Technical Issues and Questions

[domino harvey]

It sounds like the same problem I was having on the last page-- fullscreen PAL displaying combing but not for widescreen PAL

[skeets kelly]

Skeets: I have a similar player (XV-N412) but I use component cables to the television which is a Panasonic HDTV that can handle 480i, 480p, and 1080i. The back of the player is set on "remote." I have Progressive Scan turned on most of the time with a few exceptions (some DVD's with interlaced encoding display too much combing in Progressive Scan mode). Most DVD's with progressive encoding display fine using "auto" under the Picture Source, this includes most R2 MOC and BFI discs. A handful of R2 discs--especially those from Artificial Eye--require me to switch the Picture Source to "Film" which gets rid of a jittery edge on the top and bottom of the picture.

The key for me was using component cables as that allowed the player to output in progressive scan mode which alleviated 99.9% of combing. If your television has inputs for component cables, then I would suggest trying that before you toss the player.

i was using the component cables (since i've had the player) but switched to s-video when i was trying to trouble shoot the problem. is there a way i can turn off the progressive scan mode?

i can usually get away with either auto or video, but was still getting picture distortion for some things. someone on the nicheflix forum a couple years ago suggested switching to film mode which i had no idea i could do at the time. that fixed the problem for a few discs i had at the time so i didn't pay much attention to it until it started happening with the plexifilm R2 of 'searching for the wrong-eyes jesus.'

still getting a ton of combing in film. like i said, i checked judex (the most recent MOC i have) and it seems to be mostly fine in film. some of those other discs i have (especially early MOC) there's nothing i can do about it. i guess i can switch back to component and play around with it some more.

It sounds like the same problem I was having on the last page-- fullscreen PAL displaying combing but not for widescreen PAL

mine does it in widescreen PAL, too. even went back and forth from the widescreen auto function and 4:3 LB/normal.

[tryavna]

Skeets: Have you moved recently? Or otherwise done anything to "disturb" the DVD player? The reason I ask is that I temporarily experienced the same problem when I recently moved. However, the weird combing/distortion affected a few NTSC discs as well. But everything calmed down after a couple of weeks, and I haven't experienced that problem at all since then.

Not exactly a solution, I know, but I just thought I'd share in case it's helpful.

[skeets kelly]

Skeets: Have you moved recently? Or otherwise done anything to "disturb" the DVD player? The reason I ask is that I temporarily experienced the same problem when I recently moved. However, the weird combing/distortion affected a few NTSC discs as well. But everything calmed down after a couple of weeks, and I haven't experienced that problem at all since then.

it does effect NTSC discs, too, but i never have to watch them in film mode. either auto or video seems to do fine. film mode only comes into play with the PAL > NTSC conversion.

nope, haven't moved. i mean, after this all started happening, i was connecting and disconnecting cables to try to solve the problem. but otherwise the player is sitting in the same place it has since i bought it.

[fiddlesticks]

A computer question for Firefox users:

What character encoding and/or other settings should I use that will make every character in the following quote appear correctly?

Moodysson's next film: Mammoth

2007-06-02 12:05:40

Lukas Moodysson's next film, titled Mammoth, will be a major international co-production in English language. Shooting starts in October, so it's likely to appear in cinemas around the world autumn 2008, and on DVD spring 2009.

With a budget of 70 million SEK (approx. 10 million USD) it's his biggest so far, and even though this is not much compared to Hollywood standard it's almost four times the size of a regular Swedish film (and seven times to cost of his first feature film Fucking Åmål).

As usual the film will be produced by Lars J�nsson's Memfis Film, in co-production with Zentropa's Danish and new German production entities. Other co-financiers include Film i V�st, SVT, TV2 Denmark, the Swedish and Danish film institutes. Nordisk Film & TV Fund is also attached to the film.

Mammoth revolves around the successful New York couple Tom and Ellen, their eight-year old daughter and their Filipino nanny Gloria. On a business trip to Thailand, Tom realises that he wants to change his life...

