I have a KV-27FV310 that I have been using for about 3 years now, and I am very happy with the overall picture quality. But I can always see those horizontal lines in the picture - like scan lines that you see when looking at a low resolution picture. I can see them easily from even 6 feet distance and even when playing DVD via component inputs. This TV is 480i and I was hoping that I shouldn't be seeing those lines at DVD quality (480 lines). And hence the title of this thread.
I have to really go farther away (10+feet) to not realize them. They are most noticeable in bright (white) areas.

Is this normal ? Do other users of this series of TV see these lines ? or something wrong with mine ?
Or really you shouldn't expect 480 interlaced lines to be non-existent at this screen size ?

Sounds normal to me.

You say you've had this TV for 3 years. Has this issue changed or gotten worse recently?

I'd say it has always been there. Just that I never bothered to find out about it until recently.

A "V-compression" feature that condenses the raster vertically on the TV to a 16x9 aspect (for anamorphic DVDs) would help. But it doesn't look like this model has one.

How much of your viewing is 16x9 widescreen content btw?

It doesn't specifically say V-comp but there is an item in the menu called "16:9 Enhanced" and the options are Auto and On. Is that what you might be referring to ? (a quick google search reveals thats the same thing).

For the first time since I have got this set, I disabled the 16:9 to 4:3 Letterbox conversion in the dvd player and instead let the TV take care of it by using this "16:9 Enhanced" option. I did notice a little improvement, but then the whole vertical picture size was also slightly smaller than the previous one(dvd player converting to letterbox).

16:9 wide viewing would be about 30-40% of total viewing time - mostly when we watch movies on DVD, otherwise its regular TV(Dish).

It doesn't specifically say V-comp but there is an item in the menu called "16:9 Enhanced" and the options are Auto and On. Is that what you might be referring to ?Huh. Yeah, that sounds exactly like the type of feature I was referring to. There's no mention of it in the brief description of your TV on Amazon.com.

Using the 16:9 Enhanced/V-compression on the TV should improve vertical detail and make the scanlines less noticeable on anamorphic widescreen DVDs, and eliminate any potential scaling/deinterlacing artifacts caused by the player performing the 16:9 conversion. So in general I'd recommend using it rather than letting the player perform the scaling. The AUTO setting on the TV would probably automatically detect whether a 4:3 or a 16:9 anamorphic signal is being received, and enable the vertical compression as needed, just like the player did previously....but then the whole vertical picture size was also slightly smaller than the previous one(dvd player converting to letterbox). Interesting. It sounds like the TV's 16:9 Enhanced feature may be cropping a little overscan from the top and bottom of the picture, in addition to condensing it into a 16:9 ratio. (Or perhaps it just condenses the image a little more than the player.)

Do you have any kind of calibration disk you can use to measure/compare the overscan between the two? If not, then you could just pause on a picture that has graphic details (eg text) that run off of the screen vertically, and see if there's more visible on the top and bottom when the player performs the 16:9 scaling. The COLOR/TINT SETUP screen in the THX Optimizer (a setup tool that can be found in the Extras on any THX-mastered DVD such as Star Wars or Indiana Jones, or Pixar films like The Incredibles or Monsters Inc...) might work for this, to give you a rough idea anyway.

Also, make sure you have the vertical letterbox scaling for 4:3 TVs disabled on the DVD player. If vertical scaling is enabled on both devices, then the picture will be very condensed indeed and you won't be getting the benefits you're after. (Sounds like you made this adjustment already though.)

It doesn't specifically say V-comp but there is an item in the menu called "16:9 Enhanced" and the options are Auto and On. Is that what you might be referring to ? (a quick google search reveals thats the same thing).

For the first time since I have got this set, I disabled the 16:9 to 4:3 Letterbox conversion in the dvd player and instead let the TV take care of it by using this "16:9 Enhanced" option. I did notice a little improvement, but then the whole vertical picture size was also slightly smaller than the previous one(dvd player converting to letterbox).

