DanG
Stunt Coordinator
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FAQ PART I
This FAQ is for the Panasonic RP91 DVD Player. It is divided into two parts, the second part is farther down in the thread. Additional information will be posted as becomes available. This FAQ is posted in AVS, Home Theatre Forum and Home Theatre Spot. As I have a 16x9 RPTV hooked up to my RP91 most of the observations will deal with this setup.
The RP91D (D is a promotional designator) hit the streets first as the RP91D-N (champagne) in early May of 2001.
Its counterpart model in black, the RP91D-K, followed it in early July.
(Thanks to Chris Maynard for the pic)
Back panel of the RP91:
BASIC FEATURES:
Although the CRT, LCD and Projection choices don't seem to have much visual effect on the picture, again this is on my 16x9 display.
Also if you are using Component (Y/Pb/Pr) connections, set the Black Level Control in the Main Menu to "Darker"
Most general setups will set the Progressive Mode to ON. You must be using component inputs on your display device to enable Progressive Mode. There is a button on the front panel of the 91 to do this. The bright blue light that comes on may be very distracting. To have it automatically turn off around ten seconds go to the display Menu and change the Display Dimmer from Bright -> AUTO.
Progressive mode is required if you intend to do scaling of non-anamorphic DVD's. It also should provide somewhat better 3:2 pulldown detection capability than most RPTV's. For more information on this see my observations at http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003856.html
Once you have a picture up, you may notice one of two issues. With a 4:3 set in Pan&Scan mode you will find that the black bar is wider on the left and narrower on the right. Also the right side of the 4:3 image has 0% overscan, but the left side has 2-4% overscan. Robert George is on top of this waiting for a reply from Panasonic.
The other issue is for 16x9 owners where the image is shifted horizontally to the left. Again, the fix for me was from Obi. To shift it to the right, press the joystick button right and hold. With the remote aimed at the 91, press the STOP button on the player's panel. This will shift the image over by 2 pixels. To shift it again you must repeat the entire process. These settings will remain in the player unless AC power is removed and you have to re-centre again.
Next is setting up the Video Menu. When you enable Progressive Mode you will see the Digital Picture mode and the U4 settings mode. The U4 settings are part of both the preset Digital Picture modes and the USER mode. U4 controls de-interlacing (TRANSFER mode) and aspect ratio functions (4:3 ASPECT mode) and is generally used for non-anamorphic DVD's. U4 is visible but has no effect on anamorphic DVD's, unless you have the TV ASPECT in the Main Action Menu set to one of the 4:3 modes and are viewing on a 16x9 set.
The preset modes in the Digital Picture Mode are N: normal, S: soft, F: fine and C: Cinema. The fifth is U: user mode and we'll get to that later. Along with the Digital Picture mode selection you make, you are also offered what de-interlacing method to opt for by the TRANSFER mode. AUTO1: is for viewing only film based DVD's, AUTO2: is used for film based DVD's and those that have 30 frame per second video content in them, AUTO3: for animated movies and lastly VIDEO: reserved for strictly video material.
The 4:3 ASPECT mode offers these choices, NORMAL: To fill up as much of the TV screen as much as the Original Aspect Ratio will allow, AUTO: 4:3 material will be shown in the centre of the screen with black bars either side or Letterbox format 4:3 material expands to fill the TV screen as much as the Original Aspect Ratio will allow, SHRINK: the picture is shown in the 4:3 aspect in the centre of the TV - for 16x9 sets this will be a widescreen image boxed by four black bars and lastly ZOOM: if the 4:3 letterbox aspect is not expanded properly when in NORMAL mode or ZOOM mode.
If you are watching a non-anamorphic DVD (in AUTO or ZOOM mode) that has subtitling burnt in the lower black bar and they are cut off somewhat, you can use the SHIFT POSITION menu to shift the images up a few pixels to make the subtitling visible.
Popular settings for Video seem to be Digital Picture mode set to NORMAL, Transfer Mode set to AUTO2 (which de-interlaces film and video material) and 4:3 aspect set to AUTO. This should scale most non-anamorphic DVD's to anamorphic size and proper geometry. If your DVD does not scale up, it could be that MPEG flag is improperly set and doesn't trigger the 91's ZOOM (scaling) mode. In this case you will have to enter the Video menu and change the 4:3 aspect to ZOOM. U mode settings are left at their default values.
If you are really bothered by motion artifacts try the Digital Picture S mode. It does tend to de-interlace a little better than the other preset modes but produces a noticeably softer picture.
These are pretty good default settings for most DVD's. If you have a DVD than does not look good using these two modes, you may enter the custom U mode. Along with U4 you can use these three modes to customize the video settings for your DVD.
To enable the User mode you must have the Progressive mode ON. To enter the User customization mode, with the cursor on the Digital Picture icon scroll through till you get the U option. This will appear as U1, which offers you video picture settings. If you move the cursor left once you will sit on the number part of U1 and by scrolling up or down you can select the U2 and U3 modes.