In a press release from Memfis Film quoted in numerous articles it's stated that this will not be another art project like his previous two films "Ett hål i mitt hj�rta" and "Container", but a much more accessible film. Lukas Moodysson states that compared to his earlier works it will be closest "Tillsammans" and "Lilja 4-ever".

[kinjitsu]

Mine is set to Western (ISO-8859-1) and I rarely have any problems.

[fiddlesticks]

Mine is set to Western (ISO-8859-1) and I rarely have any problems.

That's my current setting, but I've got all sorts of strange things going on, chiefly in 'Amal' and in the Swedish words for 'hole' and 'heart'. I switched to Unicode (UTF-8) which fixed these, but messed up others (e.g. the name of the producer from Memfis Film), so I wonder if there's some secondary setting I need? Thanks for the help.

[domino harvey]

Those text issues are from when the board updated, not your computer-- for some reason, it destroyed Swedish characters. See if this works: Åmål

[fiddlesticks]

Those text issues are from when the board updated, not your computer-- for some reason, it destroyed Swedish characters. See if this works: Åmål

That does display correctly. Thanks. I guess I'll stop worrying about it before I do any real damage.

[kinjitsu]

If you had mentioned the source of that quote then I would have known exactly what you were referring to. It seems that every time the phpBB database is updated it screws up most, if not all, of the special characters.

[fiddlesticks]

If you had mentioned the source of that quote then I would have known exactly what you were referring to. It seems that every time the phpBB database is updated it screws up most, if not all, of the special characters.

I'm sorry; the source of the quote (for me) was a post by domino harvey in another thread; he got it from some external source. I confess that I'm not savvy enough to even know what a phpBB database is or how I could have phrased my question in a clearer way. Sometimes it's a curse to be as techno-deficient as I am.

[kaujot]

If you had mentioned the source of that quote then I would have known exactly what you were referring to. It seems that every time the phpBB database is updated it screws up most, if not all, of the special characters.

I'm sorry; the source of the quote (for me) was a post by domino harvey in another thread; he got it from some external source. I confess that I'm not savvy enough to even know what a phpBB database is or how I could have phrased my question in a clearer way. Sometimes it's a curse to be as techno-deficient as I am.

The phpBB database is the engine that's behind this board. As in, CriterionForum.org is running on phpBB.

[kinjitsu]

I'm sorry; the source of the quote (for me) was a post by domino harvey in another thread; he got it from some external source. I confess that I'm not savvy enough to even know what a phpBB database is or how I could have phrased my question in a clearer way.

You just did. No apology necessary.

[Matt]

Ladies and Gents, your Oppo Blu-ray player.

[swo17]

I'm in the market for a plasma TV. I'm currently thinking about a Panasonic Viera, but I want to make sure it can handle PAL. Only NTSC is specifically mentioned in the specs, but I don't know if this is just because they don't expect anyone in the U.S. to care about PAL, or because it really can't handle it. Does anyone here have any experience with this particular model that can say for certain? Otherwise, would anyone recommend a different model that handles both rather well, bearing in mind that I still primarily plan to use it for NTSC discs?

[Michael Kerpan]

I'm in the market for a plasma TV. I'm currently thinking about a Panasonic Viera, but I want to make sure it can handle PAL.

My understanding is that if you use the HDMI connector it doesn't matter in any event.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I'm in the market for a plasma TV. I'm currently thinking about a Panasonic Viera, but I want to make sure it can handle PAL.

My understanding is that if you use the HDMI connector it doesn't matter in any event.

HDMI is irrelevant, it's just a type of connection. If you use a HDMI connection from a DVD player playing a PAL disc it will send a PAL signal across the HDMI connection, regardless of any upscaling the player might do.

The specs on that Viera does not indicate that it handles PAL signals. I would suggest downloading the manual from the Panasonic website to verify this. If it isn't conclusive then could take a PAL capable player and a PAL disc to the store to test the display before buying.

[swo17]

I've done a little more homework about this, and had a helluva time finding any Panasonic TVs in the U.S. that support both NTSC and PAL. Then I get this response back today:

Thank you for your inquiry. We do not have any models that support the PAL signal. NTSC is the only video format that is compatible with products sold in the United States.

