Hi

I would be very grateful for any help with this issue, its driving me mad!!

I have a Thomson tv (soon to be replaced but thats a different thread) and a Panasonic Home Cinema DVD system.

The problem i have is that quite often watching a DVD the picture seems to 'skip' as if it is trying to resize onto the screen. its hard to describe but its as if it jumps off screen then comes back on, only lasts half a second or so but its bloody annoying. It is particularly noticeable when one scene ends/another starts, or if there is special effects, eg explosions. If i am watching a dialogue scene with not much movement on the screen then i usually have no problems but any sudden movement/FX etc it usually jumps.

I am aware this is probably due to screen formats but cant understand how to fix it. We previously ran a Sony DVD on the same TV and had absolutely no problems. I have tried many many combinations of settings on the DVD and TV but to no avail. It doesnt seem to matter whether i have it on 4.3 or 16.9 with zoom on or off (manually set or auto), i may get it cracked for 10 minutes then it starts up again.

Not sure if its relevant but connection is via standard scart. I also have Sky+, a video and a PS2 into a scart splitter box, but the DVD is connected direct to the TV.

Is it just my TV being incompatible with the DVD? The TV is around 5 years old, can dig out the model number if it helps. If it is compatibility i can solve it hopefully by buying a Panny TV, or does anyone think the DVD player itself may be at fault.

I have tried Panasonic customer services and ths salesman in JL (where i bought the DVD) both seem to think it is some sort of aspect issue, but no clue on how to solve it.

I hope this is in the right section, and my eternal thanks to anyone who can shed some light.

Cheers
Nick

oh well, looks like i had better hurry up and get a new tv

Sounds like the dvd player to me.

Dvd disks are variable bitrate - when there is not much movement on the screen the bitrate will be low, a scene change to another low motion scene will cause a brief spike, and high motion or panning scenes will use lots of bits. So it seems like your player is now longer able to cope with high bitrates.

Easiest way to find out is to plug it into another tv and play an action film. Maybe the laser len needs cleaning.

Thanks for the reply.

The only other TV we have at the mo is a portable, i tried the player on that and it was fine.

I think i will push ahead with gettign the new TV anyway. I still have about 2 months guarantee left on the player, so if it still does this with the new TV i will return it to John Lewis, they dont seem to quibble too much. In fairness it has done this since new (the dvd), i really should have sorted it ages ago but i just assumed it was the settings.

Tried cleaning the lens and still just as bad unfortunately.

Many thanks for the reply anyway.