Q&A # 271 - January 7, 2002

Staff

Q I have the following system ...

Denon AVR-5700 Receiver
Denon DVM-3700 DVD Player
Sony Wega KV36-XBR250 TV
Monitor Audio Silver 9i Fronts
Monitor Audio Silver 4i Rears
Monitor Audio Silver Center 12i
Monitor Audio Silver Surrounds
Velodyne HGS-10 Sub
Philips Pronto Pro Remote

I plan on upgrading to a rear projection big screen HDTV very soon (two weeks). I've pretty much settled on (unless you talk me out of it) the Mitsubishi Diamond 65". It seems to have all the features that are important to me and is in my price range. What should I be comparing this set to and do you have any specific recommendations?

I also plan to upgrade the DVD player to a progressive scan model and am leaning towards the Denon for what I'm thinking are poor reasons. Namely, that it will blend in nicely with my system, meets my price target, and doesn't have any glaringly bad traits. You write favorably about it in your review and it passes all of your tests except for the chroma bug.  However you never seem to recommend its purchase when folks ask about progressive player in that price range. Does the chroma bug cause that much discomfort? I like Denon gear but really want the best PS DVD player that I can buy for under $1k. Does the DVM-3700 that I currently own have the chroma bug? Will I notice significantly better video quality with a progressive scan player on either my current TV or the Mitsubishi?

If I buy a single disc DVD player I will also have to add a carousel CD player. Can you recommend something in the $500 range? I'm currently using the DVM-3700 for CD playback and don't want to step down in audio quality.

A When shopping for an HDTV, make sure it has an IEEE 1394 port for DV input (Digital Video). This is the standard now for sending HDTV signals from your satellite dish or cable to TVs. Otherwise, you have to go through an adapter that will down-convert everything (including 1080i and 720p) to 480p. Secondly, test the TV you are considering by sending a 480p signal to it (DVD player with component output set to Progressive) and see if it locks into "Full" mode. If it does, get a different TV model that does not do that.

There are no "poor" reasons for selecting a component such as a DVD player. It all depends on what is important to you. Right now, the Panasonic line of mass market DVD players does not have the chroma bug. JVC progressive scan DVD players are chroma bug free as well. They use the Mediamatics Pantera chipset which doesn't exhibit the chroma bug. Buy whatever makes you happy.

For $500, just about any of the carousel CD players will do fine. Choose one that is on sale and has an easy to use remote control.

Q If I connect a progressive scan DVD player to my regular (non-HDTV, non-DTV etc.) TV set, what really happens? Does the DVD player put out 720X480 frames every 1/60 seconds and does the TV then take these and convert them back to 720X240 fields and then display them in 480i format?

A You can't send a progressive scan signal to a regular TV because the regular TV cannot scan at 2 x 15.75 kHz. Only HDTVs and DTVs can do that. To use a progressive scan DVD player with a regular TV, you have to set the player to interlaced output mode.

Q Does an HDTV take a 480p format analog output from a progressive scan DVD player and use it directly to display an image on the TV or does it need to go through digitization, de-interlacing, back to analog, and then display?

A Depending on the frequency, some signals into an HD set have to be digitized and processed. The 480i signal gets digitized and sent through the set's internal line doubler (deinterlacer). The 480p, 720p, and 1080i signals just get processed. Once the signal is digitized, it is processed, and if it's Y/Pb/Pr or Y/Cb/Cr, it's converted to RGB so that the electron guns can display the image. Some manufacturers' TVs actually convert RGB inputs to Y/Pb/Pr for  processing, then back to RGB for display.

Q When will we finally see home theater components connected together digitally with Firewire?

