Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display

Posted by: Tyris

Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 17/04/2002 14:59

Well, I just got a brand new Mk2a from carplayers.com today, and I already think it has a problem. I looked through FAQ, and I saw one similar issue, but this is not exactly the same. I plugged my new player into the wall right away, and it boots up fine. Some of the lines on the display looked slightly dimmer than others, but that seemed normal enough. However, once it's done loading and says "End of playlist", I have some more display issues. Every few seconds, the pixels will jump around a bit (like a fuzzy TV) and then go back to normal. This is similar to the garbled display issue in the FAQ, but it's not really the same exact problem. If I move the player around, the fuzziness occurs more often. At first, I thought it was some kind of strange optical effect of the display everytime I blinked... But, I kept my eyes open and the display still got fuzzy. Does anyone have any ideas? My only thought is that the display cable might be loose, but I don't really want to open it up and check because I'd be voiding the warranty on the first day! Kind of a disappointing start to my first Empeg...

Thanks!
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 17/04/2002 15:11

Definitely contact support so David can help you decide what to do. If he authorizes you to open the player, then it will be OK re: your warranty.
Posted by: Tyris

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 17/04/2002 17:49

Well, now I'm starting to think it is just my eyes... Do the pixels on anyone elses display appear to jump? It doesn't seem to happen at the boot logo, only at menus and such... Any ideas? This is really strange!
Posted by: Satan_X

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 17/04/2002 17:53

I have mine sitting next to me, Mine seems stable.......went into menus too
Posted by: thrasher

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 17/04/2002 17:55

mine did the same thing when I first got it.It finally went out and I sent it in for repair.I got it back in like five days.Dave gives great and fast support.
Posted by: Speedy

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 17/04/2002 18:06

I've noticed on mine the "dimmed" items on the screen jump more. If you chomp your teeth while looking at the display you will see it bounce, more so on the dimmer stuff. I assumed the duty cycle set the intensity and the lower duty cycles left the display off for a longer period of time, so you can see the refresh.

Presslab
Posted by: Tyris

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 17/04/2002 18:19

Okay, well, I feel better now that other people have had the same problem and it's not just my eyes driving me crazy!
Posted by: BinaryC

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 17/04/2002 21:17

What you are seeing is probably the effect created by the fact there are really only 2 colors on the display. The empeg fakes 4 colors by flashing pixels on-off-on-off really fast (so it looks gray). You are seeing the flashing. Think strobe light.
Posted by: Tyris

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 18/04/2002 04:20

Is there any way to reduce this effect? It's very distracting to me... Of course, I don't see how you could reduce it if it is really just the flashing that I see.
Posted by: rob

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 18/04/2002 06:15

The display is refreshed at 100Hz so the grey scale effect is quite stable. You only really notice that time dithering is going on if you move your head around a lot.

The brightest shade isn't dithered at all, so when looking at track info mode (for example) everything should look stable - although there are still some grey shades used to anti alias the text.

I can't say I've ever been distracted by the time dithering, or really even noticed it, so maybe something is up with your player.

Oh, and "End of Playlist" is exactly what you should expect until you get some content on there!

Rob
Posted by: shadow45

Re: Brand New Empeg - Fuzzy Display - 18/04/2002 06:58

I've seen this too, and I wrote it off initially because I've seen similar effects with other types of displays, and figured it was some sort of optical illusion involving the refresh rate and my eyes. Try looking at it while eating something, jaw movement really seems to effect it.
But someone posted saying they sent theirs to empeg for this? this isn't normal? someone please elaborate for me..