4:3 Resolution: Pixelation Damage on Sides?

In addition, I'm noticing 'jaggies', especially with the color red. With all the problems I've listed with this television, and the fact that degaussing didn't help, am I wrong to conclude this tube is going bad?

You didn't mention a model number or other helpfull information to determine anything.

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Met vriendelijke groet,

   Maarten Bakker.

It's a Philips "30 widescreen, 'HD Ready' CRT television. It's not even a year old.

Very unlikely the tube is going bad, that's virtually never the problem with a TV, nor is the switch, but those two always seem to be the first suspects of nearly everybody.

Aether, If I understand you correctly, the problem shows up when you're watching a

4:3 broadcast but which is menu set to fill the screen of your wide screen TV. If so, that effect is probably normal. Rather than making all the people on the screen "short and fat" or showing black bars on the sides, one menu setting tailors the image such that the middle of the screen is proportionally correct but the sides are non-linear (stretched) to fill the screen. That effect will be most obvious if the camera pans across a scene. A round object will appear elongated at the right and left sides of the screen. The problem is reversed when you view a widescreen "letterbox" movie on a standard 4:3 TV set. With that scenario, you have the option of pan&scan or letterbox bars top and bottom... or watching people "tall and skinny". Any fixed screen device (standard TV, big screen or HD) will have the same limitations trying to adjust to different screen formats. That's one reason a separate projector (LCD, DLP, etc.) and screen (or just a white wall) is nice. It can project whatever format is input... no need to "diddle" the image to fit the screen.

Ray

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My return addy is spamblocked. To reply, remove the zeroes.

The TV is almost always in 4:3 mode. When the entire screen is utilized, however, where the black was (in 4:3) the resolution (pixels) are distorted. The pixels are larger, and the resolution inferior. In the middle portion of the screen, the resolution is largely uneffected. Although it (the distorted pixels) even creep up on the sides of it. (4:3) Is this a temporary problem, and if so, how do you correct it? The thing I don't get, is that the problem has appeared out of nowhere. So, it has me thinking the tube is on it's way out.

If the tube was on it's way out the problem would be uniform over the whole screen. The only thing that will affect only part of the tube is phosphor burn, which will make the less used area of the tube appear brighter and sharper than the more used areas.

burn, which will make the less used area of the tube appear brighter and sharper than the more used areas.

The cause is high voltage regulation. You need to order the HV Regulation Kit. I think the Kit # is 4835 310 57628 for 30" but check to be sure before ordering.

TJ

The cause is high voltage regulation. You need to order the HV Regulation Kit. I think the Kit # is 4835 310 57628 for 30" but check to be sure before ordering.

TJ

Honestly, I don't know too much about such devices. I have a rough idea of what they do, and I do know what they look like, but that's it. In any event, the damage that's already done wouldn't be fixed by a HV Regulation Kit, would it?

This is likely normal for this unit. Many stretch modes distort the image at the sides much more than the middle. It is not your tube nor is the phosphor damaged. It is likely a digital artifact of the processing done to fill the screen. Try a different picture format or mode if the set has one.

You might also post the brand and model, along with the sorce for the signal. What is the HD source, what resolution, and what do you mean by switching to widescreen. All HD is widescreen. You are likely seeing NTSC digitized and compressed then stretched to fill the screen, which can cause exactly the effect you describe. Compression often is worse on the edges and the stretch modes in many sets make this more obvious.

Leonard

If I leave it on widescreen, will the pixels on the sides return to their former appearance? As of now, they're definitely distorted. Even when I 'degauss', nothing changes.

signal. What is the HD source, what resolution, and what do you mean by switching to widescreen. All HD is widescreen.

Again, post your brand and model and the sources that you are using. Explain what "leave it on widescreen" means. Leave what on widescreen? The format setting on the set? The format of the source? HD or SD?

You are not providing any real info on what you are doing and the signal conditions. If you want answers you have to provide clear descriptions of your equipment, signal conditions, settings, and application.

Leonard

So you are watching 4:3 signals and setting your television to fill the entire screen when you see this distortion? If this is so, you are seeing exactly what I described earlier, a combination of artifacts that have nothing to do with the CRT. The image is intentionally distorted more at the sides to fill the screen with less "fattening" of the primary image area in the center. This distortion combined with the compression in the digital cable, which will also give up more data at the edges, gives you the effect that you are seeing. Get HD.

Leonard

You are probably dealing with digital artifacting. This is common and simply the cause of a not very good digital video processor in addition to some input signal digital related artifacting.

The red striping is also common to low quality digital decoder processors. This may be from the digital cable box and not the tv set, but the digital signal processor in the tv is going to make it look much worse.

If you have any real concerns, you need to have a home theater expert technician that not only does installations on multiple brand digital tv systems but is also a qualified repair technician. Then they will be able to look at the picture and determine if it is a failure or an artifacting problem. Anything else without actually seeing it is a wild guess.

For the past few months, I've watched television in 4:3. In 4:3, the sides are black. However, when the one device which utilizes HD (albeit

480p) is used, the entire screen is used. This is where the pixels on the sides are more visible, and they're distorted. The reason for this, and the other thread I posted, is the problem didn't exist one week ago. None of the problems; the subtle wavy lines, the 'jaggies', the bleeding red (and basically any color, esp. with movement), or the distorted side pixels, existed. That's what leads me to believe this tube is going bad.

The symptoms you describe are NOT a CRT going bad. It might be a problem in the digital processing in the television, but it could just as easily be that the signal processing in the Philips set is crap and exagerates artifacts that would be there in any set due to the combination of signal, format, compression, and processing.

David is right. Have a very experienced tech/system designer who is familiar with the specific equipment that you have evaluate the system.

Leonard