Problems connecting blu-ray player to TV

googler

My premise was merely to try another modulator, even though on the face of it, it does the same, as it seemed possible/probable that the current one might be the weak link. But it appears not.

Basil1234

just a thought you got a friend with a normal hdmi telly tried hooking up the blu ray to see if there is an output setting for pal or ntsc its just i had dvds in the past where this could be manually set. also most new telly sets run both now, but i suspect at some point you are going to be forced to update the 1980s telly if you like it or not its only 33 years old now if was 1980 you have had your moneys worth now

also regards blu ray spec looking at wiki min size spec is one of two 720x 480 or 720 x 576 does you telly come into that range as you didn't say the size? i would suggest also checking the output size from the blu ray as well this may be set too high as well!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_ray

googler

Ben84 wrote: »

I have tried two modulators

Two different makes and models?

Have you tried any VHS or DVD recorders successfully with the TV? If so, I really don't see why feeding a signal into one, then out to the TV, would fail ... unless the input on the recorder is incompatible with the BluRay output

Inner_Zone

OP does your TV have the optional Video FBAS kit mentioned here, (bottom of highlighted section). I know A/V inputs were rare on 80's TV B&Q and Grundig being exceptions.

almillar

Firstly, you're quite mental as people have already mentioned, but I like that.
On the BD player - using the composite output - is this through a SCART block or are you using the yellow, white and red plugs directly into the BD?
Connected to that question then, is there an option somewhere in the BD player's menu for changing the output between RGB, composite, PAL, S-Video or some of them? Composite, I'm sure you know, is what you want to choose as a failsafe at least.
I've also got no idea how good or bad your modulator is, maybe it's not up to the job. No other connections on the TV?

Lumstorm

As mentioned before it could well be macrovision copy protection generated by the player it would cause flickering and loss of colour if there not a direct connection to the TV. It's purpose to make sure you don't put a VCR or other device between the DVD or BD to try and copy films. I think give up and buy a new TV.

almillar

Macrovision copy protection on a BluRay? They're a bit more sophisticated than that, and use HDCP for HDMI connections. If you're outputting over analogue connectors there's no copy protection unless I've missed something.

Ben84

Thank you to everyone who has suggested things. I have been trying them out, but the conclusion I've come to is that my blu ray player is producing a 60hz output and my TV is only able to do 50hz. I couldn't find a way to set it to a fixed output for this and it looks like there aren't any players which do this, as in fact it takes processing power to make this change possible.

However, it's not impossible, it would just add a rarely needed feature that cost money to players. So, I've ordered a box that scales and turns the HDMI output in to a 576 line interlaced 50hz output - the signal any PAL TV can work with. Modern processor technology means you can do data intensive things like scaling and assembling a 50hz refresh from 60hz input, which would have been very expensive and challenging before, both instantly and quite cheaply now with a small device. It makes more sense to take the HDMI output as it's already digital for digital processing, rather than scaling and processing the analogue composite output. Going digital to analogue to digital to processing to analogue is probably going to be a good simulation of watching a broadcast from the Moon, so I'm not going to try that.

I actually quite like the idea of doing it this way as it means I can play just about any disc without needing different players and adapters. Currently, for example getting NTSC discs working on my TV is hard work with various adapters, this should just work instantly when I put the disc in... I'll update when I've tested it, as this may be useful for anyone else trying to use a vintage TV (even if it is quite mental :rotfl:).

Ben84

almillar wrote: »

Macrovision copy protection on a BluRay? They're a bit more sophisticated than that, and use HDCP for HDMI connections. If you're outputting over analogue connectors there's no copy protection unless I've missed something.

Yes, the HDCP only applies to HD output, the composite *has* be free of anything like that as the way HDCP works is to keep the signal encoded digitally until it's being processed by a display screen - which keeps it inaccessible to recording devices. Composite of course is analogue and this just won't apply.

Ben84

Just a quick update, which may help anyone else with similar problems - it works really well now.

I bought an HDMI to composite adapter made by a Chinese company who brand them as viewHD. It can output PAL at 50hz or NTSC at 60 hz. I wasn't too sure how good it would look, but actually the picture is really good and no issues with audio staying in synch with the picture or any visual artifacts. It's pretty impressive just how much it does to convert the picture instantly.

It's worth spending a while on the adjustments, I found it converts best when receiving 720p rather than 1080p or 1080i, and turning up the contrast and sharpness on the blu ray player improved the conversion too. Without doing this, fine lines, such as those in text and onscreen displays were sometimes flickering, but now they're clear and steady.

Anyway, I got the blu ray player and the HDMI adapter fairly cheaply, so it has been a pretty affordable way to upgrade the TV to watch online content like bbc iplayer, as well as being able to play the two most common video disc types. I think HDMI to composite is a better option, as some TV sets won't work well with the composite output from modern DVD/blu ray players. These players are also very likely to output NTSC DVDs as NTSC signals - a problem which HDMI to composite solves easily and automatically. So, although it seems counter intuitive to ignore the analogue output on the video player - that's exactly what I'd do if I was starting this project again.