Question on Home Entertainment:

Is it normal to see some backgroung noise or picture grain while watching Blu-ray movies on my Toshiba Regza X3500? This happened recently when I was watching Pirates Of The Carribean on Blu-ray. The foreground is perfect but you can see some noise on the background if you look closely, especially during the steamy scene at the begininng of the third movie installment. I'm sitting close to my TV (2m distance for a 37-inch TV). I don't have this "noise" issue when playing games on my PS3/Xbox 360.

Submitted by Pooya, via email

Answer:

Noise as in random grains in high contrast areas? Perhaps you may want to try fiddling with the Regza's noise reduction, sharpness and brightness controls. You may also try playing the same disc on another panel or setup to see there are any differences. In any case, from what you described, it is weird that you are getting noise for the movie but not for playing games.

Now, if you are using online reviews as a benchmark, remember the reviewer's equipment and configuration are different so it may not be an accurate yardstick for straight comparison. Just to be sure, try one of the animation movie titles such as Cars. These CG-based materials usually have extremely low noise floor.

mandyrupi

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mandyrupi says...
Its common, many people experience noisy/grainy picture while playing DVD/Blu-ray content (not every content is noisy/grainy).....i was also worried about this initially...but its ok to experience it...its associated with poor/inapropriate development/transfer of DVD/Blu-ray content by the manufacturing company.i have also found that this noise is more evident in HDMI/COMPONENT Connections and very very less in COMPOSITE/S-VIDEO
connections....

Jul 20, 2008 11:35