U2 will allow you to adjust noise reduction options. 3D-NR: reduces over all noise, BLOCK-NR: smoothes MPEG block noise and MOSQUITO-NR: reduces smudging that appears around contrasting sections of the picture. If you press the MPEG-DNR button on the front panel of the 91, this will override the current memory U2 setting for as long as the button is ON.
U3 allows you to set sharpness and Edge enhancement. You can Horizontal Sharpness, Vertical Sharpness, Edge and Tint settings.
These settings can be set for up to 200 DVD's. The player will remember the settings automatically as long as you don't go and change the Digital Picture Mode before opening the disc tray or switching the unit to standby. After making customized settings, when you put the same DVD in again and go to User mode, those memorized settings will be used. Remember that any new disc that you play for the first time will use whatever previous settings you had setup.
There is a bug associated with the U settings. It results in your DVD's having a pink tint. The bug is generated by a particular keying sequence while in the Speaker Setting submenu of the Audio Menu found in the players Main Menu. While in the "Speaker presence and size" settings menu if you press RETURN on the remote (as you would normally exiting Main menu submenus) instead of EXIT, the theory goes that this somehow writes into the U memory settings. If you have never used the U setting then do a RESET as described in the Troubleshooting section of the manual and this will revert the U setting back to factory default.
On the other hand if you initiated the bug and activated the U setting by ejecting the disc, powering down or letting the player go into standby mode, the defective memory setting will be stored by the player.
To reset the disc with the corrupted U custom setting, insert the disc and press STOP on the player till the display shows STOP. Press and hold down the REWIND and PAUSE buttons on the 91 panel and then press and hold EJECT also on the 91 panel until INITIALIZED disappears from the display. Engage Progressive Mode, go to the Video Menu and select the U setting. The pink tint should be gone and at this point. Eject the disc, which will save the corrected setting in the player's memory. You must repeat this procedure for every tainted disc.
Thanks to StanleyCat and jcorkery for nailing this one down.
ANAMORPHIC and NON-ANAMORPHIC SCALING:
When scaling non-anamorphic DVD's you must remember that it will display the same original aspect ratio and geometry that the DVD would have had if mastered as anamorphic. This means that a non-anamorphic DVD with an OAR of 2.35:1 when scaled will still have black bars above and below. The scaling will not provide an increase of resolution as a true anamorphic DVD would have, but my tests with AVIA and Video Essentials have shown that there is little or no loss of resolution when it does the scaling. Having the scaling being done by the player and than output as a 480P signal is a visually superior method than allowing the TV to take the non-anamorphic image and uses convergence lines to zoom up to an anamorphic geometry.
With the 91 set to 16x9 TV TYPE and my RPTV set to FULL mode here are the screen sizes I have obtained on my 16x9 RPTV for various DVD's in my collection:
NON-ANAMORPHIC
1.33:1
1.78:1
4:3 SETS (no anamorphic squeeze) and the RP91:
I'd like to thank Don Tycholis for his input on how the RP91 views on 4:3 RPTV's without the "anamorphic squeeze" that some sets have.
quote:
"First off, the scaling functions are not available when the input signal is 480i. Also, the functions are intended for a 16:9 aspect ratio image, so they are useless for a 4:3 TV, unless your set does the anamorphic squeeze for 480p, either naturally or forced via re-convergence to a 16:9 grid.
On the off chance this information is useful to someone, (and because a couple of people have asked) here is what I've observed:
SOURCE - 4:3 aspect signal
1.) NORM - 4:3 image fills the screen completely as expected.
2.) AUTO - the sides squeeze in, with a 6" black bar on the left, 3" on the right. Image appears stretched vertically, filling from top to bottom, no black bars.
3.) SHRINK - Image appears the same as AUTO.
4.) ZOOM - the size of the image is magnified so a significant percentage of the sides are cut off (off screen); however, it is still stretched vertically".
[/quote]
> I take it you also have the left centering problem with thicker bar?
quote: "When the image is scaled, it is shifted to the right." [/quote]
> Have you fooled around with the scaling of anamorphic DVD's, not
> really useful for RPTV'ers, but maybe useful to projector guys.
quote:
Here's how anamorphic DVD's are scaled on my 4:3 set:
1.) NORMAL: letterbox presentation, image is centered horizontally and fills the screen left to right; 7" black bar on top, 6.5" bottom.
2.) AUTO: the image is squeezed in at the sides, 6" black bar on the left, 3" black bar on the right. The image is stretched vertically so taller than NORMAL. There are still black bars on the top and
bottom, but only 3" thick at the top and 2.75" thick on bottom.
3.) SHRINK: same proportions as AUTO, but image size are reduced both vertically and horizontally. The left bar is 6", right one is 3", top is 7", bottom is 6.5"
4.) ZOOM: Image is magnified and looks vertically stretched. Top bar is 3", bottom is 2.5" and the sides are cut off (off screen).
[/quote]
AUDIO SETUP:
For those with surround receivers that have DD5.1 digital inputs and 6ch analogue inputs you would connect the optical or coaxial cable from the 91 to a corresponding input on your receiver. All media modes - DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, and MP3 can be used with the digital connection. Note, however that for either digital or analogue mode CD-R's and CD-RW's should be "finalized" before playing in the 91. The 91's 6ch analogue outputs would connect to your receiver's external inputs.
