1080P Drama, please help!

[jata04]

Hi Everyone

I am having a problem with my blu-ray set up!
I purchased my first blu-ray player a Panasonic DMP BD80 and hooked it up with my 50" Full HD Panasonic Viera Tv without a HDMI cable. The difference was amazing playing on 1080i so today I went out and purchased a 1080P HDMI cable so I can enjoy the even better picture that 1080P will bring.
My husband hooked everything up about 20 minutes ago and the picture looks really crap to say the least. It is really grainy and looks worse than normal tv viewing. We can not work out what is wrong, all the equipment we have is Full HD 1080P so why are we getting such a bad picture? Any help would be very much appreciated

[Johnny Vinyl]

Are you referring to watching standard broadcast TV? What are your componants?

John

[jata04]

Thanks John,
Yes the picture quality of using the HDMI cables and playing the blu ray disc in 1080p is not a clear as picture as watching it in 1080i. Last night we were blown away with the difference and it was only playing in 1080i, hence why we thought to go out and get the hdmi cable so we could watch 1080p.

Sorry for the dumbness but what componants are you asking for?

[Johnny Vinyl]

I am not familiar with the Panasonic BD player you have, but you may wish to do 2 things:

1. Make sure you have the lastest firmware update.
2. Go into the Panasonic setup menu and make sure that your settings are correct. You have changed the connection method to HDMI and this may require an adjustment in those settings.

By componants I mean: Audio/Video Receiver? Cable settop box? Speakers? etc. By the way, how was the BD player connected before you bought the HDMI cable?

John

PS~ Welcome to Blu-ray.com by the way! Allways a pleasure to meet new people.

[jata04]

The player was connected to the tv through a set of Monster component video cables.

[Johnny Vinyl]

I'm off to work, but stick with it and check back as many of our resident experts are surely bound to stop by.

If we are going to help you we will need a list of the componants you have. Do you watch TV over Sat or Cable or Antenna? If you could provide us with the model #'s, we'll figure it out.

John

[jata04]

Thanks John!

We watch tv through antenna.
Last night we had:

Panasonic Blu-Ray DMP-BD80 hooked up to a Panasonic Viera 50"
TH-50PZ700A FULL HD Tv using Monster Component Cables. We watched I Robot Blu Ray disc at 1080i and the clarity was fantastic.

Today we went and bought a Philips HDMI 1.3a 480 to 1080P support cable which we then connected from the blu ray player to the tv, changed the blu ray player settings to HDMI connection which now says 1080P when we put in I Robot and the picture is poor. It almost looks like something is interfering with the picture, it looks grainy (which it did not before) and in certain scenes it looks 'squiggly' lol

Just a note, our tv is a fullhd 1080p but yet in the Blu Ray player menu under Tv/Device connection, when you click on the component resolution box, it does not bring up 1080p, the highest it brings up is 1080i? is this correct?

[Kryptonic]

Component will only go up to 1080i. Is there an "auto" setting in the BD players menu. The television will perform the 1080/24p function. Perhaps that would help.

Otherwise, if you're happier with the 1080i image out of component, go with that. Component at 1080i does look excellent on my 42 inch Panasonic plasma. But the HDMI looks a tad bit sharper, so I just set it at 1080/24p.

[Johnny Vinyl]

I'm a bit stumped by this scenario as there is no reason for the HDMI connection to give you a worse picture than a Componant connection. It sounds like you have done everything correctly. You might try swapping out your Philips HDMI cable for another brand or simply another cable by them. It doesn't happen often, but there have been occasions of faulty HDMI cables.

Like you, I also have a Panasonic (42") and also used Philips HDMI cables,but have not experienced any issues.

If anyone is reading this and is able to help, please post your thoughts and help us to help one of our newest members!

John

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Kryptonic

Component will only go up to 1080i.

On that particular model, but component cables do handle 1080p signals.

Originally Posted by John72953

You might try swapping out your Philips HDMI cable

That's the first thing I'd try...buy your local ce's generic HDMI cable, it should pass 1080p24 with no issues.

You might also want to call Panasonic and ask them, see if you might need to do a factory reset on either the TV or the player?

1080i and 1080p are the same resolution, so if your television deinterlaces properly then you're not losing any detail. However I can't see why HDMI would look worse, so it should definitely be something in the set-up.

[jata04]

Thanks for the reply

When I go to the HDMI Connection on the blu ray, 24p output can not be turned on. it says "24p output can only be set to on when this unit is connected with an HDMI cable to a tv that supports 24p playback" Im guessing this is the problem?

[NJ_RAMS_FAN]

Originally Posted by jata04

Thanks for the reply

When I go to the HDMI Connection on the blu ray, 24p output can not be turned on. it says "24p output can only be set to on when this unit is connected with an HDMI cable to a tv that supports 24p playback" Im guessing this is the problem?

well, 24p needs to be supported by your tv to work properly. so even if your tv doesn't support 24p, it should still be picking up 1080p/60 signals. Seems like the cable is at fault since you have the player connected HDMI, it seems like its not recognizing it is being connected with one. fyi, Irobot is one of the best looking blu-rays so you definitely not getting the full image. anything else you done since messing with settings?

