Technical Issues and Questions

[Adam X]

Ah, thanks for that. This'll be my first plasma (as if you couldn't tell), and my current LCD does do 24Hz. Lots of new things to learn...

[Noiretirc]

Edit: yikes, this thread does have many answers, upon second sober searching. Disregard everything after "merry Xmas".

[matrixschmatrix]

I'm concerned, because all of a sudden all the color modes on my Epson Powerlite 6500 projector look greenish and excessively dim, except for Dynamic, which I had though to be one of those Motion Smoothing style things that ought to be avoided. Can anyone tell me what's going on?

[subliminac]

Sorry to hear about this. What brightness setting are you using? As the lamp ages it will be necessary to bump it up to high. Also, its okay to use dynamic but you will most likely lose some color accuracy and will probably need to do a new calibration of the projector.

It could also be premature lamp failure. How many hours do you have on it? I know many people have had success getting Epson to replace the bulb if it fails before its advertised life span. May be worth putting in a call to tech support.

[matrixschmatrix]

Hmm, I've had it on high throughout, but it does seem to have dimmed a bit- though the lamp says it ought to have something like 1200 hours left on it. I've got it on Living Room now, which seems to be a reasonable compromise brightness wise without being too green. I'm wondering if it's an RGB problem, but playing around with those settings don't seem to have helped- I've never had it professionally calibrated, though.

[David M.]

The Dynamic and Living Room modes remove color filters from the optical path. They're designed for the brightest possible image at the expense of color quality.

The UHP lamp aging will affect the overall color temperature, so I can easily believe that it's turned green over time.

[Jonathan S]

Are Blu-rays far more prone to skipping than DVDs? I now have several in my small collection which do this, apparently due to just one or two tiny surface marks (which won't wipe off) that were already on the discs when I bought them new - presumably caused during manufacture or packaging (I'm almost obsessively careful with discs myself).

The problem always seems to be marks near the outer edge of discs - when I presume error correction is most difficult. However, I've rarely had any DVDs that had a problem with such minor blemishes and my understanding was that BDs were more resilient. Discs that are absolutely pristine play fine.

My player is an early model (Sony BDP-S300) though it has been used for probably less than 100 hours. Perhaps more recent models have better error correction? However, it seems to have no problem dealing with DVDs with similar or worse marks.

[jindianajonz]

I've never had any problems, and I heard somewhere that blu-ray discs are very resilient- apparently they had a bunch of problems with scratches early on in their development phase, so the developers had to find a solution and stumbled across an extremely durable hard coating for the discs. Because of this, Blu Rays are much more resistant to scratches than DVDs.

Not sure why you seem to be experiencing skips, but I would guess it's the player rather than the discs themselves. Like I said, I can't recall a single time a blu-ray has skipped on me, while it's happened periodically with DVDs.

[cdnchris]

Never had an issue with any Blu-rays as the special coating on them seems to protect them rather well and my daughter has put some of her Disney ones through hell and they still play fine. Even the ones with little imperfections seem to play fine. My HD DVDs on the other hand... The slightest of blemishes and they become a coaster (My Zodiac disc being a prime example with its slightest of blemishes.)

I'd say it was more than likely your player that's the issue.

[fdm]

Can't recall more than one with similar symptoms to yours Jonathan, but I had one disc in the Star Wars set with a tiny knick in its playing surface that caused a playback issue, repeatedly in the same place. That was on an older deck, a Panasonic BD35, and that was still the case even after a firmware fix that corrected some audio compatibility issues that the set also had with that particular model of player. The disc played fine on my Oppo though. And finally getting the whole set replaced (for that one knick!) resulted in an undamaged disc and no more playback problem.

I'm a bit concerned for some of the others discs that I've removed from those cardboard, hubless, book style box sets though, as looking closely at some of their playing surfaces there is some slight scuffing/scratching on some of the discs in spite of how carefully I took them out (and no, they don't get put back again either), but haven't had the time to watch them all, so hopefully no surprises down the line.

