A little confused.

[Captain Chickenpants]

Our DVD died last night. (It has had a good run, we got it around 2001).
So looking for a new one to go with our new Panasonic HD LCD, found the Toshiba SD-350E has got excellent reviews for the price (don't want to spend a ton of cash on a player which I will replace once HD is available).

My confusion comes from the fact that people are reporting that it looks better over component rather than HDMI.
A HDMI video signal is digitally transmitted RGB signal if the DVD transmits a value and the TV receives it then everything should be fine, if it doesn't receive it then there is a good chance that the value will be way out and you will get sparklies, but that is not what people are describing as that would be a drastic difference which Tosh would be unlikely to release. People seem to be saying that it is a subtle difference. The only other difference I can think of between the component and HDMI is where the color space conversion is done, but that should be done to a specific standard anyway so should not cause any issues.

Anyone think of any other reasons?

I plan to pick one up tonight anyway as for £80 it seems a bargain and should be suitable for my needs, if I can find a difference I will let you know.

CC

 

[London Geezer]

Our DVD died last night. (It has had a good run, we got it around 2001).
So looking for a new one to go with our new Panasonic HD LCD, found the Toshiba SD-350E has got excellent reviews for the price (don't want to spend a ton of cash on a player which I will replace once HD is available).

My confusion comes from the fact that people are reporting that it looks better over component rather than HDMI.
A HDMI video signal is digitally transmitted RGB signal if the DVD transmits a value and the TV receives it then everything should be fine, if it doesn't receive it then there is a good chance that the value will be way out and you will get sparklies, but that is not what people are describing as that would be a drastic difference which Tosh would be unlikely to release. People seem to be saying that it is a subtle difference. The only other difference I can think of between the component and HDMI is where the color space conversion is done, but that should be done to a specific standard anyway so should not cause any issues.

Anyone think of any other reasons?

I plan to pick one up tonight anyway as for £80 it seems a bargain and should be suitable for my needs, if I can find a difference I will let you know.

CC

The Toshiba 350E is a fine player for the price (70 quid for it is a real bargain). It does have some problems though, one of which being that the HDMI side of it isn't really amazing.

In fact, as you said, this player looks better running non-upscaled DVDs, whether through HDMI or Component.

Also the Toshiba has a big blue LED light running through the tray thing, which is always on...

I was gonna buy this one, but opted for the Philips 5900 which seems to be flaw-less compared to the 350E or the Sammy 850/950 (which has audio issues and is a pain to use with HDMI). Only 90 quid, and i think it's worth the little difference if it means it's a trouble-free player...

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

My question though is why is the HDMI poor.
Is that based on your own viewing or on reviews?

I can't see that HDMI can be poorer than component without being drastically worse. Interference on a HDMI signal would cause very noticable errors, not the subtle quality that reviews seem to talk about.

CC.

 

[London Geezer]

My question though is why is the HDMI poor.
Is that based on your own viewing or on reviews?

I can't see that HDMI can be poorer than component without being drastically worse. Interference on a HDMI signal would cause very noticable errors, not the subtle quality that reviews seem to talk about.

CC.

Well from the reviews i've seen, all they say is that this set's upscaling is just crap. So you're better off using either component or HDMI but without upscaling, only leaving it to 525p. Didn't read anything about component output being actually better than the HDMI one...?

In the end it also depends on the set they were using. Personally i went for the safe option and got a Philips

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Well from the reviews i've seen, all they say is that this set's upscaling is just crap. So you're better off using either component or HDMI but without upscaling, only leaving it to 525p. Didn't read anything about component output being actually better than the HDMI one...?

In the end it also depends on the set they were using. Personally i went for the safe option and got a Philips

Thats what I figured. I can see that if it's scaling is poor, you are better off using the TV scaler. But I can't see why HDMI would be better than component, I reckon perhaps people have been comparing scaled HDMI to unscaled component.

BTW thanks for the recommendation of the Panny LCD, I managed to get the Panasonic shop to do a price match with AJ electronics and got it for £999.

CC

 

[London Geezer]

BTW thanks for the recommendation of the Panny LCD, I managed to get the Panasonic shop to do a price match with AJ electronics and got it for £999.

CC

No prob!! It's the LX52 i suppose? It's one fine set isn't it! :smile:

In the end i went for the Sammy R51, simply because it was in stock and the Panny wasn't, and because it has a VGA port... Can't wait to get it!!

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

It certainly is.
I was very impressed with the quality of the freeview, and the color reproduction looks great.
The only thing I have seen on the tv that looked a bit nasty was a few shots in 'The Life of Birds' they were filming in low light and were thus using a fast (and therefore grainy) film which seemed to get emphasized by the LCD.

Lack of VGA isn't an issue for me as if I get round to connecting a PC it will almost certainly have a DVI which can be converted to go through the HDMI.

