Quick review on 1080i scaling Liteon LVD2001 DVD Player (1 Viewer)

[Robert P. Jones]

JohnnyG -

Thanks for your kind offer - I assume it is for the update CD. My roomie is adept, keeps me up and running, and installed a CD burner for me some months ago on my home PC. So I'll get him on it as soon as I can.

You might beat me to it, tho, if you send yours! It's that crazy around here right now...

Send me an email offboard and I'll send you my home address.

And thanks!


Mr Bob

 

[david*mt]

Ok, I tried burning the newest firmware to a CDR. After I unzipped the file, I had two word documents, one PDF file, and another file titled 2001Image0229.nrg. Is the 2001Image0229.nrg the only I am supposed to burn to the disk?

 

[JohnSterling]

Mr. Bob:

"I checked the color decoder between 480p and 1080i and regrettably, it was much more linear on 480p. On 1080i there is a major drop in green, tho blue stayed basically the same on both color and tint."

This is the post that I must have miss-interpreted/understood. Sorry if I miss-quoted you.

Upgrade that firmware!!!!!!!

 

[ThomasW]

Is the 2001Image0229.nrg the only I am supposed to burn to the disk?

Yeap,
Start the 'Nero Burning ROM' program
Closed the 'new compilation' pop-up
Clicked on 'Recorder'
Chose 'Burn image'
Chose '2001Image0229.nrg' file from the folder where it was unzipped
Chose 'Write'
then clicked on 'burn'

 

[Jonny K]

Just got my player today. Unfortunatly, because I don't have an HDTV I can't watch in 1080i mode (or anything but 480p). That sucks, but oh well. As for picture, it seems ok to me. I'm upgrading from a so-so panasonic player, so it's not like I'm going to be loosing quality here.

I burned a CD with all sorts of media on it, a collection of MP3s, a bunch of JPGs, and an assortment of movie files. All the MP3s played fine. Several of the JPGs wouldn't display for some unknown reason, and when I tried to display a very (VERY) high resolution satellite image the player just sat there as if it froze (I turned it off and on again). As for the movies, my CD had maybe 10 movies on it, and only 3 of them would play. Not great numbers. I'll have to investigate the exact encodings of each file to determine if this is the player's fault or the files. (.AVI and .MPG files).

In the end, I'm happy. And my dad loves the zoom feature. He's a Pan&Scan kinda guy, and so he can zoom a 2.35:1 movie so it's a little less widescreen and he's ok with that. (not that I'd let him do that while I'm watching).


Jonny K.

 

[JasonMcN]

Becareful if you buy from Dell.com. I ordered almost 2 weeks ago and it is still on back order. They just sent me an email stating it might ship on the 14th.

Jason

 

[Jay Blair]

Jason, I ordered from Dell on 10/17 and got the LiteOn today. I ordered it for a friend as a favor. The last e-mail I received from then about a week ago said that they expected it to ship on or about the 7th, so I was surprised when it showed up today with no shipping notice from Dell.

I imagine Dell got a ton of orders for these things once word got out how cheap they were selling them.

 

[JohnSterling]

Dell's ordering/delivery system is completely spaz-matic. In the past 2 months, I've had 2 employees of mine order 2 19" flatpanels, a 21 inch CRT monitor and a X5 PDA from Dell. All four orders got seriousl bounced around in reguards to ship time, and all 4 orders ended up showing up BEFORE Dell said they would be shipped. Actually...what happened was that our receiving dock would call and say a Dell package had arrived, and when you checked the Dell website, the ship-date was the same as the day the items showed up.

Who knows??????

Anyway...to keep this on a 2001 subject...you can play AVI files from the memory card reader. Groovy. (Geek hat seriously on here).

 

[Ed Cherry]

My luck with Dell was much better ... ordered 2001 last week when 20% sale was on got it for $125 delivered in 3 days.

 

[david*mt]

I ordered mine from theNerds yesterday for about $127 shipped and it shipped the same day.

 

[David_Rivshin]

David,
I notice that TheNerds.net has both the LVD-2001 and 2002 models, which did you get? If it's the LVD-2002 I'd be very interested in any differences you notice from what's been described here about the 2001. Specifically if it does still have the "secret" menu, and if the DVD-ROM drive model number is the same or not (if you open up the case it should be written obviously on top of the drive itself).

-- Dave

 

[david*mt]

I ordered the 2001.

 

[Jonny K]

Ok, an update. I find the DVD-ROM drive in the player is really cheap. It makes horrible noise, and just seems flimsy. Also, regarding the remote. I programmed all the remote buttons into my Yamaha RX-V1300 receiver remote so I wouldn't have to use that horrid DVD remote. Unfortunatly, the receiver remote doesn't seem to communicate well with the DVD player. I'll have to mash a button multiple times for it to register, while the DVD remote works perfect. How horrid! I hate that DVD remote, I really wish I didn't have to use it!

In the end, I consider the player to be pretty cheap. The only reason I can stand it is because it does a good job playing movies. My dad loves it because of the zoom mode.


Jonny K.

 

[WesleyHester]

Anyone able to view the 720p in native resolution on a RPTV? I have faint banding from top to bottom across the screen.

Want to know if I should try another LVD-2001 or not.

 

[David Judah]

In the end, I consider the player to be pretty cheap

Hopefully, some of the major Japanese manufacturers will pick up where the LiteOn left off and build some units with higher quality parts. After all, if it can be done with the quality of picture that people are reporting in a cheap player, then it should be able to be improved upon at a higher price point with better build quality.

