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calling all blu ray owners: Is this normal?

jlindy

jlindy

Experienced Member
Joined
11 November 2002
Messages
1,658
Location
St. Louis
I just bought my first blu ray player from Amazon. (LG BD 390) It has wifi and netflix streaming capabilities so I was excited to get this up and running. Well I have owned it for a week now and have watched three blu ray movies...chronicles of riddick, the new star trek, and the new transformers. I have noticed that the picture quality is no better, if not worse, than my standard DVD player that was 9 years old.

When I walk up closer to it, it is granular all around and the darker scenes or when it fades to black before the next scene, I notice all sorts of green looking snow/noise in the picture. It is subtle but it is there. I actually switched back and forth between blu ray movie and direct TV HD station and the Direct TV KILLS the picture of that Blu ray which can't be right.

I have a 1080P Pani plasma and it is hooked up via HDMI cable and have checked all the settings to make sure they are correct. Is this unit defective? Is the picture quality a lot better? Lastly, I have noticed on all the movies that when the menu's pull up, it takes up the whole screen, but when the movie starts, I have black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. I can set the aspect ration to zoom but that cuts out a bunch of the picture. I am thinking there is something wrong with this until altogether. Ideas? All of you blu ray owners, please let me know your experiences. Thanks.
 
The black bars at the top and bottom are normal for widescreen versions of movies however the picture should be really clear and sharp. I have a media pc with a blue ray drive and the quality is better than DVD even if the DVD is up-converted.
 
It could be what people refer to as "sparkles" with hdmi cables. You might want to try swapping the cables with your other devices to see if it looks any different. Is your blu-ray player setup to output 1080p?

The new transformers looked pretty damn good in HD, so if that isn't the case for you something is setup wrong.
 
It is not normal. I have a Sony S5000 Bluray player and the output is much better than my DirecTV HD receiver and better than my Meridian 800 DVD player which is one of the best upscaling DVD units available. My output is a Meridian MF-10 projector via a Meridian/Faroudja video processor. I think you may have to configure/tune your video path - if your Bluray player, display and whatever is in between are all trying to do their own upsampling, scaling, pull-downing, etc., it may produce the artifacts that you are seeing. I know that my system maintains a separate profile for each video source - DVD, Bluray, Xbox, DirecTV - and configures where the video processing is done. It could also be issues with HDMI between components - not all HDMI are 100% compatible - I learned that the hard way. I used to have a Runco projector had all kinds of HDMI compatibility issues, so I upgraded to the MF-10 (also because it is a 3-chip projector) and now have Meridian from the pre-amp, to the video processor to the projector.

It should be easier than this - but all of these different/competing encodings for video and audio make things difficult for getting really good audio and video output.
 
No sir. I've never encountered that....and I've got the old school 1st gen Sony BDP-300s.

Your video source coming from the bluray player will no doubt look as good if not better than direct tv's source.

I'd try a different movie....I've noticed that some bluray titles don't look as sharp or as detailed as others.

If all else fails, I'd take the unit back....
 
SilverStone05 said:
No sir. I've never encountered that....and I've got the old school 1st gen Sony BDP-300s.

Your video source coming from the bluray player will no doubt look as good if not better than direct tv's source.

I'd try a different movie....I've noticed that some bluray titles don't look as sharp or as detailed as others.

If all else fails, I'd take the unit back....
Click to expand...
\

I have a 300 and a 500. How do you like the start up time?
 
steveny said:
No joke there is a fix for that. THANKS!!!
Click to expand...

If you have any trouble burning the firmware data, just gimme a ring.

This is well worth it....cuts wait time in half. As an added bonus, you'll also be able to play more titles than before....some bluray discs I was getting from Netflix weren't playing until I upgraded.
 
For me, if you are a proper distance away from the TV, BR looks slightly better than a good upscaling DVD. BUT close up there is no comparison. BR is a lot sharper.

I use the PS3 for BR.
 
SilverStone05 said:
If you have any trouble burning the firmware data, just gimme a ring.

This is well worth it....cuts wait time in half. As an added bonus, you'll also be able to play more titles than before....some bluray discs I was getting from Netflix weren't playing until I upgraded.
Click to expand...

I have been having that problem too. Last month 3 different movies didn't play.
 
