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DRC, possible misinformation, and other options (1 Viewer)

Sal.K

Auditioning
Joined
Sep 7, 2003
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Let me start by saying that I have done a search and dug through what information I could on this forum. I also have some knowledge about progressive playback and deinterlacing issues, but on a recent trip to a local dealer with my friend (who was looking at a sony 46wt510) I was blown away by what I saw and heard. I appreciate anyone's input on this, since I haven't had any experience with progressive displays.

First we noticed that there were jagged edges everywhere in the demo disc (not a film, lots of slow pans). My first instinct was that this must be an interlaced source, and what we were seeing was incorrect deinterlacing. We asked a rep to come over and talk to us, and when we brought up the jagged edges he immediately took the dvd player out of progressive mode and turned on DRC. The change was astonishing. No jagged edges, beautiful picture, you get the idea...

The kicker was that he told us that the shop as a whole frowns on progressive scan as a flawed technology, and they suggest running all dvd players in interlaced mode, using DRC to upsample to 960i.

Unfortunately the Sony is slightly out of his price range (but he wants that size display), so I would like much more information before considering lesser models.

So my questions are:

1) Would a better dvd player (like one equipped with a Sil503 or DCDi) be able to play that source without jagged edges in 480p? And then would it look better than DRC-960i?

2) What are the drawbacks of always running interlaced? Is it common for dealers to recommend this? Does the interlaced chroma error become a major issue?

3) Is there an analogue to DRC from other manufacturers? Would a budget RPTV look far worse in interlaced mode because it doesn't have DRC or a similar feature?

Thanks for any advice. I know I'm asking for a lot. Please help!
 

Kimi-R

Agent
Joined
Aug 28, 2003
Messages
35
First, go back and make sure the TV is receiving 480p. Just cycle through the TV's inputs while the DVD is playing and you should see "480P" on the bottom of the TV screen when you get back to the DVD input. Next, make sure the DVD player is set for video or film, whatever it is playing. Make sure the DVD player has 3:2 pulldown activaed, although I think most do when in either "Auto" or "Film" modes.
 

Sal.K

Auditioning
Joined
Sep 7, 2003
Messages
2
Thanks Kimi, it's possible the DVD/TV were not set properly, but since this was a high-end dealer I don't know how they could make such a mistake.

I was hoping for some more detailed replies since I couldn't find answers to these particular questions in a search and would appreciate the info. Please help me out.
 

Stephen Tu

Screenwriter
Joined
Apr 26, 1999
Messages
1,572
On a DVD sourced from video, rather than film, certainly some of the cheap DVD players won't do a good job deinterlacing vs. the TV, and using interlaced output would be better. They should generally do fine on most films though, although some players do better handling discs with various glitches in the encoding.

Letting the DVD player output progressive typically gives you a slightly sharper picture.
 

Steve Schaffer

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 15, 1999
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3,756
Real Name
Steve Schaffer
Sal,

A lot does depend on the particular player and how it's set up.

The user menu for most progressive scan players allows several choices for 3/2 pulldown operation.

these are typically "film" which locks pulldown on, "video" which locks it off, and at least 2 variations of "auto" where the player either relys on flagging on the dvd or decides on it's own.

If 3/2 pulldown is operating when it shouldn't or not operating when it should, the "jaggy" effect (most commonly called "combing") will be very prominent.

My guess would be that the player being used with that Sony was improperly set, or playing one of the "problem" dvds that don't play well on anything other than a Faroudja chip player.

I have a Sony KP57HW40, with essentially the same DRC circuitry as the current S series sets. I've used it with both a JVC and Panasonic progressive scan player (with Faroudja chip). Good film-based dvds look just a bit better with the players in progressive mode than in interlaced and using the DRC, but only by a pretty small margin.

My Panny player outputs 480I via S video and 480p via component simultaneously. I have both connected to the tv via my receiver, and use S video when adjusting speaker levels and such with AVIA because the receiver's onscreen display won't work via component when using progressive scan.

On more than one occasion I've switched my dvd changer to a regular movie after tweaking the receiver's settings and forgotten to switch back to the component inputs and progressive scan--the DRC is good enough that even with interlaced via S video the picture looks pretty darn good.
 

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