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Progressive scan questions

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I have a CRT 30" HDTV & i'm not sure if it does progressive scan or not. I couldn't find nothing in the user manual & other paperwork that makes any mention of it when i initially unpacked the TV, though that was several months ago. However, everything I've been reading on HDguru.com & wikipedia (not always reliable i know) seems to imply that all CRT's can dsiplay progressive scan. SO, my question stems from the instance maybe a month ago or so when i decided to mess with my DVD player's settings & switched it to progressive scan & the image went all wacky. It was still there, but instead of being centered as appropriate, it was as if the image was split in half with the right half of the picture on the left half of the screen & the left half of the image on the right half of the screen. It was also all wavy looking. My memory isn't perfect on the next details, but i seem to remember that the text of the DVD player menu became almost illegible, & some sort of box appearing in the middle of the screen (which looked to be generated by the TV, not the player, as it was perfectly square & legible) that said "PROGRESSIVE". I don't remember for certain if that "PROGRESSIVE" box appeared, but i seem to remember it.... It's been a while. Anyway, after messing with it for a minute, i put it back on interlaced & left it alone. Ive been reading a lot about the how's & why's of HDTV (& tv in general) lately & i just rememebered that. I fighured I'd ask around to see if anyone here with FAR more knowledge than i have in the whole matter might know what was going on & whether my TV can display a progressive signal or not. It's no big deal as I'm very satisfied with my TV as is, but i would like to get the most out of it & i keep hearing more & more about progressive & how wonderful it is. Thanks to anyone who takes time to help me.

Oh yeah, my tv is a 30 inch Phillips, this one to be exact.

EDIT, ok i just saw on there it lists it as progressive-capable, however, I'm at work and can't check the model number to see if that's EXACTLY the same tv, but the picture looks exactly like my tv, & the features all sound the same... So what the heck was going on with my dvd player? Maybe i'll try plugging my PS2 into it & setting it to progressive to see what happens... Could there be a setting on the tv i need to change?
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How is your DVD player hooked up to your TV? AFAIK you have to be feeding in through component, DVI, or HDMI to get progressive out of it.

Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!

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it's connected with component cables. You know, at the time it may have just been a composite cable, but I'm almost certain i had changed it over when i was messing with that. Definately something I'll double check though, Thanks!
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Karma is right, progressive cannot be sullpied via composite.
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well, i messed around a little with it today some more. It's connected with component cables. When i put the dvd player on prog. it doesn't make the "PROGRESSIVE" box appear like i was remembering, i guess i just made that up... However, it does do the split screen thingy like i mentioned & that's actually worse than i remembered. It's much like when you're getting a VERY weak over the air signal that is all slanted diagonally and blurry so that you can barely even tell whats on screen. & it travels slowly from left to right across the screen. It gets worse and worse the longer you leave it like that. I'm baffled b/c from everything i've read, it's setup & connected properly, & my tv should be capable, but it's not working. I've poured over my tv menu settings/options and can find nothing that would have any effect on this. I guess it's time to use that warranty/service package that Circuit City sold me... (they actually gave me a coupon which negated the price, normally i don't buy the additional service plans) I've got a couple of other questions for them too anyways....
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Are you sure that you have the green cable in the green input and the blue cable in the blue input? I plugged my green cable into the blue input and the blue into the green input one time and had similar effects.


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hmm, i'm fairly certain they're plugged in correctly as it works fine on interlaced. But i'll check that tomorrow before work (i'm on night shift right now). I've called the service center & they're going to send out a technician. I have a couple of other issues (very minor geometry issues at the very edge of the screen, & pretty nasty halos on objects in front of bright backgrounds if the sharpness isn't turned up to about 70%) & i have the 3 year service plan so i might as well make use of it. Overall the TV's great & these issues aren't really that big of a deal. (the halos are the biggest problem to me, but if you turn the sharpness up to 65-70% they go away & the image looks good, not what you'd typically expect with the sharpness that high). Hopefully, though, the technician will know what he's doing & be able to correct the problems. If they can't fix it, they give me a new tv, so i've got no complaints.
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Well, the tv guy came by this afternoon & hsowed me that to use progressive scan, you must hook the component cables to a digital input. turns out my tv has both digital & analog component inputs, so that problems solved.

However, & this REALLY frustrated me, he did not offer any help with the issue of halos around objects against a light background. I showed them to him, he agreed, "yes, there are clearly halos there." But, his answer was there's nothing that can be done, because "that's just ahow HD tvs are."

Apparently, according to my tv repairman, when you send any signal other than an HD signal through an HD tv, this will result in halos (looks very similar to heavy edge enhancement gone awry). So if you watch regular dvds or regular cable channels (both analog & digital mind you) or anything else that's not HD, there will be halos outlining objects & people. He even went so far as to say this is true on all HD tvs.

I called bullcrap & asked for an explanation as to why this is so. His answer? "that's just how they work." I continued to adamantly disagree and ask him to thoroughly explain to me how the signal interacts with the tv so as to cause this haloing. He balked. He continually fell back to his answer of "that's just how it is." As i continued to press for an explanation behind his answer, he began to explain that things are "so complicated no, & you're running so many signals to the tv, that anything other than HD will create halos." He also said "when everything goes to HD, the problem will go away."

Really?, then why do i see the halos on HD programs sometimes to? Why are there halos also present on the tv generated picture control menu? He danced around the question & offered nothing but his original answer.

