PAL DVDs Question (1 Viewer)

[MarcoLanz]

Hello,

I have a region free Denon 2910 DVD player with
an in-built 16 MB PAL-NTSC converter connected via HDMI to a Sony SXRD. The DVD player upconverts to either 720p or 1080i.

Well, NTSC DVDs look fantastic, almost HD quality, but when I watch PAL DVDs and there are diagonal lines in the image(like a rope, a rifle, or the edge of a door), these lines look jagged: they do not look like straight lines, but more like a staircase. I believe the correct term for this artifact would be aliasing.

I have compared with the few DVDs where I also have the NTSC version, and the same scenes look fantastic in NTSC, without this artifact (They Live, Scanners, Prince of Darkness, Zulu...).

So, this seems to be a problem with the player/TV/setup and not with the individual DVDs, and with the SXRD's big screen, these problems are now more visible than before. As I am using the HDMI connection and upconversion to a HD format, I would guess that the Pal-NTSC converter is not even involved in this problem.

Do you know what may be the problem, and how to fix it? Any ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Marco

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the problem is, I think, pretty much a necessary evil if you're allowing your DVD player to convert the signal from PAL to NTSC. I think the only practical way to eliminate the problem would be to purchase a TV set/monitor that is "multi-standard" and capable of producing a TRUE PAL picture, meaning you wouldn't be using the converter.

PAL to NTSC conversion is the most noticeable, IMO, in the rendering of horizontal lines (window blinds, etc.) and text. This problem used to exhibit itself as "flashing" (for lack of a better term) on my old multi-system VCR with built-in converter. The more expensive external stand-alone converters (from the likes of Comworld and Tenlab) do a better job than the cheaper built-in ones, but the ideal solution is a TV capable of outputting a true PAL picture.

 

[Jeff_HR]

Perhaps it is your player at fault. My JVC multi-regional DVD player does PAL to NTSC conversion perfectly on every PAL DVD I own.

 

[Lyle_JP]

This is an artifact caused by poor PAL to NTSC scaling (remember, PAL has many more lines of resolution, and must be scaled down to NTSC). My Philips 642 exhibited the exact same ugly PAL to NTSC conversion, so I bought a Toshiba SD-K850, and the problem is gone.

Sounds like your Denon is not up to the task of good PAL playback on NTSC equipment. It's a shame, considering that your player certainly cost way more than most of the popular multi-region players being used.

-Lyle J.P.