AE700 Tweak Thread - Page 2

Please limit this thread to tweaks only.



Stew

Can anyone list films that have bad VB? I know star wars is one, what are some others?

The opening scene to "Finding Nemo" should show VB, however if you see any just follow the directions on OSD menu and trouble should go away...

Also any "underwater" scenes .......

You had to ask...
U-571 (underwater scenes / sky blue scenes)
Das Boot (underwater scenes)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (underwater scenes)
Star Wars IV (Tatoonie sand dunes scene)
Star Wars "Attack Of The Clones" (Large ship landing in fog at beginning)
Pirates Of The Caribbean (opening fog scene)
Master And Commander (fog scene)
The Final Countdown (sky blue scenes)
The Thing (new anamorphic re-master - snow scenes)

Some of these show VB more than others and not everyone sees VB on some of these discs. Sometimes FPN is mistaken as VB as well.

U-571 is also a good disc for spotting peek-a-boo scan lines during the white explosive waves rising from the ocean due to the exploading depth charges.

Star Wars "Attack Of The Clones" (ship landing scene) is a good disc to see both FPN and VB at the same time. The camera pans slowly to the right showing stationary FPN and you can see VB (bars) in the foggy background as well.

TraderGordo, were you the one who was running the AE700 through a HTPC system? I read a post about someone who was, and I have mine setup that way as well (which by the way rocks! Gotta love a 7'x4.5' desktop, hehe... my daughter is dying to do homework on it

If it was you, I have some overscan, and JUST put powerstrip on it late last night, and I'd be interested how you adjust that out, via the AE700 menus, PowerStrip, or a combo...

Just got my Motorola DCT6208 HD/DVR cable box with DVI output. The HD image coming out of it (on certain channels!) is awesome! No problem sending the DVI signal over HDMI cable 23ft.

Oddly, the image position is off. On the "blue screen" I have it lined up perfectly, but on HDMI the bottom and right sides are scanning about 1" inside the screen border.

Ideas on how to correct the image position without disturbing the positioning of the DVD coming in on component? Down the road when I get an HDMI upconverting DVD player this won't be such an issue.

I tried using the settings from the post of TraderGordo.. Now I have no horisontal cropping but the vertical is still there. Still missing about 10-15 pixels in the top and bottom. Anyone have a clue of what the timings should be exactly with Powerstrip to get the complete image displayed?

Using a R9700 gfx card.

Is the flicker tweak supposed to eliminate "peakaboo scan lines"?

I don't see VB, but I am seeing scan lines pop up occassionally while I am watching movies.

I have a Zenith 318 upconverting DVD to 1080i and using component video connection.

I've tried several different flicker settings and it doesn't seem to matter, I still get the scan lines. Is there a tweak to prevent or reduce these scan lines, or are they are inherent with LCD projectors?

Flicker tweak can only do so much. I had peek-a-boos on my 500 - and to about the same extent also have them on my 700. Sitting further back (2.0 - 2.5 X screen width) is the best way to eliminate them. For some reason peek-a-boos don't bother me that much.

Did anyone post the flicker tweak method in this thread, I don't remember seeing it here, but probably on the BIG consolidated thread. Might be a good idea to put it here for ease of use.

For tweakability, I purchased Zoomplayer Pro last night, but still have not received a registration code, they must do it manually.

Other than some overscan on my HTPC desktop, I have a beautiful picture out of the box, and haven't even ventured into the Panny menus yet, not even the regular menus, let alone the service menu

I don't own an AE700 but could those who do start reporting any tweaking which is found to eliminate the "White Flashes"? Thanx. Someone pick up on this if my post is erased. I'm only a lowly Panny 200 owner, and not an AE700 owner, but we're all curious to hear more about eh white flashes and any solutions that may exist

Center the picture as best you can using the AE700 position menu, then use powerstrip to remove any overscan (I posted my settings on page 1 of this thread). Its not hard to setup, you start with the standard 1280x720 HDTV signal, and then go into advanced timings, and use the "size" arrows to remove overscan. You can check "ultra fine granularity" to improve the sizing.

Common guys/gals....

AVS kindly set this up for tweaks only....let's honor that and put the chatter on the other thread. I for one do not want to have to read through a lot of conversation to get to the tweaks.

