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Plasma screen blur?

post #1 of 8
1/14/08 at 1:30pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,
First time on the forum, and I have a question, about a puzzling issue.
I have a Panasonic Th-50PZ700U plasma TV, which, in general, I love the way it plays. But since the beginning, I have been plagued by "motion blur", anytime there is some relatively fast movement on the screen. This bluring manifests itself as a reduction in the resolution, to blocky pixels. It also happens if there's a strobing or flashing light in the program source. Now here is the strange part: this only happens while watching cable programs (Cablevision, on Long Island, New York), and it's the same for HD, or standard programming. The cable box (DVR) is hooked up to the TV with a good quality HDMI cable. If I watch a DVD (the DVD player is a OPPO upconverting unit, hooked up with the same quality HDMI cable, as the DVR box), there is absolutely no hint of any motion blur. It's just plain perfect.
I contacted Panasonic with this problem (the unit is still under warranty), and I was told that since the DVDs play perfectly, it is probably the cable service. Does that make any sense? The picture quality on cable is quite good, until there is motion.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
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post #2 of 8
1/14/08 at 1:50pm

Re: Plasma screen blur?

Digital cable, inlcuding HD, is often highly compressed in order to get the maximum number of HD channels from the minimum bandwidth. Panasonic is likely right that this is the source of your problem.

Regards,

Joe
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post #3 of 8
1/14/08 at 2:35pm

Re: Plasma screen blur?

GIGO = garbage in, garbage out
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post #4 of 8
1/14/08 at 2:49pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Plasma screen blur?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Sun
GIGO = garbage in, garbage out

Could you explain that, please? Do you mean that cable signal is garbage?
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post #5 of 8
1/14/08 at 3:04pm

Re: Plasma screen blur?

No, not quite, just that the plasma is giving you what was being sent to it. So, if it looks all pixellated, then it's because the signal has been compromised/compressed (as Joe alluded to). If your Blu-ray or HD DVDs also had the problem, then it would be the plasma at fault, but since those signals are much more "dense" and "strong", you get much smoother picture quality.
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post #6 of 8
1/14/08 at 3:21pm

Re: Plasma screen blur?

The "problem" with some of the modern displays is that they are very intollerant of garbage signals.

A lot of DVDs in the early days - and still even now - looked "fine," because they were often being played on old CRT sets, that between the technology and the age of the display itself (and therefore iffy condition,) the "problem discs" looked fine, but on a more revealing display, like your new plasma, suddenly some of those old discs, the soda-straw cable TV, and all that sort of stuff just don't look as good as they should.

I imagine that this is an issue that the cable providers are going to have to address at some point - as the home displays get better, they've got to deliver a better signal, be it a better codec, or be it a much bigger signal.

A few days before the New Year, I was at a friend's house and he was showing off his projector from the HD cable feed. It was pretty scare how bad some of the signals were; there was a basketball game on, and it was horrible!

The easiest way to "fix" this problem is to carefully hang a sheet of waxed paper in front of the display. It will provide enough low-pass filtering to make the pixelation go away...
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post #7 of 8
1/14/08 at 3:41pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Plasma screen blur?

Thank you, guys, for all your insight. But the question still remains: what can I do to fix it? Call cable company and ask for a signal boost (amplifier)? Or a new drop (from the pole to the house)? i guess I'll give them a call, but knowing how "efficient" they are, they will say "there's nothing wrong on our end". Sigh....
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post #8 of 8
1/16/08 at 4:18am

Re: Plasma screen blur?

Quote:
Originally Posted by kroozer
Thank you, guys, for all your insight. But the question still remains: what can I do to fix it? Call cable company and ask for a signal boost (amplifier)? Or a new drop (from the pole to the house)? i guess I'll give them a call, but knowing how "efficient" they are, they will say "there's nothing wrong on our end". Sigh....

There really is nothing you can do regarding the cable company. They are sending you a compromised signal due to their bandwidth limitations. Try this if you are able. Hook your TV up to OTA (Over the Air) signals and get your HD from the source so to speak if it is available in your area. To check try here. http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx This will tell you what stations are available in your area. The OTA signals are not compromised/compressed because the stations are not limited like the cable or satellite providers regarding bandwidth. Hope this helps.

RickRO
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