Yeah I'm not real worried about a H/D player either. I have 3 mega-changers and about 700+ DVD's so far, and I have no intention of replacing them with their H/D versions whenever they come out. Not to mention until there is a clear cut leader/winner to whichever H/D format becomes the "standard" it's also kind of a risk that you may end up with a H/D DVD version of Betamax. Which is why I think I'd maybe look into buying a higher end scaler, than I would at the 1st or 2nd year H/D DVD players that will come out. Plus by the 3rd year is probably when the prices will become more reasonable on them as well. Because you just know the first ones out of the gate, are also most likely going to be very pricey, if not the high end type only.

I agree. I will wait until I can get a "universal" high def DVD player for around a grand or so, and *then* think about switching. I bet that's at least 2 years off. (I switch DVD players about every 2 years anyway, so... ;) )And, I have seen rumblings that it might not be so easy to do HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in the same machine.

Well you just know that one of the two Hi-Def DVD formats is going to end up like Betamax did. There is just no need or reason to have two separate and competing formats. It will just be one big major mess, until there is just only one winner/standard left, and rising up from out of the two.

Stopped by my local Tweeter yesterday. They claim to have an April 15th release date for the Yamaha S2500. An unpdate for those who might be waiting for this machine. The street price quoted to me was $699.

I was told the same at my local Tweeter. I hope this date doesn't slip any further and I also hope that the delay means they are working hard to prevent the problems that have plagued other players using the Faroudja stuff. Green push, macroblocking...

I can't bring myself to spend $1000-$1300 for a DVD player.

Any news on this unit? :confused:

Its on Yammy website now and the price has gone up to $750. Maybe thats a good sign.

In Europe it's starting to show up in German and Austrian pricewatch sites. This baby better is worth the wait!

Originally posted by Carbo
Its on Yammy website now and the price has gone up to $750. Maybe thats a good sign.

That's nothing new. That has been on their website for almost two months now.

Originally posted by Carbo
... and the price has gone up to $750...

I wonder why they decided to increase its MSRP. Its price point was one of the things that made it so atractive.

I wonder why they decided to increase its MSRP. Its price point was one of the things that made it so atractive.Yamaha will probably say it is because of the weak dollar versus the Euro. At least that was the excuse that Denon used in increasing the price on the 3910. Then again, Denon ONLY increased the MSRP on one item, the 3910, and not the rest of their line... so, maybe the increases have more to do with public demand for the unit and less so with the dollar. ;)

Yamaha added on their site "Compare" to the tab bar that had "dealers, back panel, FAQs" , on this unit about a month ago but still no manuals. When that appears they will have firmed up the manual and started shipping. The DVD C-950 has not appeared as yet either, on the Yamaha site and it was due for release this month? One can only wonder what problems they are running into.

Also it says the unit does not do 4:4:4

DVD Player Comparison Chart 3
MODEL DVD-S2500 DVD-S2300 DVD-S2300MK2 DVD-S1500 DV-S5770
MSRP $749.95 $999.00 $999.95 $449.95 $449.95
TYPE Single Disc Single Disc Single Disc Single Disc Single Disc

FEATURE DVD-S2500 DVD-S2300 DVD-S2300MK2 DVD-S1500 DV-S5770
DVD-AUDIO Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SACD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
DVD-VIDEO/VCD/CD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
DOLBY DIGITAL AND DTS DECODER Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MP3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JPEG Yes No No Yes Yes
CD-R/CD-RW Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
DCDi BY FAROUDJA "PROGRESSIVE SCAN" Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
HDCP and HDMI COMPATIBILITY Yes No No No No
3:2 PULL - DOWN Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
4:4:4: PROGRESSIVE COMPONENT VIDEO N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes
CIRCUIT
3D MOTION CROSS COLOR SUPPRESSION Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VIDEO DAC 12BIT/216MHz 12BIT/54MHz 12BIT/54MHz 12BIT/108MHz 12BIT/108MHz
AUDIO DAC 192kHz/24BIT 192kHz/24BIT 192kHz/24BIT 192kHz/24BIT 192kHz/24BIT
RS-232C PORT Yes No Yes No No
GUI Remote for OSD Yes No No Yes Yes

VIDEO OUTPUTS DVD-S2500 DVD-S2300 DVD-S2300MK2 DVD-S1500 DV-S5770
COMPOSITE 1 2 2 1 1
S-VIDEO 1 2 2 1 1
COMPONENT VIDEO 1 2 2 1 1
ANTI-VIBRATION CONTSRUCTION N/A Yes Yes No No
DETACHABLE POWER CORD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

SPECIFICATIONS DVD-S2500 DVD-S2300 DVD-S2300MK2 DVD-S1500 DV-S5770
DIMENSIONS ( W x H x D ) 17-1/8" x 3-15/16" x 12-3/8" 17-1/8" x 4-9/16" x 13-3/4" 17-1/8" x 4-9/16" x 13-3/4" 17-1/8" x 2-3/16" x 12-3/8" 17-1/8" x 2-3/16" x 12-3/8"
WEIGHT 12.3 lbs. 19.2 lbs. 19.8 lbs. 7.1 lbs. 7.1 lbs.

Originally posted by Carbo
[B]Also it says the unit does not do 4:4:4

It says 'N/A' -- which is not necessarily the same as 'No'

:D

True and it also says thru component only. So maybe it does thru HDMI. Is this needed thru HDMI?

Well, Price hack makes Refurb 3910 a super deal..