Enter the Main Action Menu and go to Audio Menu. Generally speaking you should have your receiver already calibrated for channel and THX reference levels. The SPEAKER SETTING operates for both DVD-V and DVD-A discs, but not all functions. With DVD-A and CD's there is no bass management, see*. Speaker Presence functions also do not work. You can control the channel levels of the surround speakers and the sub-woofer when using the analogue inputs of your A/V receiver, as the 91's DAC's are employed. Delay time (leave settings at 0 if you have set this up in you're A/V receiver) works only for DVD-V. Obviously using your A/V receiver's digital inputs would allow it to control the speaker settings. Similarly when playing DVD-V discs using your A/V receiver's digital inputs, it is responsible for speaker settings and bass management. If you use your A/V receiver's analogue inputs, the 91's SPEAKER SETTING will control Speaker Presence, bass management, channel levels of the surround speakers and the sub-woofer, for both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS discs. With an AVIA or Video Essentials test disc you can calibrate the 91's channel levels (if necessary) till they match the readings that you had setup for your A/V receiver.
BASS MANAGEMENT:
The 91 has bass management capability in the DVD-Video mode only (for both DTS/DD5.1 signals) when using its analogue outputs. There is no bass management in CD or DVD-Audio modes.
The SUBWOOFER OUT jack has a low pass filter that is active for DVD-Video DTS/DD5.1 signals. The filter will eliminate any frequencies over 100Hz. This filter is not active when DVD-Audio signal is being output.
Setting a speaker to SMALL sends frequencies below 100Hz to the sub, or if you have no sub it will send them to the Fronts.
Setting a speaker to LARGE allows full range reproduction. Setting the subwoofer to NO will default the Fronts to a LARGE setting.
Assuming you have a subwoofer present a typical setup would be to set the SUB=YES, FRONT=LARGE and SURROUND+CENTRE=SMALL. This scenario will send all frequencies below 100Hz from all speakers set to SMALL to the subwoofer. The .1 LFE channel signal is sent to the sub. If your Fronts are small and not capable of low frequency full range signals, you would set it to SMALL. This would then send frequencies below 100Hz to the sub.
If you have no sub, then the 91 will automatically set your FRONTS=LARGE. Again the surrounds would be set to SURROUND+CENTRE=SMALL. In this scenario all frequencies below 100Hz from all speakers set to SMALL go to the Fronts. The .1 LFE channel signal is also sent to the Fronts.
A note about listening to CD's in Stereo. If you use the digital output of the 91 for listening to CD's, you will find that it will add a bass signal into the digital Bitstream. If you have a sub connected, there is no way to get rid of the sub signal in digital mode. To kill the sub you must use the 91's analogue outputs.
Remember that to leave the SPEAKER SETTING menu without invoking the pink tint U bug press EXIT to leave, NOT the RETURN button on the remote. You can use Return for closing the other menus from this point forward.
*As for DVD-Audio there is NO bass management, quoting John Kotches Editor for PC/Home Theater - Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003682.html, he says:
quote:
"The following is certain about bass management on the RP-91:
1) DD and DTS decoders perform bass management.
2) CD doesn't do bass management.
DVD-A is being hotly contested for lack of a better expression.
There are a few variables in play with DVD-A that make this a very confusing (and hence frustrating
issue).
1) DVD-A can have a predefined LFE track.
Some people are making the mistake of believing that output from the subwoofer on DVD-A means that
bass management is occurring. It is just as possible that the .1 channel is carrying some bass information
as defined in the recording.
2) DVD-A stored with Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) can be flagged such that no down mix is
possible
I've seen a couple of Silverline Records discs that have down mix flagged as unavailable. Others probably exist out there as well. If that's the case, then we won't know about bass management on this, as that's a form of down mix as it's modifying the original data stream.
3) The Panasonic manual implies bass management is active for DVD-A.
My experience says that Bass Management isn't occurring on ANY PCM material (CD or DVD-A), but not having the player in at the moment (I worked with it for about 3 hours at the benchmark event) I can't do the tests to verify the results for my own personal satisfaction at this time."
[/quote]
I ran some tests and verified that the 91 was doing no bass management in DVD-A.
Other Audio Menu settings are DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT. This determines whether CD Re-mastering is enabled and what audio output modes are used.
If you're A/V receiver can handle input signals of 88.2kHz or greater PCM DOWNCONVERSION should be set to NO. You can set ON (RE-MASTER ON) to use the 88.2kHz re-master signal.
Note for those with Denon A/V receiver's model numbers: 5800,5700,4800, 3801 and 3300, these models have an inability to lock onto the 91's CD Re-master 88.2kHz output signal. This means you
must use the analogue 91 outputs to get CD Re-master to function with these models. Am awaiting a reply from Denon about the "xx02" series.
Next is the DOLBY DIGITAL setting. For DD5.1 "Bitstream" is the default setting and should be used if your A/V receiver has a Dolby Digital decoder. For DTS the default is "PCM". If your A/V receiver has a DTS decoder, set this also to "Bitstream".
