Toshiba 50H81 Picture Questions (1 Viewer)

[Jason Handy]

Hi everybody,
I have a couple of newbie questions about my Toshiba 50H81. I am sorry if these are repeats; if so, please just direct me to the right post.
First, when I watch my widescreen DVDs, I still see little black bars on the top and bottom. Now I know that there are anamorphic (2.35:1) movies out there, but the standard widescreen movies also have the bars. The Toshiba has 4 settings for viewing, and the manual suggests that TheaterWide 1 is the best way to look at it, but it does not fill the screen. Any help?
Second, what is this line-doubling business? Is that intrinsic to the TV, and if so where is the setting to make it do that? I only have the base model of DirectTV receiver, so I am not actually watching any HD content yet. Perhaps the line doubling requires a HD-receiver
Third, I am having trouble adjusting the picture to look right. It seems like the flesh tones overpower the rest of the colors, and I can't seem to get the balance correct. There are some settings on the TV that may or may not be useful. For example, the Automatic Contrast Setting that detects the light level in your room and setsthe contrast accordingly. Also, the flesh tone option seems useless.
Any help here would be great, I feel like I have this great TV but it is not quite set up the whole way. Thanks!
Jason

 

[Bill Slack]

Anamorphic DVDs (regardless of aspect ratio) should be watched in FULL mode.
Non-anamorphic should be watched in Theater Wide 2.
TW1/TW3 are stretch modes that can be used for regular TV viewing at your own preference (I don't use any of them myself -- I just switch to 4x3, or zoom it with TW2.)
Line doubling is an intrinsic function of the TV. It converts a 480i signal to 480p (and on a poor signal will make it look ever worse, since it is also doubling the noise.) On HDTV, the set actually only support 1920x1080i, so that won't be line doubled at all.
Don't use the fleshtone setting. Don't use the automatic contrast setting. Cut both the contrast/brightness way down from their default settings. Also, put the TV in Theater mode (which _should_ set the color temp to warm, and disable Scan Velocity Modulation [which is about as 'useful' as fleshtone correction])
Next, go get yourself a copy of Video Eseentials or Avia to calibrate the TV (the basic calibration are the user picture controls.) If you really want it to look good, find a good ISF tech to calibrate the TV, or learn how to do what you can by yourself (for instance, I lined the inside of the my set to increase contrast, and did geometry and convergence, but also had it ISFed to do color temp., focus and a myriad of other things.)
The cost?
ISF: ~$300-$600
Avia/VE: ~$30
Doing stuff yourself: Many, many hours of your time.
Hope that helps...

 

[Jonathan Trueh]

Jason, check out Hometheaterspot.com. You'll find a wealth of information about you new TV. There site helped me purchase and tweak my 50hx81 and I couldn't be happier.

 

[Jason Handy]

Thanks for the great replies. However, Bill, I am still a little confused about the line doubling issue. I currently have a non-progressive DVD player, does this mean that my Toshiba is outputting 480p? If so, why bother with the progressive scan DVD player?
Also, I thought that S-video did not support 480p (only 480i). How does the tv make an interlaced signal progessive? It seems like there is not enough data coming through the cable.
Thanks again.
Jason

 

[Chris Vargas]

Here's a highly detailed article discussing the ins and outs of progressive scan:
Link Removed
Basically, if I understand it correctly, if the line doubler in your HDTV is good enough, you're right, you might not be able to tell the difference between a regular DVD player run through the good line doubler, and a progressive scan DVD player. But I get the impression that there are only a few TVs that have a good enough line doubler (Pioneer Elite for one).
There are other advantages described in the article for getting a prog scan DVD player, even if your line doubler is adequate.
But ultimately, yes, your line doubler is converting 480i to 480p.
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--cv--

 

[Lennart]

I bought my 50HX81 about 3 weeks ago. At first, I hated it. I almost called the salesperson to schedule a return. But, I was told to do the 56-pt convergence and use the AVIA (or Video Essential) to calibrate the settings. I did the 56-pt convergence first. I was scared at first knowing I can really mess up the set if I did something wrong. But, the convergence actually is very easy to do. After I did the 56-pt cong. the set looks like brand new to me. Everything looks better and sharper! I waited for a while before I used AVIA. And it looks awesome even with cable feed.
Also, I think the set need a couple weeks for breaking in before it will look good.
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Len

 

[Bill Slack]

The input from your DVD player is indeed 480i, and the TV does display 480p. However, the line doubler in a good progressive player is better than the line doubler in your TV (the built in line doubler is decent in the newer models like yours, however.)
The benefits of the progressive player are that it does it's line doubling in the digital domain, so there is one less step of A/D->D/A conversion involved. Also, a progressive player like the Panasonic RP91 has a scaler that will scale all material (4:3, WS-LBX WS-Anamorphic) to fit in the Full mode on your TV. It gives more resolution to the images (although the resolution is only on output, not a real increase in resolution, it does make the picture look better.)