Thanks,
Bob

I got my AE700 on Friday, set up for HD is comcast HD set top box with DVI to HDMI cable. Everything looks beautiful, Discovery HD is like wow !
I was watching Sunday night HD football game and I noticed that all
close up shots were very sharp and nice, but all wide angle shots (when
actaul play will start with many players in one frame) were not that sharp
and even color were not very crisp, again if camera will switch to close up
shots then every thing will look very sharp and nice. Is there any tweak
specially for sports? Any help on this will be helpful.

I have access to several Kenko filters and tried the 77 mm FL-W (removes green tint) and W-10 (warming filter). This is similar to filters that I've used with AE-100 (though I have 55 mm size for older FP)

http://www.kenko-tokina.co.jp/filter/4961607152119.html

Using a Radeon 8500 HTPC and calibrated AE-700 using DMW monitor calibration tool. AE-700 in video mode (highest contrast setting but very high color temp). Adjusted contrast RGB and brightness RGB accordingly in advanced picture menu. Using W-10 filter only, I am liking the picture better compared with the no filter in cinema 1 mode or natural mode. Picture was punchier for lack of a better word. Also have to set the lamp from economy to brighter setting to make up for brightness loss. Adding FL-W filter on top of the W-10 already makes the picture too dim/too warm for me so I stayed with W-10 only.

I have watched several HD movies already and a few DVDs and tremendously enjoying this new FP. Will remove the filter later when the picture is already too dim (I did that with the AE-100 around 1,000 hrs.)

I'll try the FL-D filter later (another brand since oddly enough Kenko does not make FL-D) .

Overall, a fun experiment with the AE-700 and photography filters. Still have not tried the HDMI input due to unavailability of HDMI to DVI cables locally.

OK .. I guess this qualifies as a "tweak" ...

I have been trying different things to reduce the "peakaboo scan lines" problem and I found that if I set my DVD output to 720p the scan lines almost complete disappear compared to the 1080i setting I had been using.
However, this may be unique to my DVD player. I'm using a Zenith 318.

The scan lines had been popping up primarily in scenes switching quickly from very dark to bright light and vice versa.

BTW, if you happen to own the DVD of the movie "Rock Star" I found that the Everclear music video in the special features is a real torture test for scan lines because it cuts rapidly between very dark scenes and blinding white scenes. I used that as my reference for trying to solve this problem.

The "peekaboo scanlines" are an artifact of the video processor in the projector falling over. So when you switched to 720p you eliminated the problem by feeding the unit progressive scan video. Simmilar things should happen if you feed it 480p.

If you feed it 1080i or 480i you will probabbly see scanlines and combing on ooccasion as the video processor gets confused.

I got my copy of Digital Video Essentials today, all set to go properly set the Contrast on my AE700. I have the regular VE intended for use with CRT-based displays and the procedure in there for digital displays is nearly useless.

Well, DVE is not much better. They still run you through the same procedures for setting CRT contrast, then tell you about all the reasons it is hard to set contrast on a "lamp-based display". Really it seemed to me like they love CRT FPJ and sort of "poo-poo" LCD and DLP projectors (bashing black level performance for example). They promised a special graduated test pattern that has steps from white to black. You can set both brightness and contrast together on one screen. However, I cannot find the test patterns in the DVD menu system. Once again, like with VE, DVE has the goofiest menu structure ever devised. It is supposed to "showcase" the use of the dual-menu capability of the DVD standard, but to me it's just plain obtuse and confusing.

Anybody else have DVE and know how to find the test patterns?

I'm getting a substantial improvement using PS Audio P300. Originally for audio, I finally got it connected after 75 hours of viewing. It's added to the effectiveness of the picture across the board. The colors are more vibrant and there is a greater consistency in the picture, like it's getting more pixels on the screen.

In addition, it has lessened the difference between high and low lamp. I found the low lamp to be too dull and now it seems almost irrelevant. One of the big improvements is that without running the projector through the P300 the picture looks almost flat and lifeless. It really is a nice improvement.

Now if I had to go out and spent $1400 for one of these after $2200 to get this improvement I would probably not go ahead. But if you happen to be an audiophile and this is within range then go for it.