A Firewire is the standardized mechanism for transport of SACD. There is a 0.9 standard for DVD-Audio. Firewire is packetized transfer, so to work with bitstream style data will require buffering, at which point jitter should be essentially nil, assuming a halfway decent clocking mechanism is employed for an internal transmission via a bit based method. However, you cannot connect components together with Firewire cables longer than about 15 feet (meaning a problem with components in different rooms). Also, the entertainment industry is still paranoid about copyright issues. Just using Cat 5 cables (DSL) would have worked because they are good to 200 MHz, they work for long cables, and you can get them at electronics stores for $10, but copyright is probably the issue that is still hanging things up the worst. They don't seem to be able to understand that no matter what copyright protection scheme they come up with, someone will break it within a few months. Perhaps they would just like digital communication to go away, but yeah, like that is really going to happen.

Q Why do manufacturers insist that you buy their inferior surround sound systems that come built in with their expensive projection TV's? Surely, if someone is willing to fork out over $5000 for a high quality, large picture, they will also have a pretty good sound system - a lot better than what they are forced to buy in their TV. Would leaving out the extra sound hardware (that I'm willing to bet nobody uses) not bring down the cost, and weight, significantly? Are there displays, other than the flat panels, that are not burdened with the extra luggage?

A The built-in audio systems in RPTVs are there for those people who don't already have a surround sound system yet, and some people really don't have one. Secondly, the built-in audio systems are not very expensive to include, maybe adding about $150 to the purchase price, using the power supply that is already there. Most big plasma TVs offer their product with or without built-in amplifier and speakers that are attached to the sides, and front projectors usually don't have any sound system at all, except for those that are made for board room meetings, and they are usually just have a single small speaker.

Q The question I have concerns my Sony DVP-S7700 DVD player. When using the component outputs of this player is the Macrovision signal still there? The reason I am asking this is because I am having horizontal sync tracking problems. The top of the image hooks to the right when playing DVDs either 1.33:1 or anamorphic widescreen. The DVD player is connected to a Princeton Graphics PSC-1500 scaler using the S-Video output of the player. Then the PSC-1500 is connected to my monitor with a VGA cable. This hook up is what gives me problems with my monitor (Princeton Graphics AF3.0HD).  I am considering buying a new scaler that will give me 1024x768 and an interlaced component video input. The Macrovision signal, or the possibility of it in the component signal, concerns me. Will I have the same problems with a new scaler/video processor that has a component video input that allows me to use the DVD player's component video output?

A Macrovision is there in all outputs, composite, S-Video, and component. We have seen this image-hooking with several scalers, and are working with the manufacturers to resolve them using firmware updates, and will announce them here when they become available. You might contact Princeton Graphics directly to see what they say about it. Try connecting your player directly to the monitor without the scaler to see if you still have the problem. So far, I have seen it only associated with scalers, but would appreciate receiving e-mails from anyone seeing it using a player directly to a monitor, particularly with plasma displays. I don't think it is a Macrovision issue.

Q I've had my Sony S530D DVD player for over a year and experienced no problems. Yet recently, the picture went bad with a number of lines filling the screen which makes watching DVDs annoying if not impossible. I've tried a number of things to rectify the problem. I bought a better S-Video cable, an expensive DVD cleaning kit, and tried all possible connections. To determine if it was ultimately the DVD player, I hooked it up to another TV with nothing else attached. Same problem! Lines sometimes become manageable, but this sucks! I'd love some ideas please!

A Please take a digital photo (jpg) of the TV screen when this problem is occurring and send it to us. If we can't figure it out, we will post it here for our numerous electrical engineer readers to comment on. There are a lot of things that could cause such a problem. Also, try using the composite video connection from the player to the TV and see if the problem is still there.

Q Is there a rule of thumb when it comes to matching speakers (center to mains, surrounds to mains) of different brands?

A There are no rules, but here is what I would do: (1) If I really liked my mains, I would get a center that is in the same brand and model line and get two speakers identical to the mains to use in the rear; (2) If I didn't like my mains, I would get an entirely new set of speakers, all of the same brand and model, making sure that they all sound neutral; (3) If I were neutral about the mains that I had, I would look around for other speakers in several brands, that sound the same as the mains.

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