Pioneer DVR-530 Tuner issues - assistance required!

[credo]

I have a Pioneer DVR-530 DVD-HDD Recorder, almost 2 years old, and recently the picture quality from the internal tuner has become quite poor. The contrast seems way too high, and the quality overall is not what is should be. The TV signal is normal analogue, and passes through the DVR-530 into our Panasonic Plasma. The same signal viewed on the TV's tuner is fine, and I tested a DVD last night, which was also fine, ruling out the component connection to the TV.
Can anyone suggest anything? Any help would be much appreciated.

[fordster]

Have you tried adjusting any of the settings (or maybe doing a rest back to defaults)? I've not seen this exact problem but I find mine to display too dark a picture although I use SCART so it's never going to be great. I also find it not to be that great a DVD player (although it's certainly not awful) but then I never use it for that. If you have another DVD player try burning a recording to disc and watching it from the other player. At least then you'll know whether it is the recording or the playback that is not right.