I'm using a standard black round medium duty 25 ft. cord and it does the job. Originally, I was going to look into getting a customized power cord but the outlet on this is not standard. Anyway, the results are really quite nice.

I spent about an hour this evening trying the interlaced vs PS arguments out. For source, I've got a LiteOn 2001 and a JVC XV-N50 (both DVD players) and a Motorola HD DVR box. My LiteOn has been 'hot-rodded' to try and get a better picture. Component to the 700 (35ft cable).

My ONLY issue with the 700 is the 'peek-a-boo' (PaB) interlacing effect seen during vertical movement on the screen.

So...first..the HD box. Changed it between 1080i and 720p. Winner - 1080i. PaB was exactly the same between the two. Picture quality was 'soft' on the 720p vs very 'sharp' on the 1080i.

Second-JVC DVD player. Switched between 480p and 480i. Winner - 480i, just slightly. Less PaB on 480i. Very slight difference, though.

Last - LiteOn DVD player. 1080i, 720p and 408p. Winner - 1080i, although almost no difference in PaB between the 3 of them. The 1080i picture in general smoked the JVC player and had the least PaB effect.

So..in short, the player seemed to make more of a difference than the input signal type. For what it's worth. I did see my first VB tonight...but I was *really* looking for it, and don't know if I'd notice it just relaxing and watching a movie. Extremely slight to say the least.

(BTW...Anyone else have an obnoxious green right-edge stripe to their HD Monday night football game? Arrrgh. Only on MNF...every other channel looks great.)

John

I'm sure I will get a reputation for being cracked and seeing things that are not there, but....

When using the flicker tweak, if you ignore the flickering, do you see VB in the color itself? And if you do, have you had any luck adjusting the setting to reduce the VB without so much regard for the flickering itself. It seemed to lead to a better setting for me, but see first paragraph. The settings I ended up with were within a few clicks of minimal flickering, not a huge difference.... and this was on the green panel only...YMMV

For those of you with the color discrepensies from corner to corner, I found staying away from the zoom extremes helped me with that...

Thanks,
Nate

I observed the same thing. That's why I'm not sure what "flickering" really means in the flicker tweak menu. Factory default for me had the lowest "flicker" I could detect, but lowering them all gave best reduction in VB.

When I tried the AE700 position menu, I could only move the screen from its default left of centre position 3 'points' right before it started clipping the right side of the image displayed. Is this normal?

Cheers, Kendrick

An additional note to the "flicker adjustment"...
It should be noted that flicker should be adjusted to minimum visible flicker on both "ceiling and table" modes to completely remove VB regardless of your personal set up.

An additional note to the "flicker adjustment"...
It should be noted that flicker should be adjusted to minimum visible flicker on both "ceiling and table" modes to completely remove VB regardless of your personal set up.

YES, the goal of the initial AE700 position adjustment is merely to center the image, then you bring the image fully onto the screen (hence no overscan) using powerstrip.

HOWEVER, the following information was just posted to the main thread (by AVS Special Member: RGB) and it SEEMS like a superior method. I haven't tried it yet, but I will play around with it tonight. Note: if you read Mark's thread regarding the test pattern, note that the AE700 has a "clock phase" setting in the position menu although according to RGB you may not have to touch it, which is great news! Also note that the HDMI input does NOT have the "auto setup" option in the position menu that you get with VGA.

Anyway, looks like Panny may have done some work on the AE700 to make it superior to other projectors in this regard, and most of us didn't know about it until now.

For those who are experiencing improvment in Pic quality with Power Conditioners such as P300. Would you please specify what type of Connection your using. Cause if its DVI going native resolution then there is no way any Power condditioner can improve on the PQ, except maybe for more stable bulb output.

I've noticed that my flicker settings keep changing.

I am letting the projector warm up at least 30 minutes and then checking my flicker settings.

I keep having to change the settings to different numbers to eliminate flicker.

Has anybody else had the same experience?

I would think that once the flicker settings are set to minimum flicker, they should not change from day to day.

BTW, I am turning off main power every time.

My flicker settings are exactly the same as they were on day 1. I now have 40 hours on my 700.