Please don't revoke my HTF membership

Ever do something real stupid that you could kick yourself for? Ever do it for a year?

I have a RPTV, HD-ready, that I've had for about a year. Bought a progressive scan Panasonic DVD player along with it to make sure that I had the best picture possible. To that end, I've also gone into the service menu previously to try and achieve the best picture. I noticed that the display said that the signal was 480I. I was a little puzzled, but concerned with convergence and such thingswhen seeing it and did not pay that much attention, and did not test other than making sure that my Panasonic's menu had "progessive out" set to "enabled." I thought that it could have been some quirk in the display.

Well, yesterday I was messing around in the service menu again, and as always, the TV said it was receiving a 480I signal. Not paying much attention as usual, I was switching between inputs. My Xbox, which I got last month was on. The TV said it was receiving a 480P signal from the Xbox. I was dumbfounded. Was it the DVD player? I switched inputs and cables, with the same result--Xbox was progressive, DVD player interlaced. I sat back down on the couch and started thinking about how long ago I bought the DVD player and whether it was still under warranty. I then got off the couch to take a look at the front of the DVD player "just in case." Staring me in the face was a button on the DVD player which said "progressive out." I pushed it with a trembling finger, the little green light on the button came on, and the TV immediately informed me that it was now receiving a 480P signal.

If I could kick myself in the ass, I would have. I have been watching the damn thing in interlaced the entire time (with my wife and I remarking to each other how good progressive scan looked). AAAAARRRGGH!

In my (pathetic) defense, the buttons on the DVD are recessed and are silver, just like the rest of the player. And why the &*#$ would you need to select progressive on both the menu and on the player itself?! Needless to say, I didn't RTFM because "how hard can it be?"

Please don't take away my membership for stupidity!

There, now I've vented. I'm gonna go watch my progressive scan DVD player now.

Eugene:

I'm guessing you have a Panasonic RP82

That is hilarious! I just had the same experience....I called my wife from work and had her look at the player (Panny RP62)after talking with a circuit city rep...sure enough, she pushed the button and the 480p finally came up on the tv. Oh well......I went and picked up a Denon 2900 yesterday anyway

Haha, I almost had the same experience. I have the RP62, and did not notice the progressive button on the front. I was looking for the switch on the back (like other players I have seen).

AlanZ, let me know how you like the 2900, as I am planning on getting one this month. I really want to know if you see a difference in picture quality between the 2900 and the RP62.

Kimo B.

My DVD player is fairly good about auto-selecting the Dolby Digital audio track so I dont usually bother manually selecting it. But there is the occasional disk where I am half way through the movie before I notice that my receiver is saying "ProLogic".

Been There, Done That.

Still, Bob, does Eugene's oversight merit eternal banishment from HTF? Should we take this egregious violation to the Supreme High Command?

What unacceptable behaviour! Jack, go ahead and ban Eugene

Personally, i have never done anything stupid; well at least not lately:b

So Eugene, did you notice an improvement in picture quality when you finnaly had your DVD output set to 480p?

Shaun

Your penance is to watch ALL those DVDs over again...and not just the good ones

Step away from the remote Sir. Put down the remote and calmly step away. Remove the batteries and go pout in the corner.



Don't worry about it. This stuff can get pretty complicated sometimes and we all goof.

I was helping my ex's brother in law set up a new tv in his system last week. He's had a fairly nice Yamaha receiver and Pioneer dvd changer for over a year.

He had DD output disabled on the player so has been listening to Pro Logic for over a year, and the pic mode was set at 16/9 while he has a 4/3 tv. Apparently he discards his original remotes almost immediately and uses a cheap $9 Walmart Universal unit (odd since he has really nice monster cables), so we couldn't go into the player's setup menu to correct things. I found a way to do a reset to default settings without the remote, and got his DD working but his anamorphic movies are still stretched vertically.

I calibrated his sound with AVIA and an RS meter. Went back a week later and he'd maxed out the volume knob on his little HTB sub, and wanted to know why there were loud burping noises during loud scenes. Oh Well.

I've got some cables you might be interested in.

You're pretty brave to fess up to something like that. I'll bet you've also been running around looking for your keys when you've had them in your hand the whole time. Just kiddin. We've all been there. Live and learn.

I forgot to go into the set-up menu for my new Panny CP72 and change the player's DTS signal from PCM to Bitstream. All the DTS movies I have been watching over the last two months have been coming out in 2.0 stereo. Note that this is the second Panny DVD player I have owned and I should have remembered doing it the first time.

Maybe I should be suspended without pay.

Ralph

SCORE for us fans of objectivist testing methods!! (I'm not picking on you Eugene. I've done things like that myself.)

I think there are two progressive controls to make sure non-video hobbyists that don't own digital TVs don't screw themselves up.

LJ