Hardware Forum - Banding with NTSC/region 1 and RGB Scart - Page 1

What do you mean by 'banding'?

Mike

Just two faint lines I suppose... a wave? Hard to explain

happens sometimes with certain tv/dvd combos - i think the banding is a kind of macrovision 'ghost' that only shows up with ntsc discs. i use a tosh210 and oldish panasonic tv and have the same problem. looked everywhere for a solution - the only thing i can think of is to persuade your other half that you really need a new tv ! no luck on that front so far...

I have a Thomson 28inch.. and pioneer DVD player.

My brother has the same model TV but different model pioneer.. and he gets the same.

Mmmm I wonder if I could persuade the missus to go for a new TV

I have just recently bought a Philips 6006 (28") widescreen tv and have found that I get the banding effect when using the dvd (also a Philips by the way) throught the scart with the RGB (the other is S-VHS). Altogether it seems to work 'OK' by using the RGB scart for the vhs and the other scart for the dvd. Obviously I am losing some picture quality but it is still overall noticeably better than other media (its my first dvd). There is a discussion thread going on which is specifically having a go at Philips tvs including this problem but it seems as if this is perhaps a more widespread issue if some of you are getting this effect with different equipment.

I have seen it mentioned in other, more technical sites, that scart is not the best connection and that there are all sorts of issued with RGB etc..

Nevertheless, I am interested to find out if I should be having this problem or if it is really fault. The manual for the tv is pretty vague on which scart to use for which equipment, metioning that some dvd drives may need to plugged into the non-RGB scart. Since I have a Philips 733 dvd (fine by the way and easily hackable multi-region) this is a bit disturbing as it implies that Philips have designed tvs that are not actually capable of properly processing and RGB signal.

This is also noticeable with a PSone which I beleive uses RGB (?) - and which is plugged through a scart junction box which can switch RGB on or off. Switching it on produces a poorer picture for both the game console and the VCR which shares the junction box.

Just plugged my DVD into SCART2 on my TV and set it up as SVHS. No more banding.


SVHS seems to look loads better than 'standard' video... I cant tell any difference between it and RGB (apart from no banding!!) Am happy now

I am very pleased that you have solved your problem. I tried switching the scarts around again just to make absolutely sure that I wasn't wrong and I got the same result. Oddly enough, the picture quality through the RGB is without banding if I select the NTSC option on the DVD! As others have mentioned on this site that RGB is a European thing this is surprising (the image was a little shaky however so I went back to the tried and tested S-VHS method).

I also tried the DVD with just the phono cables for an alternative S-VHS setting and this was OK but not quite as good as the scart and, in any case, is very ugly with cables sticking out of the side of the set.

I recently had a more expensive JVS 100 mhz set for a while and the RGB scart was essential on this as the other scart produced a black and white image on the DVD screen! The digital artefacts were too much for the family and so I settled for the cheaper Philips.

I have tried Auto, Pal and NTSC options on my DVD.. all produce banding when played thru RGB Scart. No sign of it when played via SVHS or normal scart. Very weird!

Oh, SVHS does seem to cause a bit of bleed. Noticable when Red on Black! RGB produces super crisp images!

The bleeding isnt as annoying as the banding though

On the thread having a go at the Philips tv's, someone has mentioned getting a Loewe set and using the scarts correctly results in no banding problem at all. They make the point that if a set is designed correctly these problems shouldn't occur. They finish up by recommending the set which is 100mhz.

This is all very well but at around £1000 this is beyond the budget of many, myself included. My 6006 cost me less than £400 and I am quite happy with it. Having tried a JCV 100mhz I have to say that the digitally enhanced picture takes some getting used to. Even if there are no 'digital artefacts' obvious on the screen. In the end the other members of my family rejected the set as it tended to make many programs look 'too real' - rather like those 'live' versions of ER and the X Files which had a very peculiar feel to them. I know that many purists do not feel that 100mhz has yet reached its potential and that there is alot to be said for sticking with 50mhz.

Elsewhere I noted that someone makes the point that on other sites there are many complaints about most if not all of the other brands. It is just the luck of the draw!