Up Conversion De-Interlace issues

[Jimmy Macintosh]

I've an XA2 player, whenever I stick in an older DVD, (Family Guy, Father Ted) I get obvious artifacts that stem from de-interlacing, loads of horizontal lines across the moving portion of the image when the scene moves fast.

Is there anything I can do to stop this? Other than making the player output 480, and basically remove the upconversion.

[resevilfan86]

Seems odd, since the XA2 has one of the best upconverter chips out there. Have you actually tried outputing it as 480? If you are having problems the problem most likely lies with the DVD encode than anything. Are these the only DVDs you have tried?

[Jimmy Macintosh]

I've tried loads of DVD's, these two in particular produce this problem the most frequently, the opening credits of Father Ted whe they push Father Jack over is the consistant one. I have seen it in other DVD's but no-one in the room mentions it, so I'm guessing that it is only bothering me. As you say, the XA-2 is supposed to be the best upconverter (the reason I chose it) so am suitably puzzled.
I've connected my XA-2 to my Onkyo 605 using HDMI, then HDMI to my Sharp Aquos 64 series. I'm wondering whether the Onkyo is messing with it. I can't find a setting that seems to be able to deal with it in the Onkyo menus though.

I've not tried outputting as 480 yet, I'm using a Harmony remote and haven't programmed that series of buttons in yet. So I'll dig out the XA-2 remote soon and see what it does.

[Arkadin]

I think it has to do with a firmware update problem maybe.
my friend has an XA2 and he has had problems also.

[resevilfan86]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

I think it has to do with a firmware update problem maybe.
my friend has an XA2 and he has had problems also.

Definitely a possibility.

Originally Posted by Jimmy Macintosh

I've tried loads of DVD's, these two in particular produce this problem the most frequently, the opening credits of Father Ted whe they push Father Jack over is the consistant one. I have seen it in other DVD's but no-one in the room mentions it, so I'm guessing that it is only bothering me. As you say, the XA-2 is supposed to be the best upconverter (the reason I chose it) so am suitably puzzled.
I've connected my XA-2 to my Onkyo 605 using HDMI, then HDMI to my Sharp Aquos 64 series. I'm wondering whether the Onkyo is messing with it. I can't find a setting that seems to be able to deal with it in the Onkyo menus though.

I've not tried outputting as 480 yet, I'm using a Harmony remote and haven't programmed that series of buttons in yet. So I'll dig out the XA-2 remote soon and see what it does.

Well now that you mention the Onkyo, I know the 605 has a firmware update for it. Other than that there really is no reason for it to contaminate your video like that.

Here is what I would do...check your player and see if you need a firmware update, then check your 605 for the same. If then you still get the same problems, then you should check your HDMI cables, and if that still doesnt work, try connecting the player directly into the TV and just check to see if the the problem persists. If by then you still notice it, its pretty much safe to assume its the encoding of your DVDs and not your system.

[CochiseGuy]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Macintosh

I've tried loads of DVD's, these two in particular produce this problem the most frequently, the opening credits of Father Ted whe they push Father Jack over is the consistant one. I have seen it in other DVD's but no-one in the room mentions it, so I'm guessing that it is only bothering me. As you say, the XA-2 is supposed to be the best upconverter (the reason I chose it) so am suitably puzzled.
I've connected my XA-2 to my Onkyo 605 using HDMI, then HDMI to my Sharp Aquos 64 series. I'm wondering whether the Onkyo is messing with it. I can't find a setting that seems to be able to deal with it in the Onkyo menus though.

I've not tried outputting as 480 yet, I'm using a Harmony remote and haven't programmed that series of buttons in yet. So I'll dig out the XA-2 remote soon and see what it does.

No, it's not the Onkyo - it doesn't do any processing of video via HDMI, just passes it through. What resolution are you outputting the XA2 at? 1080i/1080p60/ or 1080p24? Perhaps your Sharp Aquos is doing something with the video? If you're outputting at 1080p 24 fps, it could be the way those DVDs were authored - that they're TV series stands out.

I think the XA2 upconversion is amazing - it's so good I've recently been buying standard DVDs for the first time since / launched. The Weinstein Miriam Collection editions of El Cid & Fall of the Roman Empire, and traded Heroes Season1 for the entire Seasons 1-5 of Six Feet Under. They all look terrific.