He turned to an HD channel & pointed out there were no halos. It was a low light interior shot on some law & order show. I agreed, "yes, there are no halos there, & they are mush less noticable on HD channels, but they DO STILL EXIST, if you watch long enough, you will see them at times. " I also explained that on the HD channels, the halos are easiest to spot on shots of buildings against the sky, esp. dueing sunsets. Unfortunately there was no programming on the couple of HD channels i get at the time that exhibited this.

So, he left without really answering my question & i'm very ticked off. The halos aren't too bad if you crank the sharpness up, but i shouldn't have to do that. At first they were a mild annoyance, but now thanks to this BS they tried to feed me, i'm thoroughly ticked off. I'm no mindless consumer who buys into anything a tech guy tells me. If you give me answer, have the information to back it up dangit!! If you don't have the information, then be honest & tell me you don't know. DONT try to give me an "answer" that doesn't really explain anything!

*sigh* So, I'll be calling customer support again tomorrow. hopefully they'll have a better answer than "that's just how it is."

Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps anything other than an HD signal really WILL produce haloing. But until i'm offered evidence to back that claim up, i'm not buying it.
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I run non HD channels through digital cables and it doesn't create halo's. That guy is full of BS.


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Ditto. There's clearly something wrong with your TV. I'd suggest calling an ISF Technician if you can find one in your area.

Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!

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yeah, i need to call some ISFT's around here & price them out. I have a feeling they'll be too much, but maybe they can at least answer some of my questions (unlike the guy Circuit City sent out...) I'll still be calling the CC service plan people (that's fun to say 3times fast...) & letting them know i'm not satisfied & the issue has not been resolved. Maybe they'll pay to calibrate it...
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Finding out that it is Circuit City, I am not surprised at the service you got. Circuit City has one of the worst customer services among the major electronics stores.


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Really? That's very sad (for the state of electronics merchants) b/c i went to all the major electronics stores in my area & CC had the best service BY FAR. Not that it was great, it was really just acceptable. But that's far & away better than what i got at Sears, Best Buy, & the rest...

They were actually pretty good to me when i bought the tv. They matched the price from walmart (which was almost $200 less...) & then when they tried to sell me the 3 yr service plan, i almost declined, except that it covered lightning strikes. Sicnce i was buying a new tv due to lighting in the first place, & my parents who live a mile away have had lightning fry their electronics 3 times in last 10 years or so. I figured $70 for 3 years protection against lightning strikes was worth it. When i did, the salesman gave me a 10% off coupon out of the blue which wound up making the service plan virtually free. Of course, had he been really nice, he'd have offered the coupon to me BEFORE i bought the service plan.....

Also, I'm not certain this guy they sent actually works for CC. I'd have to double check the paperwork he left, but i think he's from a company contracted by CC for home repairs.

At least the guy on the phone was helpful when i called initially to set up the appointment. Come to think of it, he specifically said halos were a good valid reason to have a technician come check out the tv... You'd think that if what the tech told me were true, then halos would not be a valid reason..... gah, i'm still irritated at that guy....
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Circuit City has great price matching and and have some great deals. However, getting someone to help you is another story at my local Circuit City.When I went to buy ROTJ 2006 edition I was waiting for someone to check me out, but no one offered to check me out. While I was standing there, two female cashiers standing in the back of the store were chating away. They looked up and saw that I was standing at the register but instead of walking to the register they looked away and continued to talk. Finally a Rep. from the Verizon department in the store walked up to the girls and asked them to tend to the register. That is just poor customer service. My frustration may have been due to my anxiousness to get home and watch ROTJ, but in any case the girls should have been working and not ignoring customers.


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That's exacltly the thing that happened when i bought the 06 release at Best Buy in late october. I was at the customer service counter to get them to match the online price. took FOREVER, then, they tried to tell me that only STAR WARS was on sale & ROTJ was full price..... (my brother gave me ESB on my birthday a couple days earlier). I wound up getting both for the sale price once i showed them that all 3 were indeed on sale...
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I also bought my TV from Circuit City and I can say that when we had a problem with it before (it through its convergence board), after being dicked around by customer service, we went straight to a third party technician, who fixed it without hassle.

Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!

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That reminds me of how sales reps have tried to rationalize HDtv poor picture of non HD by saying the problem is inherrant in the old obsolete analog source and we should just accept how bad standard video looks on HD tv's because HD is better. Well, all my personal videotapes are on so called crappy standard definition and gasp, most are on analog tape!
I guess it would be the equivalent of being told all the old music before digital recording (like the Beatles, Motown...) has to sound crappy and worse than it did on LP record, while current songs, which are so bland that even the studio master probably sounds like mp3, can have "crystal clarity."

Take back the trilogy. Execute Order '77

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You're not getting some outside interference through your cables are you?

“I love Darth Editous and I’m not ashamed to admit it.” ~ADigitalMan

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When you say halos are you talking about edge ghosting or actual halos (i.e. a bright ring around a bright object on a dark background?).

Is your TV a rear projection unit or a CRT direct view?

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i would say no to the ineterferance question as the problem appears on everything from laserdisc to dvd to standard & HD cable channels. Also, we had an interferance problem before & the cable guy cam out & gave us new heavily shielded cables (hough that was before we bought this tv).

Hmm, edge ghosting sounds like it might be a better description of the problem. I've never actually heard that term before. Also, it generally appears along the left side of the object that has the "ghosting" about 1mm from the actual edge.

& it's a CRT direct view.