Zenith DVB 318 & LG 7832 DVD Player merged thread

Great review, Jason, and I heartily agree! Last night I popped INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM into the DVB 318, and it looked beautiful. The opening title scene, where Kate Capshaw dances in front of the words INDIANA JONES, looked 3-D; I thought she was going to jump off the screen.

I agree, great review. The only thing I noticed about the "auto play" is that it seems to pick an video track. On finding Nemo it took forever to load and find the track, and then it was the track with the prelim drawing.

Once again I prove my eloquence with my well written explantion of a little problem

B

My 318 will not auto-play disc 2 of the Lawerence of Arabia superbit. The display starts the counter but no video ever appears. No problem with the disc on my XP30, so it's quirk with the zenith.

Someone on the AVS forum said that they have the same problem with the LAWRENCE Superbit.

The autoplay feature is a little erratic. Normally it picks the biggest video file on the disc. I had to turn it off - we started getting the wrong episodes of anime, etc, starting up. On a disc with a lot of files it doesn't work too well. Plus, it plays the episode and then tries to go back to the menu. Then we get the FBI logo. There's no escaping it

Yeah I think I'm gonn abuy this player for my new HItachi 57S500. Been using a crappy Sony DVD/VHS. Probabaly will get it from that site for $160. Lets see how it ends up.

Okay I emailed them. How do I email payment info? Like do I email them my credit card number or something? This is confusing. To the people that ordered from them, help!

Zenith 318 upconversion test/review

Television used in the test are: a Hitachi 65xwx20b CRT RPTV and a Memorex MT3010 HDTV LCD 30 inch panel. The Hitachi automatically upconverts all inputs to either 540p or 1080i. As such, I doubt if the Zenith’s upconversion would have any positive effect on the Hitachi monitor. It would be interesting to compare the component vs dvi inputs of the Hitachi. The Memorex is a different story. The Memorex does not have DVI inputs so an upconverting DVD player via components is a big plus. With a native resolution of 720p, I have high expectations on the Zenith’s upconversion abilities.



With the Hitachi, picture quality would be compared to the Philips 962sa that is currently connected via components. The Philips is a top rated dvd/sacd player that also sports the DCDI processing. With the Memorex, picture quality would be compared to the JVC former flagship, the JVC XV-D723GD which is currently connected to the Memorex via components; another top rated dvd/dvd-a player. Without a doubt, the Zenith would have its work cut out.



Initial impressions on the Zenith; the word cheesy comes to mind, especially for a $249 DVD. The build quality is more in line to the sub $100 market. Open the cover and it does not get any better. One of the flimsiest looking transport I have ever seen. Children should not be allowed to touch this fragile looking piece.The rest of the interior pretty much screams budget. On the other hand, the remote is pretty nice. Buttons are laid out nice and spaced adequately apart. The jog shuttle dial for forward and reverse is convenient..



I used chapters two and three on “The Pirates of the Caribbean” dvd. On chapter two, I paid special attention to details on the boat, color saturation with the different light conditions, details and depth from the hanging pirates , and the warning sign. On chapter three, I paid special attention to both actors complexion. The dvd is ruthluess in highlighting the acne problems of both actors. Look at Depp’s bandana , his skin showing through his wet shirt, and the water beading on his face. Look at her makeup, her eyebrowl, the details in her blouse, or her acne---can you count them?



On the Hitachi, as expected, switching between 480p, 720p, and1080i did nothing. The Hitachi did its own upconversion process. Through the components, the picture quality is very good. Good detail, good color saturation, good depth to the picture. I did not see any extraneous artifacts. Video quality is very very good. Through the DVI the picture was also very good. I had to adjust the video as the DVI had much higher brightness, contrast and color than the components. Again, switching between 480p,720p and 1080i showed no difference in video quality. The DVI was very sharp and detailed; but I preferred the component’s better depth and 3-D look. The component had a more natural film look to it than the DVI. The DVI connection was very buggy. Most of the time I could not get a signal down to the Hitachi. Had to either reboot the player or shut it down for a while. Seems like the Zenith’s DVI does not like to be powered down and fired up over and over. Compared to the Philips, the Zenith is not quite up to par. Bear in mind that the Philips is one of the better dvd players out there and the Zenith comes fairly close…picture quality was more close than they were apart. For the Hitachi, the Zenith is not worth the extra dollars for the upconverting feature. It would be more wise to purchase a straight-up $249 dvd player that would trade better build quality for the upconverting feature.



