s-video cable looked better than dvi??? (1 Viewer)

[allan espinoza]

is it possible that using my s-video cable rather than my dvi i was able to notice a more detailed picture? well i've been going back and forth about dvi just not looking right so i plugged in my s-video cable and was using my sound and vision set up dvd and under sharpness, my s-video cable just looked more detailed as oppose to the dvi that looked rather blurry and not as sharp as s-video. am i doing something wrong here or is it just possible that some dvd players dvi output is just crappy. the tv im using is the sony kv-36hs420 with samsung hd-841 and with a dvi-hdmi cable from bettercables. please advise as im rather confused.

 

[allan espinoza]

another thing i noticed is that there is just more video noise using s-video than dvi, but is seeing video noise worth the sacrifice of detail?

 

[Jerome Grate]

That's what you are seeing, noise that is. It's a common error to mistake noise for detail. Try getting Video Essentials, or Avia set up disc and set your video accordingly. At first the picture may seem darker and softer but that's the way the picture should be shown. Video noise can be little white shadows that overlay objects in the video. This is not detail, look at your hand, do you see any white shadow surrounding it. That's the concept I use in describing this concept to first time RPTV purchasers.

 

[allan espinoza]

yes i know what you mean by video noise. for example, in a scene from van helsing there is a scene where there is a castle in the snow surrounded by a creek, i believe, when i use dvi, sure the picture and colors looked nice but the castle appeared to be just there but when i used the s-video cable i was able to notice every single rock and texture to the castle. the one thing i like about dvi is that colors look much nicer than any othe connection. so am i still confused or could it be that some dvd players just have a poor dvi connection? would it make any difference if i had dvd player with an hdmi output rather than using a dvi-hdmi?

another thing is that when i use dvi there is not much calibration i can do to adjust picture. i can turn the sharpness upand down and it would only make slight difference and i also have to turn up the brightness as it tends to darken everything, is this normal for dvi?
sorry for all the questions but its my firs time playing with an hdtv and using all these connections, thanks for the time and patience.

 

[ChuckSolo]

Allan, your scenario is really bizarre. I can only tell you that the picture from my Samsung 841 is nowhere near what you are describing here. Did you try the DVI cablet hat came with the player? The picture on my RCA RPTV is nothing short of excellent when viewing a DVD on my Sammy. I am beginning to think it is the TV that is causing you so much grief. Let me give you an example. Tonight I started to watch "Saving Private Ryan" on on ABCHD over Cox Cable here in San Diego. While the picture looked pretty good in HD, I decided to compare it with the picture on my SPR DVD coming out of my Sammy in 1080i. There was NO comparison, the Samsung displayed a picture superior to the HD image from ABC. Maybe you got a bad cable. HDMI is merely the next generation of DVI that carries both digital video and audio signals instead of just video like DVI. Try the stock cable and see if things don't improve. It might be that the Sammy doesn't like the HDMI cable.

 

[allan espinoza]

well could it be possible that maybe some dvd players display component better than dvi or is dvi just that superior? well im using a dvi to hdmi cable from bettercables.com. it could be that i may of have a bad cable,hmmm. would you happen to know what the difference is using modes A and B on the samsung hd-841? just how greater is dvi to component?

 

[ChuckSolo]

In theory, DVI should be superior to component since component takes an analog composite (the yellow video cable carries this type of signal) signal and splits it into 3 separate signals, 2 for color and 1 for black and white. S-video takes the signal and splits it into 2. A DVI/HDMI connection from a DVD player to a similarly equipped TV is a pure digital signal, no analog to digital conversion going on between the player and TV. You might also want to check to see if your TV supports HDCP (high-bandwith digital content protection). This is a new copy protection scheme that protects the pure digital signal coming from the dvd player to the TV to prevent you from copying the digital content on the DVD. The Samsung manual clearly states that if your TV doesn't support HDCP you are going to get noise or snow on the picture. The next thing would be to ask if this anomoly happens on ALL discs. I have to admit that SOME discs look better than others on this player, especially when upscaled to 1080i. For example, "We Were Soldiers" looks extremely grainy in 1080i on this player compared to when it is played on my Gateway DVDR in 480p. As I said in my earlier post, "Saving Private Ryan" looked fantastic as do 90% of all my other DVDs. A lot of times picture quality has to be traced back to the source, in this case, the DVD itself. BTW, you mentioned "Van Helsing." That particular DVD looked spectacular on my system, and don't get me started on "Gladiator" which looked just fantastic coming from the Sammy in 1080i. I don't know Allan, something is clearly amiss with your system. Does your TV do its own progressive scan conversion, if it does you might want to turn that feature off on the TV before you upscale via the DVD player. There are any number of things that could be going on with your system. Finally, I can tell no difference between Modes A and B on my system.

 

[allan espinoza]

well my tv says "Full A/V capability—including an HDMI/HDCP interface—makes this set the ideal centerpiece of any home theater." would that be what you are talking about? if my tv is not compatible then would a component connection be more suitable? if by auto progressive scan you mean it changes from 480p-720p-1080i on its own when i select it through the dvd player well then yes it does automatically, but i have not seen an option that lets me disable it. i usually watch movies in 480p because when i choose 720 or 1080i their faces appear to be stretched out in widescreen, but when i do choose either 720 or 1080 then i do get a great amount of detail with the sacrifice of the image aligned incorrectly, but i just couldn't understand why an s-video cable would give me more detail over a dvi connection through 480p. are 720p and 1080i only to be viewed on widecreen tvs?

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

Chuck,

DVD is a component format by nature, so the component output is not derived (or comb filtered) from a composite signal.

 

[ChuckSolo]

No, that is not what I meant, all I was trying to say is that component is still an analog signal anyway you cut it. If that is the way It sounded, I digress. I was just trying to compare the different types of analog signals to each other.