Pioneer PDP428XD - good for sport ???

[admin_exported]

I have had the Pioneer PDP428 for three weeks - bought it off the back of all the rave reviews it received. Whilst pictures from freeview, upscaled standard def DVD's and SKY HD are generally excellent there is one area that the set seems to let itself down on.

When watching football - either standard def or high def on SKY - when the camera pans quickly from one side of the pitch to the other there seems to be an annoying unsmooth movement/jerkiness of the players. You can see a similar problem with cricket.

I have been through the menus and have switched on/off the pure cinema mode - with it on it makes the problem worse but even with it off the jerkiness is still there. I don't think this problem is specific to my set as I have checked and have seen the same problem in John Lewis.

Has anyone noticed this problem or found a solution ?

A question for the What Hifi team - do you look at sport as part of your review process and if so did you notice this characteristic on the Pioneer ?

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

Hmmmm, I haven't had any such problem. I have Drive Mode set to 2 and IP Mode set to 1. Under Pure Cinema, Film Mode and Text Optimisation are both set to Off. My picture is silky smooth. I'm only watching Sky Sports in SD through Sky+ and am over the moon with the picture quality and motion handling of the Pioneer.

 

[Anonymous]

It is a matter of some debate as to whether any technology has bettered old fashioned CRT for fast moving action like sport. Some will say yes, many including me say no. However, of the 2 choices Plasma is better than LCD for fast moving action, and Pioneer is about the best Plasma you can buy.

If you have Plasma , and HD that is about as good as it gets on modern technology. If you find that is not up to standard, I am afraid the only option is E-bay for a second hand 32 CRT Sony at about £75.

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

Valid points but I still feel that it may be a settings issue. I found a big difference when I started using Drive Mode 2 instead of 1 to the point that I now use it across all inputs to save fuss. Pioneer sets are notoriously badly set up out of the box. Once calibrated for your different sources, the difference is night and day. Pioneer are shooting themselves in the foot by not having them set up better when you first switch them on.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Sport is always a key part of our testing armoury - we keep a healthy quantity of recorded SD and HD sports content on our Sky box, plus always use Sky Sports News (the ticker-tape updates at the bottom are a killer test of motion-handling, let alone the sport itself) via Freeview, and any live sport that's on while testing - from horse racing to cricket to tennis.

And i'd echo the comments that we feel the Pioneer's one of the best there is for motion-handling.

Definitely check your settings, and the strength of your TV feed and quality of connections.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your feedback. I will check settings etc tonight.

 

[skr1]

I Dont have a plasma (soon) . When i watch sky hd sports through the projector the 1080i

shows motion . The 720p works very well.

 

[Minigill]

[quote user="paul1999"]
Thank you all for your feedback. I will check settings etc tonight.
[/quote]

Hi Paul1999, I have the same TV which is now a week old. Although I don't watch football, suggest you try the settings from 'gaza' on the WHSV forum. Type in Pioneer 428XD in the search and it will bring up a thread called 'calibration for pioneer pdp 428xd'. I tried to cut and paste for you, but haven't got the hang of formatting yet as it crashes everytime I change it !! These settings are used by hundreds of Pioneer owners. Its worth a try, and you will soon be a dab hand using the remote control and menu's ! I know someone posted info where these settings came from, but can't
find it. Hope they help.

Gill

p.s Nascar in HD is fabulous.

 

[Anonymous]

FuzzyinLondon, you are a star - changing drive mode did the trick and the annoying jerkiness on football seems to be a thing of the past. When reading the TV manual it doesn't give you any clue what the drive mode does so thank you for the tip !

MiniGill - thanks, I have obtained the gaza settings from the site and will try them out !

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

No problem Paul. Glad it worked. The Pioneer manual is pretty useless. The TV has such a huge wealth of features and settings which the manual doesn't even bother to explain properly. Thank goodness for forums like these.

 

[Anonymous]

I find it Ludicrous that the manufacturer does not put this information in the manual. They waste pages with rubbish about health and safety, but don't tell you how to get the best out of your very expensive product. Still, glad it has worked out for you.