DVD and HD ,on a standard screen.

311

Hello ,I was looking at the possibility of changing over to HD . Something that has always bugged me about DVD's though ,is the blotchyness I can see in some movies. It's like boxes or strange shades ,through the film.

If I bought a HD player and HD movies(obviously) ,would this problem still occurr? . Or is this purely down to me owning a cheap DVD player and or TV.

This thread seems really impressive ,as to what HD is capable of
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055033551&referrerid=59211

I intend getting a HD TV in the future, but for the moment getting some sort of a collection together is first.

Thanks for your time.

conax

I would think from reading that, that your TV could do with a set up, and since you see those picture problems only on some DVD's it may be the DVD player having problems with bad editing/flaging on the DVD.
I have only seen clips of HD on DVD and that was on a calibrated 42" HD LCD but it was absolutely stunning.

8T8

HD on an SD display is a waste of time & money.

I agree with conax in that it is probably your player and if you invest in a better quality DVD player that may clear the issues you are having.

What sort of inputs does your current TV have scart, component ?

311

Thanks for the replies ,the tv I'm using at the moment is a philips 24" widescreen tube tv. It has composite and scart ,I'm using the scart.

I've noticed this issue on other tv/dvd players and on my pc's

Any scarts I've ever used are only cheap ones.

8T8

Can't say I've seen this phenomena you describe on other TV's DVD's etc. The closest thing I can think of is artifacts from compression which might show on poor quality movie transfers to DVD or the settings on the TV are out of whack which may explain the gradient problems.

The only other scenario that might produce that is if the movies have been transcoded onto a DVD-R which means obviously some compression is involved and degradation in quality of the original source material.

PC's are a bit different with LCD display for computers they can often show blocks or artifacts in movies even in HD movies, but software players can correct this.

Try turning down the brightness/contrast on your TV.

Also does your TV have scart RGB as some DVD players have a separate option for RGB in their menu otherwise they will only output composite video over scart.

For 100 bucks try a player like this, you aren't breaking the bank so if the worst happens and you continue to see whatever is bugging you the financial hit wont be so big.

conax

I still think that it is a dvd problem, but however change your scart lead to a better quality lead, force the dvd to RGB in it menu setup.
give the TV a quick tweak, brightness, contrast and colour as you may have problems there as well.

311

Thanks again for the replies ,I will try the RGB option and see how I get on.
I was going to use the word artifact in my original post ,but I didn't know what I was talking about ,so I didn't:(
Maybe thats what my issue is.

Nice one for the help.


Thanks for the advice on the player ,I'll give it a try when the oul CC bill is cleared

conax

Good god man, don’t ever be afraid to throw “aritfact” into a sentence almost as good as “noise”
This is a bit rough but an artifact is something that is created and can be noticed, for example excessive compression of mpeg data does not contain artifacts but they are created as a result of the compression (a blocky picture or chirps in the audio). With noise you can have noise in the system and have no artifacts but it can create artifacts.

311

I tried the dvd player here at the moment and it doesn't have any RGB options:( ,it's an Lg dvd Recorder

I know another player I have ,does have RGB options . But it's only an el cheapo from marx computers and I don't think it's worth my while dragging it around the gaff.

Would it be worth my while looking to buy a HD player ,or is the dvd player you recommend a far better unit ?

conax

probably YPbPr on the back of DVD, ahh well.

Now the HD compatible DVD player would probably play back SD better that your existing DVD player but it will really only benefit you if you have a HDTV.
I don’t think I recommended a DVD player, and I wouldn’t either “slaphead” would only say it was crap:)

8T8

Well I'd try the cheapo DVD player anyway with RGB mode just to see if it makes any difference before doing anything else.

311

Thanks for all the help:)

I've messed around with the contrast and colour ,seems to have helped some. I paused frames where the problem was occurring and it seemed to help ,when trying to adjust the picture.
I'll get the other player out and see how I get on next.

Cheers.