FWIW, i just got word that it won't be available until the end of April. Ugh. :(

I share your reaction, Mrsandman. I have been waiting so long that it has become a joke. While waiting for the Yamaha, I bought a cheap Sony 775. Let me be witness that this is a fine little unit, with both video and audio. It matches up well with my Pioneer 56Txi and Cd's sound great.

With SACD and DVD-A both going in the tank (I believe even the inestimable John Atkinson supports this forecast), and HD DVD coming in by the end of this year, it may be time to give up on the Yamaha S2500. The new HD units are forecasted to cost around $1000 (MSRP), only $250 more than the Yamaha (MSRP). Even if it takes a while for the format war to sort out, reasonably priced units like the Sony 775 can bridge the gap.

I wonder will new HD units be able to upscale current dvd titles too?

Originally posted by zoro
I wonder will new HD units be able to upscale current dvd titles too?
At best, they'll only be similar to current upscaling players. My suspicion is that they may not be as good (I'm guessing that to keep price down, they'll focus more on making HD DVDs look great than on upscaling 480i DVDs). But this is a total guess - I have not read anything about either HD DVD or BlueRay having upscaling capabilities for 480i DVDs).

What I meant was would they be as good as current 59avi or 3910 etc for HDMI upscaling? thnx

For 480i disks, I would bet that the HD players will not be as good as the 59ai or 3910 (except for maybe the top-of-the-line HD players, in the $3000+ territory). Of course, they'll outperform the 59ai and 3910 if you compare a true HD DVD played on an HD player versus an upscaled 480i version of the same movie on the 59ai or 3910. But for your current 480i library, I bet you'd be better off playing them on a 59ai or 3910. Again, nobody will know for sure until they're actually available.

FWIW, i just heard from a friend who works at Yamaha that its not due out until May 1st. I'm about ready to give up here. :(

This is a prime example of why I won't put a deposit on a product, unless it is actually out and available to be sold.

My dealer went to the line show in Oakland, CA this week and they said the 2500 and the C950 will be out in about two weeks (so May 1st seems correct). They were taking orders on both and he showed me the glossy brochure they gave him which he says is what he waits for from Yamaha before he believes anything is real.

Jay

276 posts for a player that isn't even out yet. Incredible.

I saw 3 online shops, one in UK and 2 in US, saying that they have stocks of this model. Had anybody placed an order?

bump?

Hi everyone,

Got an email from Greg (?) at Vann's and was told that they expect the S2500 in by the first week of May. Hopefully it's true. Too bad we won't be able to buy the unit via the Internet.

So....the S2500 seems like it will retail for ~$800...and I'm seeing Pioneer DV-59avi's online for ~$700 nowadays....so remind me again why the Yammie is attractive? Do we expect it will show up for , say $600 online anytime soon?

The Yamaha has Faroudja, which also means it will suffer from macroblocking depending on your display. No macroblocking with the Pioneer.

I thought one of the Yamahas that had the Farouja chip got really great reviews in secrets--s1500?. I thought Kris said that they got it right using that chip? Maybe I'm mistaken.

Originally posted by rynopr
I thought one of the Yamahas that had the Farouja chip got really great reviews in secrets--s1500?. I thought Kris said that they got it right using that chip? Maybe I'm mistaken.
Actually, the Secret's review was very mediocre. It had macroblocking, black crush, and failed many of the tests. It scored only a 63.

I was told S2500, 30 more days away?

Originally posted by Kevin C Brown
The Yamaha has Faroudja, which also means it will suffer from macroblocking depending on your display. No macroblocking with the Pioneer.

Is it unreasonable to believe that the inordinate delay in the release of the S2500 was to correct the macroblocking problem with the Faroudja chip?

or to upgrade hdmi?

Originally posted by jamese777
Is it unreasonable to believe that the inordinate delay in the release of the S2500 was to correct the macroblocking problem with the Faroudja chip?
Yes, an unreasonable assumption considering every single Faroudja player has MB potential (I can't believe Yamaha somehow figured it out when nobody else has). Also, the delay is not unexpected (Yamaha has delayed the release of every single DVD player they have come out with over the past several years).

I thought one of the Yamahas that had the Farouja chip got really great reviews in secrets--s1500?. I thought Kris said that they got it right using that chip? Maybe I'm mistaken.I thought one of the Yamahas that had the Farouja chip got really great reviews in secrets--s1500?. I thought Kris said that they got it right using that chip? Maybe I'm mistaken.

You maybe thinking of the 2300 MKII, which I believe did very well in the Secrets review. Actually I own one and have been very happy with the performance, both video and audio.

JTMav

Yes, that was the one. Doesn't it have a Farouja chip? Anyway, if they did it once maybe they can do it again. One never knows.

rynopr,

2300 MKII = RP-82. It uses the earlier non-problematic Faroudja chip as well as the same MPEG decoder. The Shootout gives the details.

My Yamaha dealer told me two days ago that the s2500 is now shipping.

Well, S2500, has to beat 59avi, to get my money Q

Originally posted by zoro
Well, S2500, has to beat 59avi, to get my money Q

It's a pity that there's so little information about this player out there. The 59avi, by all accounts, is still the player to beat in the <$1000 price range, at least.

Stick to that gun, zoro. That's a good one. :)

Zoro if we belive you you just ordered the samsung and 1000s other dvd players which is to long to list,I dont know how or why you would order every dvd player on earth because it sure seems you have.

