Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Snowy picture. Help needed please.

It's not the cleanest scene. The black of the sky is splotchy, with quite a lot of it in the middle being lighter and bluish. There does appear to be some blockiness to the picture that could be artifacting, but I don't see snow/static that takes up the whole screen and doesn't move with the camera.

Remind me, has your screen's picture been calibrated?

We took some pictures of that very scene and you can see exactly what I'm talking about. The stars are the bright objects, but all the other little flecks you see on the screen is snow/static. Again, it's very visible with the black background. I'm surprised my camera picked it up that well.

Jay, it doesn't matter what I play, or component I use, it's all the same.

Here's one without the flash on-



Here are two with a flash on (gives you a better idea if you save it to your computer and zoom in)-

Have you watched The Ring latelty?

It looks like that may just be film grain, or video sensor noise. Although it appears to be more pronounced because you have the black level set too high.

You have an Oppo player, run the S&M calibration disc which was included and follow the instructions for setting the contrast and brightness controls.

Additional: Does the noise pattern freeze when the disc is paused?

Chris, it's the same thing on satellite etc. I've also run the calibration disk. I have all the enhancements off on my TV and my Oppo as recommended. I'm also using Doug Blackburn's (professional calibrator) recommended settings from the official thread for my TV on AVS.

All of those pictures are taken with the image paused.

Well, it's a still photo so I can't see... What I was wondering is does the snow pattern on the screen freeze when the player is paused. Or does it continue to dance about the screen?

If it freezes with the player, it's part of the picture. If it still dances, then it's either in the connection or the display.

Wheelz, it sure sounds like it's a problem with the TV itself. It would be hard to believe that all of your sources are producing the same artifacts on the TV. Unless they're all running through an AVR/PrePro that's doing *something* to the signal. Though you say you tried the Oppo directly, with no change.

Ideas off the top of my head.....

Neon's got a great idea - when you pause that signal, as you did for your photograph, do the sparkles continue to move? Or do they stop? If you advance frame-by-frame, do the pixels fade in and out or do they pop on and off to full brilliance in random spots? That should shed some light as to whether they're source/filming artifacts, vs just something the TV is doing.

Can you receive any OTA HD signals where you live? If so, one idea would be to disconnect all of your source components from the TV and just try to view an OTA HD channel (you might need a rabbit-ear antenna). That's about as 'pure' of a signal as you're going to get, since the TV's tuner will be processing the signal. If you still have the static, then you've proven that it's *not* being introduced by any of your components and is internal to the TV itself.

What sorts of connections are we talking about here? All HDMI? Component? S-Vid? RCA? A mix? Have you tried other types of connections to see if makes a difference?

Have you tried a reset of the TV's picture settings? I have a Samsung HDTV too (not the same model), and I'm pretty sure there's a 'full reset' option in there somewhere. Perhaps some setting is out of whack.

And speaking of "resets", you have tried unplugging the TV for 10 minutes, right? It might just need a reboot. Seems like just about everything needs a reboot every now and again.

Good luck!

Sorry Chris, I'm pretty sure it doesn't move around when the picture is paused, but I believe it is less prominent.

Peter, I have one HDMI cable running from my TV to my receiver, and then everything else to the receiver.

With the Oppo connected directly to the display, I'm using a totally separate input and all the settings are factory. It actually looked a lot worse when I originally connected it directly to the display, so I adjusted it to the recommended settings.

One thing that I haven't tried(could only stay up for a short time) , and was recommended to me by the local ISF calibrator I talked to on the phone, and Doug Blackburn (he said the service tech would do it, but all they did is looked at the picture), is to try component cables.

It's also noticeable on satellite HD channels.

I blame Cam's avatar. All the sparks from his twirling sparkler thingie are getting on your screen.