I've also had one other disc fail to play but that was due to some pressing error (the playing surface was pristine). Replacement disc was fine.

Mostly though no real problems aside from presumably mastering / firmware incompatibilities which mostly seem to have been resolved. (The new Total Recall threw the BD35 for a loop though, both audio and video issues even while playing back in PCM mode, although I seem to be the only one with a concurrent video issue that I've run across. Again, played just fine in the Oppo. Hoping for a firmware update (becoming a rare thing for the older models) or that a swap from Sony will fix that issue up eventually.)

For the most part the Panasonic has been pretty bullet-proof, so I would also suspect that a different player would be something to look into.

[Jonathan S]

Thanks for all your inputs. Although I think the problem is related to the tiny marks on each disc (because they seem to match the skipping point in each film) it sounds like my early Sony machine has poor error correction. If blu-ray players generally reacted in the way mine does to such minor blemishes, I doubt the format would ever have taken off. I'd never choose a Sony myself but it was given to me after a few days' use at a trade show about five years ago, when blu-ray players were quite expensive! I've hardly used it until recently.

I do wonder if it's worth upgrading the firmware, which I've never done, as for me it's not a simple procedure and I've read reports that it can create as well as solve problems for this model. Sony's site suggests the later firmwares are mainly to facilitate compatibility, which I doubt is the problem here as the affected discs are small-label releases with no complicated features.

[Stalker]

Hey guys. Having a problem with my Videodrome disk here. Its brand new, but it won't play on my Panasonic DMP-60. I have a ton of other criterion-releases, and they all play just perfect. This is the first time my player won't read a disk.

Has there been any trouble with this particular release?

Yes, I have the latest firmware.

[Erikht]

I need a good programme which will scan and report the physical condition of a disc. We need it at the library. Any suggestions?'

Erikht

[Cold Bishop]

It wouldn't surprise me if its outdated at this point, but I always use the ScanDisc option on Nero DiscSpeed. And it's free, last time I checked.

[lady wakasa]

Help...

My mother is in the hospital unexpectedly, so I grabbed my Sony Blu-Ray BDP-S185 (well, it was a gift) and some discs and took them to her.

The tv in her room doesn't have an HDMI cable (too old), so I bought a 17" HP Something Cheap laptop this morning.

It doesn't recognize the Loves of Pharaoh (i.e., German) DVD I put in the DVD drive, and it doesn't recognize the Blu Ray player at all. (It did recognize Solaris, but that wasn't one of her choices to watch.) My mother is having pretty serious surgery, and I'd really like her to have a chance to see a couple of DVDs and make things a little more pleasant. Any suggestions? (I have the option of returning the HP tonight, but she's having the surgery tomorrow and we'll probably be snowed in starting tomorrow.)

[hamsterburger]

it doesn't recognize the Blu Ray player at all.

I assume you have tried to connect the stand-alone Blu-ray player to the laptop's HDMI input? That won't work as the connection on the laptop is only for output, not input.

If the laptop doesn't have a Blu-ray player built in your only other option is to buy an external Blu-ray drive.

As for any region locking issues for DVD you can either flash the firmware of your drive, which is somewhat complicated, or use a program like anydvd.

[Adam X]

Are Blu-rays far more prone to skipping than DVDs?

I'm sure I recall hearing somewhere (maybe on the Digital Video Essentials blu-ray?) that while blu-ray's have a tougher surface to protect against scratching, the data layer is also closer to the surface than DVDs, so any damage will more readily have an impact on playback. If anyone know's better, feel free to correct me onthis.
Naturally the player's error correction will also play a role. Some early players just don't seem to deal with damaged discs well at all.

[lady wakasa]

it doesn't recognize the Blu Ray player at all.

I assume you have tried to connect the stand-alone Blu-ray player to the laptop's HDMI input? That won't work as the connection on the laptop is only for output, not input.

If the laptop doesn't have a Blu-ray player built in your only other option is to buy an external Blu-ray drive.

