picture problems

Hello everybody, this is my first post. I'm new to this home cinema game and I was hoping I might be able to get some help from all you experts if that's ok!

I've bought a Sharp Aquos 37P50 37" lcd widescreen television and I already have a panasonic dvd-S97 dvd player.
I've got it all connected with a pricey HDMI cable.

One problem I've noticed straight away is a certain 'banding' effect that occurs when there's dark tones next to other dark tones. Also I can see artifacts showing up quite regularly.
Other than these problems, I'm very happy with the picture quality.

What I'd like to know is, is this par for course, and should I be just happy with what it does well and accept the faults, or am I missing something in the way I've set it up? I appears that from reviews online that my equipment is up to scratch, so I'm not sure what else the problem might be?

Yours hopefully!


Jimmy.