The 2500 *will* have macroblocking, depending on the display. The Pio doesn't. I also bet the Pio will have a better analog audio output stage. But if you get the Yamaha, let us know. :)

Originally posted by kevinca1
Zoro if we belive you you just ordered the samsung and 1000s other dvd players which is to long to list,I dont know how or why you would order every dvd player on earth because it sure seems you have.

He does demo just about everything. I hooked him up with a q50 a year or so ago(I think he kept it 2 or 3 days) and he lined me up with a 59avi. BTW, He had a couple Yammy X1's at one time too.

Call him the demo king :)

Thanks for your kind compliment mimason!! I am trying to step into gurus like yourself's shoes!! Learning!

Well, I finally got tired of waiting for this.

Bought the Pioneer 59AVI at HiFi House in Abington, PA. for a hundred bucks under the current list.

Sorry Yamaha, I love your products, but waiting more than six months after the originally scheduled release date is very poor business. Especially since the Pioneer unit now retails for a grand.

Nobody got this yet?

nonsequiter

What an absolute train wreck this release is. The original press release was in September of 2004! Why is it Yamaha is so cutting edge & prompt with the AVR's, and such a ridiculous joke with DVD players? I was going to wait until it was released before I layed down for the 59AVI. Yamaha missed my boat.

I'm still waiting for mine. I'll ask my friend who works at Yamaha to check up on it.

I cancelled my order today. Too many delays. Plus the new Onkyo Sp-1000 I just received yesterday is very nice.

Maybe they're stalling to add Blu-ray ;). They're almost there...

Why is it Yamaha is so cutting edge & prompt with the AVR's, and such a ridiculous joke with DVD players?

I think because they make their own receivers, but for DVD players, they take some other basic machine and add to it. I.e., the 2300 was a Panasonic player that Yamaha (or *someone*) added SACD to. And the 1500 is a Philips-based player. So maybe because it's not an all in-house design, or maybe that part of the company isn't as well managed as the receiver part, or ... I agree though, they do make some fine receivers. :)

FWIW, i've got it in my hands as i type this. Unfortunately, I probably won't be getting a chance to hook it up until tomorrow evening. :(

MrSandman,

May I ask how much you paid for it?

Cheap. I have a friend who works for Yamaha. ;)

I'd think it was below $5/600, to be called cheap, as DV 59avi is already at high $600 range. :)

Trust me. I looked for similar alternatives but just couldn't find any at the price i got it for. Why else would i wait 6 months for a DVD player? Plus, I'd rather not divulge that information since i do not know what Yamaha's policy is on such. (Hint...lower) :)

I sent you a pm, Mr Sandman! thnx

I hope to see some reviews of this player soon now that they are hitting the market. I wonder how it will stand up in the benchmark tests? One would think that the 6 month delay in release that Yamaha would have perfected the player by now.

For those that get these, please report your reviews.

thanks

My review: It works. :) I just hooked it up and watched some of the Incredibles, and IRobot and LOTR. Clean picture and excellent audio. Definitely a step up from what i had before. I don't really have much to compare it against except for a 5-year old Pioneer DVD changer which wasn't even progressive scan. If there is anything you guys want me to try out and report back on, LMK.

Dude!! Send it to me, I'll check it out for you..LoL

MrSandman,

I wonder if you tried its i.link output. Have you?

Just got the 2500 hooked up tonight. Had some trouble and not sure all is right yet. I do have discreet sound out of all speakers using the firewire connection but it sas "multi channel??? Is this true Hi res sound?

My menu is also screwed up. It only appears when using analog PCM. I think I somehow must change the input.

I plan on experimenting more thisweekend as time permits.

I'll post back.

Cheers,

Bookedup

Originally posted by MrSandman
My review: It works. :) .... If there is anything you guys want me to try out and report back on, LMK.

There's one thing I really would like to know: how does the DVD-S2500 perform in relation to the infamous "green depression", when connected HDMI to HDMI and upconverting to 720p/1080i?

Does it correctly transcodes Rec 601 YCbCr values to Rec 709 YCbCr values to avoid color errors? :confused:

Originally posted by GCG
There's one thing I really would like to know: how does the DVD-S2500 perform in relation to the infamous "green depression", when connected HDMI to HDMI and upconverting to 720p/1080i?

Does it correctly transcodes Rec 601 YCbCr values to Rec 709 YCbCr values to avoid color errors? :confused:

Unfortunately i don't have it hooked up via HDMI. I'm just using component cables. Plus, my Panny plasma only has DVI inputs. :(

You could go HDMI to DVI.

Originally posted by Kevin C Brown
You could go HDMI to DVI.

Yeah, i thought about that, but from what i've read on here, most people didn't see a noticeable difference between DVI and component. Plus, my AV receiver RX-V2500 doesn't have HDMI or DVI and i've decided to route everything through that. I suppose i could run the DVD directly to the plasma and then program a macro on the remote, but i'm not convinced it would improve things much better.

I got two units in at work in the last couple of days, but both walked out the door before I could put one out for demo. My distributor tells me Yamaha's first shipment did not even cover all backorders. I am not supposed to see another one for at least a couple more weeks. If I can keep a unit long enough to bring it home, I'll hook it up to my system and compare it to my 3910 using both component and HDMI.

Originally posted by Robert George
...If I can keep a unit long enough to bring it home, I'll hook it up to my system and compare it to my 3910 using both component and HDMI.

When you do that, could you please check it out for "green depression"?

