Panasonic banding problems......

[Ian182]

Hi,

Any Panasonic experts out there who can help with this ?
I've got a Panny TX-32PL1, which suffers from horizonal banding on bright scenes. (NB - this is different to the NTSC banding problem that occurs with Pioneer DVD players).
I've got a Sony DVD player and SKY+ connected, using a decent quality SCART lead (SQART RGB).
The problem is only really noticeable on bright backgrounds - basically you can see thick "bands" which move up and down the screen. I've tried reducing the brightness and contrast, and while this improves it, it does not remove it completely.
So, could it be :
(1) - A fault on the TV itself,
(2) - A cabling issue (I would have thought this unlikely, but......)
(3) - Inteference from something,
(4) - Something else that I haven't thought of ?

Any help is much appreciated

Ian.

Did you ever figure this out, Ian? I have the exact same TV and the same phenomenon in bright scenes (only in RGB, not in S-Video or Composite). I always thought it was my cheap little DVD-player (Radionette), but maybe it's the TV after all... If it is, there's not much point in buying a new player to fix it.

Any comments would be much appreciated!

Per Terje

[Ian182]

Hi,

In a word, no !!
From reading various posts, it seems to be a widespread problem with Panasonic TV's.
I've had it with both Pioneer and Sony DVD players, and its apparent on SKY+.
You can minimise the problem by changing the brightness and contrast levels, but you don't seem to be able to get rid of it completely.

Long term answer is probably to replace the TV (a Plasma would be nice ),
but its a shame, because otherwise its a great TV.

If anyone does come up with a solution, chip in !

Ian.

Thanks, Ian. I find that turning the contrast to a minimum removes the banding (the brightness seems to have less significance). But I DO need some contrast...

The annoying thing is that this is only one of several "bad phenomena" I have discovered with this TV. I've been considering buying a new player for a long time, thinking it were to blame for them all. Can you also confirm the following?:

1. Entire picture shifted slightly to the left when playing NTSC discs using RGB (very visible with centered menus, subtitles and on-screen titles and credits)?
2. S-Video shows wavy patterns that move diagonally on backgrounds with strong colors? This comes and goes - sometimes entirely gone, and other times very visible.
3. 4:3 mode with RGB sources causes a sharp green line down the left hand side, and also two wavy (curving towards the center) patterns from top to bottom of each side?

It seems like the horizontal banding is the TV itself since so many different players show the same effect. But these other three may still be my dorky little player... The strange thing, though, is that none of these phenomena is reproducible on my parents' Philips TV. So I never had a problem with this player until buying the Panasonic.

[Ian182]

Hiya Perta,

I'll answer as best I can.........

(1) Not noticed the picture shifting to the left, either with my current Sony player, or my previous Pioneer player. So that might well be a fault with your DVD player, but like you say, it works OK on your parents TV......

(2) I did notice a few wavy patterns via S-Video. When I had my Pioneer player, NTSC films were unwatchable via RGB because of thick black banding problems, so I had to watch them via S-Video. You immediately notice the drop in quality, and indeed, a few jagged lines here and there - very annoying.

(3) Can't really comment on that one, as I ALWAYS leave the TV in 16:9 mode, no matter what I'm watching. I used to set it to Auto, but quickly got annoyed by it re-sizing the picture every few minutes !!

Don't despair - from reading some threads on this forum, there are far worse TVs than the Pansonic out there !

Ian.

1. The picture-shifting is a strange thing. If I move from TV to DVD (AV1), I can see how the picture is correct at first. But after a split-second, it jumps to the left. This situation can be helped by going into the service menu and shifting the picture to the right. But of course this affects PAL as well, causing the picture to be too far to the right in that case...

2. I actually find the S-Video picture to be just as good as the RGB picture, with the exception of the color-waves. There's also no banding with S-Video like with RGB, but the wavy patterns can get very strong and become very annoying.

3. I want to watch 4:3 programmes in 4:3 mode (people look weird stretched out ), except when I'm watching animation (always 16:9 for me). The 4:3 problem is only present with RGB sources, though. And I've also heard from other people that newer Panasonic TV's won't even allow one to select the 4:3 mode with RGB sources (as if it's a known problem that can't be helped).

RGB seems like a strange creature on this TV... Whenever the mode changes from or to 4:3, it makes a clicking sound that you don't get on normal TV broadcasts or S-Video or composite.

I'm thinking of buying a new player anyway, but am reluctant to buy the Pioneer DV-575A after your story (even though there may be no getting around it regardless of player). Do you know how the cheaper Denon players (1710 or 1910) do with this TV?

[jtf]

i've got the 28pm1 and i've got this prob with rgb viewing as well but mine looks like tiger stripes either side of the screen. it's off to the engineers tommorow, fingers crossed

[Wayne Moule]

Regarding S-Video.

Have you tried disconnecting your RF lead and just have the Scart connected to see if this clears up any S-Video interference? After experimenting I found this to be the problem and now get a cracking S-Video picture.

[Ian182]

I'll give that a try Wayne.........

I tried removing the RF lead to see if it improved the RGB picture, but never thought of trying it to improve S-Video.

Worth a try anyway

Ian.

[Wayne Moule]

Yeah, I found an image of the analogue TV channel on my S-Video output until I unplugged the RF aerial lead.

Or, make sure you tune to your RF channel of your DVD/VCR recorder first on the TV before you switch to a Scart channel.

Thanks for the tip, Wayne. I'm not sure what an "RF Lead" is exactly, but I'm assuming it's a regular cable connected to an antenna, right? My TV is connected to cable-TV, and disconnecting it had no effect.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if this effect IS caused by interference. It's like a large ripple moving diagonally over the entire screen - but only visible in areas of a smooth single color. If the whole screen is blue, you can see the ripple going diagonally down from the upper left to the lower right screen.

The other areas may well be the player. I'll have to buy and try a new player to be sure I guess...

Thanks for the tips, though!

[Wayne Moule]

Originally Posted by perta

Thanks for the tip, Wayne. I'm not sure what an "RF Lead" is exactly, but I'm assuming it's a regular cable connected to an antenna, right? My TV is connected to cable-TV, and disconnecting it had no effect.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if this effect IS caused by interference. It's like a large ripple moving diagonally over the entire screen - but only visible in areas of a smooth single color. If the whole screen is blue, you can see the ripple going diagonally down from the upper left to the lower right screen.

The other areas may well be the player. I'll have to buy and try a new player to be sure I guess...

Thanks for the tips, though!

RF (Radio Freqency) is the aerial lead to a TV, or/and from the VCR, DVD-RAM etc to the TV.

What are your connections, Scart etc?

Try and test the same brand DVD player with the TV.

I use a Scart cable for RGB (can't use it for S-Video for some reason - it only results in a composite signal), and a separate S-Video cable. I tried to disconnect every cable except the S-Video cable, but I still get the wavy effect... So it seems our effects are different.

[James M]

I had exactly the same problem on a 32" JVC which I ended up taking back as I couldn't resolve the problem, hope you get it sorted

[jtf]

only a bump for this thread. as i posted earlier my tv went off to the engineers and after they had it for 2 weeks they returned it today. they said after being on a soak test and that there were no faults with the tv, not happy!!!! hopefully when an engineer comes on monday he will open his eyes