Anyone else get shimmering/distortion around objects like blinds?

[Matthew]

A perfect example is a set of blinds with light coming through them. There is a slight shimmering on my player on DVDs for such objects. When playback is paused this shimmering is more noticeable. More importantly, the shimmering is more noticeable on encoded SVCDs. It doesn't exist when the svcds are played back on a computer.

Another example of the effect is if someone is lying on a bed and the shadow of a fan is on them, the fan turns will look a lot more pronounced on the SVCD. People running, action scenes, etc are fine. So it's not that big a deal.

My player is a pioneer 344. I'm in Australia and the DVDs are PAL region 4 if that makes any difference. Unfortunately I don't have access to another DVD player to test the discs on :(

Anyone else have similar experiences or is it just my player?

[xrv1138]

matthew
have u tried different resize methods under the frameserver tab ?

[Matthew]

No I always use the default (bicubic b value 0.00 and c value 0.75).

What do you suggest I try?

Thanks ;)

[xrv1138]

well the best way to troubleshoot would be to try other things id say ;-)
so
try bilinear first, then simple maybe...

[DDogg]

Trust me when I say do not run .75 in your bicubic parameter. It is too "hot" and causes effects like this. Please retry with a softer number. We suggest .50. Let us know if this helps you at all.

Also try simpleresize. It does not do anything except resize.

[xrv1138]

ddog
is that a strong enough suggestion as to request the befault bicubic c value be set to 0.50 or has that been discussed before ?
also i was just wondering if you are using the new simpleresize method.
would mind hearing some more opinion of its results vs bicubic.
i have read http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14793
my tv isnt the best so hard to tell
and my monitor is too good
so nothing looks 'perfect' (sony 21 ")
will be getting a new tv soonish - so want to encode for a good tv :)

[Matthew]

Thanks fellas, I will as suggested and see if it changes anything then report back. Given it happends with DVDs as well (albeit slightly) I'm not optimistic - may just be the player.

I thought it might have something to do with interlacing? ["Enhancement: Added something I think the Australians and Kiwi's will like. DVD2SVCD can use Donald Grafts Telecide algos to "deinterlace" PAL movies, and it does a very very good job. No blurry pictures, just sharp and perfect."]

"Trust me when I say do not run .75 in your bicubic parameter. It is too "hot" and causes effects like this. Please retry with a softer number. We suggest .50. Let us know if this helps you at all."

Is there a downside to this? The default value is like that for a reason is it not?

[xrv1138]

matthew
have a read of
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14793
and ddog disregard my last post above
i just re-read that thread above
and it pretty much covers everything that could be said really
could be worth sticking somewhere if people ask about the different resize methods...

[Soljah Girl]

Matthew,

I have a pioneer 434 and have the same prob with DVDs and SVCDs also. And like you, the SVCD prob is more noticable than the DVD on my ''53 HDTV, but neither prob is apparent to others watching unless I point it out to them...LOL...maybe we're too observant!

Anyway, I've played around with a bunch of different settings and have finally given in to the fact that it's just a charactor flaw of the dvd player...fairly minor one at that thou...

G'day...:)

[gerti67]

Hi there,

i think that the "shimmering distortion" comes from the decoder chip of the DVD player. There are a lot of different types and brands of it (e.g. ZORAN III, IV, ESS, C-CUBE, ...) and they all achieve a little different visual decoding quality. So it is said that usually DVD players with a ZORAN chipset produce slightly better picture quality over those with an ESS chipset (but for heaven's sake, i will not start a debate on that! - And i don't know what chipset is inside the Pioneer players at all as it seems they are using their own ones.)

I just can tell you from my experience that a close friend has this problem too (e.g. when someone uses flashlights in the dark) and when i was watching a SVCD on his player (with an ESS) i could see this effect as on my player (ZORAN IV) it just looked a lot better although it was the same SVCD.

So i think you have to live with that because from my point of view the only possibility is to upgrade the firmware of the DVD player (is said to only slightly improve the result) or to try the BilinearResize as the Bicubic or the SimpleResize tend to strengthen the effect (this is what you already found out). Or as DDogg already suggested to use softer BicubicResize.

Greetings,
gerti67

[Matthew]

Originally posted by Soljah Girl
neither prob is apparent to others watching unless I point it out to them...LOL...maybe we're too observant!

Same here, I walked in on my brother and cousin watching Enemy of the State yesterday and noticed the effect on the top of the frame of Gene Hackman's glasses but when I asked them about it later, they hadn't noticed.

I did do some testing, I thought bilinear resize may have reduced the effect slightly (although that might be wishful thinking and the sample I chose was not the best). Didn't try simple resize as I don't have 1.06 b3 installed yet but gerti67 has just put me off that. Reducing the bicubic value to 0.50 didn't seem to make a different, but perhaps I better retry with a better sample (as I rip rentals I don't have the dvds for the real doozies I've noticed).

Thanks for the help, I guess I just gotta live with it.