ISF calibration-reduce false contouring?

[usman24]

Can ISF video calibration reduce or get rid of false contouring/colour banding artifacts? especially in darker scenes on dvd.

[Gary Lightfoot]

Not necessarily, as it's often caused by other things - such as using PC levels instead of video levels when using an HTPC (FFDShow sometimes causes it too), or the DLP colour wheel setting is not optimal (colour wheel index setting in the service menu), or if the bit depth is reduced for some reason.

A good ISFer like Gordon might be able to find what's causing it and fix it, but that be more down to his experience rather than as a consequence of greyscale calibration. Sometimes having the brightness set too high can make it visible and that will be something an ISF calibration will include, though it's a simple thing to do yourself if you have a test disk like DVE or Avia (for NTSC).

What is your pj and source?

Gary

[usman24]

Hi,

Thanks for you reply.

I have not got a PJ its a panny phd plasma. Source is denon 2900 dvd player as listed above in my 1st post. I think it is an incurable problem. I have read somewhere that banding [false contouring] is caused by luminence levels and actual processing ability hence the question of ISF calibration.

[Gary Lightfoot]

I didn't think to look in your .sig - sorry about that.

I'm not familiar with Plasmas so I don't think I can help you much there I'm afraid. If it's a limitation of the screen then I think you're buggered, though I'm surprised that you're getting this problem with the Panny as it looks like a reasonable spec. Have you tried it with other sources like analogue tv (not digital)? I wonder if that will do it too. Are you using a digital connection from the denon (if it has one)? If so, try another connection and see of the same condition exists in the same scenes. I'm wondering if it might be related to certain connections perhaps.

PM Gordon Fraser who will be able to advise you more as he is an ISFer and can tell you if he can fix the problem.

Gary