Toshiba SD-5980 problem- Please help! (1 Viewer)

[Keith_R]

Hey all, I recently bought a Toshiba SD-5980 to be paired with my new HDTV. I've been enjoying the player for the last couple of weeks and am really pleased with the image quality that progressive scan creates. The player seems to be decent and as noted by others puts out a pretty good picture, however I'm having a serious problem relating to 1080i upconversion on mine and need some help to solve it.

The problem I'm having is that if I watch a movie in 1080i with my player I experience this problem where I get lines that run through the image, particularly in light and dark scenes and scenes with lots of action. An example of this would be in the LOTR trilogy where there is lots of action and light/dark and there appears these lines. The lines are quite noticeable and do not appear to be typical scan lines to me. I only see this problem running the DVD in 1080i mode; 720P and 480P look fine.

I have my 5980 connected to my television (Tosh 30HF85) via HDMI using the supplied HDMI cable. My television's display format is set to 1080i. I read elsewhere that my problem may perhaps be solved if I changed it so that my television did 540p instead of 1080i, I tried this but no luck so I switched it back to 1080i. The television's cinema mode is set to "film". The SD-5980 is set for progressive not interlaced ( I've double checked this a few times ) and the cinema mode on that is set to "auto", of course I also have the DVD player set to 16:9 as I'm watching on a widescreen display. I've calibrated my television using Avia and I've checked to see that the HDMI cable is firmly connected to the DVD player and the Tv, which it is. As I said this problem with the lines only occurs if I try to watch the movie in 1080i, 720p looks great and I don't experience this issue in 480p. I'm at a loss, I've tried everything I can think of, I even moved things around thinking it may be interference but still no luck. I'm hoping that this is fixable and that someone can help me correct it otherwise I'll be returning the DVD player for something else this weekend.

What is causing this annoying problem? is there a fix or is it just a bad player?

Please help!

Thanks.

 

[John S]

To really test it you need a true 1080i source to see if it has the issue as well. If it does then it is something in the environment, cables, or display. If it does not, then it is related to the player and /or upconversion itself.

 

[Keith_R]

I've done a bit more research and I think I've been able to identify what I'm seeing as "color banding". Everything I've read about banding seems to describe my problem perfectly; light or dark lines running through scenes that transistion from light to dark or have lots of action, only occuring in 1080i and not 720p or 480p.

Supposing that I do have a banding problem, is it something that I can correct on my own? or is it something that exchanging the DVD player will solve?

 

[BrettN]

Hi Keith,

In another forum (ecoustics), someone mentioned a hack to convert the Toshiba 5970 to a region free player (including PAL via HDMI). The procedure is:

This makes US-sold Toshiba 5970 region free!!!
Codefree via remote control:
-open the tray
-type 2403960 (each time you press a digit button
you'll see a cursor advancing on the screen)
-press enter to cycle to region 9
-close the tray
-turn the player off
-turn it back on

Works also with RCE!
Pal movies work great via HDMI!!

Do you happen to know if this works with the 5980 as well?