DVD pixelation

Why does it happen? Is it the SCART lead, the player? It appears to happen with my region 1 dvds on the not very expensive Philips multi-region player. Could that be why? What can you do to fix it?

Hi, MrJennRedd says its more than likely your DVD player or possibly your TV.  Its unlikely to be the SCART lead as this carries an analog signal, not digital...so the break up would be fuzzy rather than pixilation.  He thinks its your DVD player...

The reason region 1 cause some DVD players problems is because they are not good dealing with NTSC, which is the standard of output on region 1.  The UK standard is PAL.

He said its worth googling the model and make of your DVD player to see if others are having the same problem and if maybe they've found a way to fix it.

   Hope that helps?!

Hey, there.  Just asked DH as he is an AV tech and including all the reason listed from the previous response, DH says it really could be a number of reasons:  there could be dirty or scratched disc, disc wasn't recorded properly, bad head, faulty head, misaligned head, dirty head, cheap head, (no I am not calling you names! ) But more than likely it's what jennredd said about the DVD player. You need a better quality multi region one.

Try using a cheap DVD or CD lens cleaner and see if that improves the performance.  Many cheaper DVD players have a problem, and pixelate quite badly when jumping between layers on a disc (does pixelation happen at a particular point on each DVD?).

A region 1/2 or PAL/NTSC problem as suggested by a previous poster is unlikely - almost all DVD players have hardware that is suitable for all regions and TV standards, and they just contain an extra little bit of software to make them region-specific.

Try using a cheap DVD or CD lens cleaner and see if that improves the performance. 

 Sorry just gotta disagree on this one. At DH's AV company they don't recommend using cheap head cleaners at all.  The reason being they can actually scratch the lens itself if done domestically. It's best to either have it taken somewhere to be cleaned correctly or upgrading to a better quality machine.

I'm thinking it is the cheap quality of the player - I'll google around to see if there's anything can be done, but will start saving for a decent multi-region player. So what I am getting is that pixelation shouldn't be happening with a good m/r player. We have an excellent TV (Sony Bravia), so it's sorta annoying when it pixelates (although tbh I think I am the only one who really notices it). The DVDs are not copies - for example, brand new unopened copy of Cars sent by granpa is the latest.

Recommendations on a good m/r player most welcome!

Thanks for all the help. 

Pretty much covered already:  Dirty/bad pickup, poor quality DVD unit, etc.   It won't be the TV itself if it's a regular analog model, since you've already converted to analog for the SCART connection and a poor signal there shouldn't cause pixellation.  It could happen if the TV itself is converting to digital again before the display though.

Sorry just gotta disagree on this one. At DH's AV company they don't recommend using cheap head cleaners at all.  The reason being they can actually scratch the lens itself if done domestically. It's best to either have it taken somewhere to be cleaned correctly or upgrading to a better quality machine.

By cheap, I meant that CD cleaners are normally cheap.  The only ones which could conceivably scratch a lens are the ones that are only suitable for top-loading CD players, cos they have little brushes on them to clean the lens.  For DVD players you would need a slot/tray loading CD cleaner, which are all you seem to get these days (they use polarisation to lift the dust off the lens).