DJ

 

[Robert P. Jones]

This is a reprint from my review of some stuff I did with the LO, from I believe page 7 of this thread:

"720p is very mulchy with lots of ringing, and not attractive in the least, even thru my 720p native capable year 2000 Panny 65". Could be that the LO's electronics are just not rated for 45Khz operation. 1080i only requires up to 33K max, and since this is a component-only unit, 31K in this case. That's probably all this unit was designed to do."


Mr Bob

 

[WesleyHester]

Thanks, Robert. I found and read your earlier comments. I missed them before. You described just what I'm seeing at 720p.

Could a change in firmware help this type of hardware issue?

I got a Momitsu V880 along with the LiteOn and its 720P is much better. However, this player had no in-player video adjustments. I started out just adjusting my televisions brightness but ended up reseting color and contrast too to pretty extreme levels to get test patterns to pass mustard. The picture quality is quite good even at 720p with this unit. Just wish it had adjustments like the LiteOn because both units are very, very similar in many ways. Currently I have them both hooked up and switch between them and three other DVD players.

P.S. The Momitsu does have a DVI output so maybe that's why its hardware can handle 720p better even through component.

 

[Robert P. Jones]

The ability to do electronics capable of 45KHz is more a factor of circuitry - as you said, hardware - than of firmware. I suspect that no firmware upgrade of the LO will improve its 720p performance.

I would think, tho, that any circuitry that is capable of straight DVI digital info re. 720p - meaning the Momi and the Sammy - would have to be capable of the 45KHz to support it.

You'd think that any DVDP promising 720p native capability on OP even in component only - like the LO - would also have covered that base, but maybe not. Maybe they just left that factor out. It still does excellent on 1080i. But it is also a very inexpensive unit, obviously made to sell like hotcakes.

All of these units use the same Sigma chipset for the translations involved.

And component is completely capable of impeccably delivering images from the 45KHz electronics design. My 720p native-capable Panny has no problem taking it in and expressing it at the screen every bit as clearly as it does 1080i. It is just as high res to the naked eye on most scenes, tho I guess empirically 1080i must be even sharper, as horizontal res on 720p is only 1280, whereas the hor. res on 1080i is 1920.

But on my Panny, both deliver an incredibly crystal clear image. As I have been saying for years, I delight in studying the grain of the film used to shoot TV episodes, on both formats. And I am completely hooked on watching my 65" Panny at 8' viewing distance, eyes to screen, my RPTV tilted slightly down with 2x4's under the back, to center the sweet spot directly at my couch's seating level. The HD image that serves as my website cover was shot on tripod at 6' viewing distance, with an analog 35mm camera. You can see it at my website, below.


The increased costs associated with 45KHz electronics were enough to make Panny stop making their CRT units capable of 720p native, several years ago, and according to their reps as of CES in January, they have no intention of ever again doing so, due to the combination of those increased costs and the nosedive that prices for CRT RPTVs have taken in the last few years.

Those prices for CRT based units will never go up again - I'm sure of that, due to the competition of the newer fixed pixel displays and their inherent non-need of any structural tuning up/tweaking. Whose fixed pixel display prices, even tho still higher than CRT prices, just keep getting lower and lower, just like DVDP prices.

Meaning that in the foreseeable future, all my calibrations will eventually be colorations-aspect-only calibrations, and fullblown CRT calibrations - including half the time being spent on bringing out the crystal-clearness of the image, which is half my job on most of my cals these days - will be a thing of the past.

Despite the fact that at present that is not quite true yet, and won't be for quite some time. It is still more cost effective and the picture is still better, FINER and more high resolution, to buy a CRT based unit and have it calibrated. Meaning you can sit closer to a well calibrated CRT based unit than any low-priced fixed pixel unit, and have a massively larger picture to surround your field of view with, than you can with any low priced fixed pixel unit. "Low price on fixed pixel" still being markedly higher than that of CRT based units. And with triple-CRT RPTVs you get the crystal clear blacks that only CRT based units can deliver.

The only exception is the 1080p-capable LCOS, which is still very expensive in comparison, at $5-6K for a 57" RPTV version. I got my 720p native capable 65" Panny for under $3K on closeout at onecall.com.

And at that fairly high price for LCOS you are still having to deal with challenged blacks on LCOS - a reflective display type similar to DLP - and not with CRT, where there is NO problem with achieving superlative blacks - including excellent dark detail/shadow detail - at all times. Directly from Sam: this is one of the main reasons Runco has no plans whatsoever to disco their Runco - and now Vidikron - CRT projector lines, even with their DLP products going strong also.


Onecall.com is excellent people to work with, BTW.

There was an excellent, very extensive writeup on the new Pannys on ubid.com a few days ago. It's gone now, and only Sharps are available, but it was very interesting while it lasted.



Mr Bob

 

[david*mt]

Okay, I need help updating the firmware. I've burned the files to a disk just like I'm supposed to and then put the disk in the player. It says 'reading CD', then 'Update CD'. The screen on my TV will then go black and so will my dvd player. The power button still stays on the dvd player. Is this supposed to happen? I waited for over 10 minutes and nothing else happened. I just can't figure it out.

 

[Jonny K]

I'd guess that the CD didn't burn properly. Perhaps there was an error in the download and a bit of the file is missing, or the CD has an error on it. Maybe try it again with a new CD?


Jonny K.