progressive scan set-up? (1 Viewer)

[Keith_R]

Hey all, this problem a dumb post but I'll give it a shot. I recently had to return my Toshi SD-5980 because it was having a severe color banding issue over 1080i. I was pretty disappointed because I like Toshiba and was pretty impressed with the PQ that the 5980 could give but I just couldn't put up with the color banding and I couldn't solve it.

Anyways, I decided to downgrade and got myself a simple progressive scan player to replace the Tosh. Upscaling is nice but on a 30" HD display I think that I can save a little money and just enjoy progressive scan, I am after all coming from a smaller analog set using composite connections. I'd like to check with you all though and see that I got my new player coonfigured correctly because I'm a little confused about how this thing seems to be handling widescreen discs and I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is the normal operation.

I have my new player (Sony DVP-NS50P) connected to my television (Toshiba 30HF85) via component on the "Clorstream HD" input. The player is set for 16:9 in the screen options and I've enabled progressive scan (Auto) using the button provided on the front. The television is set to do 540p and I've set it for "film" rather than "video" therefore enabling my televisions 3:2 pulldown.

Everything looks good to me, the only thing bugging me is how anamorphic widescreen is handled. It seems that in order to take advantage of widescreen movies properly I have to set my television's picture mode to "full" which is described in the instructions as being for 16:9 source material. "Full" mode does display anamorphic discs correctly but I'm confused as to whether or not this is how it should be. To elaborate a little bit, on my SD-5980 that I just returned it didn't allow me to change picture settings it just went straight to widescreen and would give me an error message if I tried to change picture modes on the Tv while watching a DVD, on this new Sony though it seems as if the process is a little more manual and I have to tell the Tv what mode to be in. I also find it odd that I'm still able to select picture modes on my Tv while watching a widescreen disc, I was under the impression that the picture modes can distort what you're seeing and degrade video quality.

Is what I'm seeing normal or is something defective or configured improperly? perhaps everything is working fine and it's just a side-effect of me coming from a different player?

Thanks.

 

[John Garcia]

I have a 34" Sony and I leave it on Full for all movies (except the odd fool screen rental) with my player set to 16:9 and everything looks great. Sounds like something was a little goofy before, not now, because I have always been able to choose "stretch" modes during DVD viewing, with the exception of "normal" 4:3 mode due to progressive.

On a 30-34" set, upconversion isn't going to buy you a ton of improvement, IMO.

 

[John S]

On 1080i -vs- 480p the modes can be somewhat different with the same means to an end.

 

[Allan Jayne]

If your TV has both 4:3 and 16:9 modes, manual (usually) or automatic, leave the player (TV shape setting) set to 16:9.

Use the TV full setting for anamorphic DVD's, use a zoom setting for non-anamorphic wide screen DVD's.

The TV cannot tell what aspect ratio the DVD is just by analyzing the picture content, there must be a flag in each video frame just outside the picture (somewhere in scan lines 481 to 525 for 480i and 480p analog video).

The 540p vs. 1080i settings on the TV work with all inputs. The 540p setting may get rid of flicker if you notice any but is not recommended for HDTV shows.

The "upconverting" DVD player sends out a HDTV format output using the non-high definition content. On some TV's an HDTV format signal coming in locks the screen in 16:9 even though the source material is supposed to be viewed as 4:3. So the player's upconverting feature is no good. Some TV's lock into 16:9 for "progressive" inputs and anyone shopping for a TV should avoid buying these.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Allan is correct. The upconversion on your old DVD player was sending out an HD signal. Since all HD signals are 16:9, you TV was "locking in full" for HD signals. Most will do this (some Toshibas from a couple years ago allowed zoom/crop on HD signals, but they were an exception). Since your new player is outputting a 480p signal, your TV allows zoom/crop just as if it was receiving a 480i/p signal. The TV does not differentiate between an 480i/p signal sent from the DVD from any other 480i/p, so it allows zoom/crop. As Allan said, some TV's "lock in full" for any 480p signal, which is bad because then you cannot watch 4:3 movies or TV in their OAR while in progressive mode. Your TV allows you to see non-anamorphic and 4:3 material in progressive, so count yourself ahead of the game.

 

[Keith_R]

Thanks everyone!

I suspected that I had everything set up properly but I was a little miffed with how this DVD player let me change my picture mode compared with the other one. I will use "Full" mode from now on except for that occasional 4:3 Tv show disc.

 

[James Phung]

AFAIK, if you're sending a progressive signal (480p) from your dvd player, your tv settings (film/video) should not do anything (other than scale it to the native res of your display) to the video as that processing (3:2 pulldown etc) should only apply to 480i sources.