Weird solarizing effect thing on my TV (What's going on?) (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Porter]

So I just shelled the big bucks for a new Samsung HLN567W DLP HDTV. However, I've been watching some DVDs back and there seems to be something odd happening. In the background, I think mostly when there's different shades of lighting, the picture doesn't blend them seamlessly together and instead creates blocky seperate shades that are really annoying and distracting. Does this have to do with my TV? Is it just the way my DLP is? Is it the DVD player? What's going on? The fact that it can't reproduce black blacks is bad enough but with this too I'm not 100% sure it was worth the money I paid for it. Anyone know how to fix this? Also, I'm having a weird thing where I can see the pixels in solid color areas. This is especially noticable when watching animation like Family Guy on DVD or Angels in America's opening credits with the clouds. Is there a way I can fix this either?

 

[Jason GT]

1) Are there different bands of color?

If yes, this is an artifact associated with DLP. It is influenced by source and connection type. Quality sources (say HD or a well-mastered DVD) over a connection such as DVI generally minimize this artifact.

2) re: pixels in solid color areas - I don't really understand this issue. Is it a number of single pixels or blotches of pixels?

If it's many single pixels you're sitting too close. The DLP sets have to dither to produce certain colors (if you ever look closely at a gray/black dark area you'll see individual green pixels used to moderate the apparent darkness of the color).

As for fixes? Tough question. First off, I'd turn off DNIE completely; it's a waste of time IMO and makes certain artifacts far worse. Use better quality sources and connections.

Hope this helps.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

1) If you're seeing what you seemed to describe as contouring, this may be an after effect of insufficient bit depth in the projector, but may also be a source chain problem. This is very common with computer sources if not handled properly, and is sometimes present on the DVD (not your fault) due to incompetent mastering chains. An easy way to see if you're suffering from this contouring is to look at gradual changes in color, slow gradiations like in skies, underwater, etc. If you're seeing bands of colors, something like stripes of one color, then a slight change, rather than a smooth gradiation, this can be the result of the things I mentioend. Could be on the source, could be a playback chain problem, could be partly inherent to the display.

2) The second thing sounds like MPEG noise. IT may be aggravated by poor source, display, connection method, processing quality, etc.

 

[John S]

Have you at least adjusted it on the THX optimizer that comes on many modern DVD's??

I know THX Optimizer is not perfect, but can really smooth out this type of stuff in many cases.