As for any region locking issues for DVD you can either flash the firmware of your drive, which is somewhat complicated, or use a program like anydvd.

Thanks - I found a blurb explaining the HDMI slots, and the pc is giving us five uses before locking the region, so we should be okay with switching regions for now - that issue seems to be with the German DVD specifically, because I can play Sherlock BBC with no problem. (I know there's something nonstandard about how it was created, although I can't articulate it well.)

I appreciate the quick response, though, and while I'm still considering returning the pc (there's another issue with it), your info may have given me a reason to keep it.

[dx23]

I'm looking for an LED TV 50" to 55", preferably Smart and with a budget of no more than $700. Any recommendations?

[Drucker]

I have a question about an effect I've noticed on a few blu rays and DVDs I'd like some clarification on. I should note that in all discussions about noticing things like edge enhancements, I'm usually totally oblivious, and I've tried so hard to see what others see, but I don't. I do notice the way DNR can interfere with a disc (Studio Canal's Blu of The Trial) for instance, but generally I would say I can't spot egregious digital manipulation.

But I've noticed in the last few weeks on Stagecoach Blu Ray, Man Who Knew Too Much Blu Ray, Vampyr Criterion DVD, and even a little little bit in Warner's 4K Blu Ray for Casablanca, what seems to be a little white shadow floating above certain characters. It's only apparent while characters are in motion, and I only ever notice it above people.

I specifically noticed in Stagecoach at about :51 seconds in (as the cowboys exit screen right, right above their heads barely) and another example is at 6:42, right above Dallas's hat's bonnet.
I notice the same thing at about 2:27 into The Man Who Knew Too Much blu ray. During the close-up, as he skis down the slope, above his left elbow as he puts his arm in front of his eye. There appears to be some barely, barely white shadow-ish thing.

Is this edge-enhancement? Is it something else? Or is it just something inherent in the source? I seem to only notice it in older films, and maybe it really just inherent in the source...I can't be sure. I did just watch the blu ray of Sunset Boulevard this morning and didn't notice it. Then just now I finished watching The Lost Weekend blu ray, which looked absolutely incredible and except for maybe one or two seconds throughout the whole thing, I couldn't find this error at all.

Anyway, thanks for the help. I'm just very curious as to what I'm noticing. I am pretty sure my TV is calibrated very acceptably, and being that I don't see it in all movies, and do see it in movies that I'm sure were in less-than-ideal shape, I imagine it's something in the source, but figured I'd ask here. Thanks for the halp.

[Jonathan S]

I believe the defects you describe are commonly known as "priest's hats" or "tubes". They are not caused by digital transfers. I had noticed them on many celluloid prints of older films before I came across a discussion of them in the NoShame booklet (and maybe the on-disc extras) for Antonioni's Cronaca di un amore:

The defects came from the original negative and were photographed during the printing phase of the chosen and original lavender... Some of these defects were caused by residue left over in the developing process at the time of shooting, where the film passed through the drainage tubes of the developing machine. Poor agitation of the developing fluids meant that the residues of gelatinous sensitive materials were not completely removed. In not being exposed to light rays when shooting, these residues cause opaque areas which prevent the light for printing when passing. On the positive copies they create lighter areas on the characters' heads as a result, which follow the characters' every movement like a luminous shadow. In jargon these are called "Tubes", in reference to the film's obligatory journey through the printing machine. They can also be called "Priest's hats"...

[Drucker]

Thanks for that helpful answer! That definitely seems like it could be it.

[jindianajonz]

I have a Sony home-theatre-in-a-box that's about 6 months old, and the front left speaker has a fuzzy static-y noise. I don't have it playing all that loud, and don't think I've ever come close to pushing it to its limits. I've exhausted my knowledge of the subject (i.e. I unplugged and plugged the speaker back in) but it still persists. Anybody have some advice for me?

[mfunk9786]

Is it under warranty?

[jindianajonz]

I'm not sure, but consider how reluctant I am to take the time and energy to mail large items like this, let's assume it isn't.