[MillionDollarMan]

I didnt see if you posted this but are you using the same movie?Reason I ask is because same thing happened to my son when he watched Dark night then switched it to pride and glory?

[jata04]

Thanks...
Well I disconnected the HDMI cable and changed the blu ray player back to Off for HDMI and its looks all nice again sitting on 1080i. I then reconnected the HDMI cable and changed the HDMI setting on the Blu ray again and once again the picture went It seems as soon as we change the HdMI setting on the blu ray you can see the picture turn crappy straight away, we can even tell how crappy it goes by the look of the pop up box menu!
Think we might have to take back the cable, they tried to talk us into buying a monster cable but we did not really want to spend $260,so we went for the philips. I bet they try to tell us the picture is crap because we did not buy the monster cables!
Any suggestions as to which cable to go for?

[NJ_RAMS_FAN]

Originally Posted by jata04

Thanks...
Well I disconnected the HDMI cable and changed the blu ray player back to Off for HDMI and its looks all nice again sitting on 1080i. I then reconnected the HDMI cable and changed the HDMI setting on the Blu ray again and once again the picture went It seems as soon as we change the HdMI setting on the blu ray you can see the picture turn crappy straight away, we can even tell how crappy it goes by the look of the pop up box menu!
Think we might have to take back the cable, they tried to talk us into buying a monster cable but we did not really want to spend $260,so we went for the philips. I bet they try to tell us the picture is crap because we did not buy the monster cables!
Any suggestions as to which cable to go for?

dont buy monster. If anything buy some cables online like monoprice.com and stick with 1080i for the moment. how much was the phillips cable?

[MillionDollarMan]

Originally Posted by jata04

Thanks...
Well I disconnected the HDMI cable and changed the blu ray player back to Off for HDMI and its looks all nice again sitting on 1080i. I then reconnected the HDMI cable and changed the HDMI setting on the Blu ray again and once again the picture went It seems as soon as we change the HdMI setting on the blu ray you can see the picture turn crappy straight away, we can even tell how crappy it goes by the look of the pop up box menu!
Think we might have to take back the cable, they tried to talk us into buying a monster cable but we did not really want to spend $260,so we went for the philips. I bet they try to tell us the picture is crap because we did not buy the monster cables!
Any suggestions as to which cable to go for?

Dont fall for the monster BS,It had nothing to do with the brand you were using.Just keep in mind film grain on some movies show more then others.

[jata04]

Originally Posted by MillionDollarMan

I didnt see if you posted this but are you using the same movie?Reason I ask is because same thing happened to my son when he watched Dark night then switched it to pride and glory?

Yes testing it with the same movie.. I Robot!

[NJ_RAMS_FAN]

Originally Posted by jata04

Yes testing it with the same movie.. I Robot!

yea, it has to be the cable or setting.. I Robot is by far one of the best looking blu-rays.

[jata04]

Originally Posted by MillionDollarMan

Dont fall for the monster BS,It had nothing to do with the brand you were using.Just keep in mind film grain on some movies show more then others.

Its not just the film grain, the whole picture just looks crap, its not clear, it almost looks like a analogue tv channel! It looks really bad and we are testing it with the same movies, we watched I Robot last night on 1080i and it looked clear as clear can be, then once we added the HDMI cable, the picture took a downhill slide, im thinking maybe we did get a dodge cable

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by jata04

Thanks...
Well I disconnected the HDMI cable and changed the blu ray player back to Off for HDMI and its looks all nice again sitting on 1080i. I then reconnected the HDMI cable and changed the HDMI setting on the Blu ray again and once again the picture went It seems as soon as we change the HdMI setting on the blu ray you can see the picture turn crappy straight away, we can even tell how crappy it goes by the look of the pop up box menu!
Think we might have to take back the cable, they tried to talk us into buying a monster cable but we did not really want to spend $260,so we went for the philips. I bet they try to tell us the picture is crap because we did not buy the monster cables!
Any suggestions as to which cable to go for?

You are correct in that they will try to claim you need a $200 Monster cable in order to improve the picture. DON"T FALL FOR THAT! I really can't see how it's the cable, but it's something you can test immediately. Swap out for another (inexpensive) cable. I'd also buy a cheap cable from Wal-Mart to test in case the same thing happens with the new cable. If you continue to see a poor picture with multiple cables, then obviously it's not the cable.

If that's the case, then the next thing I would do is exchange the BD player for another. You may just have a bad HDMI port or something. Since you are swapping your cable, you might want to just bring the player with you back to the store and have them hook it up and see for themselves. Might ultimately save you a trip.