Double Image With Component Cable - WTF?

I just bought an Oppo 980, and took delivery yesterday. When I tried to connect it to my Sony television tonight with component cable, something very odd happened. When using component cable, instead of one image on the TV screen I get a double image - two identical, distorted side-by-side copies of the picture. And they're both in black and white.

When I switch to S-Video, the image displays perfectly on my screen.

When I swap out the component cables, and connect them to my other DVD player, it works fine - perfect image.

Disconnect them from my old DVD player, plug them back into the Oppo, double image in black and white again.

So. The cables are fine, and they are connected properly. It's not the TV, because it displays fine when I plug the cables into my other DVD player. I cannot find any setting in the Oppo menu that seems relevant to this issue. Anyone ever heard of this before? I'm baffled.

Some additional information - there seems to be some sort of tracking issue involved. The two double images occasionally lose "tracking lock" (I know that's not a real term; I just made it up because it seems to describe the problem pretty well) and suddenly distort very badly in a sharp diagonal orientation, if you understand what I mean by that. They twitch and jump, slanted very sharply from the lower right corner to the upper left, and then suddenly the tracking seems to "find" itself again, and the two double images recover themselves, and seem somewhat stable for a period of time. Then they go bonkers again.

This happens both with commercial discs and with homemade discs, if that matters at all.

Oppo glitch?

It sounds like you got a defective unit, which is probably pretty rare from Oppo, I know there are a lot of people that have them....I would call their tech support and see what, if anything you can do to get it working correctly

Do you mean composite cable or component cableS. Never tried the composite cable on my Oppo.

It's component. And yeah, I'm stumped to the point where I'll just have to e-mail Oppo Monday morning. I've tried every adjustment I can think of, and I'm getting nowhere.

Just as a check, is composite OK. I've only taken HDMI out for video.

Just as a check, is composite OK. I've only taken HDMI out for video.

I haven't tried that yet. I've been putting it off, because it's just such a colossal pain to get behind that big TV. But I know that at some point, I'll probably have to try that one out too before e-mailing Oppo. Hopefully I can make time today.

It sounds like you might have miss-matched the component cables (i.e. blue to green, etc.). Have you checked that?

It sounds like you might have miss-matched the component cables (i.e. blue to green, etc.). Have you checked that?

Oh, yeah. Checked it several times. It's definitely hooked up right, and Bill - to answer your question, the composite video works fine. I haven't heard back yet from Oppo support. Hopefully well be able to connect up tomorrow, and I'll finally get to the bottom of this.

Sounds like the sync signal is out of whack.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Component video requires an extra synchronization signal to be sent along with the video. Component video sync signals can be sent several different ways:

Separate sync
Uses separate wires for horizontal and vertical synchronization. When used in RGB connections, five separate signals are sent (Red, Green, Blue, Horz. Sync, Vert. Sync).
Composite sync
Combines horizontal and vertical synchronization onto one pair of wires. When used in RGB connections, four separate signals are sent (Red, Green, Blue, Sync).
Sync-on-green
Combines composite sync with the green signal in RGB. Only three signals are sent (Red, Green with Sync, Blue). This synchronization system is used in - among other applications - many systems by Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems through a DB13W3 connector.
Sync-on-luminance
Similar to sync-on-green, but combines sync with the luminance signal (Y) of a color system such as YPbPr. This is the synchronization system normally used in home theater systems.

Solved! And what a simple solution it was, too.

Turns out the unit was simply set to a resolution higher than my 480p set could display, and all I had to do was change that setting to a lower resolution. That particular setting was not in the setup menu; it had a separate button all of its very own on the remote, and that's why I couldn't find it. Oppo support told me to just press the HDMI button repeatedly until the picture displayed properly, and that's the correct resolution.

Now after all that, turns out the S-video output actually gives me a slightly better picture than the component output. So I'll continue to use the S-video input on my TV for the Oppo and the component input for the Panasonic (because on the Panasonic, the component output is significantly better than the S-video). Everything is perfect, and even though I may never use the component output on my Oppo at least I know the unit is not defective. Thanks to everyone who offered advice in this thread!

A ha! So it was a sync problem. Odd that the solution was on the remote and not in the menu. Now that you divulged the cause I remember seeing just exactly what you saw on-screen before with a cable HD box.

It is interesting. I have mine set to 1080P, 'cause that's what my TV set has, but it's the first unit that I know of that lets you change this on the fly. Most other players I have, it's part of the setup screens. I had to check to make sure it didn't change back to some default when I turned it on again, but no, it holds it in the last position. Still, if you fat finger the remote, you could change the resolution - not good IMHO.