Technical Issues and Questions

[David M.]

Nope!

[James43]

I recently noticed vertical stripes in the picture when watching certain BDs on my Panasonic DMP BD80. They appear like some sort of permanent grid and do not seem to be part of the transfers. This occurred with "Vengeance is mine" (MoC) and "Some like it hot" (MGM). Can anybody help?

How visible are the stripes? Blatant, or subtle?

They are visible in darker scenes or when blacks are dominant: quite blatant and transparent.

[fdm]

I recently noticed vertical stripes in the picture when watching certain BDs on my Panasonic DMP BD80. They appear like some sort of permanent grid and do not seem to be part of the transfers. This occurred with "Vengeance is mine" (MoC) and "Some like it hot" (MGM). Can anybody help?

How visible are the stripes? Blatant, or subtle?

They are visible in darker scenes or when blacks are dominant: quite blatant and transparent.

Do you maybe have an edge-lit LCD set? Seems to be the nature of that beast, although some sets are better at implementing it than others... the lighting can tend to be somewhat non-uniform since it originates only from the edges of the screen rather than from behind it, maybe that's what you are experiencing. Back-lit screens tend to be more uniform since the light is not coming only from the screen's perimeter.

Perhaps adjusting your contrast and/or brightness would make it less blatant? (Try adjusting using a calibration disc (or one of those BDs that also come with some calibration tools), or dig up some settings from other owners of your set to get you into the ballpark with better settings. Google your model number and see if anything comes up that way, including reviews of the set that might describe what you are seeing and perhaps discuss some workarounds.)

(I don't have one, I just read about them from time to time.)

[James43]

Do you maybe have an edge-lit LCD set? Seems to be the nature of that beast, although some sets are better at implementing it than others...

Thanks - in fact, I have an edge-lit LCD which has been calibrated once. Maybe I'll give it another go.

[Roger Ryan]

I'm constantly changing my Blu-ray player's output to 480p whenever I want to watch a 4:3 DVD; it's the only way to adjust the TV setting to the appropriate aspect ratio.

Are you sure? What player is this?

Some of them hide it in the Screen Format menu, e.g. they have a "16:9 Full" and "16:9 Normal" option, one of which doesn't distort the video.

I'll check again, but I've been through all of the screen format menu selections (it's a Sony Blu-ray player). Perhaps it is due to the age of the TV I watch on (Hitachi rear projection - 1080i), but like with MistaSparkle the TV only allows 16:9 standard or 16:9 zoom aspect ratios to be chosen when a 1080i feed comes through (the 4:3 settings are allowed through the HDMI cable when the player's resolution is reduced to 480p or less). I've been unable to find a setting on the player itself that will switch between anamorphic and non-anamorphic content.

As it is, DVDs (as opposed to Blu-rays) tend to look better on my TV when played at 480p anyway (the TV seems to upscale to 1080i better than the player).

[David M.]

That's technically correct, HDTV is specified as having a 16:9 aspect ratio, so it should be the job of the player to format 4:3 content properly. (Although a lot of HDTVs now allow 1080i/p images to be scaled too).

I'm sure the DVD player will have the option to add side-bars.

[Roger Ryan]

That's technically correct, HDTV is specified as having a 16:9 aspect ratio, so it should be the job of the player to format 4:3 content properly. (Although a lot of HDTVs now allow 1080i/p images to be scaled too).

I'm sure the DVD player will have the option to add side-bars.

Since we're still discussing this in the new year , I'll mention that I did recheck the Blu-ray player menu settings and there is nothing available to change the aspect ratio automatically between anamorphic 16:9 content and 4:3 content. I can specify that the output should be 4:3 for standard def, non-anamorphic programming / academy ratio DVDs, but would still have to return the setting to 16:9 for anamorphic DVDs and Blu-rays, so one of the settings would still need to be changed on a consistent basis.

This really only takes seconds, so I'm not troubled by it. The only time it irks me is when a Blu-ray disc contains special features that mix anamorphic with non-anamorphic, then I have to stop the disc, change the setting and re-load the disc just to view the next bonus feature in the proper aspect ratio.