Okay, I've been a little busy to read every post on this lately. Someone explain "green depression".

Okay, I've been a little busy to read every post on this lately. Someone explain "green depression".

OK, I'll give it a try. :)

As you know an HDMI connection between 2 HDMI devices (let's say a DVD player and a projector) carries video as YCbCr. If this YCbCr is SD video, then it follows Rec 601. On the other hand, HD video has its YCbCr coded using Rec 709.

Usually display devices correctly identify 720p / 1080i incoming signals at their HDMI inputs as "HD signals", therefore they decode these signals using "Rec 709". This creates a problem for upconverting players unless, in addition to upconverting SD to 720p / 1080i, they also "transcode" Rec 601 YCbCr values to Rec 709 YCbCr values.

If the player doesn't transcode Rec 601 to Rec 709 when upconverting through an HDMI connection, this mismatch (player sending Rec 601 YCbCr and display assuming Rec 709 YCbCr) produces color errors, and the most noticiable one is "depressed" greens.

So the key to the puzzle would be to know if this player correctly transcodes colors as part of the upconversion process, when connected HDMI to HDMI.

I just got this player today. I am going to do a side by side comparison with the Yammy 2300MKII, Onkyo 1000, Oppo and Denon 3910 in the next couple of days. So far my initial impressions are:

1. Its built well. Not as good as the Onkyo or Denon but it is half the price.
2. It has a ton of features in the menu. Far more then the other four.
3. It works with the 50ft HDMI cable I have which the Denon does not. Everything else does.
4. The picture is not bad. I just put StarWar Ep. II in for a few minutes but it does look good. I do belive it has a green push though. No MB on by display at all(Panny PTAE700).

Right now off the top of my head I would have to say it is not as good as the Onkyo or Denon, but it does have a lot of features that will allow you to do pretty much anything you want to the picture.

Carbo (and Obi),
Can you guys run it through some audio hurdles...good hi-rez stuff via analog outs vs I-link? Compare it in either/both mode to the 3910? Thx,
Ted

Any requests/suggestions for the audio?

Any requests/suggestions for the audio?

Beck - Sea Change (mch SACD or DVD-A)
Peter Gabriel - UP (mch SACD)
Bucky Pizzareli- Swing Live (Chesky mch DVD-A)
Anything on the AIX label (mch DVD-A)
Any RCA Living Stereo classical release, especially Scheherezade or Pictures at an Exhibition (3 channel SACD)
Stones - Beggars Banquet (stereo SACD)

Anything ya got... :) We're easy....

Ted

If this player pushes green like the 318 It'll be a bust good audio or not. Perhaps it is the green that is associated with Denon compared next to a Pioneer or Onkyo. Proper calibration should correct this.

BTW, Joe Satriani, Strange Beautiful Music is a stellar SACD plus what Ted said. I 2nd AIX anything.

I just got my S2500 the other night. I have a handful of hi-rez titles (SACD & DVD-A) and the player has run into some difficulty with a couple of them. The first is Queen The Game on DVD-A. When I choose the DVD-A surround function, the only sound that comes out is the center channel, mainly Freddie's vocals and a little Brian May guitar. It is kinda cool just to hear Freddie's vocals isolated in hi-rez, but it would be nice to hear the rest of the music too. :p When I play other DVD-A's like Sting Brand New Day or Seal IV, this problem is not present. The other disc the player has issues with is Sting Sacred Love on SACD. This disc does not even read and the player spits it out. I was successful with other SACD's like The Police The Classics Multi-channel, Billy Joel The Stranger Multi and Allison Krauss Forget About It Stereo SACD. The discs that do work sound excellent on my Ascend 340C and 340 Mains. The S2500 is connected to my Pioneer Elite 43tx via analog inputs (no iLink on the 43tx). I think my next upgrade may have to be a firewire receiver while I wait for 1080p and the prices to go down a little more on display devices. Has anyone else run into reading problems with other hi-rez discs with their S2500?

I have quite a few SACD's & DVD-Audio titles that are mighty fine. One in particular is a torture test for certain players I hear. Beck Guero deluxe edition has the CD & DVD-Audio 5.1. Track 3 (Girl) locks up many a player. I bought it at Borders with a 25% off coupon yesterday. It is EXCELLENT! I am really liking this DVD-A!

Guero Deluxe (http://www.bordersstores.com/search/title_detail.jsp?id=54870236&srchTerms=guero&mediaType=0&srchType=Keyword)

Borders printable coupon (http://f.chtah.com/i/9/276579820/dgystorecoupon_519.html)


I tried it in my DV-59AVI / VSX-56TXI as well as my DVD-S97 / SA-XR70 combos. The Guero gave me no problems on either machine. Litstening to MC audio over I-Link & HDMI is AWESOME. It really sounds great!

Here are some of my titles that I suggest;

Pink Floyd - DSOTM SACD
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots DVD-A
Roxy Music - Avalon SACD
Norah Jones - Come away with me SACD
Blue Man Group - Audio DVD-A
The Police - Every breath you take greatest hits SACD
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral SACD
Beck - Guero DVD-A

Patrick,
I agree that Guero is a torture test for players, and for that reason should be on this list. Many players have documented problems finding all the videos, etc. And as I have posted numerous times over in the Surround forum, I think Guero is a great great album and has been in my rotation for some time now, as well as all three of my boys' players (20, 15, 13). However, I disagree that it's a good candidate for SQ comparisons of analog vs I-link, etc. The fidelity of the album is intentionally "transistorized" and digitized. Beck spoke of this in the nice Nightline report they did a couple weeks back. The Dust brothers even felt some of the string sections were too smooth so they ran them through a portable transistor radio. Anyway, my point is that this 24/48 mix is aggressive, yes, but not very revealing of the kinds of differences we want to test for. The thing sounds almost the same in Dolby Digital.... :confused: I love the effect, but a hi-rez sonic masterpiece it is not, IMO. A lot of Beck fans are upset at the sound quality of the DVD-A vs Sea Change, but it's not Sea Change; heck, that was done on tube amps. More like a heavily produced Odelay..and that's saying something.

