Pioneer 343/340 dark image fading - help!

[MR.COATES]

I've just got the Pioneer 343 (black version of the 340) from Richer Sounds for a bargain £149 (multiregion).

Lovely player and put my PS2's picture to shame immediately.

However, I have noticed that in scenes with dark sections that there is some kind of a problem with the darker parts becoming lighter (just noticeably) and then returning to their normal darkness.

I've got a decent new scart cable (shielded, gold connectors etc) and also have sky digital which doesn't cause any similar problems.

It happens on any disc regardless of region and the signal doesn't go through any other equipment, also have swapped with the other scart input on the TV which doesn't make any difference.

Not sure whether it's a fault or due to the good price but I find that hard to believe. Have also contacted Pioneer this a.m but don't know when/if they'll reply.

Thanks if you can offer any kind of tips as the player and tv settings can't seem to get rid of this problem.

[ivj]

Sounds like a problem with macrovision even though you have the DVD player connected directly to the TV.

A friend routed his 340 through the VCR and onwards to the TV which resulted in the same flashing light and dark picture which was due to the video circuitry in the VCR interfering with the picture due to the macrovision.

He corrected his by rerouting the scart lead directly to the TV.

This is not the answer to your problem if yours is already connected directly but macrovision may well be the problem somehow.

I don't think that this model outputs in RGB so your signal is composite. I would suggest that if you TV has either a scart socket that will take s-video or has a dedicated s-video socket that you use this instead as the picture quality will be far higher.

Ian

[MR.COATES]

I've got a few things that I'm going to try tonight so I'll add this to my list.

Richer sounds were quite surprised so if I don't get anywhere tonight (2 tv's and few cables to try!) then I'm taking it back and they're going to set it up in their demo room.

Cheers for the reply in any case.