Which doesn't help me much. I have actually found quite a few multisystem Panasonics on the internet, though they are either sold in other countries, or do not have all the fancy specs (higher contrast ratio, 24p native resolution) of the newer US models. So, I don't know...has anyone in the U.S. found a multisystem plasma they really liked?

Also, is 24p something worth holding out for? It sounds good in theory, but I wonder if it's one of those specs that doesn't really matter that much that just helps them sell more TVs.

Movies are shot at 24 frames per second. Unfortunately, TVs operating at 60Hz can only refresh 20 times per second, which means they must drop every fifth frame. With its 2008 Viera PZ85, PZ800, and PZ850 models, Panasonic introduces 24p native resolution, which means 24 frame per second movie content is reproduced frame for frame exactly, making for true-to-source smoothness of motion.

[MichaelB]

My Panasonic Viera handles both PAL and NTSC, but it's a European model (natch).

[swo17]

Yeah, that's what's frustrating. It looks like most all of the models with PAL also have NTSC, but not vice versa.

[fdm]

Also, is 24p something worth holding out for? It sounds good in theory, but I wonder if it's one of those specs that doesn't really matter that much that just helps them sell more TVs.

Movies are shot at 24 frames per second. Unfortunately, TVs operating at 60Hz can only refresh 20 times per second, which means they must drop every fifth frame. With its 2008 Viera PZ85, PZ800, and PZ850 models, Panasonic introduces 24p native resolution, which means 24 frame per second movie content is reproduced frame for frame exactly, making for true-to-source smoothness of motion.

Well, you've been watching non-24p TV pretty much all your life. What do you think? Currently I am too. It would be nice to get rid of some of that slight jerky-ness that you see from time to time without it, for example when a camera pans left to right or the reverse and there's motion in the picture. At least I think that's what 24p gets you. But it really doesn't happen all that often that I notice, or at least it's not significant enough to notice. My next TV will be 24p, but that's (hopefully quite) a bit in the future.

[ivuernis]

I've been trying to find an answer for this question but so far all my searches have been fruitless.... do HD players capable of upscaling SD PAL DVDs play them back at 24fps therefore removing PAL's 4% speedup or does the speedup remain regardless?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I've been trying to find an answer for this question but so far all my searches have been fruitless.... do HD players capable of upscaling SD PAL DVDs play them back at 24fps therefore removing PAL's 4% speedup or does the speedup remain regardless?

I think it is technically possible that a HD player can output at 24fps but it would not be the same as slowing the film down by 4%. The movie would still have the same running time and pitch issues with the audio (if the pitch hadn't already been corrected). The only way I know of to achieve what you want would be on a PC using software to slow the playback down.

[MichaelB]

I've been trying to find an answer for this question but so far all my searches have been fruitless.... do HD players capable of upscaling SD PAL DVDs play them back at 24fps therefore removing PAL's 4% speedup or does the speedup remain regardless?

I'd guess the latter, because the player can't possibly know whether it's desirable to change the framerate, and it often isn't.

Bear in mind that a lot of PAL DVDs, including virtually everything made for European television or video, would have been shot at 25fps from the outset. And it would be equally undesirable to change the framerate if the DVD has been pitch-corrected to remove the most prominent side-effect of PAL speedup.

[swo17]

Interesting. I've noticed that even European models boast 24p though. I wonder if 24p means "plays everything at 24fps" or rather "plays each thing at its intended fps rate." In any case, if the average TV is only capable of displaying 20fps, then it seems like 24fps is an improvement, even if it should be displayed at 25fps. Then again, I kind of have no idea what I'm talking about right now.

Well, you've been watching non-24p TV pretty much all your life. What do you think? Currently I am too. It would be nice to get rid of some of that slight jerky-ness that you see from time to time without it, for example when a camera pans left to right or the reverse and there's motion in the picture. At least I think that's what 24p gets you. But it really doesn't happen all that often that I notice, or at least it's not significant enough to notice. My next TV will be 24p, but that's (hopefully quite) a bit in the future.

Thanks for this. Yeah, it might not make too much difference most of the time, but I figure if I'm shelling out that much money for a TV, everything had better look perfect all of the time.