Hi all,

I just bought a Panasonic 42" plasma, and wanted to do it up right. So, I went out and bought new cables, since I'd never had a TV with component, HDMI, etc.

My DVD player is a Philips DVP642/37, firmware 1223, until recently using the composite connections. I switched out the cables to component video, and then in the player setup, switched video to 16:9 and switched output accordingly to YPbPr. My television went completely blank. So, I brought the player downstairs to my Dell 2407WFP flat panel, which also has component video. I can see the picture, but it shifts off to the far left. Switching back to 4:3 doesn't help.

Does anyone have any suggestions? "Buy a new DVD player" isn't going to be a good one --I already bought the television and a DLink DSM-520 media extender, and don't wish to strain budgetary relations with the SO :). I'd just like to be able to have progressive scan on my new TV if at all possible.

I do have the (supposedly newer) 0603 firmware available to upgrade the player, if this will fix the issue. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all,

I just bought a Panasonic 42" plasma, and wanted to do it up right. So, I went out and bought new cables, since I'd never had a TV with component, HDMI, etc.

My DVD player is a Philips DVP642/37, firmware 1223, until recently using the composite connections. I switched out the cables to component video, and then in the player setup, switched video to 16:9 and switched output accordingly to YPbPr. My television went completely blank. So, I brought the player downstairs to my Dell 2407WFP flat panel, which also has component video. I can see the picture, but it shifts off to the far left. Switching back to 4:3 doesn't help.

Does anyone have any suggestions? "Buy a new DVD player" isn't going to be a good one --I already bought the television and a DLink DSM-520 media extender, and don't wish to strain budgetary relations with the SO :). I'd just like to be able to have progressive scan on my new TV if at all possible.

I do have the (supposedly newer) 0603 firmware available to upgrade the player, if this will fix the issue. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Does the display have any sort of input selection control?

-Bill

Both the Panasonic and the Dell do (edit: I'm assuming you mean A/V inputs, not aspect ratio). I only had the Panny hooked up to component at the time; with the Dell, I've hooked up all three (S-Video, Composite, Component) for testing purposes.

Prior to switching to Progressive scan, the S-Video would display, but in incorrect colors when set to Component vid. Once I turned on Progressive, S-Video would no longer display until I turned it off.

Both the Panasonic and the Dell do (edit: I'm assuming you mean A/V inputs, not aspect ratio). I only had the Panny hooked up to component at the time; with the Dell, I've hooked up all three (S-Video, Composite, Component) for testing purposes.

Prior to switching to Progressive scan, the S-Video would display, but in incorrect colors when set to Component vid. Once I turned on Progressive, S-Video would no longer display until I turned it off.

Both s-video and composite are limited to 480i (NTSC), so no progressive signal there.

So: you have only the component cables hooked to the Panasonic and get no picture? Is there an explicit input selector on the remote you can cycle through? And, does the player have selectable output resolutions? Component may be limited to 480i and 480p, but sometimes rotating through the settings helps.

If none of that helps, I give up.

-Bill

Looks like I got it solved. One of two possibilities I can think of:

-I upgraded to a newer 1102 firmware. I doubt this is it.

-Turning on progressive scan while connecting the unit to my Dell 24" LCD fixed things. Since I turned on options in order on the video menu (aspect to 16:9, output to YPbPr, progressive scan on), I didn't get to turn on progressive scan while the player was hooked to the TV; things went blank before I went to that option.

Thanks for the help. Like others, I've found the DVP642 to be a little bit of a quirky model. However, when I purchased it it was one of the few DivX-certified models available (and it didn't hurt that it was cheap). My new media extender will probably take over most of the DivX/Xvid playback, but I still like to play the occasional DVD, and now I'm all set.