High Contrast Ghosting (Panasonic 32PK20 / Arcam DV88)

[clived]

Since I took delivery of this combo (over a year ago - I've been busy, ok? ) it has suffered from what I can only describe as "ghosting" on high contrast items - e.g. DVD subtitles, DVD player setup menu items. However, I'm pretty sure that although I can't repoduce this using othe sources (well, on broadcast TV) that it is the TV that is at fault - if you zoom in on the image with the ghosting, the position of the ghost image moves.

The ghosting itself appears a few millimeters to the right on the main image, and is visible using both RGB and S-Video inputs. Has anyone else seen this, or know if it's a engineer fixable thing?

Also, I've read reports on the "horizontal banding" problem on Panny sets on the RGB input - I also have this - again, is this engineer fixable?

Cheers, Clive

[John Dawson]

It sounds like the TV to me - have you tried turning the sharpness control well down? This is normally set way too high by the TV manufacturers.

If you can run the Video Essentials test disc through the DV88 (which is pretty accuurate in video terms) into the TV and use it to set up the TV properly; you can't really draw any conclusions until you've done that and with the TV set up optimised there may be no real problem!

HTH.

John Dawson (Arcam)

[clived]

John, I'm now sure that it is the TV, not the DVD as I can replicate the effect on my PS2. I'm also sure it's not a settings issue as a) it occurs no matter what the settings are, b) it's not subtle - it's very noticable and c) it only effects AV inputs, not an image from the tuner... Sounds like I've talked myself into getting an engineer out.

John - while I have you - do you know when the DVD firmware will be upgraded to be able to cope with Toy Story Box Set disc 3? I'm currently running 1.6 with the latest drive software, which seems fine in all respects... but I'd like to use v1.7x to get the discreet remote on/off codes. Your tech support tell me that support for discs with large TOCs like TSBSD3 was taken out again after 1.6 as it compromised playback of some other discs...

Cheers, Clive

[John Dawson]

Hi Clive -

if it's only AV inputs it seems a wise precaution also to check your SCART leads (use one of the individually screened ones from QED or similar). Of course I may be trying to teach you to suck eggs :-)

On the firmware for the DV88 - the fix for those few(ish) discs that have very long program chains is top of the list for getting done - we were discussing this internally only yesterday. Can't give you a date yet though as getting it just right looks like it's going to be pretty tricky and time consuming.

Talk to support about getting a 1.7x firmware update when you are ready.

John Dawson (Arcam)

[clived]

Hi John - yes, a little egg-sucking-education going on. I've got the £50ish QED SCART lead direct from the DV88 to the TV and decent cables between everything else, and no matter which input (and therefore cable) is in use, problem is the same.

Thanks for input on the Toy Story etc. issue - good to know it is such a high priority! I aleady have the 1.74 update, just don't want to implement it!

Many thanks, Clive