Sony DVP-NS975V FAQ / Brain dump  

Hello,

I have the DVP-NS975V DVD player.

If you have any questions, please ask them!

Sections:

1. Equipment -- Equipment used in evaluation.
2. FAQ's -- Tidbits and special requests. Information on specific video, audio, compatibility, and hardware details are found here.
3. MISC -- Documentation links and other miscellaneous data.

------------ Equipment -------------------------------------------------------------------

Display: Panasonic TC-22LH1 LCD HDMI 1280x720 @ 1080i & 480p & 480i
Hitachi 32HDT55 Plasma DVI @ 1080i & 720p & 480p

Cable: HDMI-HDMI supplied with DVD-S97S, Monster HDMI->DVI cable

DVDs: DVE, Avia, various movies, animation

------------ F A Q's ------------------------------------------------------------------------

COMPATIBILITY:
-------------------
DVD-R: Yes
DVD-RW: Yes, VR mode as well
DVD+R: Yes
DVD+RW: Yes
PAL: <tbd>

DVD Compatibility can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

OPERATION:
--------------
Layer Change: Fast. Maybe .2 secs.

Remember last played position of ejected disc: Yes


HDMI
HDMI->HDMI 1080i,480p
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Differences between the modes/resolution noted in red

Deinterlacing Processor: Sony custom

MPEG Decoder: <tbd>

Macroblocking: No

Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE): Possibly, ICP issue definitely

Low IRE gray/pink: No

BTB and crushing: Passes BTB. BUT only with: CINEMA1, CINEMA2, or MANUAL: PICTURE -2, BRIGHTNESS -2. Basically one has to reduce player Picture/Brightness to get BTB to appear.

HDMI->DVI no black/white crushing (Hitachi 32HDT55) @ either 1080i/720p

WTW and crushing: The picture modes will crush white. Set MANUAL to above settings to avoid white crushing.

Color accuracy via 720p/1080i (green depression):
1080i: Depends on display. If the display allows for SD/HD matrix selection then choose SD and it's OK. If the HD matrix is fixed at HD for 720p and 1080i then significant green depression -20% on Avia decoder check. Some green shades noted in near black areas. Might be material dependent. It is noted that if one sets the player's "TINT" to -3 and reduce the "COLOR" to -2, the most apparent visual affects of the HD/SD color conversion issue can be reduced somewhat.
480p: OK


480i via HDMI: Yes

4:3 Pillarboxng: Yes, some loss of detail noted at 6.75mHz.

Non-Anamorphic DVD zoom: No. The picture can be "zoomed" but cannot create a "screen filling" simulation. The zoom quality is pretty lousy, IMHO.

Frequency Response (DVE): Pretty good, some enhancement noted

Avia 4:3 Pillarbox Pixel cropping (pixels removed):
1080i: 7 Top, 3 Bottom, 0 Left, 1 Right
480p: 12 Top, 7 Bottom 0 Left, 1 Right


DVE 16:9 Cropping: 1080i Image is shifted to the top.

Avia Y/C delay:
1080i: looked perfect
480p: Red +0.07

Avia Moving Zone Plate: Fine detail turned to mush

DVE Motion Pattern: Fairly good, motion adaptive

Subtitle synchronization: Good, some combing noted.

COMPONENT
480p, 480i
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Differences between the modes/resolution noted in red

Deinterlacing Processor: Sony custom

MPEG Decoder: <tbd>

Macroblocking: No

Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE): Possibly, ICP issue definitely

Low IRE gray/pink: No

BTB or crushing: Passes BTB. BUT only with: CINEMA1, CINEMA2, or MANUAL: PICTURE -2, BRIGHTNESS -2. Basically one has to reduce player Picture/Brightness to get BTB to appear.

WTW or crushing: The picture modes will crush white. Set MANUAL to above settings to avoid white crushing.

Color accuracy (green depression): Accurate color, no green depression.

4:3 Pillarboxng:
480p: Yes
480i: No

Non-Anamorphic DVD zoom: No

Frequency Response (DVE): <tbd>
480p: OK but looked a bit enhanced
480i: A bit of rolloff but did not looked enhanced

Avia 4:3 Pillarbox Pixel cropping:
480p (pillarbox): 10 TOP, 9 BOTTOM, 0 LEFT, 1 RIGHT
480i (non-pillarbox): 10 TOP, 9 BOTTOM, 18 LEFT , 20 RIGHT (might be display)

DVE 16:9 Pixel cropping:
480p: Centered well
480i: Image shifted to the right a bit

Avia Y/C delay:
480p: near perfect
480i: -0.07 green

Avia Moving Zone Plate: Turned to much with 480p/i at both rates.

DVE Motion Pattern: OK. 480p motion adaptive

Subtitle synchronization: Good

AUDIO:
--------
HDMI passes two channel: Yes

Audio/video delay/sync: Good sync

CONFIGURATION:
---------------------
Firmware version: <tbd>

HARDWARE:
--------------
HDMI cable: No

Composite, L/R audio cable: Yes

Remote: Yes

Batteries: 2 AA

Power cord: Non-detachable

------------ MISC ----------------------------------------------------------------------

RPTV:
------
<tbd>

REFERENCE:
--------------
The owner's manual is located here:

http://www.sonystyle.com/intershopro.../DVPNS975V.pdf

Tray locked:
--------------
There have been numerous reports of the tray becoming locked. I have not experienced this problem. However Sony suggests this procedure located here:

http://129.33.22.8/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBC...plate=Case.tem

Basically, unplug the player for 30 seconds and try again, otherwise send in for service.

