Newbie: Cabling Problems & Progessive (Interlace Or Progressive) Scan Questions, Please

Hi,

First, thanks to everyone for all the previous help in setting up my first
DVD player. Really appreciate it.

Just bought a Panasonic DVD-S47, which I'm feeding into a Panasonic TV.
Don't know how they expect mere mortals to figure out all the
interconnections, and bells and whistles.
I'm a retired engineer, and pretty good with differential equations and
celestial mchanics, but this stuff is beyond me. Really a poor manual,
IMHO.

Anyway: I first got it working with the 3 cable video composite input.
Pix looked pretty good to me.
Then it was suggested that it would look much, much, better, with the 5
cable video component hookup.
I did it, and yes, it does look better, but not "incredibly better".

So I looked thru the book, and found where it described, somewhat, the
"Video Output Mode: 4801, interlaced, or 480P, progressive.

It was set to 4801, so I re-set it to 480P, the progressive mode.

Then my problems started:

First, the TV picture became totally distorted (with or without a CD
playing), as if it lost sync.
Couldn't get back to any DVD player menus to change to the original setting,
as the pix on the
TV was too distorted to read.

Tried turning DVD player on and off, re-plugging the power cord, etc.;
nothing worked.
Finally was able to get two semi-distorted displays (sort of split in the
middle) to show up with
the menus, and was able to get it back to the original 4801.

So, let me please ask:

a. In a very subjective sense, how "much" better should I really expect the
component setup to be ?

b. What is the difference between 4801 and 480P ? Truly don't understand
this at all. Does it effect the pix
quality ?

Are some CD's one, and others the other ? If so, how do I know (and
switch the DVDplayer) ?

**What setting should it (typically) be on for me ?

c. Why did my picture go crazy when I put it on the progressive setting ?

d. Why couldn't I get any kind of menu back ?
How do I do get back to a menu in the future, if it happens again?

Is there a default switch, or something similar, somewhere, to revert
back to all the default settings ?

Much thanks,
Bob

Robert11

Robert11 wrote:
> Anyway: I first got it working with the 3 cable video composite input.
> Pix looked pretty good to me.
> Then it was suggested that it would look much, much, better, with the 5
> cable video component hookup.
> I did it, and yes, it does look better, but not "incredibly better".
>

Your tv needs calibrating then.

> So I looked thru the book, and found where it described, somewhat, the
> "Video Output Mode: 4801, interlaced, or 480P, progressive.
>
> It was set to 4801, so I re-set it to 480P, the progressive mode.
>
> Then my problems started:
>
> First, the TV picture became totally distorted (with or without a CD
> playing), as if it lost sync.
> Couldn't get back to any DVD player menus to change to the original setting,
> as the pix on the
> TV was too distorted to read.
>

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Did you check to make sure your tv *had* progressive
capability? This is a feature of digital tv (no, I don't mean digital
cable, I mean the ATSC high-definition compatible tvs).

> a. In a very subjective sense, how "much" better should I really expect the
> component setup to be ?
>

Head and shoulders above composite. Buy a copy of Digital Video
Essentials, it's about 17 bucks on www.deepdiscountdvd.com

This is a DVD full of specially designed test patterns and even a
tri-color gel insert that will help you properly calibrate your tv,
because out of the box the picture settings are all out of whack. It
even talks you through everything. If you listen to nothing else I say,
buy this tool. It's not some stupid gadget for people with too much
money. I use it at least twice a year, as tv settings will slowly drift.

> b. What is the difference between 4801 and 480P ? Truly don't understand
> this at all. Does it effect the pix
> quality ?
>

Sure does. An interlaced picture is what all NTSC analog tvs have been
providing since the very beginning, and it is a picture in which every
other scanline is drawn in one pass (or "field"), and then then....you
know what? Let me direct you to a page that can spell all this out with
some nifty graphics:

> http://www.cs.tut.fi/~leopold/Ld/FilmToVideo/

Read that, and it will answer 90% of the questions you will ever have
about this.

> Are some CD's one, and others the other ? If so, how do I know (and
> switch the DVDplayer) ?
>

Whoa, slow down. A CD is a compact disk that holds a fraction of what a
DVD can hold. My DVD player has a switch on the back to change from
interlaced to progressive, thus if you cause any screw-ups you can get
the setting back to normal without a picture.

> Is there a default switch, or something similar, somewhere, to revert
> back to all the default settings ?
>

See if there is a switch on the back.

--
"Hey, I bet people will buy my ugly shirts if I put my name on them."
--Tommy Hilfiger

Grand Inquisitor
http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mycollection.asp?alias=Oost

Grand Inquisitor