On the Memorex, the 480p picture quality was excellent. Great detail, sharpness, color saturation, and depth.. The 720p was also excellent, offering just a shade more detail than the 480p. The 1080i picture was notably worse than the 480p, blurring the fine details the 480p produced. At 1080i, I noticed a strange artifact where the black top and bottom bands are; a white hyphen like artifact. Sure enough, the 720p from the Zenith matched the Memorex native resolution perfectly; extrapolating the last ounce of information. Here the upconverting feature worked with the Memorex. We are not talking about night and day difference; it was subtle…perhaps on a larger screen the difference would have been more pronounced. LCD panels excel in detail and resolution and the Zenith brought out the best of the LCD. At times, the picture quality was so good it looked as if I was watching the action from the other side of the window. Compared to the $900 JVC, the Zenith put up a good fight. The JVC had a more natural, film like presentation, but the Zenith would be welcomed addition.



The Zenith produces a fine video picture, better than any budget dvd player ought to. Ultimately the upconversion feature was a non-factor with the Hitachi and with the Memorex only subtly. On larger non-upconverting montors, the Zenith upconversion may have been more noticeable. Yes, both the Philips and JVC produced a finer picture (even at only 480P)and it should at 2-3times the cost of the Zenith. I will reserve only a passing comment with regards to cd audio on the Zenith….don’t get rid of your cd player.

Problems with my Zenith DVB318

Hope someone here can help. I recently bought the dvb318 and have been having problems with player hanging when I use the DVI cable. I have a Mitsu WS-55413.

Here is a rundown of what happens.

1. Hook up player with DVI cable.
2. Turn player on and it freezes at the "hello" msg. (Wont respond to remote of controls on the player itself).
3. Unplug DVI and then unplug the player.
4. Plug player back in.
5. Player is now responsive so I insert a DVD.
6. Plug DVI cable back in the player and it works just fine.

Now, I have had 2 of these players shipped to me and they both have done the same exact thing. I called Zenith and the only thing they could think of is that my TV isnt HDCP compliant.

Does that sound right? Does anyone know what could be causing this problem? I am at a complete loss.... =\

Quick question,

My basic Sony DVD bit the dust after a couple years of hard use, and I'm in the maket for a new player. Right now I only have a 27" Wega that doesn't even do progressive, but I'm planning to go front projector, possibly the new Infocus 4805.

I was hoping that the Zenith would be a good choice that would serve me in the future when I get the projector (then I don't have to use a HTPC) but also work fine now. I know I'd have to run 480i over s-video.

Any advice? Is there a better sub $200 player out there for me?

Thanks,

Wes

Page 67 of your manual bottom right

"Input when used with DVI"

==> HDCP compliant
==> E-EDID (Enhanced-Extended Display Identification) 1.2 compliant
==> DVI-D uncompressed, high-speed, digital single-link connection

Suggested scan rates: 1080i, 480p, 480i

Well, we know it is HDCP compliant so now you need to check two more things:

1. Make sure you are using a DVI-D connection, not a DVI-A
2. make sure your dvd player is outputting either, 1080i, 480p, or 480i, your display is uncompatible with 720p

If this fails, try a new DVI-D wire. If that fails it may be a glitch with the DVD Player they may have to address. All else fails the DVI connection on your tv may be bad.

Cable I was using was DVI-D. The player comes from the factory defaulted to 480i and I know for sure I wasnt using 720p.

I suppose it would be worth trying another cable. I dont think it is the DVI input on the TV itself because when Samsung came out with their HD DVD player I had no problems with it, just didnt care for the pic quality.

Thanks for the advice though! I will see what a new cable does.

Wes,
I did the same thing last year. I had a 27" Zenith and got a progressive Panny CP72 for use later, because I knew an upgrade would be coming. When I upgraded to my X1, all I needed was the component cables. It's always good to look ahead.


I haven't read much about the s-video output, but, unless there's any glaring issues with it, it seems like a good idea. Beware there is some right-side cropping on the player (about 5%) that shows up drastically on a lot of pj's. A little adjustment to the tracking controls on the pj stretched the picture a tiny bit to adjust.


If your current DVD player is dead, then, I think this is the best Faroudja based player right now, IMO, unless you want to go the Ebay route and pay top dollar for a Panny XP30/XP50. At this price point, it's a very good buy. The upconversion is admittedly kind of pointless, IMO, unless you going with a 720p or higher pj -and most budget DLPs are 480p. But it's a good Faroudja player, and that's hard to find now.


You'll find a lot of us projector folks with this player, these days, since we are overly picky about DVD players It's got some issues (if you've read the thread you will see discussion of some of them), but they are mostly minor.

Well, I have now noticed a cropping issue in 1080i mode. The player actually cuts off around 5% of the top of the picture on 1:85:1 aspect movies in 1080i mode. The picture is perfectly centered in 480p mode though so it is an issue with upconversion between the player and my Toshiba 57H81 HDTV. In 2:35:1 movies the top bar is smaller then the bottom in 1080i mode. Has anyone else noticed this problem on a RP HDTV? Please lost your model if you have. I am hoping firmware can fix this issue and that it isn't an issue with model of HDTV.

