Troubleshooting guide for picture and sound issues
Find out more about High Definition versus Standard Definition

This guide was designed to help you troubleshooting Standard and High Definition related issues. Your feedback will help us to improve support.

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I have an image issue.

Poor image: colour, granular noise, blocks and other artefacts, image flickering.

The image is generated from a standard DVD player (no DivX or Xvid).

  • DVD's are standard definition video sources. Number of lines output is 576 lines, whereas your HD TV set has 720 or 1080 lines. This difference may result in a poorer image. However some DVD players are able to "upscale" picture to obtain a very good picture. Check if your DVD player has the following connectors: YUV, DVI or HDMI. For more information, refer to the instruction manual of your DVD player.

  • Some HDMI or DVI featured DVD players also have an internal processor that can upscale pictures from a DVD to 720 or 1080 lines to provide an excellent picture from a standard definition disc to your HD TV set. Those settings are available from the setup menu of your DVD player. Please refer to the instruction manual of your DVD player.

  • If your DVD player does not have those connectors and only has a SCART connector, or S-VIDEO, or composite, there is not much to do to improve the picture quality. Just make sure that you are not using the cheapest cables and that the picture settings of your TV set are correctly adjusted.

  • Some high end TV sets have a picture improvement engine that can soften a noisy image. Make sure that it is activated from the setup menu of your TV set. Please refer to the instruction manual of your TV set.

  • If people and objects have weird white outlines around them. This may suggest that your TV sharpness is set too high. Make the correct sharpness adjustments from the setup menu of your TV set.

  • Make sure you use good quality cables and that your cables are not too long (less than 5 meters long).

The image is generated from a Blu-ray disc player or a Playstation 3.

  • Make sure that you have selected the correct video format from the remote control. You may have inadvertently touched this button. In this case the resolution is lowered resulting in a poor image quality. Press this button again several times until the resolution is correct.

  • First make sure that your Blu-ray disc player is connected via the HDMI output to your HD TV set. If it is connected to YUV, it is most likely that the signal is downscaled to standard 576 lines resolution. Using the HDMI connection available on your Blu-ray disc player will definitely improve your HD experience.

  • Make sure that the image settings of your TV set are correctly set. It may be possible that the factory video settings are not suitable to your room (light conditions, etc.). Refer to the user manual of your TV set to correctly adjust the image settings of your TV set to achieve a cleaner and more accurate, with the best possible contrast and gray-scale tracking.

  • Some high end TV sets have a picture improvement engine that can soften a noisy image. Make sure that it is activated from the setup menu of your TV set. Please refer to the instruction manual of your TV set.

  • As with standards DVD's, some Blu-ray discs are poorly encoded. If the picture is perfect with another Blu-ray disc, your hardware is not faulty.

  • If people and objects have weird white outlines around them. This may have two different causes:

    1. This may suggest that your TV sharpness is set too high. Make the correct sharpness adjustments from the setup menu of your TV set.

    2. Your TV is using some edge enhancement processing that is generally unnecessary for high definition signals. Please refer to the instruction manual of your TV set.



  • Use the shortest possible cables. Long cables are more sensitive to interferences.

  • Image flickers, or frames are dropped: this phenomenon is known as "Judder". Movies are originally shot at 24 frames per seconds. However, in Europe, refresh rates of TV are 50Hz or multiple of 25 as the European PAL system specifications are 25 frames per second. Therefore when a 24fps signal is sent to a TV set with 50Hz refresh rate, this may result in this effect called judder. This is normal and within the technology specifications. This effect also exists for standard DVD's but may be more visible due to the fact that TV displays are getting larger and larger.

The image is generated from a TV broadcast.

  • If you did not subscribe to a High Definition TV provider, the signal is standard definition. Remember that an HD TV set will make the default of a picture worse than on a standard defintion TV set. Make sure that the TV broadcast is top quality. However, some high end TV sets have a picture improvement engine that can improve a poor image. Make sure that it is activated from the setup menu of your TV set. Please refer to the instruction manual of your TV set.

  • If you have an HD broadcast subscription, side effects of digital television signal compression may result in artifacts (or distortion), such as "pixels" surrounding fast moving objects. This should be greatly reduced in the next years as compression technology improves.

  • If blocks of pixels sometimes appear on the picture, or the picture freezes for a few seconds and then it goes back to normal, this suggest that the digital TV signal is not strong enough. Move the antenna (if aerial DTV), or contact your digital TV provider to boost the video signal.

The image is generated from a DivX or Xvid.

DivX is often a lossy compression format resulting in video quality alteration. Viewing DivX files always results in poor image quality.

No image: the screen remains black.

  • The TV input is not correct: make sure that you did not push the wrong input button on the remote control of your TV set.

  • Make sure that the output signal is compatible with the input of your TV set. If your player is set to output a 1080p signal, make sure that your TV set can support 1080p signals. If not set your player to a compatible signal (720p or 1080i).

  • Cables are not correctly connected: please check again that all the cables are firmly connected at the back of your devices.

  • Cables are of very low quality or damaged. Also make sure that your cables are not too long. If your cable is more than 5 meters long, the signal may be altered.

I have a sound issue.

The sound is not correctly decoded or there is no sound.

  • If your media is encoded with sound formats that are not recognized by your player or AV receiver, this may result in no sound at all. Make sure that your hardware devices are compatible with the sound format you want to playback.

  • All movies are not encoded with the same sound formats by default. Some movies are available with one single sound format (usually Dolby Digital) while others have different various formats available. Check on the cover of your media to make sure your hardware device can play your movie.

I have a usability issue.

The DVD player does not detect the disc.

  • Make sure that your hardware device is compatible with disc formats. Check the following table for more information.

  • Region code system is used to protect copyrights. If you try to play any other region DVD than the one determined on the player, you will not be able to play it back. Please make sure that your hardware device is compatible with the disc formats of your local region.
  • DVD region codes

    Region code Area
    1 Canada, the United States and U.S. territories
    2 Japan, Europe, South Africa, the Middle East (including Egypt) and Greenland.
    3 Southeast Asia, and East Asia (including Hong Kong).
    4 Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean.
    5 Eastern Europe, Russia, the Indian Subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia.


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The Blu-ray player does not detect the disc.

  • Make sure that your hardware device is compatible with disc formats. Check the following table for more information.

  • Region coding: as with standard DVD's, Blu-ray discs are region coded. The Blu-ray movie region codes are different from the DVD region codes.
  • AVCHD playback: AVCHD discs from AVCHD disc camcorders can be played back from your Blu-ray disc player. However, if you edit AVCHD movies from your computer before burning them on disc, make sure it is burned with the software that was delivered with your camcorder. If not, you will not be able to play it back from your standalone player.

    DVD Region codes

    Region codeArea
    1Canada, the United States and U.S. territories
    2Japan, Europe, South Africa, the Middle East (including Egypt) and Greenland.
    3Southeast Asia, and East Asia (including Hong Kong).
    4Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean.
    5Eastern Europe, Russia, the Indian Subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia.


    Sony

    Blu-ray Disc region codes

    Region codeArea
    ANorth America, South America, U.S. Territories, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast
    BEurope, Africa, Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand
    CAsia (except for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast Asia)


    Sony

  • Blu-ray disc burned from computer: make sure that the format you chose to burn your Blu-ray disc is BDMV and not BDAV.

The player is slow to respond.

It may take a few seconds after you press a button on your player or the remote control of the player before the task is executed. This is normal and not a malfunction.

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