Is this normal? I love my Panasonic RP-91 but............ (1 Viewer)

[Luis M]

I own the Panasonic RP-91 and like most people I am very pleased with its performance. But I am having a little problem with the player when the progressive mode is engaged.

I noticed huge brightness fluctuations on many scenes where there was movement and where dark and bright objects shared the screen. Let me first say that I could not detect this anomally with the panasonic player playing interlaced signals. Also my HD projection tv (65" RCA SCENIUM) "COULD NOT" display the BELOW BLACK BAR found on the VIDEO ESSENTIALS dvd in the pluge pattern test, neither in progressive or interlaced modes. (NOTE THAT THE INABILITY TO PASS THE BELOW BLACK BAR WAS ONLY SEEN WITH THE COMPONENT CONNECTIONS, ONCE A S-VHS CABLE IS USED, THE TV EASILY HANDLES THE BELOW BLACK TEST PETTERN)

No matter what icons I changed on the panasonic reguarding the darker or lighter possitions the dvd showed the same problem. I usually keep the Panasonic on auto and I chose the "PROJECTION TV" mode to display the picture.

On the Jurassic Park dvd - Chapter 4 and 17:45 minutes into the movie as the airplane glides in the montain range you can clearly see huge variations in the brightness intesity and as the plane takes center stage the montains become very dark in a flash (a problem not present when playing other dvd players or the Panasonic with an interlaced signal).

Maybe some of you can check this out with your players or help me out on what could be causing this problem.

1-None of the dvd plyers show the problem while playing interlaced signal, including the panasonic (the panasonic dvd player is my only progressive unit)

2-All the units show the below black pattern on the Video Essential dvd when connected with a S-Vhs cable "NOT SO" when component cables are used

 

[Luis M]

Something I forgot to mention, I understand that the ability of the tv to hold black may be at fault here but remember that the tv does not show this anomally when playing an interlaced signal from all my players including the Panasonic and Only the panasonic's progressive mode triggers the problem.

 

[greg_t]

What version of firmware are you using? I haven't seen the problem on mine your describing, but is it possible you have an older firmware version that needs updating?

 

[Luis M]

Greg, I bought it 2 weeks ago, the firmware reads 250 when the pause,open and the 7 on the remote are pressed.

 

[greg_t]

250 is the latest firmware version, so you're good there. I don't know what the problem could be, but it seems like I've heard about this before. Did you try doing a search on the forum for other posts about the 91? You may also want to try the home theater spots website. They have a dedicate Panasonic forum. I would also check the hardware archive here and look through the RP91 FAQ.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Have you tried the AUTO2 deinterlacing setting? I use this setting, and have not experienced any of the picture difficulties that you describe.

 

[Luis M]

Scott, I just went and tried what you told me and it's just the same, actually I tried a lot of different options and the problem is always there, even on the video mode

 

[Luis M]

Greg, I have read many pages of information over the internet about the RP91 before buying it and I never heard anybody mentioning this problem

 

[Han]

I don't know anything about your TV, but it looks like a nice one. Anyway, are you able to turn off things like automatic flesh tone, digital noise reduction, and SVM. I think SVM can add ringing as well as unstable fluctuations in the gray level.
If nobody comes up with an RP-91 fix for you here, try www.keohi.com/keohihdtv to see if they have any RCA help. Or www.hometheaterspot.com in their RCA section to see if there's any RCA ISF people.

 

[Kevin P]

Is there a black level setting on the dvd player? Such as "enhanced black" or "cinema black"? I know my Sony 9000ES wouldn't show the Avia moving black bars in interlaced (S-video) until I changed the black level setting on the player.

KJP

 

[JimmyK]

As Kevin said, check to see if the DVD player has a setting such as enhanced black. My Toshiba player would do strange things if I left this setting on. I later found out that this setting is only to be used when setting up black level on the set, then should be turned off for viewing movies. Since doing that, I've had no problems.

JimmyK

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Besides the obvious - are your component connections tight at both ends? - type of fix the only other suggestion I can come up with is moving your component cables away from any other cables.

Maybe they are being dirtied by other cables/ wires etc.

If that doesn't do anything - bring it back and try another unit.

You could try it out at a friend's place as well.

Good luck.

 

[Luis M]

The player will show the problem with the enhanced black on or off. It will only go away when I use the player with an interlaced signal which defeats the purpose of a prograssive dvd player in this case.

Lou, I checked all my connections and they all seem to be perfect. My brother has the same player, I may have to pay him a visit.

 

[Luis M]

Well, I brought home my brother's Rp-91 and the same problem remains. It turns out that it only happens when playing the Jurassic Park III dvd.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Luis,

I just watched Jurassic Park III again the other night. I did not notice the changes in brightness that you described.

Did you use the same component video cables when you swapped in your brother's RP-91? Maybe you have a bad video cable.

 

[Luis M]

Scott,

I looked for the problem in my brother's set up, He has the same dvd player and a 65" Mitsubishi HD tv (my tv is the 65" RCA Scenium) and I did not see anything wrong so I took his dvd player and his component cables to my house and connected to my tv and the problem was again there, just like it did with my player. I used 2 copies of the same movie just to make sure. But after playing several other movies I noticed they looked perfectly normal which leads me to believe is a compability problem of this specific dvd,dvd player,tv combination.

 

[PaulKH]

I'd say it's your TV.