motion artifacts in HD with new Panasonic TH-50PX75U

[mfox]

I have noticed fairly frequently "motion artifacts" while watching HD with my new Panasonic TH-50PX75U Plasma. Bt motion artifaxcts, I mean that, on closeups, there seems to be a slight blur or delay when there is movmeent in the scene. For some reason, I have seen it more in facial closeups during Law and Order, CI (on NBC), whether I have watched it live or watching it from the DVR. I thought that plasmas were better with motion than LCDs. Is this an artifact possibly associated with Comcast, ofr the TV itself?
Thanks.

[Richard]

Is it still in sports mode?

[mfox]

I don't think so but I am not sure. What is that setting? Do you know that is is available on this model?And, why would it not be good for overall TV-watching?

[Richard]

If you took your TV out of the box and did not adjust a thing then you are in sales mode and while it may seem counterintuitive sales mode is the worst possible picture you can get. Sports and News modes are common...

There are also other modes, standard, movie, cinema, pro, user which are closer but typically still incorrect. With out some knowledge of what you are trying to achieve it could easily look worse in other ways. But there is an answer...

Calibration DVDs
viewtopic.php?t=5143

That needs this update...
http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2007/0 ... ilable.php

Well not the link I was looking for but that is a combo, DVD - HD DVD. Appears our HD DVD stuff has been removed. The Blu-ray version is due out before summer hopefully.

Either way, that is the idea.

[mfox]

Thank you for the above replies. When I referred to "sport mode," it was only because someone told me to check that. There is no sports mode on my Panasonic plasma Tv, and in fact, the only picture settings are "vivd," 'standard," and two others, which refer to picture appearance, and other settings regarding aspect ratio. I will have to compare the cable picture to dvd sources, regarding the motion artifacts. Again, these are on slow moving dramas, such as Law and Order, and can be seen in closeups when chracters move thier faces. It is not a blur you can see the "lag" a little bit of the image in the former position to when it changes to the new position. It does seem worst on NBC, but that is also what we weatch the most of. I have made suyyre our cable box is set to 780P, and I donm'ty think there are any other Comcast HD cable boxes that are relevant.

[akirby]

That sounds like a display problem, not a compression artifact. Have you used a calibration DVD like Richard suggested to get the user controls set properly? You need to do that first.

[mfox]

I will get the DVD. It doesn't seem like my TV has many user-accessbile setting that wold affect the above, but I will try it.

[akirby]

I just did a google search and some plasmas appear to suffer from "phosphor lag" so this may be normal after all. I would try to watch the same set in the store and see if it happens there. If not try to get an exchange.

[Richard]

vivid = sports

We need to get to a known source to help you. What are you doing on the DVD end? Do you have an upconverting DVD player? If so do you see the same artifacts with it?

[MarkyMark]

I have a new Panasonic plasma also, and I've noticed what you are talking about. But I think what you might be seeing is the motion blur caused by the fact that the signal you get from TV sources is always 1080i. It's interlaced, so when something moves, there is going to be the "comb" effect where one interlaced frame does not match the next one.

The true test is to watch a 1080p source, like Blu-ray, and see if you notice the same thing.

Because I always notice the motion blur on my TiVo HD from HD cable sources, and from my upconverting Sony DVD player, but not my Blu-ray player, I assumed it was the blur caused by an interlaced signal.

1080i is 30 frames per second, with blur caused by the comb effect. 1080p is 60 frames per second with no comb effect. Cable and satellite can't afford the 1080p bandwidth, so everything is sent interlaced 1080i.

I could be wrong, but try that on for size and see if that's what is happening.

I recently saw online a great explanation of motion blur caused by the interlacing and I couldn't find it again just now. I swear I bookmarked it. I'll keep looking. It had graphics of a soccer ball moving in an interlaced image and the blur that gets caused.

Hope this helps.

Mark
San Diego, CA