Video banding?

[fatroz]

I have a question for anyone who feels like answering it. When I watch certain dvd's; if the background is a solid color, usually greyish colors I will get what I guess I would call banding. Kind of sweeping parallel lines that don't move, but will occasionally be there on certain dvd's or scenes. I have a CRT TV and am running an S-video cable from my dvd player to my tv. So I guess my questions are, What is that called? Is it my tv or my dvd player, or is it because I am running S-video and not component? Thanks to anyone who can answer this.

 

[fatroz]

Help!

Does nobody know what I am talking about?

 

[tbewick]

It could be any number of things. It could be simply a result of MPEG compression on the DVD, it could be something that your DVD player is doing. Higher quality DVD players will have better digital-to-analogue converters that can offer higher picture quality. It could be to do with the gamma/greyscale accuracy of your DVD player and television. This will affect how well picture detail is reproduced.

The Audioholics site has got an article on greyscale that you might be interested in reading. If you have the Digital Video Essentials DVD, you could try playing one of the greyscale test patterns. The greyscale ramp will show up any irregularities in the DVD player greyscale.

Using a component input may help picture quality, probably most of all with colour fidelity and picture detail. The performance will still depend on the quality of the DVD player's component output and the performance of the display device.

 

[tbewick]

I should have also said that the banding might be caused by the S-Video cable you're using. If the cable is picking up interference, then you might get some flicker or patterns appearing. Perhaps you could check this by pausing the DVD when the parallel lines appear. If the parallel lines stop moving, then it's probably not a cable problem.

 

[fatroz]

I don't think it's a cable problem, but it could be. I am using a pretty good quality s-video cable. To describe the problem a little more, the lines don't move at all, so if I do pause it they will stay there. Imagine a tan wall in the background then on top of that, in a slightly darker color, a few Nike swooshes going across the wall. I don't know if that helps at all, but it is really hard to describe. I appreciate all the info though. I will try and switch cables or move my cable around to see if that is the problem. Thanks again for your help.