I put Star Wars - Phantom Menace in my CLD-97 the other day. I noticed that when the Japanese subtitles appear (outside the letterboxed picture at the bottom) there is momentary interference for a split second, whenever they appear or update. That is, it looks like slight static. I noticed it during the opening text crawl (the "Episode I" synopsis) at the beginning of the movie, where it is pretty obvious when looking at the English text. During the film itself, it was difficult or impossible to see, in fact, I'm not 100% sure it was present at all (I was testing something with my sound at the time, and I only watched a few minutes.

I'm not sure if it has always done this, and I never noticed before, or if something is beginning to go awry with my player or CRT (which is a Toshiba 65" rear-projection). Or perhaps my DVDO iScan HD+ video processor.

Has anyone else seen this?

- Mark

I'd try it without the processor and see what happens. I can see where a processor could get tricked by data showing up in the black bar area below the normal picture.

Well, once again, you are correct Kurtis - when I bypass the iScan, the problem is solved. At some point, I will try some different settings to see if I can fix the issue, as I want to continue using the iScan. Just a minor annoyance anyway, and it only happens under this special circumstance.

Do you ever get tired of being right?

Thanks.

- Mark

I've been wrong enough times to learn lessons and I'm still learning.

As we all are - and I've learned a lot from you, and a lot here on LDDB.

I have the exact same DVDO Iscan unit to a Pioneer 64" CRT rear projector that's 1080i capable. I don't know what your set is capable of in HD mode. Are you running 1080i output on the Iscan? And are you running it to an RGB input or a Y-Pb-Pr input? If your set is 1080i capable, I found that I had a more stable image if I set the DVDO at 540p rather than 1080i and I still got a great picture. Also, I tried the different sync signal setups and that also made some difference as well, some are better than others.

Hey rixrex -

Honestly I set the iScan up so long ago I don't actually recall what settings I am using. Yes, my set is 1080i compatible, and I can't remember if I'm running that or 540p. I used Video Essentials and A Video Standard for calibrating, and went with whatever gave me the best picture (or so I thought at the time).

I do remember experimenting with the sync settings.

I am running over component (Y-Pb-Pr) to the CRT. What player are you using? I have a CLD-97 and, curiously, I do remember I got a noticeably better picture when using the S-video to the iScan than I did using the composite, and that's how I'm running. That surprised me because I think before I got the iScan and I was running directly to the CRT, the picture was better over composite. I think I discovered at the time it was because of the comb filter on the player vs. the set, and which was being used - i.e, the better, internal one on the player when using composite vs. the one on the set when using S-video, but I could be mistaken about that. I reasoned that the filter on the iScan was superior to that of the player.

Thanks very much for the suggestion, I am going to check that out and let you know what I discover.

- Mark

Your set sounds similar to mine. I have both a DVL 919 to it and a CLD-D515 for PAL LDs. I notice no difference in using the composite or S-video outputs. I am running mine into the RGB (15 pin PC plug) input on my set. Your set may or may not have that sort of input. The HD ready CRT projector sets were all 1080i capable, and 540p should be able to work on your set. You may or may not find a difference, but I find a little better picture on mine at 540p.

The Iscan takes your analog signal, deinterlaces it and turns it into digital where it can do the enhancing and scaling, so your comb filter on your player isn't really a big deal. But maybe it's so superior that it send a better analog signal to the Iscan than does the composite. You can get the Iscan digital signal via the DVI output or use the Iscan's reformatted analog signal, which is what I do and seemingly what you do as well. In that case, you're using the comb filter in the Iscan, which is supposed to be pretty good.

If I use a gray scale and color bar to calibrate, I always find that I have to adjust that afterwards to suit my taste anyway. The Iscan really can't increase resolution, but it does help to get rid of jaggies, edge dot crawl, and visible scan lines, which gives you the effect of better resolution and a better quality picture. Plus it has that great variety of aspect ratios, that I find really useful since my Pioneer set has light grey sidebars when on 4:3 mode, which is very annoying. With the Iscan, I can choose darker sidebars.

I would say just use the video output that gives you the best quality picture through the Iscan. If you're using s-video and that's better, then save the composite for a different model player or for a VCR.

Well, I experimented with the iScan but no other settings solved the issue. I was already outputting 540p, so I tried 1080i but it made no difference. As far as the Sync settings, the only two that produce a signal over component are bi-level and tri-level, and I cannot discern any difference whatsoever between these settings.

I also tried adjusting the Frame Rate conversion - the only one that works is 60Hz locked - I can set it to unlocked, which allows a manual adjustment, but I have no idea what that should be (if anything) - it defaults to 59.94 I believe. From reading the manual, it looks like that setting is dependent on a 24Hz progressive source (3:2 pulldown), which the laserdisc is not, so I am assuming the only possible setting is the 60Hz locked. Is that right?

Not sure what else to try, but as I said earlier, it's more of a curiosity than anything else really - this is the only disc on which I've ever noticed an issue.

I did put another subtitled disc in, but the text was within the picture and I could not see the problem - although it's difficult to see even on Phantom Menace except on that opening text sequence.

This may all become moot anyway, as I've got a new Anthem AVM50 preamp/processor which has internal video processing - not sure how it will compare to the iScan, but it's newer by a few years, and I'm thinking it may be at least as good, if not better, in which case I will probably retire the iScan. If I ever get the time to unbox and set up the Anthem...