we found that it's because of the HDR capability that this box has.

Basically, the scene select automatically changes to HDR (Game or Movie) when we connect this box to the Sony TV and the PQ gets extremely bad. It becomes overly white if we manually change the scene select from Auto to General. At my house, even though I also have the same TV, the box is connected to one of the HDMI inputs of my Home theater and then the HT out goes to the TV. And my Home theater is non-HDR i.e. it can't pass through the HDR signal so it's cutting that off and giving the normal PQ that is equivalent to Flextronics HEVC box.

However, at my friend's home, his Home theater is the latest one i.e. Pioneer VSX 534 and it is able to detect and pass the HDR signal received from this box and is sending it as is to the TV and the TV automatically overcorrects the picture and in turn producing poor quality PQ. We tried connecting the box directly to the TV, thinking that the HT was doing something in between, however, the issue remained. After searching for a long time, we found a setting deep within the TV settings to disable the HDR. We had to go to Options -> Picture -> Setup - AV Setup -> HDMI Signal Format and change the setting from "Enhanced" to "Standard".

After we changed it, we kept the scene select in General mode. Then the PQ turned out to be excellent and my friend is completely satisfied.

If you are having a Sony TV and facing any issues like this, you can try the above solution. If you are having a different TV that supports HDR, you might have to follow different steps to disable the HDR. But ultimately try disabling HDR if you are facing any issues with the PQ.

Hope this helps!

Cheers
Siva Bro for sony 4k tv kept picture Mode in HDR Vivid the picture look too good
 
I am using this box with shinco 4K 55 inch TV.

Youtube 4K is working flawlessly.

Amazon prime also coming as UHD.

But netflix (UHD plan) is showing only HD and for some movies there is no sound in TV , if we connect bluetooth speaker from box ,then audio is working.

Output resolution is showing 3840*2160P@30hz , 24hz and 25hz only.

Also box HDMI setting shows like hdcp - active ; HDR - Not supported.
 
Airtel did not acknowledge the issue and blamed the TV.

The first image is direct HDMI connection and just see how reddish and dark the image is.

The second image is the output via HDMI pass-through with an Xbox One which cuts off the HDR signal resulting in proper picture quality.

Image 1 : Direct HDMI :

Image 2 : HDMI pass-through Xbox :



If anyone has the solution to turn off HDR either on the box or the TV (Mi TV 49), it will be of great help.
 
Last edited:
Airtel did not acknowledge the issue and blamed the TV.

The first image is direct HDMI connection and just see how reddish and dark the image is.

The second image is the output via HDMI pass-through with an Xbox One which cuts off the HDR signal resulting in proper picture quality.

Image 1 : Direct HDMI :

Image 2 : HDMI pass-through Xbox :



If anyone has the solution to turn off HDR either on the box or the TV (Mi TV 49), it will be of great help.
Same here please help us it
I’m facing same issue
 
Airtel did not acknowledge the issue and blamed the TV.

The first image is direct HDMI connection and just see how reddish and dark the image is.

The second image is the output via HDMI pass-through with an Xbox One which cuts off the HDR signal resulting in proper picture quality.

Image 1 : Direct HDMI :

Image 2 : HDMI pass-through Xbox :



If anyone has the solution to turn off HDR either on the box or the TV (Mi TV 49), it will be of great help.
You should tweet this comparison side by side on twitter and let them know about the issue.
By d way , hemlock society was one of the best movie i have seen during my college days.
 
You should tweet this comparison side by side on twitter and let them know about the issue.
By d way , hemlock society was one of the best movie i have seen during my college days.


Already shared both the images on twitter and escalated to Nodal desk as well. Even I have shared them this thread's link.
Till date no update from airtel.

Their engineer is constantly claiming that my TV has issue and their box is fine. Also, he says he installed Xstream box to one Mi TV user where he encountered no PQ issues.
Can anybody with Mi TV confirm whether this issue is persistent across all Mi TVs or not?

Yes bro, Hemlock Society is truly a gem.
 
Same here please help us it
I’m facing same issue

Presently, the only solution is to pass-through the HDMI signal via any device such as Xbox One or Home Theatre with HDMI pass-through support.

I guess HDMI switches with non-HDR might be able to cut off the HDR signals forced by the box. I am yet to try that method.

Btw, can you post your TV's make and model and a sample of the picture quality?
 
Update :

Got a call from airtel Nodal desk. He confirmed there is a compatibility issue with Xstream box and non-HDR TVs like Mi TV.

He says the fix will be available soon.

I urge everyone who is facing this issue to put pressure on airtel team so that they resolve this issue on priority and also ask for a normal HD set top box until the Xstream box issue is resolved by them.

We haven't paid 4000 bucks to watch black picture afterall.
 
Back
Top Bottom
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock