[dhnjp1]

Herein lies the embarrassing tale of a newbie discovering the benefits of anamorphic DVDs...


I started watching Star Wars TPM, and was shocked by the worst picture quality I've ever seen on my LT150. The words that scroll into space at the beginning were "swimming". Horizontal lines in letters like "e" were alternating from thick to thin. Scenes with people walking down stairs were full of moire and jaggies. The picture was soft and lacked detail. There were artifacts everywhere!


I was almost convinced I needed a progressive DVD player (currently using Toshiba SD2109, component out). But, for some reason, I decided to play with the aspect ratio. The DVD player output was 4:3, and the LT150 aspect was "normal".


I changed the DVD player output to 16:9, and the LT150 aspect to "cinema". BAM! All the artifacts were gone! The scrolling letters were rock steady. The picture was very sharp and 3-dimensional looking. If an HTPC is way better than this, I think seeing it would make my head explode!


I looked at other movies that I've watched before with everything set to 4:3, and there was some improvement. But nothing as dramatic as on TPM.


Now I "get" the benefit of anamorphic.


--Dan

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Dan - get a progressive DVD player. You are still not receiving the full benefits of anamorphic.


I use the Panny RP91. My brother has the RP56. Both are great. My RP91 had more tweaking factors plus scaling of nonanamorphic discs.

 

[ckolchak]

Ditto!

i had the same player you do hooked up with s-video, and now have the panasonic rp56. the differences are sometimes subtle but overall substantial (if that makes sense).

really do yourself a favor and pick up this player (i've tested a bunch and this puts out the best overall picture, hands down). at under $250 its almost the slam dunk deal that the LT150 was from Dell.


Actually i'm surprised you found the TPM picture to be so good. i'll have to check it out again tonight, but i wasn't too impressed the first time i fired it up. Actually Josie and The Pussycats last night looked much closer to a reference transfer to me than TPM (i won't debate the actual merits of the two movies as cinema, because it probably a draw )

 

[shahram72]

The artifacts you saw were from the in-player letterboxing feture of your DVD player, not the LT150, as you now know. Some players do a better job than others in this area of converting Anmorphic to non-anamorphic for 4:3 display, and the artifacts aren't usually noticeable on most TV's, but you have to have the best source with big screens. I use a progressive scan DVD player with my LT150, and I have never seen ANY scaling artifacts on ananmorphic DVD's, although I'm sure they are there. I do wish I had the slightly crisper image of an HTPC, but I am very happy with my setup for now.

 

[Jim Ferguson]

If you have a display that can accept anamorphic sources (either a true 16:9 display, or one that has a "squeeze" or "cinema" mode) you must ALWAYS use the 16:9 output option on the DVD player. Set it once and never, ever change it.


You never want to have the DVD player downconvert anamorphic DVDs. You're basically destroying the benefit of anamorphic DVD's over plain letterboxed DVDs. In fact it may be worse depending on the quality of your DVD player's downconversion.

 

[aviman33]

Since the Lt150 is a 4:3 native display, doesn't the DVD player need to be set to 4:3?


Jon


p.s.

I was also disappointed with TPM. However, for the hell of it, I gave my LT150 a progressive signal from my home PC and was shocked to see such a drastic difference.

 

[Jim Ferguson]

Quote:

Since the Lt150 is a 4:3 native display, doesn't the DVD player need to be set to 4:3?

Absolutely not. Set the player to 16:9. Set the LT150 to "cinema" mode for anamorphic DVD's.


If you don't use the 16:9 mode you are getting absolutely no benefit out of anamorphic DVD's.