[Paul Moran]

Since we're still discussing this in the new year, I'll mention that I did recheck the Blu-ray player menu settings and there is nothing available to change the aspect ratio automatically between anamorphic 16:9 content and 4:3 content. I can specify that the output should be 4:3 for standard def, non-anamorphic programming / academy ratio DVDs, but would still have to return the setting to 16:9 for anamorphic DVDs and Blu-rays, so one of the settings would still need to be changed on a consistent basis.

That's very unusual. I've had a widescreen TV (CRT initially, then plasma) from the start of my DVD buying in 2001, and all my DVD players (2 Pioneer; 1 Denon) and BDPs (1 Momitsu; 1 (very cheap) Sony and 2 Oppos) have been able to switch automatically between 16:9 and 4:3. Perhaps you need to consider another player!

[Roger Ryan]

That's very unusual. I've had a widescreen TV (CRT initially, then plasma) from the start of my DVD buying in 2001, and all my DVD players (2 Pioneer; 1 Denon) and BDPs (1 Momitsu; 1 (very cheap) Sony and 2 Oppos) have been able to switch automatically between 16:9 and 4:3. Perhaps you need to consider another player!

Well, I have always had to change the aspect ratio on the TV itself between 16:9 and 4:3 depending on the content - the various DVD players would play both anamorphic 16:9 and 4:3 content properly as long as the TV was set to the appropriate ratio. The difference now is the (Sony) Blu-ray player I use prevents (by design) the ability to change the TV aspect ratio to 4:3 when the player's output resolution is higher than 480p. This, plus the presumed inability of the player to automatically recognize 4:3 content and insert side bars, is what forces me to lower the output resolution in order to change the aspect ratio on the TV.

If this differs from others' experience with DVD/Blu-ray players, my best guess would be that the Hitachi TV I've used since 2002 does not recognize these players' attempts to automatically correct for a standard def 4:3 image to be displayed in a 16:9 setting.

Again, given the TV I'm using, I prefer standard def content to be displayed at 480p anyway (I get a sharper, more detailed image when the TV upscales standard def to 1080i than when the player does), so I'd probably still make these manual adjustments regardless. I'm sure I'll be upgrading my TV soon and I'll see if this changes the situation.

[kekid]

I just got the Blu Ray of "The Night Porter". It has non-removable French subtitles when English audio is selected. When I use the "Subtitle" button on my remote, it shows "French" and "None" as options. However, when I select "None", it does not accept that. There is nothing in the menu that allows the selection. I recall reading in these pages that sometimes there are ways to remove such forced subtitles. If anyone has any ideas, it would be appreciated. Thank you.

[TMDaines]

I just got the Blu Ray of "The Night Porter". It has non-removable French subtitles when English audio is selected. When I use the "Subtitle" button on my remote, it shows "French" and "None" as options. However, when I select "None", it does not accept that. There is nothing in the menu that allows the selection. I recall reading in these pages that sometimes there are ways to remove such forced subtitles. If anyone has any ideas, it would be appreciated. Thank you.

AnyDVD HD on PC would let you watch without (as you can set it to remove user prohibited operations). There's also free software like this, which I found with a google search, but that's about the only suggestion I can make.

There might be some standalone Blu-ray players out there that also remove user prohibited operations but I don't know of any.

[Zot!]

Ultra HD

Outside of fanatical pixel-counters with 100"+ home theaters, how do you think such a format might impact fans of less mainstream films? Do you think they might offer actual worthwhile content? Considering people complain about the DNR on Blu-Ray, I can imagine the transfers would only get worse and worse in an effort to sell the format, rather than better. My main concern is it would fragment the market and stifle quality blu-rays.

[David M.]

DNR on BD titles is often caused by studios taking old tube-era telecine transfers (which, I understand, could be inherently noisy, rather than grainy) and trying to give them a facelift. Keep in mind that some facilities have been doing 1080-line HD telecine since 1993 so there is a bit of a back catalog. (There have been instances of new transfers being gimped by NR, of course).

