Bluray on the Pana Pz85

[admin_exported]

Hi everyone.

I bought a few months ago the Panasonic 42PZ85 and only now I hooked up a Bluray player. I bought a package that they where selling here in Portugal that came with 10 movies and the Sony BDP-S350.

I thought that the image would be like " wow" but its not that great. For example: The Bucket list and the Invasion has some graining on the image but if I see Speed Racer it looks better.

My question is: Is something wrong with my settings? Or is it the type of Bluray movies? Anyway I could do with some help since I am going to buy The Dark Knight and I am afraid that it wont be that " WOW"

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

How is your Blu-ray player connected to your tv? It needs to at the very least be connected via component, which is only an analogue connection but can still carry a high-def signal, usually up to 1080i. Really though, you need to have your Blu-ray player connected to your tv via an HDMI connection which will carry any format up to (and potentially beyond) full HD (1080p/24fps) in it's pristine and unadulterated digital form. HDMI offers the absolute best connection.

Other types of connection such as scart, s-video or composite will not carry high-def signals. They max out at 576i and carry signals only in analogue form. So if you are using a Blu-ray player which is connected to your tv via s-video, you take away any benefit of Blu-ray over dvd and therefore completely defeat the object of Blu-ray and high-def!

Also, if your tv is not calibrated correctly for your home environment - ie light conditions etc. then that can make a huge amount of difference to the quality of your images. Any Blu-ray with the THX logo will include a section somewhere in the special features that has a series of tests which can be used to succesfully calibrate your tv to a near professional standard.

I haven't actually seen The Bucket List or Invasion so they could just be very poor discs. However, there may still be some (small) amount of grain even on a high-def Blu-ray.

I don't mean to insult your intelligence but are you sure the 10 free discs were actually Blu-rays and not standard-def DVDs? This may seem a stupid question but having seen the Panasonic 42PZ85 in action, playing high-def content from Blu-ray and I cannot see how anyone could fail to be impressed by the vibrant and clean, colourful, sharp images that it produces.

If you consider all of these things then I am sure to can get your under-achieving tv to reach it's full potential and make you like "WOW". Safe

 

[SpiceWeasel]

Hi there I have a 42" PZ85 and the Blu-Rays I have watched so far have looked absolutely stunning. My 1st Blu-Ray experience was watching the Spiderman boxset, I have to say it took my breath away it looked that good. Really clean and amazing detail, on the close up shots you can see individual eye lashes,strands of hair and even skin inperfections on Toby Maguire's face. The 3d like picture was impressive, especially when spidey is swinging through New York it looks like he is coming through the tv screen.

As for picture grain well Full Metal Jacket has it, but it is an old film and I think is how the director intended it to be. Enter The Dragon on the other hand looks really good, really clean picture. Saying that though much like with dvd's the picture quality on Blu-Ray can vary. It all depends on how good the transfer is.

There are a few films out on Blu-Ray that look worse than the upscaled dvd versions. All the Blu-Rays I have watched so far though have looked amazing, including Die Hard 4, Iron Man, Planet Earth box set and the ones above.

If you havn't done so already set up the tv with the THX optimiser, it makes a huge difference to the picture quality. There's a video here that explains how to use it. You need to do this for each of the tv modes, eco,cinema etc. I use "cinema" mode for watching films, and have turned off the IFC feature in the tv menu.

Once it's tweaked and your watching a good quality Blu-Ray you will be blown away by the picture.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help.

I do have the bluray hooked up via HDMI with a Qed Cable and the output of the player is Hdmi. So I think the connections are ok. There is a Blue light on the player telling me that the output is also 24fps.

Also the movies are in bluray it was a special pack to try and sell more bluray players since here in Portugal there isnt so many movies.

I will try to set up the tv with the thx, that might make the trick

Thanks