Question about PAL quality on a USA DVD player and TV

[dancingcrab]

Hello everyone. I moved to the States about two and a half months ago, bringing with me my entire collection of UK DVDs. After successfully region unlocking my wife's DVD player (Philips DVP3140) I can play my region 2 discs no problem.

However, we just upgraded from a 22" TV to a 40" Samsung Series 5 LCD model. The quality of the UK (PAL) discs is now appalling. I've tried the following fixes (bearing in mind that I'm a computer geek, not an A/V one, so I didn't really know what I was doing):

1) Swapped out the old composite connection with a component one (Monster 4' component cable) - still using the composite audio lines. Imagine quality is perhaps a tad improved.

2) Changed the settings on the player to enable 'progressive' scanning as opposed to interlaced. Not really sure it makes any difference.

The player doesn't have an HDMI connection, and (I mention this for completeness sake) the TV doesn't have an S-video port.

NTSC based discs looks about as good as HD cable, but my PAL ones look rubbish. Lord Of The Rings is washed out, blurry and pretty murky to boot.

So, my question is, can anyone help? Obviously the Philips DVP3140 is a few years old, but I'm not interested in swapping out for another player unless I know it'll provide better PAL viewing satisfaction. Would an HDMI, upscaling DVD player improve the PAL playback?

An additional problem I'm having is that the majority of DVDs (R1/2, NTSC/PAL) are much quieter than the cable channels. Is this common?

Many thanks for any support!!

[victoriabears]

I have had many Philips dvd players and never seen that problem.

It could be conicidence and just that the dvd player is now faulty, try another 'deck" even a vcr into the same tv, may be the input is toast.

Thoroughly recomend the Pioneer 420 v-k, which can be made region free and plays pal on ntsc tv's. If you find you need a replacement.

[jman98]

I can probably help. But I'm not gonna sugar coat my answer. Most likely the problem is the connection you used and how you have your TV setup.

Composite and S-video are NOT now and NEVER have been high quality connections. Can you switch to component? I have a Philips DVP-642 player, which is a piece of absolute crap. I have it set up to use component video to my 40 inch Samsung LCD TV and it outputs progressive (480p) and it looks great. Composite sucks and will ALWAYS look bad on your TV. ALWAYS. Switch to component or buy a new DVD player if your only option is composite, but surely your Philips must support component output.

And if you are one of those "geniuses" who has set up the TV so that EVERYTHING gets displayed in 16:9, well, that's part of your problem too. If your output video is 4:3, you need to watch it in 4:3 on the TV. When people start stretching 4:3 video to 16:9 it makes it look like crap. If you aren't doing that, then good for you. You get it. Many people do not.

You can try to buy a new DVD player if you want, but if you continue to use composite it's still going to look bad. Stretching 4:3 to 16:9 is also always a bad idea. And note that upscaling in DVD players is not some magic bullet as Samsung HDTV's use a very high quality upscaler that's probably better than those found in cheapish DVD players. And note too that it's getting extremely difficult to find DVD players that can be hacked in North America, which is another potential problem you might face in a new player.

Just FYI, there are only 3 connections to HDTVs that are high quality. EVERYTHING else is crap. They are:
component
DVI
HDMI

[dancingcrab]

Unfortunately I don't have access to any other deck. And the NTSC R1 discs looks pretty great. Maybe I was a bit dramatic with my 'washed out, blurry and murky to boot' statement, but the quality difference is definitely noticable.

Thanks for the feedback though. The Pioneer player looks awesome, although $80-$90 is a bit rich for me right now.

[dancingcrab]

I can probably help. But I'm not gonna sugar coat my answer. Most likely the problem is the connection you used and how you have your TV setup.

Composite and S-video are NOT now and NEVER have been high quality connections. Can you switch to component? I have a Philips DVP-642 player, which is a piece of absolute crap. I have it set up to use component video to my 40 inch Samsung LCD TV and it outputs progressive (480p) and it looks great. Composite sucks and will ALWAYS look bad on your TV. ALWAYS. Switch to component or buy a new DVD player if your only option is composite, but surely your Philips must support component output.

And if you are one of those "geniuses" who has set up the TV so that EVERYTHING gets displayed in 16:9, well, that's part of your problem too. If your output video is 4:3, you need to watch it in 4:3 on the TV. When people start stretching 4:3 video to 16:9 it makes it look like crap. If you aren't doing that, then good for you. You get it. Many people do not.

You can try to buy a new DVD player if you want, but if you continue to use composite it's still going to look bad. Stretching 4:3 to 16:9 is also always a bad idea. And note that upscaling in DVD players is not some magic bullet as Samsung HDTV's use a very high quality upscaler that's probably better than those found in cheapish DVD players. And note too that it's getting extremely difficult to find DVD players that can be hacked in North America, which is another potential problem you might face in a new player.

Just FYI, there are only 3 connections to HDTVs that are high quality. EVERYTHING else is crap. They are:
component
DVI
HDMI

Wow, that was an aggressive answer considering I'd already said that I've changed to a high quality (Monster) component cable. And I'm aware of the 4:3/16:9 ratio button on my remote, thanks.

[victoriabears]

I have a 46" Sony LCD TV bought 2 years ago, and all the inputs look fine, even composite, it is possible you have a setting on the dvd player or tv that is creating the problem, that wuld be my first guess, just fyi I left all my settings to default on the dvd and tv, so if you have altered them and can return it all to default then thats a good start.

I cannot believe that you have the output on the dvd player set to anything other than ntsc , but anything is possible, especially when you say the ntsc plays fine.

If you look at this thread you will see it really is difficult getting a region free dvd player in the USA (NOT!!) Even B&H photo and samstores sell them.

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic373054.html

Now to help my American friends the philips is available at:-

http://www.ecost.com/Detail/DVD+Players+and+Recorders/Philips/DVP ... =155438248

I suspect the Pioneer can play ntsc/pal out of the box but the disc would have to be region free, and its the trick of making the player region free you pay for:-

and the pioneer region ffree , ntsc/pal is at ;-

http://www.110220volts.com/DV-500-k.html and its only $90 with free shipping and a free cable,

now why is it so much more in Canuck land !

or the 420, but not free shipping:-

http://www.110220volts.com/DV-420.html

see all the hard work I do for you guys,,the 420 must be a import as it has euro scart but there are tons of USA dealers that sell region free stuff , been around for years

http://cgi.ebay.ca/PIONEER-DV-120K-MULTI-REGION-FREE-DVD-PLAYER-U ... 286.c0.m14

does not upconvert but your tv probably does that and its free ups shipping to the USA !!!!!

look !!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/641710-REG/Toshiba_SD_890KR ... n_DVD.html

with the ever so sought after usb input

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-PIONEER-HDMI-1080p-DV-420V-K-Region-Free- ... 286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-DVIX-Region-Code-Zone-Free-Pal-NTSC-D ... 286.c0.m14

and it has usb

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-DV-420-DVD-Player-CODE-FREE-DV420-MUL ... 286.c0.m14

and even:-

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=pioneer+dvd&pn=2&N=0

they have the latest Pioneer multi system 250GB dvd recorder from Pioneer the 650H at $275.00 its a demo model but I understand that B&H are good guys, do bear in mind that these pioneer multi system dvd RECORDERS are switchable ntsc/pal they will not convert, but they work with an input from a satellite or cable box, not as a tuner.

so even the USA folks who have been searching for that elusive dvd recorder with a HD can order one now.

wonderful thing, this new fangled internet search engine