Need for a Comb Filter?

Question

Hi everyone. I'm in the market looking for a new HDTV to buy. I pretty much narrowed my choice to the Samsung 5054 because it has a lot of the anti-burn in technology that I feel I will be needing during my gaming sessions. However I did notice that the Samsung does not come with a Comb Filter, something its competitor (the Panasonic TH-50PX75U) has. The Panasonic has a Motion Adaptive 3D-Y/C Digital Comb Filter, just to let you know. My question is, how much will the lack of a comb filter affect me? Is it important and when is it important?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Comb filters are only necessary with ANALOG COLOR signals...

And just because it doesn't STATE it...it does not mean there isn't one...
All analog processing of color USES a comb filter and only if you are using the OLD Composite INPUTS....

You don't need it with the COMPONENT or HDMI inputs...

The OLD signal mixed black and white WITH a color signal and the comb filter UNMIXED the color from the black and white signal.....the digital comb filter was the last and best comb filter design from 10 years ago... that's why they tout it.

Answer 2

First of all, all TVs have a comp filter. It is needed in analog cable/TV transmission. Samsung probably considers it a given, that's why it is not in the spec sheet.
You don't need it for video over HDMI or component, since the 3 colors are already split.
So, no issue for you.

Second, don't trust too much the anti-burn technology. It is intended for casual protection no serious gaming. Most probably it will just spread the blur...
Be very careful with static images though the first 500-1000 hours and you should be OK.

Answer 3

I believe that you are misinformed that the Panasonic television TH-50PX75U does not have a anti-burn in, it does, it is automatically build in. Especially since Panasonic is the world's choice in HD Plasma's! You will be better off with the Samsung. The comb filter is going to help you with analog pictures, and the use of the digital is to help upconverting and other technological stuff.

Just remember alot of these people support Samsung because the representative constantly comes in and gives them incentives.

Kimi

Answer 4

Dot crawl is the popular name for a visual defect of color analog video standards when signals are transmitted as composite video. It consists of animated checkerboard patterns which appear along vertical color transitions. It results from intermodulation or crosstalk between chrominance and luminance components of the signal, which are imperfectly multiplexed in the frequency domain.

Dot crawl is most visible when the chrominance is transmitted with a high bandwidth, so that its spectrum reaches well into the band of frequencies used by the luminance signal in the composite video signal. This causes high-frequency chrominance detail at color transitions to be interpreted as luminance detail.

Another, similar problem is the appearance of a colored noise in image areas with high levels of detail. This results from high-frequency luminance detail crossing into the frequencies used by the chrominance channel and producing false coloration. Dot crawl can also make narrowly-spaced text difficult to read.

Dot crawl has long been recognized as a problem by professionals since the creation of composite video, but was first widely noticed by the general public with the advent of Laserdiscs.

Dot crawl can be greatly reduced by using a good comb filter in the receiver to separate the encoded chrominance signal from the luminance signal. However, the only complete solution to dot crawl is to not use composite video, and to use S-Video or component video processing instead.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_crawl"


So basically, any high contrast video, like in your video games, will suffer some quality without a comb filter. However, the comb filter has been around for a while, so it might just not be advertised in one of the TV's.

Answer 5

Basically a comb filter takes that rainbow-like effect away when looking at a bunch of lines close together in a picture such as a persons pin striped tie or suit (criss cross patterns) when watching tv. I doubt this will effect your video gaming much. Do not get a plasma tv because they do get burn-in. Stick with lcd or dlp formats to avoid burn-in. I have been fixing tv's for 16 years and have seen it all.

Answer 6

It is a sophisicated circuit which separates the Luma and Chroma of a composite or analog RF signal.