Now, as to your other recommendations.....absolutely!! (except Norah in stereo; the stereo SACD layer was taken from the redbook layer, not the master tape....oops. A very good recording, but not taking advnatge of SACD's strengths. The surround layer is nicer though.)

Ted

Right you are Ted. It is intentionally "Lo-Fi". The MC mix is good, and the music is as well. SQ it's not. I was listing it because of the difficult aspects of the mastering process in regards to compatibility. I would agree it compares favorably to Odely (my favorite Beck title). If there is a MC mix available, I almost always prefer it.

Does anyone know if the 2500 is multi region out of the box or if there is a code to make it multi region? I live in Japan and really need a multi region player. I'd love to match this one with my yammy 2500 amp, Kef speakers and Panny AE700 (via HDMI). I currently use a Sony 730P DVD player (via component switched through my amp).

You all might be interested to know that I haven't seen this player in Japan yet. Doesn't mean it isn't here of course, but I haven't seen it at any of my local haunts.

Ok, heres my review.

My set up is:

Panasonic PT-AE700U
Yamaha RX-Z9
Klipsch RF-7 series speakers

Yamaha S2500
Yamaha 2300MKII
Onkyo SP1000
Denon 3910
Oppo 971

Test material I used:

Video:
Star Wars Ep. II
Digital Video Essentials
And Alone in the Dark(one of the worst movies ever. But It has DTS 6.1 discreet)
LOTR trilogy
X-Files TV seasons

Audio:
Fleetwood Mac Rumours DVD-audio
Queensryche DVD-audio
Metallica DVD-Audio
Billy Joel SACD
and Beck

First off let me say that the Denon 3910 loses a few points in my book because it has problems with long HDMI cable runs. I am using a 50ft HDMI cable I purchased thru monoprice that works with everything else. This is the 2nd 3910 w/ the same problem.

2nd the Yammy 2300MKII was my old player and it was used because I know it well. But it comes in last place for video. It has the softest picture of all the players, y/c delay and the worst layer change. It does shine on the audio side though and hangs with all of these players. It's not a bad player it just older and has some of the older problems.

The 2500 is a great player for its price and it stands up to all of these machines. For the amount of options it has it can't be beat. The rest of these players don't come close to offering you the same amount of features. It has HDMI, it upconverts, firewire w/ DVD-Audio and SACD, a nice graphical GUI, and tons of adjustments from the menu. At half the cost of the others(except the OPPO which is missing features).

The Menu is full of nice options like the ability to create playlists from your music cds(including DVD-audio and SACD). You can rotate Jpegs from a jpeg disc and play slide shows. It has bass management for both hirez formats and you can set level for all the speakers individually in each format. You can turn DCDI on or off, you can adjust for chroma delay and gamma on the component outputs. You can adjust for video shift and it does not have a green push. It has allot of features

On the video side I would say it is even with the Denon 3910. I could not see a difference when going back and forth between these two. I might even say it was slightly better. The FLi2310 looked the same on both and on the Yammy you get more options to adjust it, if need be. The Oppo on the hand did have a slightly different look to it and I am not sure if its better or not but at its price point its great. When compared to the Onkyo is where I noticed the biggest difference. Since they run on different chips you could tell the difference immediately. The Yamaha does a better job on video material. X-files just looked better on both the Denon and Yamaha. But on the film side I think the Onkyo out performed them both , it just looked more film like. The 3 Faroudja players looked a little grainier compared to the Onkyo. This is probably a matter of taste more then anything. It all depends what you like. I have been a big fan of the Faroudja players up until now, but I think the Onkyo kicks some serious booty.

Placings:
1. Onkyo
2. Yamaha S2500
3. Denon 3910(it loses a spot for looking the same as the 2500 and not liking my cable)
4. Oppo
5. yammy 2300


On the audio side. With the analog cables, I again give the nod to Onkyo. Not even a close race. Not to say the others are bad but they just don't sound as good. The Denon is second followed by the Yammy and then a distant 4th is the Oppo.

Placings:
1. Onkyo
2. Denon
3. Yamaha 2500
4. Yamaha 2300
5. Oppo

On the digital side I am not sure you should be able to here a difference but I can. Once again the Onkyo wins again but this time the Yammy is second and Denon third and it was not very close. But I am not sure how much has to do with the RX-Z9. Maybe it just doesn't like the Denon. I found that the Denon is very finicky. It doesn't like my cables and maybe it doesn't like the Z9. But that is the receiver I have and its not going anywhere. But the Denon is, I wanted to like it but it just has to many problems.

Placings:
1. Onkyo
2. Yamaha 2500
3. Denon
Others not eligible

On the build/Quality side its easy to see that you are getting what you pay for. The Denon is very close 2nd, but it has problems. The Yamaha 2500 and Oppo come out last but at their prices you just can't beat them.

