New LCD, Poor DVD Playback

[dahl_berg]

I hope someone here has some insight into a resolution to my problem. I purchased a new 19" AG Neuvo F-419 LCD and since the dvd playback has been poor, I have a AMD 64 3500+, Chaintech VNF4-Ultra, ATI AIW X600 Pro w/ DVI & VGA. Video playback on my old CRT is much better than on my LCD w/ DVI, when I compare playback to my brothers machine (XP 3200, GeForce 5700, Generic LCD) my dvd playback looks horrible. I was hoping someone here would have experience trying to get this thing to look acceptable. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[lakedude]

What do you mean by horrible? Are you getting motion blur ("ghosting"), color banding, microblock??? What is the actual problem?

 

[dahl_berg]

I am experiencing "ghosting", pixelation around the edges of objects. I am not an expert in this area but the best way that I can describe it would be to say that edges that should be smooth are not. I would assume that my graphics card and my monitor (12ms) should be able to handle decent dvd video playback. Again, I appreciate any help or advice.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[lakedude]

Well the rest of your system is plenty fast so the new monitor or perhaps some visual quality setting must be the problem. Motion blur happens only when things are moving on the screen and only on slower LCD screens. It is most obvious when something high contrast (like black to white) is moving quickly across the screen. During movement the images will smear as what was drawn does not fade completely before something new is drawn causeing a smearing effect. Still images would look perfect. If this is the type of thing you are seeing the fault lies with your monitor and nothing can be done about it except to get a faster monitor. My ViewSonic vs191b is too slow and exibits motion blur in spite of being rated at 8ms (lies!!). Note this type of error would not be seen if you paused a DVD, it is only visible during actual motion.

You may also be seeing compression errors from MPEG2 which is the codec DVD's use. This type of error is most noticable around the edges of high contrast items. This type of error is more noticable during motion when the codec is working harder. These errors would be present on the other monitors you mention but they may be more or less noticable on different monitors. If this is your problem you might lower your contrast so that the compression artifacts are less noticable. This type of error might still be visible if you pause your DVD. It might also "pop" into focus if the DVD player stops on a high quality keyframe.

That 12ms is unfortunately a meaningless number since manufactures have started publishing gray to gray numbers instead of black to white. 12ms black to white would be a great spec while 12ms gray to gray kinda sucks. My best guess is that the spec is gray to gray and you have a slow monitor (sorry) like my stinking ViewSonic. My ViewSonic was rated 8ms but it is more like 20ms (or more) black to white.

I think we should shoot the folks who came up with that gray to gray method, who is with me?