If 4K BD were to go out there, it would require NEW (or reasonably new) transfers in almost every case. So that would be a good thing, of course. And although 1080p is great already, I would never say no to higher resolution.

My only concern, if this is true (the link is the Daily Mail after all), is that it would be YET ANOTHER update to BD. We've already had the mess of the first few profiles, then 3D, now 4K? I'd buy it of course.

[matrixschmatrix]

It's hard to picture any real market penetration on a still more expensive upgrade to a medium most people seem to think is already more than they need, when physical media itself seems to be on the way to a niche market. I guess a 4k TV that upconverts your blus might make sense, though.

Is streaming 4k media at all plausible without a huge upswing in bandwidth? I thought Netflix Instant, which is mostly only DVD quality, was already straining resources.

[David M.]

I guess a 4k TV that upconverts your blus might make sense, though.

I doubt it would make any sense. Right now we're enjoying the luxury of 1:1 pixel mapping with our 1080p BDs on our 1080p TVs. Who wants to throw scaling artefacts into the equation?

Seems like a case of $$$ to me.

[Saturnome]

I've got this weird problem with a (region free) Blu-Ray. It plays fine on my old Sherwood, but somehow on the PS3 it can't get past the intro logo (Pathé logo, the film is L'Illusioniste). The logo plays fine, but then, when you should get to the usual warnings before the menu, it simply goes back to the playstation menu, without any explanation. I updated the system (for the first time in years, I think), same thing. What could be the problem?

[matrixschmatrix]

I had a disc that did that on my PS3 and not my computer- it turned out there was a tiny crack in the disc.

[David M.]

@Saturnome

50hz encoded video (logo, warning card, etc.) on a North American/Japanese player. These players have 50hz support locked out.

[PillowRock]

Is streaming 4k media at all plausible without a huge upswing in bandwidth?

Of course not.

Well, at least not without compressing the hell out of it. That would seem to defeat the purpose, though.

My first question would be: How big does the screen need to be for the human eye to be able to tell the difference from a reasonable (couch to TV) distance? It's not entirely clear to me that I would be gaining anything in any screen size that I'm likely to put in my living room.

[Zot!]

Exactly. I think they might even have trouble finding a place to demo something like this in a compelling manner that would elevate it above the HD material in a store unless they have space for a 100" screen. I'm sure subtle differences could be perceived on smaller screens, but is that enough for anybody but obsessives? I'm just suprised that this is actually being actively explored at this time, it just doesn't seem like a practical or desireable technology right now. Maybe it will amount to a handful of titles for the people who have everything to show off with.

[filmyfan]

ok...now here's question..

I would like to take/trying to take some screengrabs from a Blu Ray..but my PC only has a DVD drive...

I do have a BR player...is there anyway I can take grabs from it on my PC ??

Tried plugging the BR to the laptop (HDMI input-think its an output)-but no luck.

I can't seem to get it to work !

[David M.]

No, you can't. That's an HDMI output, and even if you did have an HDMI capture card, it wouldn't be able to grab frames from copy protected output. You need a BD-ROM drive.

[filmyfan]

Would a BR External Optical Drive work if I connect that up to my laptop ?


Sorry bit of a novice !

[Emak-Bakia]

My Insignia blu-ray player has recently developed a bit of a problem. I went to remove a disc from the tray last week, and, for some reason, the tray started closing just as I began picking up the disc. The disc, not being properly seated, jammed the tray and it couldn't close all the way. I hurriedly ejected and, fortunately, the tray is operating without any problems.

My problem, though, is that ever since this incident, the player has been having trouble reading discs. Sometimes I have to insert a DVD or BD four or five times before the player recognizes the disc. I imagine that maybe the laser is misaligned or something. Does anyone know of a fix for this problem? I do have a Square Trade warranty, but I'd rather not be bothered with shipping and all that, so I'd like to fix it myself.

[Drucker]

I see there's a new oppo firmware upgrade.

I feel like none of these really affect me, so should I NOT upgrade? I also have a region free thing plugged into the back...could its usability be jeopardized?