Panny RP-56 vs. RP-91: bottom line picture quality comparison? (1 Viewer)

[Frank_K]

OK, bottom line, which has the better picture in terms of sharpness and clarity?
I've read about the differences in specs and deinterlacing chips, and read all the arguments concerning these, but I haven't seen much where people have compared the resulting PICTURE QUALITY.
If it makes any difference in terms of compatability, the TV the machine will be used with is the Sony 53HS10.
Thank you all for your opinions.
Regards, Captain Frank

 

[Jim A. Banville]

I had two problems when using a RP56 on my 53HS10. First, you can't select "light" black level on the 480p output. The darker image from the player causes slight "banding". "Banding" is where objects on the left side of the TV screen have semi-transparent vertical bands that shoot off to the right of the object. One test scene for this is the "pull-ups" scene of Sarah Connor in her cell in the nuthouse in T2:UE. Set your player to A-B this short scene and look at the white wall on the right side of the screen. As Sarah's face moves up and down on the left side of the screen, do you see semi-transparent vertical lines moving up and down over the white wall on the left side of the picture? Using the "light" setting of the 480i output doesn't cause "banding" (the "dark" setting of the 480i does). Second, I was getting some blck level fluctuations from the RP56. The scene which showed this the most was the opening titles on THE THING DVD. This is a non-anamorphic title. As the actors names appear/disappear on the black background of the "image" part of the TV screen, you can see the black background switching in brightness when compared to the black bars above and below the image. This fluctuation disappeard when I switched to using a Sony NS300. I think the ability to "pass below black" from the RP56 may give the Sony TV problems. Good luck

 

[Jeff D]

I have the RP56 and am wondering if the 91 has a feature I'm looking for.
The feature is this, variable output depending on the aspect ratio of the source. I want to leave the tv in standard (4:3) mode if the dvd is 4:3 nothing changes. If the dvd is 16:9 the tv will switch to 16:9. My sony hd-100 hdtv receiver will do this, will the RP91?
I heard it might, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Michael Lee]

Jeff-
I am not sure if I understand this. Are you saying your Sony STB will actually change your TV's video setting..or the aspect ratio of the image on the TV? The Panny 91 does play the FBI Warning and DVD menus in 4:3, then switches to an anamorphically stretched image if the disc is in anamorphic...but this has nothing to do with my TV. My TV stays in the "Full" mode all the time, which is a benefit of the scaling feature.
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[Graeme Shiomi]

Jeff,
I know it does that for a 16x9 set. I set my TV to full, and the RP91 puts the black bars on the sides for 4:3 material, and fills the screen for 16x9 material. I'm not sure what it does for a 4:3 set.
Graeme

 

[StaceyS]

I had two problems when using a RP56 on my 53HS10. First, you can't select "light" black level on the 480p output.

The first is not a problem, it is by design and is what the spec says. 480p has black at 0 IRE.
If your TV has a problem with black at 0 IRE, sounds like a defect. We are the only country that has black at 7.5 and that is only for interlaced content. HD is also 0 IRE.
Can you try something for me? Pull the Y cable out so that the shield around the outside is not touching the connector. The pin should still make contact. Do these lines go away?
The second problem is a bounce issue. We looked at the RP56 and did not see any noticable bounce. DVD players should be DC coupled and many are not. If they are DC coupled you get no bounce. DC coupling is a bit more design work and adds a bit to the cost. Not a lot, but at high volumes, every penny saved adds up.
I don't believe the 56 is DC coupled and it is interacting with your TV.

 

[Jim A. Banville]

"The first is not a problem, it is by design and is what the spec says. 480p has black at 0 IRE."
It's a problem for my model TV. It does have what many Sony KP-xxHS10 owners consider as a defect (Sony says it is "within spec"). A service menu adjustment partially fixes it, but using a DVD player that has either a 7.5 IRE black level setting or is fixed at 7.5 IRE is the best solution. Therefore I would need to use the "light" black setting for 480p, which I can't and is therefore a problem.
"Can you try something for me? Pull the Y cable out so that the shield around the outside is not touching the connector. The pin should still make contact. Do these lines go away?"
Unfortunately, I sold my RP56, so can't do the test on that player. I do still have a RV31, which has the "light" and "dark" black levels. I did what you said, but the banding persists (with "dark" setting)

Jim

 

[StephenMSmith]

Can you try something for me? Pull the Y cable out so that the shield around the outside is not touching the connector. The pin should still make contact. Do these lines go away?
Stacy,
I've had a persistent problem w/480p on my RPTV where the very top of the raster is "disturbed". There is visible noise and the scan oscillate horizontally. At it's worst, vertical lines look like zippers, but luckily the worst is outside the visible screen area. After getting a transcoder so I could display 480p from my PC last week, I realized that it is my DVD player (Toshiba SD-9100) that is the source of the problem, not my set.
However, this "raster disturbance" disappears if I separate the Y cable's shield from the Y output on my SD-9100 as you describe above. Can you tell me more about this? What's going on here?
I've spent countless hours on this issue. I was able to somewhat reduce the distortion by adjusting some low pass filter (I'm almost positive this is what they are...) pots inside the DVD player itself, but disconnecting the cable shield eliminates it altogether.
Steve