Page 1 of Wharfedale 750 using R1 discs

Folks,

I have a problem playing R1 dics on my region-hacked wharfie 750. Every R1 disc (and therefore NTSC as well) plays with a dashed white line above the top of the widescreen picture, and a solid gray line below the bottom. The white line looks like some form of frame sync or perhaps the sound information (which NTSC stores differently from PAL).

These don`t appear on screen when I play any R2 disc so I assume it is connected either with the region setting or the conversion from NTSC to PAL.

I`m using the -750 as it was out of the box, connected to a PAL-only TV by RGB SCART.

The -750 does have a "TV System" setting which can be changed between NTSC/PAL/AUTO but I simply can`t find how to get this to work. Pressing the correct button on the remote has no effect, whether I`m playing a disc or it is stopped, tray open or closed, disc in or out, R1 or R2 disc in the machine. Straight from switch on. Tried everything.

What am I missing? (apart from a decent user manual!!!!!!!!)

Please help !

Regards,

T

Tried turning off Quasi-PAL? (or is that on? opposite of whatever you currently have it set to)

I`m sure others who actually own the machine will be able to help with the settings.

>The -750 does have a "TV System" setting which can be changed between NTSC/PAL/AUTO but I simply can`t find how to get this to work.

It only works when in total stop mode (i.e with the DVD Video logo on screen).

The Wharfie doesnt have that Quasi Pal function Rob - that was the Samsung :-p

It could of course mean your TV geometry is incorrectlt set. Try the Wharf on another TV to confirm.

Mark
DVD Reviewer

They all look the same to me, these domestic players. :p

I seem to remember hearing that some TVs can`t take an NTSC signal through SCART-RGB (goes black & white or fuzzy) but can sometimes through S-Video (SCART or not) or composite.

Probably totally unrelated to your problem, though!

...

I recently switched from S-Video to SCART-RGB (now that I`ve worked out how to use/configure the SCART ports on my TV, heh), and the picture was all red. Luckily, it was just a loose connector. Picture`s slightly clearer than before, I have to say. Now if only I could have a quieter washing machine and kill all the people who drive loud boats down the Thames, I might be able to hear the dialog!

Why am I telling you all this? I dunno...

Well ...

I managed to get through to Wharfedale on the phone - previously I had only been able to find an 0345 number which you can`t call from outside the UK and since I`m in Germany, that was pretty well screwed .... (but those nice folks at Home Cinema Choice had a normal phone number on their 750 review page).

It seems that you must completely stop the disc in order to get at the setting of this TV System option. Switching the machine on sans disc don`t do it. You have to load a disc, start it playing then press Stop TWICE. The remote`s TV System button will then work but not exactly intuitively. When you press the button you get to see what the setting is now before the display clears. Then every subsequent time you press it it changes it to the next setting in a round-Robin affair. Bloody pain - why can`t they make their configuration setting process consistent?

Anyway ... the end result was it didn`t fix the problem. I still get the lines on the screen with no difference between the AUTO setting and the PAL setting. Which is a real pain.

Evidently the problem lies not in the player but in my telly. Since there is no way I`m going to pay out several hundred quid to change that, it looks like I`m stuck with the lines for the foreseeable future.

I wonder if it could accidentally fall down the stairs ...

Heh, have you tried setting it to 4:3 letterbox widescreen? That way your player is downconverting instead of your TV set squashing the image.

I tried the 4:3 LB, 16:9 W and 4:3 PS options on the player. No luck.

I can`t think of any options other than either splashing out on a new multi-standard TV (which I can`t afford) or buying a converter that transforms from NTSC to pure PAL (which i don`t know if you can get anywhere).

Ah bugger.

T