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You might expect a distortion-free picture from a modern widescreen television, but there is something on many DVDs and VHS tapes that they can't always cope with.
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My experience with Sony widescreen TVs
I had an experience much as described in the article 'The Shape of Things' in the Glympton Global Gazette with model KV-24LS35U. The distortion showed on about 60% of NTSC DVDs and about 30% of PAL and NTSC videotapes.
2010/06/16
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Videotapes showed no distortion of this type through older Sony fullscreen televisions. The engineers suggested I test the DVD player through other widescreen televisions, with the following results: 2 models of other makes did not show this distortion. Sony LCD, Plasma, fullscreen & 100Hz models showed no distortion, but the basic wide flatscreen models (32", 28" & 24") all showed distortion, the pattern being slightly different with each model and most distracting on the 24" model.
Conclusion: the fault was not something the engineers could adjust or fix. I phoned Sony and have not heard anything since. That was in March 2004.
In the meantime, I have found that a 'video stabiliser' on the AV inputs removes the source of the picture distortion in all cases, except with a small number of videotapes. I do feel that the TV should be able to cope with as wide a variety of input signals as possible, and that it should not be necessary to go to these lengths to get a distortion-free picture from a TV of this quality.
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| Cardman Digital Video Picture Stabilizer |
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Latest version of the Cardman copy protection remover where the two copy protection systems it removes are Macrovision and CGMS.
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| MacroMaster Video Stabiliser |
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Eliminate distortion problems with this SCART lead - suitable for RGB rather than composite signals. An extra diode from pin16 to V+ increases stability, but an external power supply is still needed for widescreen signals. |
| The Shape of Things |
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Article from the Glympton Global Gazette, which keeps moving around the pages, so here's a direct link! |
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What is Macrovision? There's no problem with it...
I hadn't really been aware of it until experiencing problems with a Sony widescreen television, which showed distortion at the top of the screen. I believed this was caused by Macrovision copy protection, though Sony and various engineers have denied it.
2004/08/21
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It seems puzzling that televisions are on the market which encourage the use of devices that remove copy protection, in order to get a distortion-free picture.
It is less of a surprise that manufacturer, retailer and their engineers will not admit Macrovision causes any problems.
I notice that many US discs (from MGM, Columbia Tristar etc) do not use this type of copy protection.
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| Macrovision Demystified |
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Good background information on copy protection. |
| uk.media.dvd Frequently Asked Questions |
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Good general FAQ, designed to cover issues pertinent to the UK DVD industry. The website also has a comprehensive list of multi-region upgrades for DVD players plus other DVD news. |
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Region 2 too! VHS to DVD backup?
It's not just region 1 DVDs that display this picture distortion. And it's not a problem exclusive to Sony!
2010/06/16
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I recently came across something I wish I'd had access to when dealing with this a couple of years ago...
Region 2 ntsc DVDs using Macrovision copy-protection show the same distortion of verticals at the top of the picture.
And it's not just Sony - I recently saw similar distortion on a Philips wide screen when playing a VHS video tape.
A final word: I now have a multi-region Panasonic DMR-EZ47V VHS/DVD recorder. This will output ntsc as pal-60, so no picture distortion on the TV. If you change the setup to ntsc the distortion reappears. When playing/copying ntsc VHS tapes, the signal is cleaned up to remove distortion (on S-video and RGB outputs), except in some instances, when the distortion is increased and copying to DVD backup is not possible, due to the copy-protection signal being detected!
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