Sony DVP-NS975V HD/SD color conflict
------------------------------------------------

Some TVs do not allow for the selection of the SD color Matrix at 1080i/720p. The Panasonic TC-22LH1 LCD TV allows for selection at 480p only. NTSC (SD) and ATSC (HD) process color in a different way -- not radically different but somewhat different. DVDs are encoded for SD matrix. The DVP-NS975V converts the 480i signal to 1080i. So far, so good. However, in the case of the Sony, the SD color matrix of the DVD is not converted to the HD matrix. In viewing on a display fixed at HD color matix only at 1080i, the differences between matrices with red and blue are slight. With green, however, the difference is significant. Sending an SD color matrix to a display that is expecting an HD color matrix results in a significant reduction of the color green -- the "green depression". The issue is easily seen via Avia or DVE color patterns. If the display cannot change the matrix at 1080i there isn't much to be done. The display could have the color decoders recalibrated to compensate but that might come at the expense of color fidelity with true HD material. The display's color can be boosted to bring up the green but the red and blue become unreal and the color imbalance still exists. Adjusting the "HUE" on the '975V holds some promise. More later.

What does this "green depression" mean to the average viewer with a TV with a fixed HD color matrix at HD resolutions? In viewing the material at 480p (which has no color problem at SD matrix) and switching to the HD matrix, one can see the major difference is in the rendition of facial tones. EVERYONE has a slightly "yellowish" or "jaundiced" look when viewing HD Matrix @ 480p. Many people might not notice but it's there. Switching back to HD Matrix @1080i mirrors what is seen at HD Matrix @ 480p. I can live with the "jaundiced" look as well but, in my view, it's more "in your face" than macroblocking (pun intended).

What can be done? While there are some other subtle problems, the most apparent of the HD/SD conflict issue, in my view, is the rendition of facial tones. By comparing the HD/SD matrix (switchable for me) at 480p has resulted in this suggestion: See manual's page 59. Set "Picture Mode" to "Memory". Set the "COLOR" to -2 and the "HUE" to -3. These settings seem to hide most of the negative aspects of the "jaundice" look and not introduce much of a negative side affect (so far). Of course the DVE "blue filter" will not be correct, but the visual side affects appear to be minor. If this change is done, please refer to page 81 of the manual and have a look at the "Playback Memory" setting. It might be a good idea to set it to "OFF", as any already played discs will reset the picture controls to whatever setting was present when that disc was first loaded. Setting the controls on the player will avoid the issue of affecting the settings for the other inputs, if the display does not memorize the display settings for each input.

To put this in somewhat technical terms:

For HD (ITU-R BT.709-4) Luma (brightness) is defined as:
Y = .2126R +.7152G +.0722B

For SD NTSC (SMPTE170M) and SD-SDI (ITU-R BT.601-5 or SMPTE-259M) the Luma (rightness) is defined as:
Y = .299R +.587G +.114B

Both equations add up to "1".

Look at the difference in the figures of the two systems that add up to Y (1).

If the signals were identical, difference between the red, blue, and green would be "0" for luma and for the individual colors. The following shows what happens when the standards are mismatched:

Mathematically feeding an SD signal to a system expecting an HD signal shows the differences in the systems.

Y = (+.2990R +.5870G +.1140B) ----> SD
Y = (+.2126R +.7152G +.0722B) ----> HD
--------------------------------------
0 = (+.0864R -.1282G +.0418B) ---> difference between systems

Overall Y (brightness) is unaffected by the conversion but look at the primary colors:

Note that red is somewhat positive, green is quite negative and blue is somewhat positive. If the color standards were the same all of the numbers would be "0". This resulting difference in the equation above is what is seen via the Avia color decoder pattern.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you:
Paul Bigelow

mallu2u: Ultimate Electronics

Rob: I will purchase a few SACDs. I don't have a single one -- just some DVD-Audio.

tvuong,

For me they might both be keepers! I won't have any findings until later this evening -- have to do some "real life" obligations. ;)

I'm probably going to pair this unit with a Sony RDR-GX7 that is already acquried.

Thanks for the heads up on UE. I had been checking but always came up empty. It literally arrived in the truck this morning.

Paul

mecl,

I have not seen the Panasonic DVD-S97 at any retail store. UE is supposed to be getting it, though.

Paul

Thanks!

Kris does incredible work and has the tools to do it right.

I'm just touching on what I can see and having fun while doing it.

If someone gets some use out of this information or just has a good discussion, that's good enough.

Let's see how it develops over the days and weeks!

Paul

I haven't opened the box yet, but according to the instruction book, it doesn't have the cable. So I'm 99.99% sure it doesn't. We'll find out tonight.

Paul

4K,

We'll see what turns up! Both threads are a "work in progress".

Paul

Working on it.

Paul

The nerve! ;)

Initial findings posted in FAQ section. No macroblocking, has CUE, has significant "green depression" at 1080i. Fast layer change. Fairly fast disc navigation. No problems with HDCP negotiation. No 1080i Jitter via HDMI.

Initial thoughts: Macroblocking is the "hot button" of the present. CUE was the "hot button" of the past. Sensitivities to these issues might be the deciding picture factor for most people. The Panasonic has the superior deinterlacer, no doubt about it, but Sony isn't too bad. The Panasonic has the edge in color as well, but some people might not notice the reduced green levels. Both players have lots of detail -- both better than the Momitsu.

Whew!

Paul