The AUDIO DURING SEARCH option is defaulted to on. However if this causes your A/V receiver or preamp to lose signal lock, then change this setting to OFF.
If your A/V receiver supports only Dolby Prologic then set PCM DOWNCONVERSION as required by the receiver. Also set the DOLBY DIGITAL and DTS settings to "PCM".
Also remember that when playing DVD-A and using the digital connections on your A/V receiver, you will be receiving from the 91 the copy-protected downconversion of the track. This would be 2 channel Dolby2.0 at 48kHz/16bit sampling and bit rate. To get full 6 channel 96kHz/24bit, you must use your A/V receiver's 6 analogue external inputs. Before you get the $400 dollar cables, try the Radio Shack 12 Ft. Gold-Series Audio/Video Cable 75ohm - Model: 15-1509 $19.99 each.
MISCELLANEOUS:
On some DVD-Audio discs you will not be able to access the DD5.1 or DTS soundtracks. This is a generic problem associated with the current crop of DVD players and some DVD record labels. The reason for this, paraphrasing John Kotches, is that the DVD-V directory is not mapped properly in the DVD-A table of contents area. When you insert this DVD-A disc in the 91 it becomes a DVD-A player and has no way to access the hidden soundtracks. More technically when the DVD-A is produced all playable tracks are mapped in the AUDIO_TS directory. If the DVD-A has DD/DTS tracks as well, they are located in their own separate VIDEO_TS directory. To be able to access these DD/DTS tracks from the AUDIO_TS directory, the content provider has to place a link where those DD/DTS tracks reside.
With some Mitsubishi models it seems that the picture seems soft. Some users are cranking up the sharpness settings in U mode.
There is no code to enable turning ON Pioneer model RPTV's with the 91's remote.
MP3's at this time have no random or program play modes. There is no CD-TEXT for MP3's. Max Leung reports that there are incompatibilities with some MP3 encoding schemes. See this thread for more info: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/...ML/039397.html
When the 91's indexing mechanism has to traverse a large distance across the surface of the CD or DVD there is a noticeable noise in doing this. It seems that quite a few users have reported this and it seems to be a normal mechanical sound.
The 91 has no screensaver mode. It does have a Standby function, which activates after 30 minutes. Unfortunately Standby is only triggered if the unit is Paused or Stopped.
TIME REMAINING only functions for CD's and DVD-Audio. There is no current method to invoke it for DVD-Video.
AUDIO DURING SEARCH function does not work for DVD-A when using analogue inputs.
Comments or additions to the FAQ, much appreciated.
Hdtvguy
------------------
°°° Panasonic Hi&Lo Def WebPage°°°
[Edited last by DanG on August 25, 2001 at 09:53 PM]
This FAQ is for the Panasonic RP91 DVD Player. It is divided into two parts, the second part is farther down in the thread. Additional information will be posted as becomes available. This FAQ is posted in AVS, Home Theatre Forum and Home Theatre Spot. As I have a 16x9 RPTV hooked up to my RP91 most of the observations will deal with this setup.
The RP91D (D is a promotional designator) hit the streets first as the RP91D-N (champagne) in early May of 2001.
Its counterpart model in black, the RP91D-K, followed it in early July.
(Thanks to Chris Maynard for the pic)Back panel of the RP91:
BASIC FEATURES:
- 1.Lowest Toronto price I've seen $699CAN.
- 2.Dolby Digital and DTS Decoders built-in.
- 3.DVD-Audio with incorporated 192kHz/24-bit Audio D/A Converter.
- 4.Progressive Scanning - Progressive scanning (480P), with 4:4:4 Signal processing, is a method of creating a higher resolution signal; it doubles the scan lines of a conventional interlaced signal (480I). This helps to create a noticeably sharper picture. Progressive scanning requires only one 1/60th of a second pass as it scans all 525 horizontal lines at once (480 displayed), thus doubling the scan lines of interlaced signals for a significantly improved picture. Also colour rendition is not lost by allowing the TV's 3:2 pulldown decoder to de-interlace the incoming signal (additional analogue-digital-analogue processing can cause colour reduction), but this only applies to CRT displays.
- 5.54MHz 12-bit Video D/A Converter - By processing the DVD video signal at 4 times the original 13.5MHz rate, this is supposed to add to image detail and resolution.
- 6.Digital Re-Master Processing - This extends the frequency of discs recorded at 48kHz or 44.1kHz/16-bit beyond their 20kHz boundaries. A DSP creates a high range signal above 20kHz that adds to the overall harmonic structure of the signal. It is said to make CD's sound better.
- 7.Audio Only Circuit which isolates the audio circuitry from the video circuitry.
- 8.Disc Stabilizer - This applies corrective pressure at the inner and outer edges of the DVD to minimize warpage suppresses vibration
- 9.Twin Laser Pickup - needed for all the formats it can play back, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, and MP3.
- 10.Dialogue Enhancer - It increases the centre channel volume relative to the other channels, making the dialogue easy to understand.
- 11.Hi-Speed Smooth Motion Scan - Will search up to x100 compared to normal speed.
- 12.Linear PCM Audio - For analogue decoding of 96kHz/24-bit/6ch DVD-Audio source material.