I have tried three movies now, all have notice some very slight noise in the picture mainly in the backgrounds. The blu ray is set for 1080P, aspect ratio is set to 16:9 Full and not sure the difference between the 24HZ or 60HZ but it is on 60HZ. The color setting is on YCbCr and not RGB too. Here is how I have it hooked up:

Blue ray directly to the TV: HDMI cable (even tried swapping with the other HDMI cable that goes to my directtv box that looks great, same result)

BLue ray to the Denon receiver AVR-787 (digital sound through coaxial...no HDMI for sound in that model of Denon and have heard that coax digital is the same as fiber)

Just to make sure there was no interference with other components, I removed the Denon from the mix and only had the blu ray connected to the TV. No difference in picture.

Maybe it is the movie itself but have noticed it for chronicles of riddick a bit too. I switched to regulard DVD for Iron Man and it is a lot better than that but didn't notice the noise in Directtv HD.

It seems like the opening scene of the new transformers (17,000 B.C. scene) is very granular so maybe it is the filter they use for that part. After that the people all seem sharper and more clear, but the background is what isn't as sharp as I would think.

Better and worse at the same time...kind of makes me feel like it may be just me or that I am going crazy. :) ha, ha! hmm.
 
The solution to finding your problem is easy. You have 2 options.

1. Eliminate the HDMI cable as a factor. Hook it up component video in 1080i and see how it looks. Any old component cable will do. If it looks great all of a sudden, your problem is solved, it's the HDMI cable.

2. Eliminate the HDMI resolution as a factor. Set your Bluray player to 1080i instead of 1080P and see if it looks the same or much better.


Changing it with your DirecTV HDMI cable is not a good test because DirecTV is not passing a 1080P/60 signal to your TV (unless you are watching one of the 1080P ON DEMAND movies). Your DirecTV is 720P/1080i for all channels and just about any HDMI cable will pass that fine.
I have seen a signal look great, even at 1080/24, and then degrade at 1080/60 due to the cable.
Your setting of 1080P 60hz will require the most bandwith of all those options, so set it lower to test, even 720P and see what happens.


So just try a component cable or changing the bluray resolution to see if the picture improves. It's easy to try and may give you your answer.
 
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I have been on the fence about whether or not to pull the trigger and get a BR player since they are coming down in price so much.
I'm thinking of a Samsung since I just got a Samsung plasma earlier this year. I would hope that having the same brands of equipment would eliminate any of the 'confusion' that different brands might present to me.
I'm just a bit hesitant because I also just recently got, and don't kill me on this, a Bose Lifestyle 48 that has a built in DVD player already and I really don't want to cluttler up the TV stand with another piece of equipment.
Is BR really worth getting that additional piece for or should I just leave well enough alone and stick with what I have now?
We don't really watch a lot of movies so that is one reason why I'm leaning away from it. That and I really don't want to have to start a whole new collection of movies just so I can watch them in that new format.
BTW, do BR players upvert regular DVD's at all?
 
92NSX said:
I have been on the fence about whether or not to pull the trigger and get a BR player since they are coming down in price so much.
I'm thinking of a Samsung since I just got a Samsung plasma earlier this year. I would hope that having the same brands of equipment would eliminate any of the 'confusion' that different brands might present to me.
I'm just a bit hesitant because I also just recently got, and don't kill me on this, a Bose Lifestyle 48 that has a built in DVD player already and I really don't want to cluttler up the TV stand with another piece of equipment.
Is BR really worth getting that additional piece for or should I just leave well enough alone and stick with what I have now?
We don't really watch a lot of movies so that is one reason why I'm leaning away from it. That and I really don't want to have to start a whole new collection of movies just so I can watch them in that new format.
BTW, do BR players upvert regular DVD's at all?
Click to expand...

Yes. It is well worth it. Hands down, there is no comparison between SD and blu ray. Go check it out in a store.

Some say that they really can't tell the difference...I'd have to question their eyesight.....and/or their equipment. Even my old standard def dvd's look amazing upscaled with my bluray player. ;)

Get a $299 Sony Playstation 3. Read a bit about it. Despite all its other amazing capabilities, it is also a very accomplished blu ray player.

Good luck.
 
