Panasonic 36PD30 & Pal progressive scan

[Wameser]

Does anyone know whether the PD30 accepts a PAL progressive signal? Panasonics own website seems to suggest that it is NTSC only although I have heard that it may also accept PAL.

Am trying to decide between Toshiba 36ZP38 and the Panasonic 36PD30. Toshiba I believe does support both PAL & NTSC.

Any help graetly appreciated.

 

[pward]

The PD30 does accept PAL progressive scan, although it does flicker somewhat. This is noted in the manual as being normal behaviour.

 

[Wameser]

Thanks pward. Is it still better in pal progressive with the flicker than in interlaced mode? How noticeable is the flicker?

 

[Bratfud Recusant]

Hi guys,

Firstly, the PD30 cannot 'officially' run PAL progressive, but in practice, it can (mine has no problem whatsoever). However, there are quite a few PD30 owners who have reported 'problems' such as PWard above describes.

I have found that NTSC Progressive Scan (which the PD30 CAN officially run) is far superior, when correctly calibrated, to any other picture mode I've seen. The difference when running PAL progressive on the othet hand is not that big. Yeah, I would say it IS better than PAL interlaced, but not by a great deal.

I would add that it will probably depend as well on the DVD source, i.e. player. If it's a very good one, generally speaking, you 'should' be fine, but the cheaper ones running Prog. Scan might (and I emphasise 'might') have a few probs.

HTH,

Best wishes,

LAGAVULIN

 

[jdg]

make sure your pd30 is well calibrated as well (with dve). If contrast and/or brightness is set too high, it will increase the flicker!

 

[Icarus]

>make sure your pd30 is well calibrated as well (with dve). If contrast and/or brightness is set too high, it will increase the flicker!

How does one calibrate it? What is dve?

The one and only time I peeked into service menu I got scared....

 

[pward]

DVE stands for Digital Video Essentials - a DVD with numerous test patterns which can assist in adjusting your display.

Don't be too scared about using the Service Menu. Using it to adjust size and geometry of your screen is fairly straightforward. Just make sure you note existing values before you change anything and avoid setting extreme values.

 

[Icarus]

Thanks for the answer.

I will purchase a Digital Video Essentials DVD and pluck up my courage and have another peek into the service menu. Methinks I'd better be stone cold sober though.

 

[Pugger]

I have a 32 PD30 and play all my DVD's through PAL progressive using a Denon 2200. I have never seen any flicker on any of the films and the PQ is fantastic although I haven't compared it to NTSC as my player is not MR. The only time I have seen flickering through PS is when I watched Rendous Vous Bellvile. Its a region 0 disc so I though I'd play it through NTSC to see if the picture quality was any better. However with the DVD player out putting NTSC the screen flickered. It seesm that the film was PAL encoded and thats why it flickers, switching the DVD player back to PAL lovely stable picture.

Maybe the PD30's that are flickering in PS are not set up properly or as someone pointed out the PS flags on the DVDS are not being reconised by the DVD players again causing the flicker.

 

[pward]

The quality of PAL PS on the PD30 does seem to depend on the disk. Monsters Inc on my PD30 has noticable flicker, whereas Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets has almost none.

I remain unconvinced as to the improvement over interlaced of PAL PS. Comparing the same scene there seems to be little improvement. I understand that the improvement is much more noticable with NTSC PS material.