My Zenith is also very buggy with the DVI. I have to shut down the player for a while. Then shut off/turn on the TV first. Then turn on the Zenith. It works at this point. If I were to power down the Zenith and Fire it back up, I get no picture, a green screen, a green screen with flikering pink triangles, or the dvd logo in pieces. I will be contacting Zenith to see if they will send over a software cd. Otherwise I will use the Zenith exchange program and get another unit.

My first unit I got from Grochnauers would only have picture and sound through S-Video. If I hooked up Composite, I would get sound but no picture whatsoever and when DVI was hookedup, I would get nothing, not even the Zenith logo, sound or anything and it would freeze up completely at the Hello screen on the player and I would have to completely unplug it to reset the thing. Obviously, that POS went back and was replaced but that first one was a dud. The replacement unit works like a charm though.

Oh sure I go and find a 318 and NOW.... I start to read all the additonal posts....

And I have not even tested it out yet... still waiting for the new video upgrade to come in

What are you pairing it with, Lyle?

I have a Infocus 4805 on order - I walked into the electronics store here in marysville Looking for this particular model, after reading good things, and all they had was the 317 - a shipment arrived the other day holding only 2 of the 318's I grabbed one and the store owner kept one for himself....

This Thread Tells my Story...
The TV they gave me as a loaner only has Svideo.

Lyle_E:
I think you will be very happy with the 318 and the 4805, I am. I think you will also fine that WE and I mean the people on this forum and the AVS forum, tend to scrutinize everything to death. I guess it's just natural? But I am very happy with mine.

Exactly.

I am Q of BanditZ over at AVS, so if you go there, I helped compile what I hope is a useful FAQs about the player here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=400480

If you all want, I can easily make that FAQs here right now.

Gochnauer's and WWE are both excellent. Some folks have had mixed responses with G's return policy, but if you want this unit at the best price possible, these are the best game in town.

I think it's a hell of a unit.

I have to thank everyone here!!
(Eric - the faq was very usefull)
Why Because Third party blame is easier to get things past the wife!! and I blame everyone here...

And actually Todd because of your screen shots...
I now own a 318 with upconversion to component..

Is there any truth to Zenith removing this on the next production run.. (please excuse me if this has already been answered but with anything There is so much information i sometimes go into overload)

If only the rest of my purchase would get here...

Just FYI,

I ordered and had a Zenith 318 shipped from Gochnauer's today, so they're still in stock.

I'm hoping to pick up an Infocus 4805 at some point soon to use with it as well.

Wes

I ordered from them as well today....

On my particular set, the difference on widescreen dvd presentations should be dramatic at 1080i, allowing me to set the DVD player for a native widescreen tv spect ratio.

So we shall see......

Gossip. Probably CYA smokscreen all the way, but...just make sure you don't take any updates unless you know what you're getting into 100 percent with them.

i posted some impressions of the Zenith over in the Display Devices section if anyone is interested...also of interest possibly is where I obtained the Zenith that I havent heard anyone mention...good luck! (oops, look for the post started by me to find it, as "Zenith" is not mentioned in the header)

Get yours yet Wes Nance???
I'm still waiting for mine. :-(


I really hope to have it by this weekend. Adds and Changes to my system, are mostly an all day event and need a Sat. or Sun. or Holiday to get done.


Update: I have tracking numbers. but what the heck is FedX Ground exactly anyways? I guess I wasn't aware any of their service was ground....

John,

I got it today. Should have had it last Saturday, but they transposed 2 letters in my street name, so it got held up.

I haven't hooked it up yet, and won't be able to test anything, really, as I just have a 27" WEGA set that's not even progressive scan.

But, I'm planning on an Infocus 4805 later this summer, so then I can stretch it out a bit!

Hope yours gets there soon. The Fedex tracking works fine

Thanks for the update... I of course, am just being impatient as always when waiting for something new.

Tracking says Friday, just seemed a little long from the ship date to the delivery date is all.

Here is a real nice review of this player... I even think this guy is a member here as well.

http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/exper...32_review.html


It does seem the niche for the current build of this player is for people that want the 1080i over Component Video for one reason or another, like me! :-)

Zenith DVB318: DVI Problem

I ordered the DVB318 from Gochnauer and received it yesterday. I haven't had much time to mess around with it, but everything seems to be working except for the DVI connection. If the DVI cable is connected, nothing works. The unit starts up and the screen on the front of the DVB318 says "HELLO", but it never changes and none of the buttons on the front work. I can't even power off the unit, I have to unplug it.

Has anyone else had similar problems with the DVB318?