Originally Posted by resevilfan86

Well now that you mention the Onkyo, I know the 605 has a firmware update for it. Other than that there really is no reason for it to contaminate your video like that.

The FW updates for the 605 are for audio only. The 1st update was for some early production units that could not decode DTS-HD MA, and the 2nd was to correct the "DTS Bomb" in which some titles with DTS-HD MA audio bitstreamed could create some loud popping noises when least expected.

[Arkadin]

My friend who owns the XA2 has told me that though the dvd upconverting is VERY good, there is some major problem involving a certain output I believe.
I will ask him about it, and get back.
I'm pretty sure it has to do with a firmware update that fixed an HD DVD problem but screwed up sd dvds.

[melodywhore]

i get those same things on some 480i resolution special features with my A30. but i don't change my 1080p/24f to watch those either. and i just live with 'em... it's not a huge issue for me. if i was getting those in high def output, i'd be more concerned.

[resevilfan86]

Originally Posted by CochiseGuy

No, it's not the Onkyo - it doesn't do any processing of video via HDMI, just passes it through. What resolution are you outputting the XA2 at? 1080i/1080p60/ or 1080p24? Perhaps your Sharp Aquos is doing something with the video? If you're outputting at 1080p 24 fps, it could be the way those DVDs were authored - that they're TV series stands out.

The Onkyo doesn't do any processing, but sometimes it might cause some interference to the signal.

Originally Posted by CochiseGuy

The FW updates for the 605 are for audio only. The 1st update was for some early production units that could not decode DTS-HD MA, and the 2nd was to correct the "DTS Bomb" in which some titles with DTS-HD MA audio bitstreamed could create some loud popping noises when least expected.

The firmware updates might have been labeled for audio but reality is that there may be more to it than that. Plus sometimes doing updates like that have been known to fix other tiny problems like this. Either way, the Onkyo should be updated.

[Jimmy Macintosh]

Thanks for all of the information so far, I'm running the XA-2 on firmware 2.7 as I had heard of the issues regarding the 2.8 update.

I think I'm outputting 1080p/24, but am not convinced as I recall reading that my TV doesn't support 24fps so I'm more than likely running 1080p/60. I'll check tonight and see.

Thanks again.

[mrspeakers]

Go into the video/picture settings on the XA2 and tell us what you have. If you have 2.7, this should not be occurring.

I have watched at least 50 SD movies without a single bad pixel or artifact, so this is "not good."

[Jimmy Macintosh]

It's 2.7.

Mrspeakers,
Do you work in a store in SD?

[bfocussvt]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Macintosh

I think I'm outputting 1080p/24, but am not convinced as I recall reading that my TV doesn't support 24fps so I'm more than likely running 1080p/60. I'll check tonight and see.

Thanks again.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=409

You actually might be running at 24p...

[mrspeakers]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Macintosh

It's 2.7.

Mrspeakers,
Do you work in a store in SD?

LOL... No, I don't. I used to work in a high-end audio retail shop when I was in college. I'm an EE, and do occasional speaker designs for licensing, though it's been a couple of years, and I did some early work on Quicktime, and the MPEG2 standard. I've also designed a few DSP based audio products.

My day job right now is running marketing at a software company.

Regarding settings: the XA2 has a problem with forced 24fps when you run regular DVDs, you get awful artifacts. I don't have my system on now, but I essentially concluded this required me to manually change the settings for frame rate whenever I watched rock videos or other real "video" source. It is OK for films...

It would help diagnose the problem to know if the settings are auto, 24fps, or just 1080p, and if certain specific types of content trigger it...

[Jimmy Macintosh]

Been a while since I have the time to be able to respond to this.

Now, I have 2.7 firmware, that is definite.
I used to have the settings as 1080p/24fps, I changed it to upto 1080p the effect worsened, I left it that way just in case I was psychologically seeing things that weren't actually there. Two weeks later they are significantly worse, especially on the animation. Turning it back to 1080p/24fps has improved it but they are still there. My next test probably over the weekend is going to be setting it to 480, just to see if it's a disc issue. Actually I should put it in my other player first.

Has anyone tried the new firmware yet? does it cause any other issues or does it seem stable?