Question about picture quality.... (1 Viewer)

[JayKellen]

I just bought a progressive scan dvd player, and I had a quick question regarding picture quality. I noticed in most movie transfers, at least on my system, that most scenes with this progressive feature are fantastic, crisp and clear, but on occasion, there is a quick scene that looks like the old vhs copies, real grainy, but like i said, its just a few scenes, and was wondering if this is due to the transfer process not cleaning these scenes up, or if it is something wrong with the dvd or the player? I watched Rambo, First Blood yesterday, and yes, it is an older film, but most scenes looked great, but some scenes in the forrest for a few seconds looked pretty bad. Thanks for any info, and I know this is nothing serious and a pretty pointless topic, but I am continuously trying to figure out home theater and learn more every day about it, and figured every little bit of informatin will help me greatly.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Moving this to A/V Sources.

You forgot to list the most likely cause: the original film elements. Go to a movie theater and watch the screen with the same critical eye you're applying to your video image. In nearly every film, you'll see shots with noticeable film grain. It's the nature of the medium.

Also, you may want to reviewthe last thread you started about picture quality. The comments in that thread about the process of preparing a film transfer are also relevant here.

M.

 

[Don_Berg]

Two reasons. One, the original film speed used - in dark scenes faster (grainer) film must be used, your new DVD player is just better at faithfully displaying the grain present in the original film. Two, in fast motion scenes the MPG2 compression used on DVDs will lower the quality for those scenes - how much varies between different DVD movies. You can adjust the sharpness setting on your TV to reduce the graininess look if you want.

 

[ross ish]

also, older dvd's and budget dvd transfers progressive flags were haphazardly set so most dvd players would drop out of film and into video mode which would give a softer picture.

 

[Frank@N]

I've often worried about that exact problem.

My current rig is 16x9-enhanced, but still interlaced.

The PQ is stunning, but I've often wondered what improvements prog video could provide.

I suspect the benefits are subtle: picture 'feels' a bit more stable and has a more 'film-like' candence.

Then again, I worry about sudden drops into Video mode due to flag errors.

Somewhat fearing transition to prog video...hoping that new players are more resistant to this kind of thing.

 

[Don_Berg]

If you get a model with a top-rated de-interlacer like Faroudja or Silicon Image, they handle the bad flagged DVDs very well - you won't notice film vs video mode switches at all with those. But with the cheaper models and their poor de-interlacers it is a problem. Actually the older (1-2 year old) Faroujda-based players are better in this area, the new models are cheaper and are worse in de-interlacing!