Watching DVD on Toshiba 62" DLP - poor quality

Hi!
My parents just bought a new Toshiba 62" DLP HDTV. We hooked it up to a new Toshiba DVD player with progressive scan via a single HDMI to HDMI cable.

I'm assuming from everything I've read this is the way to get the best possible picture? But I'm really not happy with the picture. Viewing from 8 feet and closer, I see little "digital artifacts" around all the lettering in text and around images in CG and the like (similar to a really compressed image on the internet). I tested it with 'Finding Nemo' and a few other film DVDs, and on each I saw this problem throughout. It doesn't have the clean, crisp, solid jump-out-of-the-screen picture I've seen elsewhere.

I've used 'Video Essentials' to calibrate the television set. I've also calibrated the DVD player to use progressive (rather than interlaced) and set it in 1080i.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, because at the moment I'm almost thinking my dad would be better off with a standard def big screen.

Thanks!!

[Abit]

Originally Posted by cecil waters

Hi!
My parents just bought a new Toshiba 62" DLP HDTV. We hooked it up to a new Toshiba DVD player with progressive scan via a single HDMI to HDMI cable.

I'm assuming from everything I've read this is the way to get the best possible picture? But I'm really not happy with the picture. Viewing from 8 feet and closer, I see little "digital artifacts" around all the lettering in text and around images in CG and the like (similar to a really compressed image on the internet). I tested it with 'Finding Nemo' and a few other film DVDs, and on each I saw this problem throughout. It doesn't have the clean, crisp, solid jump-out-of-the-screen picture I've seen elsewhere.

I've used 'Video Essentials' to calibrate the television set. I've also calibrated the DVD player to use progressive (rather than interlaced) and set it in 1080i.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, because at the moment I'm almost thinking my dad would be better off with a standard def big screen.

Thanks!!

He probably would be better off. I've never seen a DVD looking good when stretched to HD proportions, especially on screens that big. Maybe someone can chime in on how to improve it over what you already have.

What do you mean by set it in at 1080i?

"What do you mean by set it in at 1080i?" - This Toshiba DVD player has a button to flip around from 480i to 720p to 1080i. I've actually played around with all the options, and not even sure if that's relevant to add, I was just trying to give as much info as possible. But then, after posting, I'm wondering if using 1080i while in progressive mode, if that would be a problem. (But then I've used 720p and get the same problem with the picture).

Also, if you say it won't look great on a TV that big, does that mean the same TV at 52" should provide the pic we're looking for?

Thanks for your help!

[Abit]

Originally Posted by cecil waters

"What do you mean by set it in at 1080i?" - This Toshiba DVD player has a button to flip around from 480i to 720p to 1080i. I've actually played around with all the options, and not even sure if that's relevant to add, I was just trying to give as much info as possible. But then, after posting, I'm wondering if using 1080i while in progressive mode, if that would be a problem. (But then I've used 720p and get the same problem with the picture).

Also, if you say it won't look great on a TV that big, does that mean the same TV at 52" should provide the pic we're looking for?

Thanks for your help!

Only you can judge what you would find satisfying on your screen. My personal opinion is to avoid upscaling dvd entirely as I've never seen them looking good on any size HD TV in such a case. I don't think they look good oversized even on a computer monitor.

If it does the same thing set to 720, which is probably the resolution of your screen, then I really don't know what to suggest. Sorry for not having a solution.

[Rimmer]

Setting the DVD player to 1080i is definitely the wrong way to go, because you will lose the benefit of the player's progressive scan capabilities, and it's doubtful that the TV will be capable of deinterlacing 1080i correctly to recover the original film frames. Have you tried setting the output of region 2 DVDs to 576p (if available), and then let the TV to do the scaling?

[togad]

Originally Posted by Abit

Only you can judge what you would find satisfying on your screen. My personal opinion is to avoid upscaling dvd entirely as I've never seen them looking good on any size HD TV in such a case. I don't think they look good oversized even on a computer monitor.

If it does the same thing set to 720, which is probably the resolution of your screen, then I really don't know what to suggest. Sorry for not having a solution.

I'd have to disagree here. I've got a Meridian G91 upscaling to 720p and then feeding a 50" Pioneer 504HDE, and the quality is stunning (and certainly better than feeding a 576p signal into the Pioneer and letting it do the scaling).

Perhaps it's worth the original poster testing a couple of external scalers to see if it solves the problem?

[Abit]

Originally Posted by togad

I'd have to disagree here. I've got a Meridian G91 upscaling to 720p and then feeding a 50" Pioneer 504HDE, and the quality is stunning (and certainly better than feeding a 576p signal into the Pioneer and letting it do the scaling).

Perhaps it's worth the original poster testing a couple of external scalers to see if it solves the problem?

Acceptable quality is obviously subjective. I've yet to see any dvd looking good, to my eyes, on an HD TV where it is being resized up to 720 or 1080i.

Thanks for your responses.

My personal opinion is to avoid upscaling dvd entirely as I've never seen them looking good on any size HD TV in such a case.

By this do you mean you just watch DVD in 480i? I've tried this and the results are worse. Can you let me know any additional settings you might do to your TV/DVD player to get optimal results?

Have you tried setting the output of region 2 DVDs to 576p (if available), and then let the TV to do the scaling?

I have no idea how to do this, if it's even possible on my DVD player. Do you have any suggestions?

I've got a Meridian G91 upscaling to 720p and then feeding a 50" Pioneer 504HDE, and the quality is stunning

Can you view your screen up close (within 8 feet or so) and still see the amazing quality with this setup?

Thanks again, your responses are a lot of help!

[1080 jawbreaker]

watched Shrek reg2 dvd via a samsung (upscaling) dvd player on a sagem axium 50 and it looked stunning at 6 feet away, thought it was HD at first

[togad]

Originally Posted by Abit

Acceptable quality is obviously subjective. I've yet to see any dvd looking good, to my eyes, on an HD TV where it is being resized up to 720 or 1080i.

Surely any DVD displayed on an HDTV set is being "resized" somewhere in the chain. Are you effectively saying that you've never seen an acceptable quality DVD on any HDTV?

[Abit]

Originally Posted by togad

Surely any DVD displayed on an HDTV set is being "resized" somewhere in the chain. Are you effectively saying that you've never seen an acceptable quality DVD on any HDTV?

That's not necessarily the case as you normally have 480p on crt HD TVs, in addition to 1080i.

I've never seen an acceptable DVD picture that has been resized/scaled to HD resolutions.

[supermackem]

I think what you are seeing is noise mate. Hdmi which is a really nice connection really does bring out the worse parts of the print more than component or any other connection. You should pop in the dlp forum as well mate, they might be able to help you more than others. I have the 46" version of the toshiba dlp range and can only see the noise red squares when i get really close to the screen i sit about 3 meters away and at that distance your eyes can no longer see them. It sounds like noise is what is causeing the little red squares, but it could also be temp dithering do a search and it will become clear to you if it is this causeing the problem. And i find the dvds look better on my tv in 1080i than any other setting. I would also do a search for you dvd player and see if there is any tweaks and picture settings you can play with. I also get the feeling you are from the usa i would check out the avsforums they will have alot more info for you mate.

[br14n]

Originally Posted by Abit

That's not necessarily the case as you normally have 480p on crt HD TVs, in addition to 1080i.

I've never seen an acceptable DVD picture that has been resized/scaled to HD resolutions.

Im using a samsung sp50l7 and hd945 dvd player and the picture via hdmi and upscaled is absolutely brilliant and i only sit 6-7 feet away from it, far better than my old sd rear pro. Even sky+ looks brill. If the tv is still on factory settings then it probably will look pants.