Panasonic 42ins Plasma G30, Lots of questions

[croyde]

As a separate thread to the how heavy? one, I need help with the set up of the picture and sound.

Bare with me cheers.

I have now connected the Sky+ box directly with a decent scart, as originally it was routed through an old Sony PVR, and there is a slight improvement in picture. Well the guide looks better at least.

The DVD player is connected by HDMI and I have just looked at the beginning of Star Wars 3, the flying thru the battle scene at the beginning and it just looks too cartoony.

I tried the THX mode but then it was too dark.

The reviews say that the sound is not bad for a flat screen but after loads of adjustments it just sounds too tinny.

The SD pictures are a major downgrade from my CRT and they remind me of when we first got widescreens but had to blow the old pictures up to fit and everything looked washed out and soft.

Just awful.

Some of the HD stuff on freeview looks good but not all of it though.

So it looks like I am going to have to spend more on Blu Ray, external amp and speakers and Sky HD+ and have a major collection of DVDs that will still look rubbish.

The current DVD player is supposed to upscale to 1080.

Will Sky HD+ connected by HDMI make the SD pictures look better?

The one thing that has impressed me tho' is the BBC iPlayer through my 5.5mps broadband. It looks pretty good, far better than the SD pictures either via Sky or Freeview.

Someone point out where I might be going wrong as this purchase has turned into a major disappointment.

Cheers.

[Thesaint01708]

croyde said:

The current DVD player is supposed to upscale to 1080

it will never be a proper 1080 as the original material isnt 1080 (buy a bluray player and see what i mean)

croyde said:

Will Sky HD+ connected by HDMI make the SD pictures look better?

Yes, but remember some channels like Dave, Gold etc have really low bitrates so it will look poor blown up on large TV

[Thesaint01708]

Forgot to say, if your using sky HD, you will have to connect via HDMI - you can not have HD through scart.

[croyde]

Cheers, no worries with that. The Sky+ box, as I have found, does not have HDMI, hence another reason to (be forced) to upgrade.

[tdm34ds]

croyde said:

Cheers, no worries with that. The Sky+ box, as I have found, does not have HDMI, hence another reason to (be forced) to upgrade.

A common issue with SD Sky boxes, is not being set in RGB scart mode and set to 16/9 aspect ratio, and if it is please make sure you have the
scart lead actually in the "TVScart" output on the Sky Box..

You wouldn't believe how many times i've come across this.

[croyde]

Mine is in RGB mode but are you saying not to have it in 16:9 mode?

I have set the DVD player to upscale to 1080p and watched Minority Report last night and it looked good.

Back to SD and what is puzzling is that Spartacus, Gods of the Arena looks OK but Strike Back 2 looks terrible.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

[tdm34ds]

croyde said:

Mine is in RGB mode but are you saying not to have it in 16:9 mode?

I have set the DVD player to upscale to 1080p and watched Minority Report last night and it looked good.

Back to SD and what is puzzling is that Spartacus, Gods of the Arena looks OK but Strike Back 2 looks terrible.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

Sorry, it should read 16/9 mode as on, also scart control should be switched on as well

When you have the SKY epg on is it sharp and crisp with no fizzing between the info boxes?
if so that's correct then you're good to go.

Also there are massive variances between programs in terms of quality, it may be that the
people behind Strike Back 2 want a "gritty" look to the show, so you get the "Saving Private Ryan"
look to the image.