Please help with Sony KP-51ws510 (1 Viewer)

[SteveMarcR]

I am truly puzzled...

I just got this morning the KP-51WS510. So far, after only about a half hour (grrr, work) of playing with it, it seems great.

There were just a few questions I had that I haven't been able to figure out and I'm hoping someone can help me...

I cannot seem to be able to get the DRC/Cinemotion feature highlighted, so that I can switch it to Progressive or Cinemotion (it's defaulted on Interlaced). When I push the button the remote, nothing. When I go to the video menu, the selection is gray and won't let me choose.

I have the Sony DVP-NS725P DVD player connected via component cable, and the Progressive mode is chosen (the blue light on the front is on).

One other question is: While watching my OTA HD local channels, irregardless of choosing full mode on both the TV and the HD Tuner (Samsung SIR-TS160), I am still getting black bars on the sides. Now, this was the morning, and I'm sure programs like The View and The Price Is Right is not broadcast in HD, and when I change channels to the regular locals on DirecTV, they are displayed in full mode. So when I watch HD-broadcast shows on OTA locals, can I expect the black bars on the sides to be gone? Like when watching football on CBS, etc.?

I would appreciate any help. I just can't seem to figure out these two things.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Steve,

Both of these characteristics are normal.

As you probably know, DRC is Sony's line doubling, for use with 480i sources (regular ntsc tv).

When fed a 480p signal from a progressive dvd player, as you are doing, the set's DRC is disabled as it's not needed. If you switch the dvd player to interlaced output, the DRC selections will again be available.

Same thing happens when you feed the set anything other than 480i from your HD STB--the DRC options are grayed out and not available.

The set also locks on "Full" when fed any HD scanrate (1080i or 720p) from your HD receiver, disabling the stretch and zoom modes on the set.

When HD stations are not broadcasting true HD, which is much of the time for local ota stations, they usually put an upconverted 4/3 image in the middle of the 16/9 frame and put black bars on the side, and broadcast it at 1080i or 720p. Since AR spec for these scanrates is 16/9, most tv mfgs don't let you stretch or zoom them. The set is seeing a 16/9 picture, as that's the way it actually leaves the station. The station applies the black bars.

Not all HD broadcasters do this but most do. ESPN-HD applies a rather ugly stretch instead of the black bars when showing non-HD material, which they do 99% of the time as their true HD content is down around 3 hours a week.

 

[SteveMarcR]

Steve,

Thank you SO much. I have been able to play around on this a bit more, and found your information so helpful.

One last thing, what do you recommend - setting the DVD player to Interlaced and then using the DRC control on the TV. Or setting the DVD to Progressive and letting the TV stay on interlaced? Or is it six in one hand...

One other thing, I set the DRC to CineMotion BEFORE turning on the DVD, then turned it on in Progressive mode. The TV grayed out the option, but it was still on CineMotion when it was gray. Am I tricking the unit, or does it just automatically turn the whole feature off and whatever is displayed in gray just isn't working at all?

Thanks again.

Steve

 

[Matt Wallace]

SteveM,
I would always use the doubler/progressive in the DVD player vs the tv's algorithm,as the player can read the flags and do the conversion better digitally then convert to analog, vs interlaced through component then upconvert while trying to display. Now, if you have a Faroudja chip in your set, maybe not, but's there less than a handfull of sets who have great line doubling of that quality ( Pioneer Elite, Marantz, and a few more...).


Matt

 

[Steve Schaffer]

SteveM.

When you feed the set a progressive scan signal (480P) it will display it as such, regardless of the DRC setting.
DRC will only work for incoming 480i signals
The DRC settings are as follows:

"interlaced"=960i--incoming 480i is converted to 960i.

"progressive"=480p without 3/2 pulldown--incoming 480i is converted to 480p, and no 3/2 pulldown is used so film sourced stuff may have combing.

"cinemotion"=same as progressive but 3/2 pulldown is applied if the set thinks it's getting film sourced stuff.

I leave mine on "interlaced" all the time. I use the progressive scan output on my dvd player, which the set displays natively. My player is a year old Panasonic with the Faroudja chip and it looks just a tiny bit better if I set the player to progressive rather than setting it to interlaced and using the DRC.

The DRC is quite good, actually. My player will output interlaced via S video while at the same time outputting progressive via component, and I have both feeding into the set via my receiver. My receiver's onscreen display is only output via S-video. I have switched the set to the S-video feed during a dvd in order to be able to use the receiver's onscreen display to adjust a speaker or something and forgotten to switch back to component. The picture via S-video using the set's DRC just isn't that glaringly worse that I don't sometimes forget to switch back to the component input and progressive scan signal.

For absolute best pic quality, however, always use the component input to the tv. Depending on the quality of the player's de-interlacer, you may get a better picture using interlaced and DRC, but usually you get the best picture using progressive output from the player.