Problem using region free player and plasma.. need help, Please (1 Viewer)

[Jonnie M]

Hello all,

Recently i started going through my region free discs on a new 42 inch Panasonic plasma using a Phillips 727 DVD player and the quality of the picture is, well, awful. I've tried using Avia and calibrating by eye but nothing seems to help. The picture is very soft and muddy, tons of jaggies (?) and ghosting... overall its just really poor. I had used the phillips on my older Sony Wega (4X3 squeeze set) and it produced a relatively decent picture.


Is there a reason why the quality is so poor? I doubt that all NTSC to Pal discs would look this bad on all HD monitors. Would upgrading the player to something like an Oppo greatly increase the picture quality? Any feedback about what others may be using on a plasma or HDTV to view region free discs would be of great use. I doubt it, but do all Pal discs on an HDTV look this inferior to NTSC discs?

just FYI, i have a Marantz player that is my primary and the pic quality is excellent... the Phillips is just for viewing Pal discs.

Any information would be greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance, (Please Help !!)
Jon

 

[DougRuss]

How do you have it hooked up,what Imputs & Settings on your Panny?

 

[Jonnie M]

Hey Doug, i'm using component cables... sorry bout that, should have mentioned it.

Thanks,
J

 

[PaulDA]

Some players convert PAL to NTSC better than others. As far as I know, no conversion is perfect (I believe there is a one frame/second difference). My player (Cambridge Audio 540D) is quite good at the conversion (though I don't have an HDTV--so I can't speak to that). Can your TV accept a PAL signal w/o conversion? And can your player put out a native PAL signal? That's something that not many players actually do (many of them convert PAL to NTSC, but don't output PAL directly--mine does though, as well as converting NTSC to PAL and it's region free right out of the box). The reason I ask about your TV is because I know a lot of projectors can accept and output a native PAL signal and I thought perhaps fixed pixel displays like your plasma could also do that. Worth looking into, I think.

 

[Jonnie M]

Thanks Paul, After doing a little research on the Panny, it seems only the commercial models display a native Pal. My display is consumer based so it does not output a native Pal signal (the DVD player has to convert it, right? ... i'm bad with the technical area, hope this makes some sense.)

Essentially, I'm still stuck... I'm assuming, hoping, that a DVD player with a better built in converter would display a much better Pal picture? It can't be the TV right? It's the Phillips player i'm assuming. I'm not looking for an amazing picture quality, i understand that the conversion will take something away (since its not a native signal) but at the moment it truly is unwatchable.

It's really botherin' me... i just wanted to watch the new Lost Highway disc, and it looks awful, can't watch it (grrrrr...