Info and forum posts by 'Soyale'

RE: SC2000 - picture problems, firmware downgrades - solution and explanation?

The firmware appears to be able to control the decoder chip and make alterations to the picture i.e the sharpness as it decompresses the MPEG stream.

RE: SC2000 - picture problems, firmware downgrades - solution and explanation?

Hasn`t anyone played with the hidden picture settings to see if the shadow problem comes back in a certain combination? That would confirm or refute my theory about the FW

SC2000 - picture problems, firmware downgrades - solution and explanation?

I`ve noticed a lot of people having picture problems downgrade before upgrading to new firmware and this fixing problems with various discs.

Now, I`m technically minded and for me there has to be a reason for this and I think I have an idea.

I think some of the firmware upgrades reset secret settings and 1.80 is an example of this. When I upgraded to 1.80 I set the RF Out mode to on. Later on I bought some discs like Spinal Tap special edition which had strange drop outs in the sound, at first I thought it was the player or the downmixing or something and just put up with it. When I upgraded to 2.1x (can`t remember which one) the sound was suddenyl restored to its former glory. I was needless to say very pleased but wondered what had happened. Turns out that it was the RF Mode that was causing the dropouts, if I put that mode back on the RF Mode setting the sound dropouts come back.

I think the firware upgrade reset this setting.

Now, what has this got to do with picture blockiness etc. To be honest I`m not terribly observant and haven`t noticed any picture degradation after any of the upgrades in either sharpness or pixellation. My theory is that some of the hidden picture settings i.e. dither or hi-res might affect this problem. Downgrading to 1.80 sets these to a good setting and then upgrading back to 2.14 leaves them alone and hence appears to cure picture problems.

So, if there are people having picture problems out there, try setting the hidden picture options to something like Dither = Off, Picture Mode=Hi res. If you don`t know how to set these, look at NiVZs FAQ (http://members.scotland.com/NiVZ/scan/SC2K_FAQ.txt).

Post feedback, does any combination of these settings cure the problems you`ve seen in certain discs?

Good luck.

soy

SC2000 - Picture quality, firmware upgrades - solution?

see hardware forum. i mis posted to the wrong group!

This item was edited on Thursday, 15th February 2001, 12:09