I have an Toshiba HD-A1 first gen HD-DVD player on loan. (Thanks Ben!)

I bought a second gen HD-A2 a couple of days ago....

I tried both and the top 1/2 foot or so of my screen is slightly brighter than the rest of the screen with the A2. Peering into the tubes with an all-black signal, I see that the raster is brighter in that region. The A1 doesn't exhibit this.

I tried two different transcoders (Kim's RTC-2200 and an older 2004 version as well). Same results with both.

Anyone else have this problem with their A2? The A1 looks fine.

The area at the top of the screen is not overly bright - only noticeable on true fade to blacks. Some people may not even be bothered. (To give you an idea of the brightness, on my 8" LC EM machine it isn't really noticeable on 2.35:1 material with an 'average brightness' picture showing. Put in something like Goodfellas with panning text on a 100% black background in the opening scene and it's noticeable).

As well, while it's hard to do some true A/B tests since I don't have two copies of the same discs, but I'd swear the HD-A1 looks better than the HD-A2 (punchier/better dynamic range/contrast).

Note: I've asked this here instead of in the HD-DVD forum since nobody there knows what a raster is and they don't usually use component ... :)

Kal

Kal,

I Observed the same effect you are describing using component from my A-1 to a moome DVI?component transcoder. No problem over HDMI to the DVI card. (When I had a DVI card :o )

Its as though the AKB line is unusually illuminated, which in turn lights up the top side of the screen. It would go away if brightness is turned down, but as to be way down, crushing black badly.

Since you are using different transcoders than I, I bet it is something with the HD A-1 and perhaps more so with the A-2 over component with Sony pj's with AKB on.

Is it still there with AKB off? I never tried since I used HDMI.

Hi Don!

Sorry Don - I forgot to mention my projector: It's a Zenith 1200 (aka Barco Cine 8 Onyx). No AKB here at all.

I took some pictures directly into the red lens:

Raster on the newer HD-A2 - note the bright area at the bottom (which is the top of the screen)
http://www.curtpalme.com/kal/IMG_0781.JPG

Raster on the older HD-A1 - no bright area at the bottom (which is the top of the screen)
http://www.curtpalme.com/kal/IMG_0793.JPG

Now, both the HD-A1 and HD-A2 have some 'junk' just outside the top of the image that needs to be blanked out:

Here's the HD-A2 with no blanking so that you can see the junk:
http://www.curtpalme.com/kal/IMG_0785.JPG

Here's the HD-A1 with no blanking so that you can see the junk (there's less):
http://www.curtpalme.com/kal/IMG_0796.JPG

These last 2 pictures are deceptive- it's not the junk causing the brightness (even though it may seem that way from the pictures... the camera is simply exposing for the brightest areas which in this case are the lines so the rest of the bright area doesn't seem as bright anymore).

Kal

Hmm,

So maybe its not the AKB line causing this in mine.

In any case, using HDMI in my set up cures it.

Kal I have seen stuff like that from various devices and in my case it was those lines of junk you can see that where lighting mine up, I use only HDMI or I would test this out on my XA2

this also looks to me like when you use a SDI DVD player with a scaler and the vertical line offset for SDI has not been corrected, meaning vertical positioning is off, which of course you already know that :( , how is this when going directly into the Zenith being it takes component directly?

-Gary

i have seen this in every component source I used (being it my htpc, my dvd - player or my xbox 360), fed to a moome external and a moome ISS card. Looks exactly like in your your first picture. So I dont think it is a problem of your a2.
is this a component specific problem?

Daniel.

I have the exact same problem with my Xbox 360, connected with Component to my BG1208s/2 through a Moome box (@ 1080i). VGA does not exhibit this, but I will try this later.

In any case, using HDMI in my set up cures it. I thought that there were all sorts of BTB/WTH crushing/clipping problems out of these players over HDMI? At least it seems to read that way over at the HD-DVD forum. This is one reason why I didn't want to spring for an HDMI -> DVI/VGA device like the Ophit.

how is this when going directly into the Zenith being it takes component directly?Hi Gary! Haven't tried that... mostly because I need to feed my PJ other VGA signals as well... (would be a switching mess). I don't think it's the transcoder since I don't the bright area from the HD-A1, only the HD-A2 (even though both have "bright junk" that I need to blank out).

i have seen this in every component source I used (being it my htpc, my dvd - player or my xbox 360), fed to a moome external and a moome ISS card. Looks exactly like in your your first picture. So I dont think it is a problem of your a2.
is this a component specific problem?
I don't know if it's only due to component on the HD-A2 as I don't have a way to test via HDMI. I do know that it doesn't happen over component out of the HD-A1 (as per the other picture above) and it also doesn't happen via component out of my HD-PVR.

I have the exact same problem with my Xbox 360, connected with Component to my BG1208s/2 through a Moome box (@ 1080i). VGA does not exhibit this, but I will try this later.Thanks - let me know what you find out!

-------

Overall, I've been avoiding going HDMI because of (a) the added cost when I don't need it, and (b) all of the headaches I've heard about ...

My current thoughts are to simply buy a used HD-A1 and use it for now... The one I have on loan works fine for me. I don't care about how slow it is.

Kal

I have the exact same problem with my Xbox 360, connected with Component to my BG1208s/2 through a Moome box (@ 1080i). VGA does not exhibit this, but I will try this later.

Same here, the VGA on the XBOX does not have this problem. But I am seeing streaking over the VGA that is not present when using component. As I just can't stand streaking I prefer the component way, although it suffers from the problem discussed here.