"OTA" analog on a new LCD TV

[dtvmcdonald]

I was finishing calibration of my 9T246 last night and decided to feed
it from a Blu-ray player playing a calibration HDTV DVD-ROM I made from
a file I found on the web (plain DVDs can do HDTV, just short ones)
rather than the Digital Video Essentials DVD.
This was taking the audio/video outputs, feeding them to a very cheapie
very modern VCR (only, no DVD) and using the RF output.
This DVD has a really good set of patterns.

When I finished, I decided to look at the disc on my very recent
46" Sony Bravia ... through the RF input, which I had never done
before, always before using HDMI. The pictures were stunningly
good! The very last pattern on the disc is a standard color bars
which alternates "flag versus no flag" (does anybody know what this means?
... there is no difference flag or no). Of course using the HDMI output
this pattern is absolutely perfect, no color fringing, etc. But on the RF
input it was incredibly good ... there was color fringing, especially when viewed through the usual Video Essentials color filters, but it was far far less
than any I have ever seen before (except of course the CPA prototype
at the ETF convention.)

How does this happen? I presume that the Blu-ray player is outputting
plain double-sideband (not vestigial) chroma on the video output. The
luma extends to 5 MHz. But the modulator must be cutting
it off somehow, as the sound was not bothered by color patterns.

Does anybody know how these modern cheapie devices are doing
it so well ... especially the cheapie modulator?

When finished with the patterns I decided to do something very
odd on the 9T246, so I watched not Wizard of Oz in glorious
9" B&W, but the Harry Potter I Blu-ray all the way through in B&W.
I must admit that B&W sometimes made seeing things a bit difficult,
even though Harry Potter is rather low in the color department,
especially as compared to the Wizard. But very oddly the dialog
was much easier to understand in mono than on my super-duper
5.0 surround system. Maybe it was a different track on the Blu-ray.
(Note that my Blu-ray player won't output video program if the HDMI
connector is plugged in, so it is aware its doing composite. It does
output composite in that case, but its a message telling you to
unplug the HDMI if you want program on composite. )

Doug McDonald