- 13.MPEG Digital Noise Reduction - said to reduce certain types of MPEG2 generated artifacts.
- 14.On-Screen Menu - A large complement of features to adjust. You can also access the Main setup menu with the Action button and unlike earlier Panasonic players, which would restart the disc, now you are taken back to where play was stopped. With the Speaker sub-menu you can control speaker configuration, delay time, master volume and speaker level control.
- 15.R-core Toroidal Transformer - Supposedly helps low and high frequency signals.
- 16.TA-KE II Electrolytic Capacitors - These capacitors are used for smoothing power supply stability, this is supposed to help the middle and high frequencies.
- 17.Virtual Battery Operation - The power supply prevents AC power supply noise from entering the audio circuitry.
- 18.2-Dimensional Sharpening Filter - This filter is user adjustable: 4 steps vertically and ±6 steps each for the horizontal and is supposed to help set proper edge enhancement.
- 19.De-interlacing (3:2 pulldown detection) by a Panasonic modded Genesis single chip gives adequate artifact removal. Will have to wait for Mr. Spears and Mr. Munsils revelations in "Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity" Shootout II to see Panasonics implementation is flag reading or cadence reading, or a combination of both.
- 20.Scaling of non-anamorphic DVD's using again the Genesis's chip scaling abilities is well implemented by Panasonic.
- 21.Having the Panasonic MPEG decoder frees the RP91 from the chroma bug.[/list=a]
VIDEO SETUP:
As per the manual page 9
Although the CRT, LCD and Projection choices don't seem to have much visual effect on the picture, again this is on my 16x9 display.
Also if you are using Component (Y/Pb/Pr) connections, set the Black Level Control in the Main Menu to "Darker"
Most general setups will set the Progressive Mode to ON. You must be using component inputs on your display device to enable Progressive Mode. There is a button on the front panel of the 91 to do this. The bright blue light that comes on may be very distracting. To have it automatically turn off around ten seconds go to the display Menu and change the Display Dimmer from Bright -> AUTO.
Progressive mode is required if you intend to do scaling of non-anamorphic DVD's. It also should provide somewhat better 3:2 pulldown detection capability than most RPTV's. For more information on this see my observations at http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003856.html
Once you have a picture up, you may notice one of two issues. With a 4:3 set in Pan&Scan mode you will find that the black bar is wider on the left and narrower on the right. Also the right side of the 4:3 image has 0% overscan, but the left side has 2-4% overscan. Robert George is on top of this waiting for a reply from Panasonic.
The other issue is for 16x9 owners where the image is shifted horizontally to the left. Again, the fix for me was from Obi. To shift it to the right, press the joystick button right and hold. With the remote aimed at the 91, press the STOP button on the player's panel. This will shift the image over by 2 pixels. To shift it again you must repeat the entire process. These settings will remain in the player unless AC power is removed and you have to re-centre again.
Next is setting up the Video Menu. When you enable Progressive Mode you will see the Digital Picture mode and the U4 settings mode. The U4 settings are part of both the preset Digital Picture modes and the USER mode. U4 controls de-interlacing (TRANSFER mode) and aspect ratio functions (4:3 ASPECT mode) and is generally used for non-anamorphic DVD's. U4 is visible but has no effect on anamorphic DVD's, unless you have the TV ASPECT in the Main Action Menu set to one of the 4:3 modes and are viewing on a 16x9 set.
The preset modes in the Digital Picture Mode are N: normal, S: soft, F: fine and C: Cinema. The fifth is U: user mode and we'll get to that later. Along with the Digital Picture mode selection you make, you are also offered what de-interlacing method to opt for by the TRANSFER mode. AUTO1: is for viewing only film based DVD's, AUTO2: is used for film based DVD's and those that have 30 frame per second video content in them, AUTO3: for animated movies and lastly VIDEO: reserved for strictly video material.
The 4:3 ASPECT mode offers these choices, NORMAL: To fill up as much of the TV screen as much as the Original Aspect Ratio will allow, AUTO: 4:3 material will be shown in the centre of the screen with black bars either side or Letterbox format 4:3 material expands to fill the TV screen as much as the Original Aspect Ratio will allow, SHRINK: the picture is shown in the 4:3 aspect in the centre of the TV - for 16x9 sets this will be a widescreen image boxed by four black bars and lastly ZOOM: if the 4:3 letterbox aspect is not expanded properly when in NORMAL mode or ZOOM mode.
If you are watching a non-anamorphic DVD (in AUTO or ZOOM mode) that has subtitling burnt in the lower black bar and they are cut off somewhat, you can use the SHIFT POSITION menu to shift the images up a few pixels to make the subtitling visible.
Popular settings for Video seem to be Digital Picture mode set to NORMAL, Transfer Mode set to AUTO2 (which de-interlaces film and video material) and 4:3 aspect set to AUTO. This should scale most non-anamorphic DVD's to anamorphic size and proper geometry. If your DVD does not scale up, it could be that MPEG flag is improperly set and doesn't trigger the 91's ZOOM (scaling) mode. In this case you will have to enter the Video menu and change the 4:3 aspect to ZOOM. U mode settings are left at their default values.
