Hi,
I have had a dvr-540-hx-s since they first came out and have been generally very Happy with it, but for a problem which has been on it since it was first bought.
The problem is that when watching freeview (through it's built-in freeview tuner), the top third of the screen flickers intermittently on scene changes. When it does this, it lasts a few seconds then stops, as if it can't handle the speed of the scene change. I am not talking about fast moving images, I am talking about say, a talk show where the picture is not moving quickly but the camera angle switches to a different one, then it flickers for a few seconds. At first I thought it was my tv (a Grundig 32" widescreen crt), but I have never had such problems with it before. I have connected it via scart. I bought a second pioneer recently, thinking that the problem could be with the pioneer but since this one exhibits exactly the same problem, I am assuming it must be the pioneers.

Has anyone had this problem and found a way to solve it as these really are very good machines and stable apart from this problem.

I should also mention that recordings have the same problem but playing dvd's do not have such a problem and in fact it has an excellent picture quality.

Please can anyone help with this ?

Thanks.

Audiofi

bump question

Not had any problem such as this with my 545 but have you got good quality double screened, gold pin (or at least newish) Scart leads.

I originally had cheap single screened leads which gave a flickering picture under certain configurations. Also the cheap tinned coloured pins oxidise after time and can be a source of interference or even no picture/sound.

Just a thought.

Thanks for the help Phil, but the cables are very good quality philips gold plated flat ones.

Thanks veru much anyway.

Sincerely

audiofi

Hi


This information isn't really correct. Marketing expensive SCART leads means boasting gold connections, that cost about 2p to add!

Most TV's have "silver" colour connections. When you use a gold plated connectors to "silver" coloured connectors the dissimilar metals start to react and corrode, and the end result is a worse connection. You should always match the materials, use gold to gold or nickle plated to nickle plated, never mix them as they react and form a bad connection.

Of course they don't tell you this on expensive SCART leads as the gold is just a marketing trick to get you to part with more cash than you need to.


Do you get the same issue on RGB/S-Video or Composite?

Regards

Phil

Are you saying that Double screened cables are un- necessary? I can assure you that they are not. Single screened will give cross interference on PQ under certain conditions, routing, length, positioning, configuration etc.

I didn't say get expensive cables, you can buy double screened cables in Wilkinsons for £4.99, which completely cleared my fidgety picture. I agree that paying £30 for Scart cables is a waste.

As for gold plated pins all I can say is that I have never had issues with them but I did with the silver coloured ones, particulary if disconnected and reconnected a few times.

Hi


The cheap tinned coloured pins are the nickel plated ones and is what you need most of the time, unless you have gold plated connectors on the SCART which is unusual.


Good quality cable is important although a few meters shouldn't cost £30.00+ like some SCART cables, it's simply a complete and utter rip off, and having spent a lot of money the buyer will swear blind it made a huge a difference, in blind testing the story is often different

Double screened is two types of screening, stopping two particular types of interference, one helps stop the cables interfering with one another and the second stops outside interference. Over a few metres it is unlikely the additional foil screen makes much difference.

There are huge myths and marketing rubbish surrounding interconnects that drives the whole market. I'm merely pointing out that the tinned pins you talk about, while marketing has done it's job on you so you believe they are inferior, are actually what you should be using to avoid corrosion and bad connections!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...-feedback.html

Regards

Phil

£4.99 Wilkinsons. Get 'em, forget the spin on £30 cables - quite agree.

I can't agree that the market has done a job on me to not use the nickel plated ones. It is purely based on personal experience of using these things for more years than I care to remember.

EDIT: It could be of course that the very cheap ones that are often supplied with DVD players are of such poor quality physically that I have been "tarnished" (pun intended) with the opinion that all "silver" ones are crap.

Hi


When I was reading up about these things I read that while the nickel plated ones may look tarnished and dull, that tarnish is soft and easily displaced when it mates up with the socket, whereas the corrosion between two dissimilar metals is more permanent pitting and "rust". When it comes to clear display backs on the £30.00 SCART leads, that wouldn't look good, hence the 10p of gold plating.

The other thing with cheap bundled SCART leads is they often are very very cheap and so often only support composite, so when they are replaced by that £40.00 expensive gold plated SCART they were told they must have by the sales person in Dixons (the DVD Player only cost £39.00 lol), the difference is staggering, but it's only the move from composite to RGB or S-Video doing that, but of course this helps the perception that you have to spend loads on the cables.

£4.99 for a SCART lead is more like it

Regards

Phil