Plasma Question!!!!!!!!!!!!

i purchased a PHILIPS 42PF995637 42-IN HDTV Plasma Television the other day and the thing is friggin awesome. However i noticed when viewing cable HD channels in 1080i that sometimes there is a flickering/strobbing effect going on. Kinda like a pc monitor with really low refresh rate. When this happens i turn the tv off and then back on again and the problem is fixed. It is connected to the DVR/HD calbe box via component video cables. I have the option for HDMI but have not purchased a cable as of yet. Any ideas on this issue??

Speaking of HDMI cables I found these on the web for cheap, but don;t know if i should buy..
http://www.cablesforless.com/index.a...S&Category=406

Thanks

Jason,

I'm dashing out, but I'll be back if I can help further. On the easier question, most cables are overengineered and priced accordingly (like Monster), but an HDMI cable does not have to be expensive to work. Unless your installation faces an inordinate amount of noise and interference, cables for less should suffice with no loss of data.

On the harder question, it sounds like your plasma needed to be reset because of a parameter change. Did you change any settings on the cable box while the TV was receiving a broadcast? If not, and the flickering keeps happening on its own sporadically, try setting your cable box to 720p instead of 1080i--that is, unless the manual states that the plasma prefers 1080i, as some do. It's possible that 1080i throws it for a loop each time, for some reason, requiring it to be reset, though it shouldn't.

Also, double check the cable box settings for resolution; maybe it's not holding the right one. Alternatively, the cable box's scaler might not be working correctly; it might need the plasma to give it a second chance to sync up. Hard to say at this point. But something seems fishy.

Component should work fine. HDMI is an option if you want to see whether remaining within the digital domain presents a sharper picture than the component connection, which requires a D/A conversion that can perceptibly soften it. Yours is the kind of display that tends to benefit from digital connection, even if only marginally.

Ed

No settings have been changed. I have the cable box set to 1080i. Tell me if this sounds normal. When i am viewing just a standard digital station say hostorychannel and then flick the channel to an 1080i Hd station like HD discovery the screen will flick off for a few seconds while it tries to sync up with the hd signal. it only does that when coming from a non HD channel.
One thing i tried just a minute ago is switching the component cables to another input on the television and so far so good..


Jason

I took a look at some of the specs of your plasma and saw that it is 1024x1024, which in all likelihood makes it an ALiS model, which should shine with 1080i. The TV shouldn't suffer any hitch in its stride when going from standard definition to 1080i, though a poorly performing scaler might behave that way. Keep the troubleshooting data coming.

Ed

I think tonight i will reset the tv to manufacturer's settings. Seems like i saw a menu that asked me what to do with different resolutions and i set it to "autopicture". That would make sense why it takes a few moments to display when it gets a HD signal...

I have a little familiarity with Philips plasmas, but I haven't seen autopicture in action. From what I can tell, however, if we're taking about the same thing, I'd disable it, find the most neutral color and sharpness settings possible (temperature as close to D65 as possible, no edge enhancements) and use a test disk like Digital Video Essentials or AVIA to bring the parameters into line. If autopicture, or something like it, is causing the scaler to miss a beat by monkeying with resolution, all the more reason to bypass it and adjust the picture manually. But so far I'm not convinced that you've located the problem.

I'm sorry it's not called autopicture. I can't remeber what it is called but it adjusts the screen to stretch to fit. Whatever that feature is called.

Guys the fix was to plug the component cables into AV2 input rather than AV1. Hasn't happened in two days now.

Still not a good sign, one component input on the blink. What will happen when you run your DVD player through input AV1?