Philips 5960 again

[ripkirby]

Hi everyone.

I have just bought a 5960 and I am struggling to produce some decent quality through HDMI on my Philips Flat TV Widescreen 42PFL5522D. I tried all possible resolutions and refresh frequencies but video quality is really poor, as if the player is not able to reproduce all colors at any resolutions.

Firmware is up-to-date. I can connect other HDMI output devices to the same HDMI port on the telly and display 1080i pictures without any problem.

Any idea?

Rip

[jman98]

There may not be a good solution for you. HDMI output on some DVD players is flakely and problematic. Have you considered just giving up on HDMI and using component instead? Honestly, you won't be able to tell a difference as component is excellent quality video output. I'm getting great results with an old Philips DVP-642 and I'm just using component video output on it. It's maximum output resolution is 480p, so I just send that to my Samsung LCD HDTV and let it upconvert to 1080p. You don't HAVE to have your DVD player do the upconversion. You can just send 480p out and let the TV do the upconversion for you. I'm too lazy to look, but if the 5960 is a cheap DVD player, your TV may have much better upconversion hardware anyway.

[Krispy Kritter]

As noted above, the TV can perform it's own upconversion and you don't wan't to input 1080 to that TV anyway. The native resolution is 1366x768 (720P). Any input/resolution higher than 720P has to be downconverted by the TV to 720P.

You also may need to check the video setup of the DVD player. The video output type has to be set in the menu (S-Video/component/HDMI/etc.).

[ripkirby]

Thanks, I think I understand what you guys are saying.

Let me add I do own an old Western-Digital dvd player too, component output at 1080i, which produces stunning quality - you do see the difference between 720 and 1080, no question, at least I do. It's just that the WD it's getting a bit old and sometimes I have to switch it on and off several times to get it going, so I thought perhaps it would be best if I buy a new one. I am starting to suspect it may not be the case.

Thanks,

Rip

[Krispy Kritter]

Depending on the TV, it is possible to see a difference between 720P and 1080 content from a HD source. However, from a standard DVD which is 480i, upconversion by a player to 1080i/P and then downconversion by the TV from 1080i/P to 720P typically results in a poorer quality image than just upconversion to 720P by the DVD player or TV. You also need to compare the abilities of the DVD player with the TV itself. Most TV's have better covnersion abilities than a DVD player.

As pointed out above, you can also try using component cables. On a majority of hardware, there is no noticable difference between HDMI and component. Regardless, it boils down to what you perceive to be the best.

[ripkirby]

Yes, indeed, and to what you perceive to be the worst too. I think I will give the 5960 player to my mom .... and go back to my WD with component output.

All the best,

Rip