scart / ntsc / playback query

[zax93]

hi -- i've just bought a new sony KV 21X5L 21" TV and one of my main reasons for buying it was it had dedicated NTSC playback for all my NTSC disks. Anyhow, everything seemed fine at first, but now I have noticed some pretty bad faults with the playback that weren't immeadiately noticeable. In NTSC playback there is a kind of horizontal ghosting when there are areas of high contrast e.g. a scene from enter the dragon where bruce is walking through some trees at the start of the film exhibited this effect in abundance due to the little patches of light peeping through the trees. Also, there is are subtle 'wavy lines' present at all times these are always present, even when navigating the DVD player's own menus not just when playing the disks --- I rang SONY this morning and they suggested I might benefit from a new SCART lead -- anyone know if this could solve the problem? My previous TV had no problems with the present cheapo SCART I have at the moment. In PAL mode playback is almost perfect apart from a very subtle ghostly vertical band that scrolls from right to left over the screen - this is the sort of thing you could only see if you were really looking for it and is not to much of a bother but still the playback is not perfect --- any ideas?

[Ron Hill]

Poor quality scart leads with dodgy shielding can pick up interference
and all sorts of things can generate interference. I had a similar
problem to the one you describe with my Sonel MacMaster scart picking
up signal from a nearby coaxial aerial feed. Took ages to track down.

Try disconnecting the TV aerial from the wall when DVD playback is
running and see if the picture improves. If it does then you've got
interference/shielding issues. Also try separating the power leads
from the A/V leads if they're running together.

[zax93]

Thanks for the advice - It's true that the TV is near to the aerial box, which is in fact some sort of cable extension. However I moved the TV right the way over to the other side of the room away from all the wires and other stuff to see how playback fared there - unfortunately I had the same quality feedback.

Another thing happened tho' - I noticed the magnetic field from a nearby speaker was effecting the screen --- i moved the speaker far away from the TV but was still getting some effect from a lesser field nearby --- this only showed up when the TV was at a certain angle and has now gone. This could mean that there was some interference coming through from the aerial socket.

Any ideas why it is NTSC that is effected more than anything else?

:rolleyes:

[toot]

i have a similar problem on a 28" widescreen Sharp TV. with NTSC playback using a RGB cable it has streaks on it sometimes. but if i use S-Video or a Composite lead, it goes away. it's completly fine with any PAL stuff though. i don't know what's causing it though, the RGB cable is gold(?) plated and the other two are just silver looking.

do you also have a problem where RGB won't ever go to 4:3 mode?

[Graham02]

Zax93

I have seen similar ghosting on many Sony TV's. My old 29X5 has always done this. I think it's what HCC magazine calls 'harmonic streaking'. Apparently Sony didn't put in very good damping electronics on TV's to keep costs down so if you get - for example - a picture with stars on a black night, you'll see that each one produces a faint white line running left to right. Not so noticeable on a smaller TV, but on 32" widescreens or the older 41" Sony projection TV's it looked awful.

This problem occured whether the connection was made by scart (RGB) or S-video.

I think that newer Sony's have pretty much eradicated this problem.

I hope this helps but it's probably not what you wanted to hear!

[zax93]

Thanks for all the input guys .... over the weekend i have noticed that the picture quality has varied from time to time. Firstly the horizontal streaking got better (but not completely) under NTSC playback.... then the wavy/ghosty interference lines appeared under PAL playback ---- this suggests that the problem varies over time -- could this be the result of some sort of interference from a nearby power source?<p>Toot -- I was kind of hoping that investing in a well shielded SCART lead might solve the problem but maybe this won't be the case after what you have said.... the TV is not widescreen so I've never had the problem with the 4:3 thing....<p>Hi Graham --- you may well be right that this is an intrinsic problem with the make of TV --- I have noticed it is very sensitive to magnetic fields for example -- i've had to move any speakers several metres away from the TV to avoid tube discolouration --- I specifically went for SONY as I thought they would be the most reliable good quality brand........<p> Anyone think it would be worthwhile trying a fancy new SCART or should I just get a new TV ??? ???

[HemsaaB]

Ok this might be worth a try... I had a similar problem with my Hitachi TV 4:3... now I'm assuming that the TV you have is also a 4:3... If this is the case... and being SONY... it should have a nice feature on it called "16:9"

Now... set your DVD player to output a signal of 16:9... (basically telling the DVD player that you have a Widescreen TV)

You should now get a stretched picture on your screen... (THIS ONLY HAPPENS IF THE DVD IS ANAMORPHIC BTW...)

Ok... now with the anamorphic NTSC DVD playing... hit the "16:9" button on your TV remote... you should now notice that you have a wonderfully clear picture!!!

(However if your TV don't have this option, it aint much use... but hey if it has... then you should be sorted!)

[zax93]

thanks for the tip - I do have one of those 16:9 options on the TV and will give it a go --- I don't think it will solve all the interference problems as they seem to be present even on the GUE screens of the player. Would it be the case then that an anamorphic disc would look better played in this way as I seem to recall hearing that on a non anamorphic display lines of picture information are skipped.

[HemsaaB]

Well personally I think they look better, anamorphic ones anyway... because you've told the DVD player that you have a Widescreen tv, it sends all the information to the screen... hence why the picture stretches vertically... using the 16:9 option on the tv, then puts the picture back to the right aspect, efectivly squashing the it back to the right view... and it looks a lot sharper than normal!

[zax93]

hello again people

just wanted to ask what kind of SCART you would reccomend - i need one that is well shielded obviously - i have seen oxygen free leads, gold plated leads etc. --- what is the difference and what should i go for?

since starting this thread i have also noticed that the tv picture is bending like a pinch effect - the picture curves in slightly at the left and right edges of the screen -- this is only really noticeable when there are vertical lines on the screen e.g a door or o a window. the top of the screen is slightly off too i.e. on a letterbox picture you can see that there is less black area at the top left of the screen than the right.

Can magnetic fields alter the actual shape of the image? the technician that came to look at the TV said he could do nothing about it as alterating the rotation of the pic would mess up the parts of the screen that are correct.

It seems to me that the built in speakers of the TV may be the problem -- maybe they are not shielded well enough and are having a direct effect on the picture.


any help greatly appreciated

:(