1. Onkyo
2. Denon
3. Yamaha 2300
4. Yamaha 2500
5. Oppo

These are all good players. The Denon has some problems at least with my set up. I believe it has a problem with my Z9 and I think Denon is not building these to run with anything other then their own receivers. Cable wise all I know is my cable works with everything else. The Oppo is a very great player at its price point. It held up to these bad boys and I would put one of these in any set up outside of my main HT. It is going to be tuff picking between the Yamaha and the Onkyo but what will probably win me over is the Onkyo's audio. It's just untouchable. If I didn't care for audio I would just keep the 2500 and save some $$. It's going to be a tuff choice.

Anyone want to buy a Yamaha 2300MKII?

Nice review!

For me with the rather large price differnce between them. The Onkyo would have to be darn near a "night & day" type better than the Yamaha, to even consider paying that much more.

Carbo,
Nice review. Thanks.

On the audio side, which flavor of hi-rez (analog or Ilink) did you prefer, say for the Deonon and the Yammy? This, of course, will simply conclude which dacs and analog stages you liked better, the machine's or the receivers's. What was it about the sound that made you rank Onkyo No. 1, and more importantly, the Yammy Ilink slight ahead of the vaunted audio-splendid Denon w/ Ilink. Was it soundstage, imaging, bass response, clarity, resolution? Were these tests (at least with the hi-rez machines) done with 5.1 multichannel as well as 2 channel?

I guess, net/net, if you had to choose just on audio, would you choose the Denon or Yammy, and which hi-rez transport mechanism would you use, analog or Ilink with that machine? Thx,
Ted

Marcoblocking?

Carbo,

Outstanding review!

Can you comment on the speed of the UI, navigation of menus, etc? How fast is the layer change?

Also, do we know if the S2500 can pass 480i via HDMI?


Brent

Carbo,

Thanks for your review. It's full of valuable info!

There's one thing I really would like to know: how does the DVD-S2500 perform in relation to the infamous "green depression", when connected HDMI to HDMI and upconverting to 720p/1080i?

Does it correctly transcodes Rec 601 YCbCr values to Rec 709 YCbCr values to avoid color errors? :confused:

I discount the audio stuff (sighted reviews are meaningless to me -- way too much chance of conscious and unconscious bias) , but I'm pleased to see that features list, and that the video performance was on par with others'.

Has anyone opened the unit to see which audio DAC is being used. I saw a mention of the Crystal CS4398 but would like to know. I modify players and if it has the CS4398 it would be good to know. The CS4398 is a two channel DAC so there would either be another multichannel DAC or 3 or 4 two channel DACs being used. Thanks.

The only thing keeping the Onkyo in the race is that I only paid $1K for it. So its not as big a difference.

I think the analog side of the Onkyo sounds better than anything but I am going to be using firewire only I think. But I might just leave both wires connected. If I keep the Onkyo. If I keep the Yammy I will just use the firewire. The Onkyo just sounds better, it has better soundstage, imaging, bass response, clarity, resolution, detail and is warmer, almost tubelike. The rest of these players are not tubelike. And some of the test stuff was 2 channel and some 5.1. It didn't make a difference it just handled everything better. The Denon falls back because I had problems with it and it did not sound as good. It didn't sound bad, it is also a great player but if you really want the best audio the Onkyo is the way to go. Since this is the last non HD player I will probably buy, I am trying to get the best one I can find(- 5910). If my only choice were between the Denon and Yammy I would pick the Yammy and firewire. I had too many problems with the Denon.

There is no MB on my display. But since its seems to be display dependent it could have it. None of the machines showed MB.

The UI is quick and resembles the Z9's GUI if you have seen that. It navigates menus pretty quickly. No slower then the others. The layer change might be a tad slower then the rest but it is not as bad Yammy 2300MKII. I will need to watch another movie in full to get a good look on this and the 480i thru HDMI.

CGC it didn't have green push like I initially thought. Is that what you mean, if not how no I look for the green depression? The colors thru the Digital essentails tuned just right.

...how do I look for the green depression? The colors thru the Digital essentails tuned just right.

I tried to summarize here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=444693&p=5678597) what the "green depression" was.

If present, it happens when upconverting to 720p / 1080i over an HDMI-HDMI connection. I guess an easy way to look for it would be to compare for color accuracy/consistency by switching between 720p and 480p while keeping the HDMI-HDMI connection.

Since the "green depression" doesn't happen at 480p over HDMI, this should give you a reference level to assess the player's color accuracy at 720p/1080i over HDMI.

Please, let us know your findings. Thanks again for your great review! :)

Where are you guys buying this? and For ?$?

I got mine for ~660 (shipped) from amazon.com (whihc routes it to MyDigitaluniverse.com.

