Scaling on JVC DVD Players (1 Viewer)

[Craig S]

I understand from several other threads that many of the newer JVC players have the scaling feature for non-anamorphic discs. I just bought a XV-SA900BK changer, and there's nothing in the manual about this. On the other hand, several threads here have specifically mentioned the SA600BK player as having this feature, and that player's manual (I looked at it online) is identical to the 900's except for the absence of changer functions.
I have to date checked out 1 non-anamorphic disc (Titanic), and it pretty much does the same thing as any non-anamorphic disc played in my old Sony player (i.e., have to use the TV's Zoom to fill the screen). FYI, I have a Sony 57" RPTV. So, several (potentially dumb) questions:
* Is the SA900 confirmed to have this feature?
* How is it operated? Is it just something that happens automatically? Are there any player settings that have to be in place?
* What should I see on my display? Should the display be in Full mode, or do I still need to zoom?
* Another thread mentioned discs need to be properly flagged. Is this the same as the film/video flag? Is Titanic properly flagged (the progressive light on my player was green which indicates the player believes it is film source) for scaling??
I know this is a lot of questions, but I couldn't find any details on this in any threads I looked in, and the JVC site is of course next to useless. Big thanks to anyone who can help me understand all of this!!

 

[JasonLC]

On the TV TYPE option try setting it to 16:9 Normal instead of 16:9 Auto. I had to do this on my JVC XV-S500 on some non-anamorphic DVDs to get them to scale right. Good Luck...

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Craig,
As Jason said, you have to choose 16/9 Normal rather than 16/9 auto under TV type, which is counterintuitive.

Also the dvd must be properly flagged or the scaling feature won't work. Titanic is not properly flagged, and quite a few other nonanamorphic letterbox discs are also not flagged correctly. Abyss SE is flagged properly, and most dvds of 4/3 movies like Citizen Kane are flagged correctly. On a 4/3 movie the player will produce a geometrically correct 4/3 picture in the center of the screen with black bars on the sides. This also works for most 4/3 stuff in special features sections.

On my JVC, I could force scaling on nonanamorphic letterbox dvds by zooming with the player, but the zoom icon won't disappear from the screen unless you enter a nonexistent chapter number with the remote, or anything else that brings up the "0" or "you can't do that" icon.

 

[Craig S]

Jason & Steve - thanks for the quick replies. I kinda thought the 16/9 Normal setting might have something to do with it, but since I only had time to test one disc before leaving town for my Christmas trip to my parents, and that was the improperly-flagged Titanic, I didn't see the results I expected.
Reading the description of 16/9 Normal, it's sold as a feature to help those with sets that lock into Full mode with a progressive signal properly view 4:3 material. Since my set doesn't lock to Full, I really didn't think it would have any benefit to me. You'd think JVC would play up this scaling feature, as it's a definite selling point.
Now that I'm armed with knowledge, I'm looking forward to playing with this more when I get back home on Friday!

 

[Dave Moritz]

Has anyone else exsperienced digital artifacts on there JVC dvd player? My brother just purchased a JVC dvd player for his wife for christmas. He is using monster cable to connect it to there Toshiba bigscreen. The dvd player really shows this during dark passages in the movie. Around text and small detail it has what appears to be digital artifacts. Does JVC dvd players have this problem in general or is it just bad laser pickup or video processing?