Technical Issues and Questions

[skuhn8]

Alright guys, I've just finally bought a 1080p television. It's a 40 inch Sony. I've got questions about the picture modes. I have the options of switching to wide zoom, normal, full or zoom. Can anyone give me a clue as to which is best for which aspect ratio?

Whichever mode displays the picture correctly without having to adjust each and every time: normal or its equivalent. Of course when you're viewing widescreen nonanamorphic it gets more complicated. I went for a Plasma Panasonic and can't for life of me get any decent zoom setting that will let me get the full widescreen pic without loosing lots of information. That's my advice before you buy one of these things. Bring a nonanamorph disc in (if you happen to own a fair amount--i live in hungary where so many new films still come out nonanamorphic) and test out their zoom functionality. If you have a chance oldsheperd please try that with your wide zoom and let me know how that worked. Otherwise, just stick with 'normal'.

[oldsheperd]

Thanks, Skuhn. Normal on the television puts borders on the sides of the image even for regular television programs.

I think full may be the best. The manual said that that is the way to go for 4:3 images and 16:9 enhanced. I'm not that hardcore about the whole thing it just was bugging me that when I went with zoom or wide zoom the image gets a bit distorted but when I go with full, if the image is 4:3 not letterboxed, then I lose a little of the image around the border. So if the original aspect ratio is 1:33/1 then I should expect there to be a border vertically on either side of the image? Like the image will be in the middle of the screen and won't fill the television screen. That would be right?

[Antoine Doinel]

So if the original aspect ratio is 1:33/1 then I should expect there to be a border vertically on either side of the image? Like the image will be in the middle of the screen and won't fill the television screen. That would be right?

Exactly. 1:33/1 will give you vertical bars on the right and left. 1.85 should fill your screen, while 2:35.1 will have bars on the top and bottom. Most DVD or BluRay players will default to the correct screen mode needed when watching a film. With TV channels, I keep my TV on "normal" and zoom/adjust depending on the channel/show.

[oldsheperd]

Thanks, Guys! I appreciate the assistance.

[Oedipax]

Future aspect ratio nightmares ahead: Philips is releasing a new 21:9 (roughly 2.35:1) set with Ambilight technology. That's all good and well (I wouldn't want one, personally, just because so much of what I watch is 1.33, 1.66, 1.77, 1.85, etc) but the real zinger comes from the way it handles the other aspect ratios. 16:9 is stretched to fill 21:9, while 1.33 is stretched to fill 16:9!

You can view a 'demo' here and an explanation of the stretching methods here.

[domino harvey]

an explanation of the stretching methods here.

This made me throw up a little

[knives]

Crap like this is why I still use my ancient 4:3 teevee.

[Gregory]

I'm going to patent the Ben Hur TV. It will allow one to watch Ben Hur in its original widescreen ratio with no black bars, and everything else from 2.35:1 on down will be formatted to fit ("almost imperceptibly" as with the new Philips).

[skuhn8]

Thanks, Skuhn. Normal on the television puts borders on the sides of the image even for regular television programs.
I think full may be the best. The manual said that that is the way to go for 4:3 images and 16:9 enhanced. I'm not that hardcore about the whole thing it just was bugging me that when I went with zoom or wide zoom the image gets a bit distorted but when I go with full, if the image is 4:3 not letterboxed, then I lose a little of the image around the border. So if the original aspect ratio is 1:33/1 then I should expect there to be a border vertically on either side of the image? Like the image will be in the middle of the screen and won't fill the television screen. That would be right?

And be sure that your player is properly set as well. There's usually some 4 options there. Some older players need to be told if you have a 16:9 display. If you don't set that properly it can be a nightmare of 'up and down' the options with your display--I did this when I was shuffling around with players.

[oldsheperd]

So I got my 40 inch Sony Bravia and Samsung BR player all hooked up.

I checked out a few BR discs yesterday and I was hoping I could get a question answered.

When I played A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket the images we very crisp but when I played The Last Emperor and El Norte there was a fair amount of grain. Is this pretty much par for the course on these CC Blu-Rays?

Thanks

[David M.]

Yes, they are sourced from film and the high resolution means that you'll be able to see the grain structure. It shouldn't be objectionable on a properly set up display.

[nsps]

There's a lengthy thread on the board discussing grain in HD transfers. One possible TV setup issue is that your sharpness is too high. Sometimes the sharpness and other image-processing options on HDTVs don't play nice with grain. I'm more offended by waxy DNR than grain, but I haven't seen grain go up against a bad TV setup in person.

[willoneill]

... and an explanation of the stretching methods here.

My favorite part was where they explained that 1.33 images would be stretched "with no picture distortion" and then showed a picture where the image was CLEARLY distorted.

Also, 60% of blu-rays are 2.35:1? I have no idea, I just didn't think it was that high.

[Antoine Doinel]

I encountered an odd problem with my Samsung BD-P1500 today. I put in The Cosby Show Season 3 DVD and player seemed to have an issue reading video and audio correctly. For example, while the FBI Warning was still on screen, it played the audio for the studio logo. When I finally got the episode select, I started an episode only to have the audio function while the menu stayed on screen.

