DVD multi-region player question...

[mjl1297]

Occasionally when I'm watching certain PAL Region 2 discs in my multi-region player, I periodically notice a tiny bit of intermittent side to side jitter. Not much just a wee bit. It's not to the degree that you can't watch the video and in fact it's so slight that no one else who has been in the room with me when it happened has remarked on it. It doesn't happen on all of my PAL region 2 discs either. I only mention it because I wonder if it is an indication of the quality of the hardware conversion on my multi-region player or is it normal?

[jman98]

This is a good question. Would you give the make and model number of your DVD player? It's not like that's some forbidden topic around here. Also tell us is it connected to a high def TV or a standard def TV? What video output (480i, 480p, etc.) is your DVD player set to? Is it set to NTSC output or ANY or MULTI or PAL?

Off the top of my head I would guess that you may be having this issue with interlaced PAL DVDs and not with progressive PAL DVDs. You'll have to look at the VOBs with something like GSpot or a similar tool to determine what the video is. And it could be that your DVD player doesn't do a very good job of PAL->NTSC conversion, but we'll need to know what it is before we can decide if that's the case.

[mjl1297]

Here's a link to my video player--

http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/pioneer1080p.html

The discs I'm using are not ones I burned myself they are factory produced. I didn't mention that in my previous post. The player is connected to a standard TV and the player upconverts everything it plays. I plan to call their tech department tomorrow just to satisfy my curiosity.

[jman98]

Here's a link to my video player--

http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/pioneer1080p.html

The discs I'm using are not ones I burned myself they are factory produced. I didn't mention that in my previous post. The player is connected to a standard TV and the player upconverts everything it plays. I plan to call their tech department tomorrow just to satisfy my curiosity.

If by "standard TV" you mean a standard definition TV, then I can promise you that your DVD is NOT upconverting because your TV should not be able to accept such input. Assuming that I'm wrong and your TV actually can accept such input, it would then downconvert it back to standard def. So what exactly do you think you are accomplishing by attempting to do this? Assuming your TV can even accept upconverted input, you are doing

standard def (on DVD) -> high def (out from DVD player) -> standard def (TV display)

Think about that. What exactly do you think that is getting you instead of doing:

standard def (on DVD) -> standard def (on TV)

That player is really cheap, but generally Pioneer uses pretty good hardware. At that price though, they probably aren't using a top of the line video chip, but I could be wrong. I'd guess it's either an interlaced PAL conversion issue or some weird conversion artifact from you trying to go from standard def to high def back to standard def (again, I am skeptical that this is even possible with your TV, but I cannot be 100% sure).

[ryan14]

maybe there are some scratches on some dvd's or alot of dust.

[mjl1297]

Here's a link to my video player--

http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/pioneer1080p.html

The discs I'm using are not ones I burned myself they are factory produced. I didn't mention that in my previous post. The player is connected to a standard TV and the player upconverts everything it plays. I plan to call their tech department tomorrow just to satisfy my curiosity.

If by "standard TV" you mean a standard definition TV, then I can promise you that your DVD is NOT upconverting because your TV should not be able to accept such input. Assuming that I'm wrong and your TV actually can accept such input, it would then downconvert it back to standard def. So what exactly do you think you are accomplishing by attempting to do this? Assuming your TV can even accept upconverted input, you are doing

standard def (on DVD) -> high def (out from DVD player) -> standard def (TV display)

Think about that. What exactly do you think that is getting you instead of doing:

standard def (on DVD) -> standard def (on TV)

That player is really cheap, but generally Pioneer uses pretty good hardware. At that price though, they probably aren't using a top of the line video chip, but I could be wrong. I'd guess it's either an interlaced PAL conversion issue or some weird conversion artifact from you trying to go from standard def to high def back to standard def (again, I am skeptical that this is even possible with your TV, but I cannot be 100% sure).

Well apart from watching Region 2 DVDs I don't think I'm trying to "accomplish" anything. I assumed the DVD upconverts regardless of the type of television that it is attached to but this wasn't an HD question.

The player isn't cheap--it's inexpensive yes but the build quality isn't bad at all. As for them using a top of the line video chip they probably aren't. Once I determine that this isn't a PAL disc to NTSC TV issue I plan to purchase a better multi-region player.

maybe there are some scratches on some dvd's or alot of dust.

No.

[jman98]

Well apart from watching Region 2 DVDs I don't think I'm trying to "accomplish" anything. I assumed the DVD upconverts regardless of the type of television that it is attached to but this wasn't an HD question.

Your assumption is not correct.

And I explained WHY the problem might be happening. It's up to you to investigate if I'm right AND I told you how to do that. Or you can keep waiting for someone to give you a magic solution to this, but the ultimate fix is going to be to get another DVD player that does a better job of conversion.

[mjl1297]

The fact that it doesn't do it on every PAL disc is the thing that puzzles me. I will look into the matter per your previous post and see if any of it applies to my particular situation. If in the end though it is inherent in the PAL to NTSC conversion process then apart from getting a multisystem TV there may not be anything I can do about it.

As for a "magic" solution I never posted looking for one and didn't expect one when I came here.

Thanks anyway...

[mjl1297]

I finally had some time to get back to this thread. I have viewed some of my other PAL discs and haven't noticed this problem in all of them. In reference to the remark about progressive PAL versus interlaced PAL discs and using a program like Gspot or AVIcodec to determine whether the disc is one or the other how do I go about doing this? I've downloaded both AVIcodec and Gspot and although I get loads of information when I open a file in them I don't see anything that says PAL Progressive or PAL Interlaced. What am I doing wrong here? Where can I find that information in these apps?