Last edited:
SilverStone05 said:
Get a $299 Sony Playstation 3. Read a bit about it. Despite all its other amazing capabilities, it is also a very accomplished blu ray player.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Or you can spend a small fraction of that price and get a panasonic bd60 from amazon ($130 shipped).

Of course without a real HT receiver you'll be mising out on the high quality audio that blu-ray offers.

Do your research about whatever player you think you want to buy. Some of the samsungs are not so great.
 
Cozmo said:
Or you can spend a small fraction of that price and get a panasonic bd60 from amazon ($130 shipped).
Click to expand...
I wanted a Blu-ray player that also had wireless networking and Netflix streaming. Add just those two features in to most any standalone player, and it approaches (or exceeds) the price of a PS3. So I got the PS3. It's an amazing device. I'm just beginning to discover all the things it can do, and I haven't even played any games on it yet.
 
92NSX said:
One question from my other post that nobody answered was can regular DVD's be played on either just a BR player or PS3 also or will it only do BR movies? If it does play regular DVD's, does it upvert them any?
Click to expand...

Yes, it plays regular DVD's and I believe it also upscales them. I was astonished the first time I watched a bluray movie when I got my LED DLP. The detail is amazing and the sound blew me away. The only thing I don't like about the PS3 bluray is the remote is bluetooth and my multifunction remote can't be programmed for the PS3. If you have a good tv, decent HT reciever and speakers, you need to get a bluray player.
 
The upgrades have been done and the players are much faster. I did the upgrade on the 300 and 500 that I have. I recommend anyone with either of these players to do the upgrade. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
 
DocL said:
Yes, it plays regular DVD's and I believe it also upscales them. I was astonished the first time I watched a bluray movie when I got my LED DLP. The detail is amazing and the sound blew me away. The only thing I don't like about the PS3 bluray is the remote is bluetooth and my multifunction remote can't be programmed for the PS3. If you have a good tv, decent HT reciever and speakers, you need to get a bluray player.
Click to expand...

I just did a little tinkering around on Crutchfield and found out some good info on there.
Sadly, the only PS3 that is totally back compat is the 80g and those aren't made anymore. Found a few on Craigslist but they want over $300 for them, used !! So, I don't think I'm doing that.
I have the Bose LS48 HT so I think I'm alright in that aspect.
 
92NSX said:
I just did a little tinkering around on Crutchfield and found out some good info on there.
Sadly, the only PS3 that is totally back compat is the 80g and those aren't made anymore. Found a few on Craigslist but they want over $300 for them, used !! So, I don't think I'm doing that.
I have the Bose LS48 HT so I think I'm alright in that aspect.
Click to expand...

What are you saying here....that the new 120GB PS3's won't play standard def dvd's?
 
jlindy said:
I just bought my first blu ray player from Amazon. (LG BD 390) It has wifi and netflix streaming capabilities so I was excited to get this up and running. Well I have owned it for a week now and have watched three blu ray movies...chronicles of riddick, the new star trek, and the new transformers. I have noticed that the picture quality is no better, if not worse, than my standard DVD player that was 9 years old.

When I walk up closer to it, it is granular all around and the darker scenes or when it fades to black before the next scene, I notice all sorts of green looking snow/noise in the picture. It is subtle but it is there. I actually switched back and forth between blu ray movie and direct TV HD station and the Direct TV KILLS the picture of that Blu ray which can't be right.

I have a 1080P Pani plasma and it is hooked up via HDMI cable and have checked all the settings to make sure they are correct. Is this unit defective? Is the picture quality a lot better? Lastly, I have noticed on all the movies that when the menu's pull up, it takes up the whole screen, but when the movie starts, I have black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. I can set the aspect ration to zoom but that cuts out a bunch of the picture. I am thinking there is something wrong with this until altogether. Ideas? All of you blu ray owners, please let me know your experiences. Thanks.
Click to expand...


I looked up your model on Consumer Reports, it is one of the top rated Bluray players, it had the best rating possible for picture quality. There must be some other issue.
 
WillErickson said:
No, what he means is that the new PS3 slim won't play PS2/PS1 games. It will play DVD's.
Click to expand...

Ah...thank you for the clarification.

I had been wondering why the older iteration had jumped in price despite the introduction of the new 120GB version.
 

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