CyberHome (1 Viewer)

[Travis G]

I just purchased a CyberHome CH-DVD 500 DVD Player at my local Best Buy. I was very pleased at the fact it had the DD and DTS Decoder on board (especially considering the low price.) However, when I got home I was extreemly disappointed to discover that there was no way to turn off the dynamic range compression . This is a big turn off for me because I like to watch movies at lifelike levels. Is there any way to disable this "feature"? If not, I will have to return it.
Travis

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Where in the menu are you talking about? In the audio menu on my 500, I was able to turn it to OFF, TV MODE, and FULL. I updated the firmware as soon as I had tested it though, so you might have to do the same. Go to their webpage for help. From what I hear, they have excellent tech support, so feel free to call/email them for help.

 

[Travis G]

Thanks Jesse,
On mine the three options are, MAXIMUM, TV MODE, and STANDARD. In the instruction manual it says that the STANDARD option provides a "standard" amount of compression. It is obvious, while watching movies, that all three options provide a quite substantial amount of compression.

I hope that the update fixes it.
Travis

 

[Amdi]

I was also extremely dissapointed with the Cyberhome DVD-500 DVD player I bought at BestBuy.

Every once in a while one frame would "flash", which is a terrible artifact. It appeared to be random, and going back to the same spot would not cause the same effect. I upgraded to the latest firmware and the problem did not go away.

To make things worse, navigating through the chapters, I managed to "confuse" the DVD player so it started playing two chapters at once, jumbling the image and the sound (at least that's what it seemed it was doing).

Also, the progressive scan didn't work very well. Every so often I would get the comb effect, especially when cameras were switching from one frame to the next.

Finally, to add insult to injury, the image quality was poor. The whole image became soft and blurry compared to my current DVD player. Not what I wanted from a progressive scan DVD player. It was supposed to make the image look a lot better in my Mitsubishi HDTV.

Fortunately BestBuy has a very good return policy and it's already back at the store.

 

[Mark W]

Amdi, I think you must have just gotten a bad player. The CH-500's picture is surprisingly top notch for such a low price and I'm picky as hell when it comes to a/v quality. The reds are a little hot, but a quick run through with Avia and Video Essentials and the picture was just beautiful. I've done A-B comparisons with my stable of other players (yes I am out of control) and it's hard to believe, but the 500 is right up there with the best of them. Since you described the picture as soft and blurry, I just have to assume that some BB employee dropped your box or something. The 500 actually outputs a sharper picture than my Panasonic, Malata or Toshiba. The flash frame problem and dual-chapter play glitch are all the more reason to believe that there was something wrong with your player. And you're not going to find nicer PAL output. I'm not finding any defects at all that aren't disc related. Better picture than the Malata in my opinion.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Mark,

Are you using it w/ a big widescreen TV? And did 16x9 PAL discs playback correctly in 16x9 mode on your TV? Which exact players did you compare w/?

I'm in the market for a do-it-all player (or 2 if need be). If the Cyberhome is as good as you say, then I definitely have to give it a try since it's so incredibly cheap now. I really only need it to do very well w/ PAL discs on my new 53" widescreen. I could always buy a top-quality, non-modded player for everything else.

My only problem is that I won't have any R2 PAL discs to try yet since I didn't want to buy any until I settle on a player.

Thanks.

_Man_

 

[Mark W]

First let me say that it's probably really easy to go overboard with the praise for this machine. As with any inexpensive player, it may not be a good idea to use it as your primary player. It's a new model and who knows how it'll stand up in the long term. That said, I still have yet to be disappointed by it, and for $50-$70 you really can't argue with all the features that it gives you. If you're just looking for something to properly convert PAL to NTSC, then I'd say it's a no-brainer. This player can be found for the price of a single Japanese R2 DVD and in my experience it has the most superior PAL-to-NTSC conversion of any player I've seen. There's no shimmering or pixelation as with the Malata 966, and the general picture quality is on par with or superior to the Panasonic DVD-XP50 and the Toshiba SD2800. The color needs to be adjusted, but I've seen less moire patterns and it outputs a sharper picture than any of those three players. So sharp in fact that discs with excessive edge enhancement will drive you even crazier than before.
I'm viewing on a 32" 4:3 Sony, so I can't comment on how the picture holds up in widescreen viewing. I understand that people have experienced picture distortions during progressive scan play. It seems to be happening only during scenes with explosions or bright flashes of light, which is pretty bizarre. The top notch CyberHome customer service is another big selling point for most people, so hopefully these glitches will be ironed out with future bios upgrades.
See this link for more comparisons between the 500 and other PAL-to-NTSC players (no, I didn't post that info):
http://www.nerd-out.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25365

 

[Amano Ai]

The Cyberhome 500 may not turn out to be the great player everyone is singing about. It didn't for me, I had problems with the picture on WS films near the top by the letterbox bar.

Customer service at Argus wasn't much help either. The tech wanted to take a look at my player and offered to swap. I thought it was a good idea, give them my player and help the community get to the bottom of the problem. Got the new player, powered up, same problem.

 

[Ronn.W]

I'm also overly pleased with the CH 500, my experiences mirror Mark W's. I'm using it with a new 27" Wega and was stunned by the sharpness of the picture using component outputs. Heck, even setting it up with composite offered a nicer pic than I'd seen on previous machines. I've had none of the problems others have had with pixelization or the upper corner distortion.

I've got the player set to 16:9 output and use the 16:9 enhancement on the TV. So far, no problem. I've experimented with the various picture modes on the player and TV using R1 NTSC anamorphic, non anamorphic, R2 PAL anamorphic and non-anamorphic DVD's and haven't seen any problems with a picture yet.

I've had my fair share of experience (and luck) with 'cheap chinese' players like the CH 500, and from my experience there is a lot of quality control issues with them. In other words, if you get one that works you've got a great player; but sometimes getting one that works can be an ordeal. I've had 0 problems with mine.

 

[Jeff Koch]

I'm experiencing problems with letterbox discs when watching them on my Sony XBR 4:3 set manufactured in 1995. I'm using S-Video interlace going directly from the player into the tv. The upper black bar goes from black to gray depending on how bright the scene is. I'm used to seeing solid upper and lower black bars but the upper one's density changes as the picture illumination changes which is very distracting. I emailed Cyberhome about the problem and I'm awaiting their reply. I purchased two 500s over the weekend from Best Buy. Both exhibit the same problem. If there's no fix, I'm returning them.

Jeff

 

[Don Munsil]

I can't call the Cyberhome a "sharp" player at all. It's rolled off severely and has phase problems at the higher frequencies, with the result that 6.75 MHz pattern on Avia is gone, gone, gone. Any normal name-brand player can show the 6.75 MHz pattern with out any trouble.
It's a decent player for the price; that's about all one can say.
Don