Digital noise at top of TV?

Glowrdr

(I posted this over at Satelliteguys as well, so pardon me if this sounds geared more towards a Dish Network issue - I'm over here looking for an additional opinion as well since I'm running a TV and AVR in the loop as well)

I never noticed it when I first got my TV (bought in December) and didn't notice it at first when I got the Dish Network 922. I'm pretty sure something happened in the last 2-3 months that may have caused some of my stations to display some digital noise at the top of my screen?


I believe it only happens for local channels, but don't hold me to that. Not using an OTA, just tuning to the channel like normal for satellite.


When I say digital noise, I don't notice it moving or anything. It's more like a 1-2 pixel line spanning the top of my TV, that is a black bar with a few white sections in it. Some sections are a couple inches, others are 1/16th of an inch (55" set)


Any ideas? It's a Panny 55VT20. I tried adjusting the sat picture position in the menu, and that adjusted the picture, but I still see the top line no matter where the picture is positioned. There is a setting on my TV to display 95% of the picture "to eliminate edge noise" and that does make it go away, but it actually cuts off things like sports scores and tickers at the top/bottom as well.


Even though I have a "fix" by turning on the edge noise reduction on the TV - I'm not convinced it's always been there. Anyone else experiencing this, or is it just me?

billbillw

Nothing to freak out about. Its in the broadcast, nothing to do with your Sat box or TV. Sometimes the broadcast (especially the local channels) has a bit of noise on the fringe of the image. In the old days, this was obscured by 'over scan'. With the new flat panels, you see every pixel when viewing in 1:1 pixel mode (which is now the default mode). Many of the TVs have a viewing option to eliminate the outer edges by 1 or 2%, (maybe called Size 1 or Size2) thus obscuring the noise on the edge. The drawback is that the image has to be scaled slightly to fit the native display resolution. Scaling always means a slight degradation of the image. Purists prefer the 1:1 pixel mapping (no scaling, but leave noise on the edge at times) because it offers the best quality image. In reality, most of us won't know the difference.

Glowrdr

Glad to hear it. You are correct, I do have the size 1 and 2 options. There is also an advanced option that deals with this as well. I just don't recall seeing it before, but I could be wrong.

Here is a picture for those that are curious, or have no idea what the heck I'm talking about:

Tony M

That banding happens here also.

I go to one of my picture modes, and then tap the top of the circle selector a few times and the picture moves up a bit with each tap.

I think it's the wide fit mode. Why they call it the wide fit is really wierd.

I hope your tv has that option to be able to raise that channel.

Evrythngmatters

An easy fix is to go into the advanced options menu and change the size of the picture. On my Panny plasma I can set it to 1 or 2. One of the settings will increase the picture size a little so those annoying bars cannot be seen.

EDIT:
Well, it seems I need to read all responses since I gave the same advice as others.

mutelight

That is the CC information in the broadcast.

steveinaz

Glowrdr
The pixel-pixel mapping of the Panasonics sometimes shows closed captioned info "pieces" at the top or bottom of the screen. The broadcast hasn't been properly sized, that's why you see it. You'll only see it with standard def material; commercials, etc that are tying to fill the screen. You can switch to a different size, and this will zoom the picture 5%---I just ignore it. It's not the TV, it's the broadcast. My Panasonic TCP-58S2 does the same thing when in "Size=2" 1 to 1 pixel mapping mode.