If you are really bothered by motion artifacts try the Digital Picture S mode. It does tend to de-interlace a little better than the other preset modes but produces a noticeably softer picture.
These are pretty good default settings for most DVD's. If you have a DVD than does not look good using these two modes, you may enter the custom U mode. Along with U4 you can use these three modes to customize the video settings for your DVD.
To enable the User mode you must have the Progressive mode ON. To enter the User customization mode, with the cursor on the Digital Picture icon scroll through till you get the U option. This will appear as U1, which offers you video picture settings. If you move the cursor left once you will sit on the number part of U1 and by scrolling up or down you can select the U2 and U3 modes.
U2 will allow you to adjust noise reduction options. 3D-NR: reduces over all noise, BLOCK-NR: smoothes MPEG block noise and MOSQUITO-NR: reduces smudging that appears around contrasting sections of the picture. If you press the MPEG-DNR button on the front panel of the 91, this will override the current memory U2 setting for as long as the button is ON.
U3 allows you to set sharpness and Edge enhancement. You can Horizontal Sharpness, Vertical Sharpness, Edge and Tint settings.
These settings can be set for up to 200 DVD's. The player will remember the settings automatically as long as you don't go and change the Digital Picture Mode before opening the disc tray or switching the unit to standby. After making customized settings, when you put the same DVD in again and go to User mode, those memorized settings will be used. Remember that any new disc that you play for the first time will use whatever previous settings you had setup.
There is a bug associated with the U settings. It results in your DVD's having a pink tint. The bug is generated by a particular keying sequence while in the Speaker Setting submenu of the Audio Menu found in the players Main Menu. While in the "Speaker presence and size" settings menu if you press RETURN on the remote (as you would normally exiting Main menu submenus) instead of EXIT, the theory goes that this somehow writes into the U memory settings. If you have never used the U setting then do a RESET as described in the Troubleshooting section of the manual and this will revert the U setting back to factory default.
On the other hand if you initiated the bug and activated the U setting by ejecting the disc, powering down or letting the player go into standby mode, the defective memory setting will be stored by the player.
To reset the disc with the corrupted U custom setting, insert the disc and press STOP on the player till the display shows STOP. Press and hold down the REWIND and PAUSE buttons on the 91 panel and then press and hold EJECT also on the 91 panel until INITIALIZED disappears from the display. Engage Progressive Mode, go to the Video Menu and select the U setting. The pink tint should be gone and at this point. Eject the disc, which will save the corrected setting in the player's memory. You must repeat this procedure for every tainted disc.
Thanks to StanleyCat and jcorkery for nailing this one down.
ANAMORPHIC and NON-ANAMORPHIC SCALING:
When scaling non-anamorphic DVD's you must remember that it will display the same original aspect ratio and geometry that the DVD would have had if mastered as anamorphic. This means that a non-anamorphic DVD with an OAR of 2.35:1 when scaled will still have black bars above and below. The scaling will not provide an increase of resolution as a true anamorphic DVD would have, but my tests with AVIA and Video Essentials have shown that there is little or no loss of resolution when it does the scaling. Having the scaling being done by the player and than output as a 480P signal is a visually superior method than allowing the TV to take the non-anamorphic image and uses convergence lines to zoom up to an anamorphic geometry.
With the 91 set to 16x9 TV TYPE and my RPTV set to FULL mode here are the screen sizes I have obtained on my 16x9 RPTV for various DVD's in my collection:
NON-ANAMORPHIC
1.33:1
- 4:3 Shrink - 4:3 NTSC image with two vertical black bars
- Normal -Full Screen, shrunk people
- Zoom -Full Screen, normal people
- 4:3 Shrink - 16x9 reduced image with two vertical black bars and two
horizontal black bars - Normal -Wide image, with two horizontal black bars, shrunk people
- Zoom -Full Screen, normal people
- 4:3 Shrink - 16x9 reduced image with two vertical black bars and two
horizontal black bars - Normal -Full Screen, normal people
- Zoom -Full Screen, normal people
- 4:3 Shrink - 16x9 reduced image with two vertical black bars and two
horizontal black bars - Normal -Wide image, with two horizontal black bars, shrunk people
- Zoom -Anamorphic, with two horizontal black bars, normal people
- 4:3 Shrink - 16x9 reduced image with two vertical black bars and two
horizontal black bars - Normal -Wide image, with two horizontal black bars, shrunk people
- Zoom -Anamorphic, with two horizontal black bars, normal people
1.78:1
- Normal -Full Screen, normal people
- Normal -Anamorphic, with two horizontal black bars, normal people
- Normal -Anamorphic, with two horizontal black bars, normal people
4:3 SETS (no anamorphic squeeze) and the RP91:
I'd like to thank Don Tycholis for his input on how the RP91 views on 4:3 RPTV's without the "anamorphic squeeze" that some sets have.
quote:
"First off, the scaling functions are not available when the input signal is 480i. Also, the functions are intended for a 16:9 aspect ratio image, so they are useless for a 4:3 TV, unless your set does the anamorphic squeeze for 480p, either naturally or forced via re-convergence to a 16:9 grid.
