Help please - Can't see below black on Black Level pluge

NinjaKi11a

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On firing up my new HK DVD 22, I noticed that the contrast in the dark areas seemed quite poor: blacks looked black with little colour variation. Although using the built in test card didn't make much difference, I put this down to imprecise calibration and decided to use my NTSC (player is set for NTSC output) Digital Video Essentials calibration disk.

On the very first pluge pattern - for setting black levels using brightness - I can see what the problem is. The pluge has a grayscale in the middle with three bands either side on a black background. Unfortunately I can only see two bands - the below black has apparently been clipped by the DVD player. The narrator seems to suggest this is undesirable as it doesn't adhere to video standards, however he goes on to say that calibration can be continued...

As I have a seven day return option (and only tomorrow off from work), this leaves me wondering whether I want to keep this unit. Is this an undesirable flaw or is it quite common and will have no impact on my viewing experience (on my old 565 I definately saw all three stripes and preferred the fact that there was a lot of depth to blacks)? Could it even be a faulty unit?

Help would be appreciated as I'm pretty lost.
 
It might be set up for Japanese NTSC, which does not have the 7.5IRE black setup of the original NTSC system, or it may have the 7.5IRE setup but simply be designed not to pass black-below-black. I think this is relatively common, at least on players sold outside the US.

Black below black should not occur on properly mastered DVD's, except in individual pixels because of edge enhancement and the like, so it's not vital that the player passes PLUGE. It's just convenient for setting up black levels, but that's its only purpose. There may be people who disagree with me on that though. :D

When set up using PLUGE, you shouldn't really see black-below-black anyway.

This still doesn't rule out that the player may be at fault. If regular video looks poor, there may be something odd going on.
 
This was something I noticed before I used the pluge: the pciture really was nasty - you couldn't distinguish between the tires and wheel-arches of cars and other shadows just looked... well.... black. There was a black level adjustment, but this made absolutely no difference. Took it back.

Loaned a Denon 1910 which was great for NTSC (best picture I've seen?) but wouldn't convert from PAL so I couldn't see the menu or Region 2 disks.

I've now got an ex-display HK25 which looks like it does everything - just gotta find the multi-region hack. Fingers crossed no problems...
 
SAns the HK25 is a much better player than the 22 sorry mep it is!
any how search for "apache firmware" which is PAL PS and MR I have a recently downloaded but untest copy if you are really stuck...my HK25 IS on its way at last!
 
:offtopic: HD, well I'm happy with the 22, it's the most expensive player I've used so far....I'm sure as I move up the 'dvd tree' (whatever that is *lol*) I'll find better but for now it does the job for me .....R2 and R1 look great :) (would prob have gone for the 25 on ebay if it hadn't been for discolouration on front though)
 
I may have had a faulty DVD22 so I won't pass judgement. In terms of funcionality though, I thought it was excellent.

The DVD25 does look a very nice machine. Inevitably it's not perfect to my specefications - a TV which only takes NTSC prog scan is becoming a bit of a knightmare! Like on my old Pioneer 565 (but not on HK DVD22), I am getting a jitter when PAL material is converted to NTSC. One way around this is to leave the output to AUTO and keep my finger on STOP for three seconds which will return the signal to PAL interlaced. Unfortunately, even when specefied in the menu, the player does not default back to progressive mode when it is turned off and I have to go back through the menus to reset to prog scan. hornydragon, do you know if there is a firmware fix for this?

This issue is actually mentioned in the manual and it does suggest a fix for it using the EzMenu. Unfortunately I'm waiting on the remote from my dealer so I can't try it out.
 
Awesome, thanks for the tip re: Apache firmware. I'm waiting on the remote from the dealer so I can't try it yet (using Kameleon). I had a scare trying to upgrade the firmware on the DVD22 last night so I'll play it safe and get my bro to write it 1*. :eek:
 
there is update firmware on hk site to fix pal prog have a search there was flag issue that may not have been corrected on the unit you have. Mep no worries i have a mate running a 22 into a Hyundai plasma and it it does a very good job on what is not the best display.........
 

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