I think the problem may be that the cheaply produced DVDs (they cram 25 or so episodes onto three DVDs) simply aren't able to be read by the player. I tried another season, same problem (though season 1, which is spread over four discs, plays fine). It's an odd problem as the player so far has handled both BluRay and DVD discs fine. Also, the seasons have played fine on my standard DVD player I have on a set in another part of the house.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem with their player? Any ideas? I'm going to try upgrading the firmware (if there's an update available) but I think the problem is with the player itself.

[kinjitsu]

Antoine, I have the same player and haven't encountered and playback problems like yours, however, I haven't thrown any cheapo discs at it either.

Have you upgraded your firmware? I think they issued a new one last month.

[kekid]

I am not sure whether to post this question here, in the section on "Region-free Players" or "Blu Ray General". Please move it if this is not the best place.

How likely is it that the Momitsu region-free Blu Ray player will cease to function (at least as a region-free player) if SONY changes its software in the next upgrade? Do we believe the player has an ability to survive software upgrades (either directly or with upgrades of its own)?

The answer to this question is critical to people deciding to invest in this machine.

Thank you in advance for your response.

[MichaelB]

How likely is it that the Momitsu region-free Blu Ray player will cease to function (at least as a region-free player) if SONY changes its software in the next upgrade? Do we believe the player has an ability to survive software upgrades (either directly or with upgrades of its own)?

Well, as you yourself make clear through your use of the phrase "we believe", you're simply not going to get a 100% reliable answer to this one.

Personally, I'm opting for two separate players - my British PS3 handling region B and region-free playback of discs with PAL material, and I'll probably invest in Oppo's Region A Blu-ray player at some point down the line, as I've got the impression it's very similar to my existing Oppo player aside from the Blu-ray capability. (Mind you, does anyone know if the Oppo's DVD side of things can be made region-free?)

Obviously, this excludes me from Region C, but that's yet to be an issue - and it probably won't be, as I imagine the vast majority of Region C discs will be localised versions of mainstream titles already available elsewhere (which is why I don't own any Region 5 or 6 DVDs, despite having plenty of Russian and Chinese titles).

[Davidspector]

Oppo Blu-ray is region locked to Region A and the standard DVD, unlike the 980H, will be locked to Region 1. Sorry. Like a lot of people, I'll now have two Oppos - one for non Region 1 SDs and one for Blu-ray Region A.

[gyorgys]

Mind you, does anyone know if the Oppo's DVD side of things can be made region-free?)

The Oppo 983H can be region-freed by the following steps:

- Press "setup" (remote control).
- Press "9210" immediately after (new window).
- Press "0".
- Press "setup" again (exit),

The DVD option of the Oppo BDP-83, on the contrary, is hardware locked (i.e. dictated by the chipset).

This means for the US-version: blu-ray region A / SD region 1, for the upcoming European version: blu-ray region B / SD region 2 (see oppo.se).

[James]

I have a Vizio and am experiencing a clicking sound whenever I pause a movie, or change from menu to menu or something like that. Any ideas or should I try to return it for a new one?

[MichaelB]

The DVD option of the Oppo BDP-83, on the contrary, is hardware locked (i.e. dictated by the chipset).

This means for the US-version: blu-ray region A / SD region 1, for the upcoming European version: blu-ray region B / SD region 2

Thanks for that - but it's not actually a problem, since my PS3 can easily handle the Blu-ray Region B/SD Region 2 requirements, so I can simply replace the existing Oppo with the Region A/Region 1 BDP-83.

[Antoine Doinel]

Antoine, I have the same player and haven't encountered and playback problems like yours, however, I haven't thrown any cheapo discs at it either.

Have you upgraded your firmware? I think they issued a new one last month.

I upgraded the firmware this morning (the process is unnervingly mysterious) and all is well. Thanks kinjitsu! The discs now play, but the downside is the transfers are really quite bad. Take the good with the bad I suppose.

[kinjitsu]

(the process is unnervingly mysterious)

Actually, it's quite simple and straightforward. Here's the firmware instructions.

[Antoine Doinel]

Oh, I was able to install the firmware just fine but I hate that the instructions are: 1. Put in CD or USB stick 2. Wait 3. Press Yes or No 4. Wait some more but don't do anything or you could screw up for your player for life. It would be nice if Samsung at least showed the status of the firmware upgrade as it was being installed.

[Davidspector]

This refers to questions asked somewhat earlier in this thread but I have yet to find an answer. It involves PAL to NTSC conversion and specifically with the latest Oppo prior to the Blu-ray. I know about PAL speedup, but usually this is cited as an annoyance in sound. But my PAL discs varyingly will every now and then have a jump in the action as though some gframes have been cut from the film. Would that occur on a PAL DVD player also? (Hard to believe that PAL region viewers have just learned to live with this.) Or is my conversion actually not as good as it could be, despite Oppo's high reputation for upscaling (warranted) and PAL to NTSC conversion.

If anyone could anser this, I'd appreciate it - and if fixable, how to fix would ben even better.


Thanks