On the off chance this information is useful to someone, (and because a couple of people have asked) here is what I've observed:
SOURCE - 4:3 aspect signal
1.) NORM - 4:3 image fills the screen completely as expected.
2.) AUTO - the sides squeeze in, with a 6" black bar on the left, 3" on the right. Image appears stretched vertically, filling from top to bottom, no black bars.
3.) SHRINK - Image appears the same as AUTO.
4.) ZOOM - the size of the image is magnified so a significant percentage of the sides are cut off (off screen); however, it is still stretched vertically".
[/quote]
> I take it you also have the left centering problem with thicker bar?
quote: "When the image is scaled, it is shifted to the right." [/quote]
> Have you fooled around with the scaling of anamorphic DVD's, not
> really useful for RPTV'ers, but maybe useful to projector guys.
quote:
Here's how anamorphic DVD's are scaled on my 4:3 set:
1.) NORMAL: letterbox presentation, image is centered horizontally and fills the screen left to right; 7" black bar on top, 6.5" bottom.
2.) AUTO: the image is squeezed in at the sides, 6" black bar on the left, 3" black bar on the right. The image is stretched vertically so taller than NORMAL. There are still black bars on the top and
bottom, but only 3" thick at the top and 2.75" thick on bottom.
3.) SHRINK: same proportions as AUTO, but image size are reduced both vertically and horizontally. The left bar is 6", right one is 3", top is 7", bottom is 6.5"
4.) ZOOM: Image is magnified and looks vertically stretched. Top bar is 3", bottom is 2.5" and the sides are cut off (off screen).
[/quote]
AUDIO SETUP:
For those with surround receivers that have DD5.1 digital inputs and 6ch analogue inputs you would connect the optical or coaxial cable from the 91 to a corresponding input on your receiver. All media modes - DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, and MP3 can be used with the digital connection. Note, however that for either digital or analogue mode CD-R's and CD-RW's should be "finalized" before playing in the 91. The 91's 6ch analogue outputs would connect to your receiver's external inputs.
Enter the Main Action Menu and go to Audio Menu. Generally speaking you should have your receiver already calibrated for channel and THX reference levels. The SPEAKER SETTING operates for both DVD-V and DVD-A discs, but not all functions. With DVD-A and CD's there is no bass management, see*. Speaker Presence functions also do not work. You can control the channel levels of the surround speakers and the sub-woofer when using the analogue inputs of your A/V receiver, as the 91's DAC's are employed. Delay time (leave settings at 0 if you have set this up in you're A/V receiver) works only for DVD-V. Obviously using your A/V receiver's digital inputs would allow it to control the speaker settings. Similarly when playing DVD-V discs using your A/V receiver's digital inputs, it is responsible for speaker settings and bass management. If you use your A/V receiver's analogue inputs, the 91's SPEAKER SETTING will control Speaker Presence, bass management, channel levels of the surround speakers and the sub-woofer, for both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS discs. With an AVIA or Video Essentials test disc you can calibrate the 91's channel levels (if necessary) till they match the readings that you had setup for your A/V receiver.
BASS MANAGEMENT:
The 91 has bass management capability in the DVD-Video mode only (for both DTS/DD5.1 signals) when using its analogue outputs. There is no bass management in CD or DVD-Audio modes.
The SUBWOOFER OUT jack has a low pass filter that is active for DVD-Video DTS/DD5.1 signals. The filter will eliminate any frequencies over 100Hz. This filter is not active when DVD-Audio signal is being output.
Setting a speaker to SMALL sends frequencies below 100Hz to the sub, or if you have no sub it will send them to the Fronts.
Setting a speaker to LARGE allows full range reproduction. Setting the subwoofer to NO will default the Fronts to a LARGE setting.
Assuming you have a subwoofer present a typical setup would be to set the SUB=YES, FRONT=LARGE and SURROUND+CENTRE=SMALL. This scenario will send all frequencies below 100Hz from all speakers set to SMALL to the subwoofer. The .1 LFE channel signal is sent to the sub. If your Fronts are small and not capable of low frequency full range signals, you would set it to SMALL. This would then send frequencies below 100Hz to the sub.
If you have no sub, then the 91 will automatically set your FRONTS=LARGE. Again the surrounds would be set to SURROUND+CENTRE=SMALL. In this scenario all frequencies below 100Hz from all speakers set to SMALL go to the Fronts. The .1 LFE channel signal is also sent to the Fronts.
A note about listening to CD's in Stereo. If you use the digital output of the 91 for listening to CD's, you will find that it will add a bass signal into the digital Bitstream. If you have a sub connected, there is no way to get rid of the sub signal in digital mode. To kill the sub you must use the 91's analogue outputs.
Remember that to leave the SPEAKER SETTING menu without invoking the pink tint U bug press EXIT to leave, NOT the RETURN button on the remote. You can use Return for closing the other menus from this point forward.
*As for DVD-Audio there is NO bass management, quoting John Kotches Editor for PC/Home Theater - Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003682.html, he says:
quote:
"The following is certain about bass management on the RP-91:
1) DD and DTS decoders perform bass management.
