Hi gang

My 36ZP18 arrived yesterday and with my heart in my mouth I unpacked it all, assembled the unit, and put the TV on the stand. To my delight the picture was amazing with none of the bright lines on the side I have read about even on the darkest scenes.

At the moment the brightness is on about 58, contrast 90 and the rest in the middle.

Now onto some questions I couldn’t find answers for in the manual you may be able to help with.

On playback of T2:Ultimate DVD on my Toshiba 210 DVD player via component video the picture appeared to be rather grainy. Will this fade over time - i.e the dirty picture effect?

On my 10 year old Sony TV I used to set the channels after 5 as channels for certain devices such as my Sky box i.e. :-
6 = Sky
7 = DVD
8 = VCR

In the manual tuning setup screen there was an option to select the relevant scart socket as well as the RF channel. Therefore on each channel I could select the actual scart socket the device was connected to thus saving me having to push the button to go through each one every time I wanted to use a different device. This also has the advantage of being a system my parents understand.
They understand , DVD, SKY, VCR etc. They DONT understand EXT1,2,3,4.

I cannot find this option on the new TV. I can’t believe it’s not included. It doesn’t make any sense to have to keep cycling through the inputs each time you want to find a device. Does anyone know how I can select the above channels to link directly to the scart sockets. I would be most grateful.

Question 2 isn’t as important. On the said Sony TV you could rename the channels you created which meant I could therefore add the names SKY, DVD & VCR etc for channels 6-8 making it very easy to remember.

Final question is to do with Video playback. With my new Sony LX9 VCR (Best one they do) the playback is frankly crap. This also applies to the menus. Everything is blocky and low quality. The RF modulation on the VCR is off incase anyone was thinking the poor quality could be caused by interference by the RF modulator.

As it stands I have 3 good quality scart cables. 1 from the Sky box to Ext1 (RGB). 1 from the VCR output to Ext2 (S-Video) and one cable running between the Sky box to the VCR for recording purposes.

Is this the best way to do it or should I run the sky box to the vcr, and from the vcr to the TV EXT1 therefore saving on a cable but possibly getting a lower quality picture?.

One more thing. On Ext2 on the TV which is connected to the VCR I can only select 'AV' on the TV. If I select S-Video which should be higher quality it goes to black and white. It this normal?

Wow, sorry for the long post but im a newb and don’t know the answers to all these questions!!

Please help gang.

Jimbob

In terms of the VCR and S-video, could it be that the VCR doesn't output s-video?
I'm not sure of what a VCR can output. Mine does the same I think on my Panasonic PL1 if I switch the socket to S-video.

There is no option to allocate a channel number to the AV channels. This is a Sony thing.

The Toshiba will automatically change to the correct AV channel using the scart control features of the units attached.

If you turn the digibox on, it will automatically go to the correct AV channel with no input required. If you press play on the VCR, it will do the same.

Is the VCR and SVHS vcr or a standard VCR?

The connections if standard vcr are:

Digibox > TV (into AV1 scart using RGB)
Digibox > VCR (using scart)

If the VCR is S-VHS, you should have the additional connection:

VCR > TV (into AV3 scart using s-video)

Thanks for that. Kind of curious how a scart cable is supposed to improve quality between VCR and TV then if it only broadcasts in composite.

Can anyone help with the other questions. Must be a Toshiba genius here some where

Cheers

Jimbob

Your contrast is way too high. It's almost at the setting used for shops to display under high lighting. Unless you have the tv situated with a light shining on it, you should have it much lower. I believe my contrast is around the 30 mark.

Also, your sharpness settings, which you said are around the half way mark, should be about -45. This will impact on the grain effect you are seeing.

I already covered off the AV channel numbering issue so that shouldn't be a problem as the digibox uses scart control and i would be surprised if your vcr didn't.

One more thing. On Ext2 on the TV which is connected to the VCR I can only select 'AV' on the TV. If I select S-Video which should be higher quality it goes to black and white. It this normal?

This is correct. If the video is outputting composite, then setting the tv to s-video means you have an incompatible signal, hence the black & white picture.

I think i have got all the questions covered now.

Thanks Doubledoom. You have been a big help

It is a standard VHS player. I guess using a standard VHS player on a TV of this size is a gurantee to see the total lack of definition on VHS.

Ah well

Cheers again

Jimbob

To my delight the picture was amazing with none of the bright lines on the side I have read about even on the darkest scenes

Jimbob

Jimbob,

i notice the non-uniform colouring/lighter sides on _solid_ red and solid orange images. (i.e music choice channel - red, and sky one previews - orange.)


Doubledoom,

Is it possible that the lighter sides feature could be more pronounced on some zp18's than others?

As this particular design limitation is linked to the thickness of the CRT front glass, surely it must be the same on all sets!

If someone can confirm the effect is more visible on some sets, then i may consider a swap on mine own set...

Hi Couch

This was my main worry when I bought this set. Rest assured I have looked really hard for this problem but it doesnt seem to exist on my particular set. I would advise swapping.

I've not had it long enough to see the other problems err 'features' such as dropped frames.

The contrast at 90 looks amazing Double Doom. When I turned it to 30 like yours it looked awful, kind of like the dimmest brightness preset on that button. Blacks are still perfectly black with this setting on.

I did have one problem but I solved that. In 5.1 the sound wasnt comming out of the TV but it turned out I had sound set to PCM and not bitstream on the DVD player - oops!

The only slight issues I have seen is the image isnt perfectly straight, the whole image is rotated to the right a degree or two which is visable when watching a 2:35 DVD.

Jimbob

Is it possible that the lighter sides feature could be more pronounced on some zp18's than others?

It shouldn't be as the glass is the cause not the software.

However, i wonder how much the intesity of the brighter sides can be influenced by the contrast/brightness settings.

I checked my set and it is:

Contrast 35
Bright 48
Colour 40
Tint 0
Sharp -50
Natural
Auto

These are different to what i posted in the past as we have some new lighting in the room which required some changes. I'm still unsure if the brightness/contrast settings are yet right for me.

I wonder if there has been some change in the software default settings which would impact the intensity of the bright sides?

One thing I dont understand is why you have to set the sharpness so low just to get a acceptable picture.

It looks truely grainy at the default level of 0. I have mine on -28 now and its fine but you would think 0 would be the best setting...

Jimbob

It depends on what you are viewing.

Digital sources shouldn't need any real sharpness adjustment. You should only want to soften the picture on analogue recordings or transmissions. Softening a poor quality analogue source, could improve the picture. This doesn't work with digital sources, so the sharpness setting should be set at it's lowest.

[Ron240]

Originally posted by Doubledoom

I checked my set and it is:
Contrast 35
Bright 48
Colour 40
Tint 0
Sharp -50
Natural
Auto

Hi Doubledoom
I was wondering how you arrived at these settings? Is it on your eyes alone? The reason i am asking is that i think any of the set-up discs would provide different results for all but the brightness.But hey,if your'e happy then that's all that matters.Also,just curious,do you not use your 100Hz?

Cheers
Ronnie.

Natural is 100hz. It's just a variation in the computer processing of 100hz. Natural handles graphics much better than the default 100hz setting.

The settings are based on eyesight. There is some window light nearby which can effect daylight viewing, whereas evening viewing is usually quite dark. This is a compromise setting to suit both.

IIRC, my settings are very similar to the majority of other users with the same tv when we last did that thread where the settings were posted.