I agree that the
Mercury is very good quality picture.
Comparing the various DVB receivers I have (that I can feed a TV with), ie :
(1)
Twinhan 1020a---> Roku HD1000 ---> TV
(2) Broadlogic 1030 ---> Roku HD1000 ---> TV
(3) Mercury ---> TV
(4) Fortec Lifetime ---> TIVO---> TV
(5) Fortec Lifetime Ultra ---> TIVO---> TV
Basically, (1) , (2) and (3) give the best results, ie about as good as you can expect from a SD DVB receiver.
Actually, my (4), the Lifetime is also fairly good quality picture. There is no difference in sharpness or contrast, but the difference is that since the first 3 receivers both take advantage of the component input of my TV rather than the composite input. The component inputs provide much deeper color saturation, which is responsible for the excellent pictures. If I use the composite output of the Mercury, I don't see any difference between it and my Lifetime receiver.
Now, # (5), the Ultra. It's picture is clearly lower quality than the other receivers. Again, it isn't a difference in resolution or sharpness, but the contrast is the big problem. Ie you seem to lose a lot of detail that is washed out because it's not displaying small differences in brightness/contrast. Not sure what causes this. It is possible that it is something to do with the cables I'm using from the Ultra, but I don't think so, as I've noticed this over the years while using different cables.
Anyway, yes, the Mercury gives excellent video quality. However the firmware bugs have made me abandon it with respect to connecting directly to my dish. I'm now using my old Lifetime to move the dish and change satellites and polarity, but am slaving the Mercury off the Lifetime since the Mercury gives slightly better picture quality. Makes it a bit more cumbersome to use, but it's worth it.