Smallville - fuzzy?
 

I've been watching Smallville Season 1 on DVD recently and I've noticed that the picture looks fuzzy and sorta jittery in parts. When I watch the same disc on my girlfriends TV, the picture looks fine though. Has anyone has any issues watching Smallville DVD's on their TV? I have a Toshiba 52" HDTV (52HM84) hooked to a Philips 5-disc DVD Player (DVD-793C) via component cables. The DVD player is set to Widescreen and is using progressive scan. The TV is set to stretch the image.

Thanks.

I'm currently watching this for the first time right now, just started it last week actually. I am up to episode 13 and have noticed no issues.

I have watched it on multiple players/tvs.

Sony 57" HDTV / Momitsu DVD player
GE 27" tv/ Philips DVD player
GE 27" tv /Tivo-Toshiba DVD player

BTW, I am loving this show so far. My only complaint is in 12 episodes it is just a "freak of the week" show. Hopefully they get into bigger storylines and even some simpler ones.

FOTW shows are all you'll see in season 1.

The idea of being a continuing story kicks in later sometime in season 2 and in full swing by season 3.

Yeap. Season 1 is mostly freak of the week show.

Back to the OP, I don't remember anything fuzzy about the season. There could be something wrong with the equipment. Do you use any de-interlacer or line doubler? A few setting glitch might be the cause.

Thanks, guesswho. That is a little disappointing & re-assuring at the same time. Just sucks it took that long to get going.

May I also say, I easily dismissed the "smallville actors talk" for the movie just because I figured it would just be a tv movie type thing(and since I had never seen it). After watching half a season, damn, I have been swayed already. Rosenbaum and Welling are fantastic. The acting has blown me away. Schnieder as Jonathan Kent was definitely inspired casting. I think he has become my favorite character already.

They just get better. Rosenbaum is the Lex of the future. I can't imagine Spacey doing it any better.

Honestly, as someone who isn't a fan of the show, I love the casting. I love the parents and lex.
I just always see Clark's mom and see the Huntress, though.

The progressive scanning coupled with the stretch mode may be causing the glitches. Pick out a couple areas and switch between stretch and normal to see if the glitches remain. You could also turn off the progressive scan to see if your TV does a better job of line-doubling.

That also brings me to wonder if your DVD player is actually in progressive mode. I have a 57" Toshiba, and as far as I can tell, you can't adjust a digital signal.

Considering that Smallville is anamorphic widescreen already, there is really no need to stretch the image is there?

That's a good point. I was assuming it was filmed 4:3.

Well, I have to tell my TV to strech it or else it doesn't take up the entire screen. I'm not sure if it is a problem with my DVD player or what but if I don't stretch the image, widescreen movies only show up as 4:3.

You definitely need to recheck your DVD settings. That isn't right.

You mean it shows up as letterboxed image inside the pillar boxing?

Smallville like Dawsons and some other wb shows started out with just actrocous transfers. I sold mine off and just wait out inevitable HD ones.

Inevitable? I shudder to think of Van Der Beek in HD. Smallville has a decent chance for future HD releases, based on source material. I seriously doubt we'll ever see the Creek rereleased.

I think your DVD player is set to 4:3 mode, meaning it will convert a 16:9 image to 4:3 before sending it to the TV. There should be a setting in the DVD player's menus that let it know you are using a 16:9 TV. Then the DVD player won't do the downconversion to 4:3 and your TV won't have to stretch the image.

If you are stretching a 4:3 letterboxed widescreen image, it is distorted and much lesser quality. This may the problem you are noticing with Smallville. The widescreen transfers aren't the best quality in the first place, streching a downconverted image would probably make it look horrible.

You say your DVD player is set to Widescreen, are you sure it's 16:9 and not some letterboxed setting. Alot of players I've seen include 3 settings, 4:3 Standard, Letterboxed, and 16:9 Widescreen. 4:3 and Letterboxed are the same thing and both send a 4:3 image to the TV. You need the 16:9 mode.

Between the broadcasts on HDNet and The WB, every episode from every season of Smallville has aired in high-definition, so the masters already exist.

I haven't watched Smallville on DVD, but the first season didn't look that hot in HD (it improved from there, though), so I wouldn't expect the DVDs to be overwhelmingly impressive either.

I love the casting as well. I saw a DVD on eBay one time. I believe it was the pilot episode but Clark's mom was not played by Annette O'Toole. I remember that it fetched more than $75.

Too bad I dont think that I will ever see that again.