16:9 wide viewing would be about 30-40% of total viewing time - mostly when we watch movies on DVD, otherwise its regular TV(Dish).


In order to use 16:9 enhanced, I would set it to ON and simply send the anamorphic DVD in its raw form to the TV. You should get a higher quality image on your tube TV.

Do you have any kind of calibration disk you can use to measure/compare the overscan between the two?

I had AVIA when I bought this TV, now I have DVE, although I dont know if that has what you are saying. I will also check out the other options you mentioned.


In order to use 16:9 enhanced, I would set it to ON and simply send the anamorphic DVD in its raw form to the TV. You should get a higher quality image on your tube TV.


There is no doubt about it. Its definitely the better way of doing it. I have disabled the conversion on the dvd player. It is much better now. Text quality is so much better now. In fact I think the overall picture quality (color, sharpness, etc..) is also better. Placebo effect ? Maybe. Maybe not.

I realized I never mentioned what dvd player it is - its a Pioneer DV-563A.

I had AVIA when I bought this TV, now I have DVE, although I dont know if that has what you are saying. I will also check out the other options you mentioned.DVE is perfect. There's a pattern for checking overscan at Title 12, Chapter 17. I can't remember offhand if that overscan pattern normally displays as 4:3 or 16:9. If it defaults to 4:3, then you may need to "force" it to display as 16:9 on both your player and TV rather than using the 16:9 auto-detection features on both devices, if you take my meaning. The pattern is suitable for checking overscan on both 16:9 and 4:3 TVs though. A basic explanation of this pattern is contained under DVE's advanced video tutorials at Title 7, Chapter 12.

If you're happy with the picture as is however, then perhaps you may just want to leave well enough alone?

I've heard that this problem is typical of the old Sony TVs (if you do a Google search, you should find some info about it). I actually had the opposite problem on my newer Sony SDTV (KD-27FS170). I went into the service menu and used Avia to correct problem. On my TV, it's not quite as easy as it sounds, because changing the 16:9 vertical size also distorts the image. It wasn't really a problem; I just needed to adjust a couple of the other settings. I'm not familiar with the model you have, so it may have a completely different service menu. On mine, I needed to adjust VSIZ, TRAP, and PAMP in the 16:9 deflection submenu.

DVE is perfect. There's a pattern for checking overscan at Title 12, Chapter 17. ....A basic explanation of this pattern is contained under DVE's advanced video tutorials at Title 7, Chapter 12.

I tried that with both the dvd player doing the conversion v/s the TV doing it, and the picture size is not that much different as I originally thought.
I can see the safe action 5% top and bottom lines in both cases, although there is slightly more area visible at the bottom when the player converts it. Probably thats why I thought the picture size was different. But it is very slight and I'd gladly give it up for the extra picture quality!
The left and right safe action 5% were being cut off just slightly in both cases though - maybe thats normal(?). It amounts to one letter - like the "T" of the word "The" when some text is displayed across the full width of the screen.

If you're in the neighborhood of 5%, then you're probably not doin badly for an SD display.

If you want to check for excessive distortion in the image as well, there are a couple aspect ratio tests (for both 4:3 and anamorphic 16:9 content) in the THX Optimizer.

The pattern is suitable for checking overscan on both 16:9 and 4:3 TVs though.
But it's basically useless for checking the ratio of 16:9 enhanced mode on a 4:3 TV, isn't it? And I think that's what he needs to do. 16:9 mode has a vertical size control that could be set wrong. He should check that by using something he can measure easily, like Avia's patterns for 16:9 enhanced, the Earth in the Universal Studios logo, etc. BTW, my TV crops quite a bit from the top of the image in 16:9 enhanced mode, and I don't think much can be done about that.

Anode, if you want to be as simple as possible, then just throw in a Universal anamorphic DVD and make sure that the Earth isn't ovally.