2) CD doesn't do bass management.
DVD-A is being hotly contested for lack of a better expression.
There are a few variables in play with DVD-A that make this a very confusing (and hence frustrating
issue).
1) DVD-A can have a predefined LFE track.
Some people are making the mistake of believing that output from the subwoofer on DVD-A means that
bass management is occurring. It is just as possible that the .1 channel is carrying some bass information
as defined in the recording.
2) DVD-A stored with Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) can be flagged such that no down mix is
possible
I've seen a couple of Silverline Records discs that have down mix flagged as unavailable. Others probably exist out there as well. If that's the case, then we won't know about bass management on this, as that's a form of down mix as it's modifying the original data stream.
3) The Panasonic manual implies bass management is active for DVD-A.
My experience says that Bass Management isn't occurring on ANY PCM material (CD or DVD-A), but not having the player in at the moment (I worked with it for about 3 hours at the benchmark event) I can't do the tests to verify the results for my own personal satisfaction at this time."
[/quote]
I ran some tests and verified that the 91 was doing no bass management in DVD-A.
Other Audio Menu settings are DIGITAL AUDIO OUTPUT. This determines whether CD Re-mastering is enabled and what audio output modes are used.
- ON (RE-MASTER OFF) - is the factory default. The Digital outputs are used for audio and re-master is turned OFF.
- ON (RE-MASTER ON) - Digital outputs are used for audio and re-master is turned ON. Re-master1 is for fast pop and rock tracks, Re-master2 is for tempos of varying speed e.g. Jazz, Re-master3 is for slow tracks such as classical and OFF to turn off re-master. The Re-master modes may be invoked from the front panel or in the OSD menu.
- OFF - Digital outputs are not used for audio.
If you're A/V receiver can handle input signals of 88.2kHz or greater PCM DOWNCONVERSION should be set to NO. You can set ON (RE-MASTER ON) to use the 88.2kHz re-master signal.
Note for those with Denon A/V receiver's model numbers: 5800,5700,4800, 3801 and 3300, these models have an inability to lock onto the 91's CD Re-master 88.2kHz output signal. This means you
must use the analogue 91 outputs to get CD Re-master to function with these models. Am awaiting a reply from Denon about the "xx02" series.
Next is the DOLBY DIGITAL setting. For DD5.1 "Bitstream" is the default setting and should be used if your A/V receiver has a Dolby Digital decoder. For DTS the default is "PCM". If your A/V receiver has a DTS decoder, set this also to "Bitstream".
The AUDIO DURING SEARCH option is defaulted to on. However if this causes your A/V receiver or preamp to lose signal lock, then change this setting to OFF.
If your A/V receiver supports only Dolby Prologic then set PCM DOWNCONVERSION as required by the receiver. Also set the DOLBY DIGITAL and DTS settings to "PCM".
Also remember that when playing DVD-A and using the digital connections on your A/V receiver, you will be receiving from the 91 the copy-protected downconversion of the track. This would be 2 channel Dolby2.0 at 48kHz/16bit sampling and bit rate. To get full 6 channel 96kHz/24bit, you must use your A/V receiver's 6 analogue external inputs. Before you get the $400 dollar cables, try the Radio Shack 12 Ft. Gold-Series Audio/Video Cable 75ohm - Model: 15-1509 $19.99 each.
MISCELLANEOUS:
On some DVD-Audio discs you will not be able to access the DD5.1 or DTS soundtracks. This is a generic problem associated with the current crop of DVD players and some DVD record labels. The reason for this, paraphrasing John Kotches, is that the DVD-V directory is not mapped properly in the DVD-A table of contents area. When you insert this DVD-A disc in the 91 it becomes a DVD-A player and has no way to access the hidden soundtracks. More technically when the DVD-A is produced all playable tracks are mapped in the AUDIO_TS directory. If the DVD-A has DD/DTS tracks as well, they are located in their own separate VIDEO_TS directory. To be able to access these DD/DTS tracks from the AUDIO_TS directory, the content provider has to place a link where those DD/DTS tracks reside.
With some Mitsubishi models it seems that the picture seems soft. Some users are cranking up the sharpness settings in U mode.
There is no code to enable turning ON Pioneer model RPTV's with the 91's remote.
MP3's at this time have no random or program play modes. There is no CD-TEXT for MP3's. Max Leung reports that there are incompatibilities with some MP3 encoding schemes. See this thread for more info: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/...ML/039397.html
When the 91's indexing mechanism has to traverse a large distance across the surface of the CD or DVD there is a noticeable noise in doing this. It seems that quite a few users have reported this and it seems to be a normal mechanical sound.
The 91 has no screensaver mode. It does have a Standby function, which activates after 30 minutes. Unfortunately Standby is only triggered if the unit is Paused or Stopped.
TIME REMAINING only functions for CD's and DVD-Audio. There is no current method to invoke it for DVD-Video.
AUDIO DURING SEARCH function does not work for DVD-A when using analogue inputs.
Comments or additions to the FAQ, much appreciated.
Hdtvguy
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[Edited last by DanG on August 25, 2001 at 09:53 PM]