I've connected it via ilink to my Pioneer 56tx for audio, and component connections to same for video -- so far so good. My prior DVD player is a Pioneer DV-45a. Some impressions, some questions I can finally answer, and some quirks I've noticed (all related to audio):

-- the different brands of AVR and DVD player was no problem for ilink. The 56txi recognized the DVD-S2500 immediately and all the appropriate blue lights lit up on both units.
-- the onscreen menus are nicely laid out and look cool..and you can change a lot of stuff *while* the disc is playing. Easy to switch between stereo and surroudn versions of an SACD, for example (not easy to do with the 45a). For some items it pauses playback, then resumes when you're done.
-- Pioneer MCACC (speaker level/crossover/delay settings, and acoustic calibration) apparently works for all ilinked sources, including DVD-A and SACD surround. At least, the MCACC light stays on for everything I've thrown at it. ;>
-- it doesn't seem to consistently auto-play discs when they're loaded; usually I have to press 'play'. Don't know yet if this is a setup issue or not.
-- remote buttons not backlit, nor is there a way to display channel configuration/sampling rate/bitdepth info : advantage 45a.
-- unit provides adjustable slope and crossover for SACD output -- advantage Yamaha! Except I won't be using them, since I'm using ilink ;>
-- it doesn't seem to consistently recognize (or communicate) whether the disc is multichannel or not (even though MC playback shoudl be default). Sometimes I have to 'tell' the player or AVR that it's the multichannel tracks I want to hear. THis seems to be related to how I set the *analog* output, even though I'm using ilink. Is a puzzlement. Requires more investigation.
-- one thing you cannot do (at least with the Pio 56txi): apply DPL II to 2-channel SACD or DVD-A ilink output. A pity. However, you can of course apply it to 2-channel *analog* output, of any origin, including SACD or DVD-A. (Interestingly, the S2500 itself can apply DPL II to 2-channel *DVD-A* tracks whose sampling rate is < 88.2 kHz, and outupt that via multichannel jacks. But not to SACD. I presume the processing needs are just too vast for that.)
-- it wouldn't play the first DVD-A I fed it (Yes' Fragile) -- or rather, it played it, but the noise that came out was not 'Roundabout' but rather a ghostly version of it. This was 'fixed' by turning the unit off and then on again. So far it hasn't happened again.
-- plays a 4-channel EMI classical DVD-A (Turangalila Symphonie) without problem (whereas the 45a couldn't do bass management correctly for this DVD-A)

How does it *sound*? Fantastic. But so did the 45a, with the help of an Outlaw ICBM for multichannel SACD/DVD-A. Look for them on ebay soon. ;>

Now that it's finally out, I wish they would put the owners manual up on their web site.

krabapple,

How is the PQ compared to your Pioneer DV-45a? I'm very intrested in this player to replace my Sony 900v. My usage would be 90% video and 10% for sacd/dvd-a. I do not have and i-link reciever (I have a Denon 3802) as of yet or hdmi input on my pdp, but will in near future.

Thanks, Bill

GCG, I dont think it has green depression, from what I see the colors stay even when I switch back and forth from 480 to 720.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a DV59-AVI in Yamaha - Faroudja clothing.

krabapple,

How is the PQ compared to your Pioneer DV-45a? I'm very intrested in this player to replace my Sony 900v. My usage would be 90% video and 10% for sacd/dvd-a. I do not have and i-link reciever (I have a Denon 3802) as of yet or hdmi input on my pdp, but will in near future.

Thanks, Bill

My TV was calibrated to my 45a, so a PQ comparison really isn't fair. From what little I've seen using the Yamaha, though, it looks fine. It certainly has an interesting range of adjustment options (several of which do not work for component or HDMI, though)

GCG, I dont think it has green depression, from what I see the colors stay even when I switch back and forth from 480 to 720.

Thanks, Carbo! That's good to know and great news. :)

Has anybody paired this player with the Toshiba TDP-MT700 projector?

Does anybody know how this "combo" performs regarding macroblocking?

Any reviews from europe?

I thought UK model will do divx too? any owner manual online yet?

Does anyone else have this player, what are your thoughts? I'm surprised with all the interest in this piece there has been very little feedback since its release.

Thanks, Bill

This player is in very limited availability, and in B&M stores, their first stock is already spoken for!

Just joined this site,... been reading this thread for months... but hadn't ever posted.

I heard about the DVD-S2500 back in November or so.. been waiting on it ever since.

My dealer called me Tuesday of last week that he had gotten a few in. I called Wednesday to place my order, and I received it via FedEx on Saturday. Yes, from an authorized dealer.

The DVD player I replaced was quite old. It was a Sony DVP-NS400D , which is about 4 years old, did not have Progressive scan.

I think the DVD-S2500 is fantastic. The picture is great, the menus are very thorough, the price on it is great (and the price I got from my buddy made it even more attractive).

I've got a burned DVD from an aunt that won't play on it. Not a big deal so far since I've never found a single machine that can play it. So I have a feeling it's just burned improperly.

I also have yet to hook up the multichannel hookups, but I may wait to upgrade my receiver to an RXV-4600 before I do that.

My current set up is: RXV-2500 receiver, DVD-S2500 dvd player, CDC-685 Yamaha cd-changer, a sony 27" CRT, Paradigm Monitor 11 speakers, Monitor CC-370, Monitor ADP-170 surrounds, PW2100 sub..

great player

I am still waiting to hear word MB that the processor DCDI is notorious for? any one?

No MB on a Panny PT-AE700.

One thing I'm noticing about the S2500 -- reaction time to the remote -- for skipping to next track, for example, or for 'play' -- is *very* slow. Anyone else notice? Or did I get bad batteries? ;> Also points off again to Yamaha for not having a backlit remote...I'm findin I was quite spoiled by all my other backlit remotes.

I have DVC750 and noticed it too late to return this player. It drive me crazy.
Why Yamaha couldn't make it work faster is a question. When I turn DVD on and want to insert a new DVD, I have to wait almost a minute or more (sometime I even press open botton again because I don't know if player even got my first command) before tray will open.
Second problem I noticed but it is related to changer only probably - couple of times when the tray opened, I found 1 DVD laying on top of another with next place empty. It looks like the mechanism is either moving a dvd to different place when you turn a tray or patented Xchange don't remember where DVD have to be placed.

