What resolution should I feed my TH42PHD8 via HDMI?

theo cupier

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This is partly a bluray player question, partly an AV amp/processor question and partly a plasma TV question so sorry if this is in the wrong place.

I have a Panasonic 42PHD8 panel and I'm using the TY-FB8HM HDMI board connected to my Denon 2309. The Denon is doing video switching from my Sony S350 (and BT Vision box).

The HDMI board can accept the following signals:
525/60p
625/50p
750/60p
1125/60i
VGA60
750/50p
1125/50i

In short it can't accept a 1080p signal and certainly not 1080p/24.

I have the S350 set to output 1080i/60.

My BT Vision box is also set to output 1080i.

I think I also have the Denon set to output everything at 1080i.

My questions:
1. If the Denon is receiving 1080i from the sources, will it just pass the video straight through and send it out as 1080i, or will it do an internal scaling?
2. For my plasma & input board, have I got the sources and Denon set to send the best/most sensible video signal? If not, what should I use?

Hope this all makes sense, I'm still getting to grips with the Denon so any advice on how to configure my system in this regard would be much appreciated.
 
1. Pretty sure it just passes it through.
2. Yeah I don't think you'll get much better.

With the PHD8, ideally you want to send it 1024x768 @ 48Hz for movies, but you need a video processor to do that.
 
Thanks Choddo.

I was just wondering whether I'd be better by having the S350 output at 1080p/24 and have the Denon convert this to 1080i. I guess it's just a question of which link in the chain has the better scaler.

Am I right in thinking that the only way I could really "improve" on the above is by getting something like an HDFury which would let me feed the HDMI to the VGA port, which DOES accept 1080p/24?
 
I couldn't get the VGA port (or rather, the RGBHV board which might be different) to accept 24Hz. Is it in the spec that it will take that? I think it will take 1080p
 
I think the inbuilt RGB/D-SUB accepts 1080p/24.

Check out the manual HERE. There's a table on page 44 which indicates that it accepts "1,125 (1,080) / 24p" via RGB/D-Sub - row 9 - but I could be reading it wrong.
 
IIRC there is no HD material available for the BT Vision box, so I would use 576p and avoid the double-scaling. The plasma probably upscales better than the BT Vision anyway.

Does the Denon have an option to not scale the HDMI connections at all?
 
The BTV box is a pretty poor upscaler of Freeview. Although, saying that, it's a pretty poor Freeview box generally in my opinion (not a patch on the Humax 9200T, for example). On paper I agree with you about the setting & double scaling, but it starts off so poor it hardly makes any difference! Also, there is some HD content gradually filtering through on the BTV platform so that, and the better quality menus in 1080i mode, mean I'm leaving it on 1080i for now...

As I said, I'm a bit new to the Denon. Sort of glad to have got through the manual, set it up once and have it working. I'll try and check whether it has the setting you mention, though. Presumably turning this OFF would be the ideal, if it does have such a setting?

I guess it doesn't matter how good the Denon's scaler is, though, does it? Since it can't output at the plasma's native resolution the plasma is always going to have to do SOME scaling so would I be best advised to do as little scaling as possible prior to the signal reaching the plasma?

What's your view on adding an HDFury and running things at 1080p/24, Liam?
 
Personally I've never really been that convinced with the necessity for 1080p24 smaller displays. But it should work and I think the PHD8 has decent downscaling of 1080p (some of the older ones were really not that hot at downscaling 1080, especially the 480p displays).
 
Thanks Liam. So, in summary:
Nothing much wrong with what I'm doing at the moment (BTV output resolution notwithstanding).
If I can turn off scaling of HDMI connections in the Denon, do so.
Don't be in a rush to get by 1080p/24.
 
I reckon so. 1080p24 would be the thing worth trying, but if you don't have a problem with pans on R1 DVDs then you won't on Blu-Rays. Might be an advantage in not having to deinterlace 1080i, but I only really notice 24p problems on bigger screens myself (or at least enough to annoy me)
 
The only problem I've noticed at all was when watching Rambo. It wasn't a panning shot as such, but a truckload of soldiers were moving left to right across the screen and it looked slightly as if the film had been speeded up a little, a la Beny Hill.

I don't know whether that was the dreaded "judder" or just something about the film, though.
 
If that's the only place you've noticed it, it's probably not 3:2 judder
 
I hooked up my BD-S350 via a FireFury to the VGA and forced 1080p24 into my PH9. It worked with no problem at all. Panel stated a 24Hz signal coming in.

I didn't test it a great deal (with regards to a smoother panning) as I have my HDMI sources on a splitter to the PH9 and AE700 and the PJ will not accept a 1080p24 signal so I can't leave the sources like that or my family would never get to watch anything.

Saying that there was something nice and reassuring knowing you were seeing the picture as it was meant to be and how it was encoded on disc. :smashin:

It also means I can upgrade the PJ in the future and go 1080p24 all the way - (once I've sorted the XE1 issue with 1080p24 :suicide:).
 

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