Some AV help with an LST-3510A

[PeterB]

Hi everyone,

I just got ahold of a second LG LST-3510A. (For those of you who don't know, that's an HDTV tuner/DVD player combo.) I'm hooking it up to a very nice Philips non-HD TV that I got awhile back for cheap. (The Philips is a 32PT56, if anyone needs to know.) So far I've got it hooked up via either S-vid or composite video, and am using it to tune OTA HD signals.

I've had two problems thus far, which may be interrelated:

1) On some but not all HDTV stations, I can't get the tuner to fill the screen with the picture, no matter how I try. Specifically, the picture is too narrow left-to-right. On the TV, I only see options for aspect ratios of 4:3 and Expand 4:3. Neither of these seems to help. Am I out of luck? (What I seem to need is a "double-wide" ratio option on the tuner.)

2) On trying to play a DVD, I get the following message: "This disc is not available for viewing using the DVI monitor without HDCP capability. You may be able to view this disc using a different connector and removing the DVI cable." Huh ??? I'm not using a DVI cable...

Any ideas? TiA

[blusubaru]

Check your menu settings on the player. You've done all you can at the tv level but it sounds like the box is still trying to force a weird aspect ratio and output format.

[PeterB]

blu, the player has the following aspect ratio choices:

Normal
Set by program
Wide
Squeezed
Zoom (with some different zoom levels)
Cinema (with some different levels)

I can use one of the Zoom/Cinema settings to fill up the screen left-to-right, but then I get some cropping on top and bottom. The "Wide" setting is going in the right direction size-wise, but not far enough... what I need is a "double-wide". I will try playing around with it some more...

It also just occurred to me that the DVD problem might be with the one disc (a Disney). I'll try another disc and report back.

[PeterB]

OK, think I got it figured out...

The problem was with the resolution as set on the tuner... there is no way to do this via remote, it has to be done on the tuner unit itself. I hooked it up to the TV via component cable (I figured might as well go for the better video quality) and it's now working fine with the output set for 480i. DVD also now plays properly.

[blusubaru]

Good work!

[PeterB]

Yep, what's nice about this is that when I finally get around to buying an HD-ready, I'll be... uh... ready.

I'm guessing the HDCP thing is some sort of copy protection to try to prevent you from copying HD DVD's?

[mikebw]

Yeah, HDCP is there to ruin your existence.

What I was going to suggest was to use component or DVI cables for the video to the TV. S-video or composite will not carry an HD signal, which is probably why things were not working very well.

[Rev320]

I have this same unit and had the same problem. I just want to clarify the solution to this problem for others, since I still had difficulty until LG's customer service helped me.

If you get a message that states "This disk is not available for viewing using the dvi monitor without HDCP capability," or "This disk is not available using RGB monitor for copy protection," you need to change the Display Format. This is done by pressing the small button by that name which is located just under the DVD tray.

There are two different type of settings this button does. The first is to goggle between "yPbPr" (which is the one most likely to work), RGB, and DVI. The second setting will appear after you pause for aprox. ten seconds after setting the first. It toggles between 480p, 480i, 720p, 1080i, Narrative, Variable1, Variable2, & Variable3.