Anyone watched Stealth on HD tonight via their vp50?

[choddo2006]

The cadence detection was all over the shop for me on both Auto and film bias, I had to force 2:2 odd for it to sort itself out. Anyone else get that?

[Roman]

I wish I could have given it a go, but unfortunately I just discovered that when I try to watch any HD material on my VP50 the buzzing caused by the power adaptor increases to the point of being so loud that the programme becomes unwatchable.

I've gone back to feeding HD programmes directly into my TV.

[choddo2006]

nightmare.

So Event Horizon was fine on Auto, must be something about Stealth that was tripping up the VRS chip.

[ailean]

Event did look very nice I have to say, I've added stealth to my planner for next week so I'll see if it's source related.

[Roman]

The weather report on BBC breakfast news can sometimes catch it out as well. That used to happen with my VP30 until I fitted the ABT102. The clarity of the picture is excellent though.

[choddo2006]

Yeah I've noticed the BBC weather catching it out too. Fortunately I only ever watch it by mistake.

[welwynnick]

That occurred to me a couple of days ago as well.

I think the BBC whether report should be some sort of standard test of de-interlacers.

You should feel as if the map of Britain was solid and stationary, and the camera is zooming in and around it.

Nick

[ihan]

I feel there is an issue with both the 'auto' & 'film bias mode' with both SD & HD material. I have done several tests with standard films and can see it dropping to video mode an alarming amount. I hope that this had been identified as a bug with v1.0 firmware and can be fixed.

[ihan]

Now I've got a bit more time, I can give a couple of examples of the source material:

1. Unforgiven DVD (at the beginning where the white scrolling introduction occurs: "She was a comely young woman..": Auto mode doesn't produce film lock at all, Film bias mode takes a second to lock, of course 2:2 odd works perfrectly.

2. Star Wars EPIII HD from sky box, a variety of scenes where film mode doesn't engage and 2:2 odd definitely is required to give proper performance i.e. no line twitter.

3. I robot HD from sky HD box, fim bias mode seems to produce a blur for fast moving scenes. Again the best way to go is 2:2 odd.

The upside is, due to its bias towards video mode, I have never seen it comb, in other words, in has never gone in to film mode when it should be in video mode (at least for me anyway). I watched the whole of the 'Man City' gave in HD, and never saw it comb once; there was a noticeable improvement with the VP50 in circuit.

I think the VP50 is excellent, I have noticed an improvement with all sources, ITV football is now 'watchable' at 576p from skyHD HDMI!

Roll on prep/edid edit.

I hope my comments don't put potential buyers off the VP50, it is an excellent piece of kit, but its cadence detection could do with some fine tuning.

Regards,
Ian

[Roman]

Hi,

I'm not sure if it's cadence related, but I have also noticed that as a camera shot pans across any scene that contains groups of parallel lines, whether they be horizontal, vertical or diagonal, the lines appear to shimmer and merge slightly until the camera stops moving. I never noticed this happening with my VP30+ABT102. Having said that other aspects of the picture are clearly improved, with a far more natural looking appearance.

Cheers, Roman

[choddo2006]

Originally Posted by Roman

Hi,

I'm not sure if it's cadence related, but I have also noticed that as a camera shot pans across any scene that contains groups of parallel lines, whether they be horizontal, vertical or diagonal, the lines appear to shimmer and merge slightly until the camera stops moving. I never noticed this happening with my VP30+ABT102. Having said that other aspects of the picture are clearly improved, with a far more natural looking appearance.

Cheers, Roman

Interesting. If you can record something like that next time you notice it (easiest if you have auto-rewind on as you can do it retrospectively by hitting the R button after you notice it), and then playback while trying different interlacing modes, might give a clue as to what's causing that.

[Roman]

Ok, I'll give that a go and report back. In fact some of the test video sequences on the calibration DVD contain just such images (particularly the one of ship where the shot pans across the rigging).

[choddo2006]

Yeah that was the first thing I thought of when I read that - so it happens on SD stuff too then?

[Roman]

Hi Choddo,

Yes, it's SD stuff that's affected. Unfortunately I can't test HD deinterlacing yet as I don't get my Pioneer 5000EX until Xmas. I am a little concerned because I didn't notice this with my VP30+ABT102. Then again, it could be that other apsects of the picture have improved to the point where this stands out more.

I'll play around with different deinterlacing modes over the weekend and report back. Have a play with the calibration DVD yourself and let me know if you get the same results. My VP50 is currently set to Auto deinterlacing and outputting 480i/576i sources at 720p 50hz/60hz locked. My display is a Pioneer PDP-463XDE.

Cheers, Roman

[choddo2006]

I just tried out most of the samples you were talking about from the VRS disk but they're video I think, and they all worked really well (there was a little blurring between two close diagonal lines on the "bridge" scene but that was all)

Using the deinterlacing in my humble Pioneer DVD player instead produce far more mirthful results. God I'm glad I don't have to watch a picture like that all the time!