TV Problem update

[Zero]

Yesterday, I made it a point to head over to Circuit City to watch their floor model Samsung in action. The goal here was to see if there were any differences between it and the one I have at home. Suffice to say, there were differences, major differences.

The picture was much more solid and clean, no issues from what I could see. The coax looked great, the component looked even better. I forgot to ask what source they had everything running off of. Will make it a point to do so later.

The Panasonic dvd-F85 disc changer arrived late last week. I could see a slight improvement over the Mintek, though not much. The S-video helped clear things up. The issues were still there. I talked to a few people at the store who were perplexed as to what the issue could be, as they have never heard of it before. I could see why, the picture the Samsung was producing in the store was incredible.

So, today, I head on off to Circuit City to do my exchange. Get that taken care of. Bring her home.... the regular coax looked a tad better, less hiss, more channels actually watchable. The Signal Cable Component wire arrived...... perfect timing..

I hooked everything up and was disappointed. No friggin difference whatsoever. Still the same blocky, almost un-watchable display. Plugged in Harry Potter (spare your jokes) and was grossly disappointed. Same damn issue.

Not sure I want to blame the tv, after all, its picture in the store was stunning and without much flaw. Perhaps its the power running through the house? Perhaps its the source? ? ?

Right now, the only thing I can think of is upgrading the source and returning the Panasonic.

God how Circuit City loves me. I am the master of buying and returning, most employees know me by name. I forgot to get my special promo done.... *sighs* Guess I will be making my fowarth trip in roughly 2 weeks..

A very disappointed,

Sean

[Tour2ma]

Yup.... snakebit...

ATC,
When you return it, get them to hook this one up in the store.

[pjdami]

Venom,

Did you go into your Panasonic's menu and set your settings for component video? 480P for progressive scan? Make sure your not on 480i. It's something in your setup or something dude. Very unlikely you got two bum tvs.

I know it may be painful (it is for me sometimes) but read through both your tv and dvd manuals and make sure you are optimized and synchronized for the level of detail this gear can provide. You should be getting razor sharp displays on a good DVD player, tv, and component wire. Somethings amiss here I think!

Paul

[brettw22]

Specifically with regard to the displays in the store, don't ya think that has to do with the fact that they're actually running a digital signal to the tv's instead of pluggin a basic analog cable in and expecting it to look magnificent? They're either running satellite, or digital sources......guaranteed. True there will be a deterioration in their signal based on them splitting it between WAY too many sets, but still, it's gonna be better than your analog signal.

I don't have an HDTV, but I'm guessing that there's a setting in there that you can pick to indicate the line being used. That's completely a guess though......

Good luck.

[kureboy99]

Have you tried AC line conditioners/surge supressors like the Monster Cable Power Centers? They helped me on my TV setup...maybe you have have bad AC line noise or your outlets are not that great. Are you plugging them straight into the wall or on a power strip? I would check the problem from the start of the signal path to the end...

[gshisme]

ATC,

Do you have a HDTV set top box. If you are comparing 480P (DVD progressive) or especially NTCS viewing (analog or digital cable) to 1040 (which the store may have been using) it will be no contest. Do not confuse digital cable with digital TV. In some cases, anolog cable actually looks better than digital cable. Digital cable is not HD..Digital TV is. If your picture is really that bad check the settings on both the DVD player and the Panny. My Panny's picture is horrible for viewing ntcs. Much better for DVD progressive (although not great) and very good at 720 and especially 1040 resolutions.

Greg

[ken brydson]

Have you had the cable co come out and check your signal? I had a similar issue and it turned out to me some kind of inline filter inside the box on the house that was shot

[Zero]

Gentlemen,

Roughly two days ago, I sat down and did the un-thinkable.. I read took out the manuals and read the parts that pertained to my issue's.

About ten minutes of fiddling and learning the buttons led me to menu's which presented another problem....what does this all mean? So began about thirty minutes of reading up on the terms, and what does what and why.

After I gained enough info to confidently return back to the screen, I quickly discovered that the Panny's factory settings were to blame (not to mention my own lack of knowledge). The player was set to interlace, not progressive scan. The aspect ratio was off, along with a few other settings.

About thirty minutes later, I noticed a sharp improvement. While its not the night/day difference as I had expected, the picture was much cleaner....free of the issues discribed above.

I was about to pull the trigger on the MUCH more expensive Denon1600. Im glad I didn't. Everything is good to go!

Thank you gentlemen for your suggestions!

As for cable, we need some upgrades in this house and will most likely have someone come out here shortly.

Regards,

Sean

[pjdami]

After I gained enough info to confidently return back to the screen, I quickly discovered that the Panny's factory settings were to blame (not to mention my own lack of knowledge). The player was set to interlace, not progressive scan. The aspect ratio was off, along with a few other settings.

Cool deal bud; looks like you are getting your learn on. I think you have plenty of great suggestions here to find / cure your problem. So have we eliminated the tv yet? Gshishme has some good comments on HDTV compare vs. regular dvd or worse yet analog cable. If the Circuit City store is using Digital Satellite or Satellite HDTV then that picture will blow away regular analog cable.

So are you using like Video 1 for cable viewing with settings on the tv for that and Video 2 on the tv for settings with the DVD player?

So your punchlist consists of the following:

1) get cable checked out by cable company. As mentioned sometimes the "drop" to the house gets corrupt and fixing that helps out tremendously. Upgrade to Digital Satellite cable throughout the house (the RG6) or at least to your tv. Minimize the number of splits to your tv and ask the cable company which splitters are recommended for digital cable. this makes a difference too. I believe cox may even have a way to check the signal strength to your cable modem through their website (or a program that does it); you ought to check this out too.

2) Get a digital cable box and use "S" video output from the box to the tv

3) upgrade dvd player (although the Pany you had was not too bad; might not see much improvement here). I have a "cheap" progressive scan Toshiba DVD player and it is really sharp looking on my tv. Far superior to any of the digital cable channels I have like HBO. I haven't really needed to feel a need to upgrade this yet because I've been focused on audio.

4) suggestion for power filter / power strip like the Monster 1100 I bought definitely helped to clean up the cable signal even though it is still not "perfect" on some channels. This was about the biggest "bang for the buck" I got from this Monster Power Strip 1100. I am finding out of course that there are better products out there. You may have to experiment a bit when you can get this upgrade.