CC

 

[London Geezer]

It certainly is.
I was very impressed with the quality of the freeview, and the color reproduction looks great.
The only thing I have seen on the tv that looked a bit nasty was a few shots in 'The Life of Birds' they were filming in low light and were thus using a fast (and therefore grainy) film which seemed to get emphasized by the LCD.

Lack of VGA isn't an issue for me as if I get round to connecting a PC it will almost certainly have a DVI which can be converted to go through the HDMI.

CC

Careful with that cause you won't get 1:1 pixel mapping! You'll probably have to find the right resolution, which is gonna be tough, and will be around 1100x680 or something to avoid overscan, and let the set fill the screen with that... Fun eh..

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Careful with that cause you won't get 1:1 pixel mapping! You'll probably have to find the right resolution, which is gonna be tough, and will be around 1100x680 or something to avoid overscan, and let the set fill the screen with that... Fun eh..

I should be able to set up a custom resolution easily enough.

CC

 

[London Geezer]

I should be able to set up a custom resolution easily enough.

CC

Just gotta find which one though!!

You'll be fine, i researched the AVForums long and hard but still no word on anyone plugging a PC to the set... Eventually one will come out to tell u how he did it!

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Just gotta find which one though!!

You'll be fine, i researched the AVForums long and hard but still no word on anyone plugging a PC to the set... Eventually one will come out to tell u how he did it!

Ah I am an old hand at tweaking display timings. In the good old Kyro days I spent quite some time trying to tune our drivers to get the best timings for TV-Out.

CC

 

[London Geezer]

Ah I am an old hand at tweaking display timings. In the good old Kyro days I spent quite some time trying to tune our drivers to get the best timings for TV-Out.

CC

Damn!

I'll open a "get your kit out" thread when i get my set

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Hehe,
Kit was a couple of different TV's, a Kernel mode debugger and my eyeballs.

I think the easiest way to do it will be to create an image to let you evaluate the overscan percentage. Add that to the borders and wind up the pixelclock using Powerstrip.

You need to increast the pixelclock to compensate for the fact that you are sending more data. Their is a potential problem if the pixelclock exceeds the maximum bandwidth of the TMDS transmitter, but I don't think that should be an issue at 720p or 1080i

If and when I do try hooking a PC up I will post the info on my website and post a link here.

CC

 

[_xxx_]

Didn't bother reading, but if you're looking for a cheap but good DVD player, there can be only one:
http://www.yamaha-hifi.de/products....t2=4&idcat3=4&idprod=1224&archivset=&newsset=

Region free, 4x audio upsampling, progressive scan, DivX and all the buzzwords. Excellent quality. The only bad thing is the stupid remote layout and lame responsiveness to it.

Or you go with a pricier classy product with HDMI and component and all you could ever imagine:
http://www.yamaha-hifi.de/index.php?lang=e&country=gb&idcat1=1

 

[London Geezer]

Didn't bother reading, but if you're looking for a cheap but good DVD player, there can be only one:
http://www.yamaha-hifi.de/products....t2=4&idcat3=4&idprod=1224&archivset=&newsset=

Region free, 4x audio upsampling, progressive scan, DivX and all the buzzwords. Excellent quality. The only bad thing is the stupid remote layout and lame responsiveness to it.

Or you go with a pricier classy product with HDMI and component and all you could ever imagine:
http://www.yamaha-hifi.de/index.php?lang=e&country=gb&idcat1=1

How much?

 

[_xxx_]

First one is ~€50, second one ~600-700. Dunno 'bout UK pricings.

 

[London Geezer]

First one is ~€50, second one ~600-700. Dunno 'bout UK pricings.

I'll report on the Philips 5900 as soon as i get it and the HDTV

(The only thing that made me go huh? was that i had to buy the HDMI cable separately.. i mean... why sell a DVD player touting about its HDMI capabilities if you're gonna put a freaking composite cable in the box?!! - not even component, COMPOSITE!! - stupid Philips!!)

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

First one is ~€50, second one ~600-700. Dunno 'bout UK pricings.

Hmm, cheapest I can see the Yamaha for is £96 which is about 140 euros.



Cheers,

CC

 

[London Geezer]

Hmm, cheapest I can see the Yamaha for is £96 which is about 140 euros.



Cheers,

CC

Yeah might as well go for the Philips. Even the Sammy 950 is very good picture-wise, even though it has some nibbles when using the HDMI...

 

[Simon F]

Region free, 4x audio upsampling, progressive scan, DivX and all the buzzwords. Excellent quality. The only bad thing is the stupid remote layout and lame responsiveness to it.

Drifting slightly OT ....

What I'd like is a (dual channel) DVB receiver + HD recorder + DVD player/writer that can also play DivX... but no such thing (apart from a custom PC) appears to exist