Mine works quick. But the remote does suck. Cheap.

i thought going through cd tracks was a little slow on a cd that was all mp3's. but every dvd player i've ever seen is slow on audio cd's... i never use a dvd player as an audio cd player, except in this case will use for dvd-audio/sacd...
even so, the load times are not unreasonable on dvd's, etc... there are things just not worth being impatient over. seems to perform fine for me.

Any word from Kris Deering, finding one to review?

One thing I'm noticing about the S2500 -- reaction time to the remote -- for skipping to next track, for example, or for 'play' -- is *very* slow. Anyone else notice? Or did I get bad batteries? ;> Also points off again to Yamaha for not having a backlit remote...I'm findin I was quite spoiled by all my other backlit remotes.
If the 2500 is really based on the Philips 963 or 9000 as I suspect, then it's natural that it'll be slow.

Yes, I think 9000s or B will be cheaper alternative!

So what do you guys think? If I could get the S2500 at Yamaha employee discount or the Oppo?

So what do you guys think? If I could get the S2500 at Yamaha employee discount or the Oppo?

?? Two VERY different beasts. One's a universal player, the other a DVI-D -based scaling player. What do you want them to do? SACD? I-Link? The Oppo doesn't do it? Scale to 720p or 1080i with DVI-D, the Yammy doesn't do it (except to go HDMi-to-DVI) They have different target audiences. One's a cheaply built $200 Chinese player (I own the Oppo); one's a mid-priced mass market player.

Ted

Well I have a Panasonic 50phd7uy plasma that is 1366x768. I'm just a dvd movie person. I don't really need all the fancy audio stuff.

Just purely picture guy. I'm not 100% but I think 720p would look the best on the plasma?

I just want the best possible picture with a cost/benefit ratio that makes sense.

UK Model - with multiregion override
I've had a couple of days to play around with this new player, following the multi-region hack (same as that for the Philips 900SA:
Multiregion hack:
-Turn on the player without disc in it.
-Press Play button on the front panel.
-Press 1-5-9 on the remote.
-Display on the player will show "------------"
-Press 222 222 005 255 on the remote.
-Press Play on the remote.

To get firmware version:
-Open the disc tray
-Press Menu on remote.

Having endured 6 months of problems with the Denon 3910 - it had to return that because the iLINK was persistently dropping out and had problems with certain DVD-A discs.

Well thankfully the Yamaha iLINK is rock solid. Pity they had to exclude an iLINK cable to keep costs down!
Audio for SACD and DVDA is superb from the iLINK and multichannel outs (although I did note that the manual recommended the latter because it didn't downconvert 96kHZ material that was copy protected).

Picture wise, I'm unable to use the HDMI as my Sim2 projector is not HDCP compliant, however, using the progressive component out produces a fabulous picture - Monster's Inc had me doing a double-take. I know that is a pretty punchy movie anyway, but nevertheless it looked great. Having never witnessed HDMI/DVI output, I'd be interested to know how much of an improvement that could make (given the reported problems with black crush).

The unit has a couple of minor bugbears - hopefully these can be sorted out in a firmware upgrade (I'll advise Yamaha UK ):

1. DVDA discs take three seconds to complete a chapter skip - I kept pressing skip and nothing appeared to happen, until I found I was 3 tracks further forward than expected!

2. When some DVD and DVDA discs load the initial menu screen- the player pops up a blue message box at the bottom of the screen which reads 'Dolby Pro-Logic II'. This is not related to the 'Status' Display which locates at top of screen (and can be defeated). It is an annoyance and I've not yet found a way to suppress it.

3. The Progressive/Interlaced switching is not controlled via the GUI - there's a slider switch on the back panel - not sure why they have chosen this method - seems a bit retrograde and makes it a bit difficult if you don't have easy access to the back of the kit after installation.

4. The navigation is a bit quirky - there is not the standard Title/Top button (to take you to the top menu) - Yamaha have a title/chapter button which list those avaialble. Also, they've combined the skip and search buttons. To scan forward or back, you have to press the skip button, but hold it down for 2 seconds. This is a bit clunky and takes some getting used to. This search only provides X4 and X32 speeds using this method - if you want other speeds, you have to select via the GUI. Using the pause button will allow frame advance.

Keep those reviews coming !

UK Model - with multiregion override

Well thankfully the Yamaha iLINK is rock solid. Pity they had to exclude an iLINK cable to keep costs down!
Audio for SACD and DVDA is superb from the iLINK and multichannel outs (although I did note that the manual recommended the latter because it didn't downconvert 96kHZ material that was copy protected).


I am a bit puzzled to read above. Does it mean that this player down-rez DVD-A audio of 88.2kHz fs or higher, or 20/24-bit PCM to output through i.link?

Hi Gary Nash,

I wanted to try to answer one of your irks with this yamaha player. While I don't have the S-2500, I do have a 750 and I had similar gripes until someone enlightened me. Regarding #4, it is not obvious, but there is a way to do FF and FR without using (and holding) the chapter skip buttons. Yamaha instead dedicates the arrow keys for playback contol use in the following manner:

right arrow = Fast Forward
left arrow = Fast Reverse
down arrow = slow forward
up arrow = slow reverse
enter/select = resume play

Another hidden feature is that pressing-and-holding stop should eject the disc tray.

If this does not hold true for the S-2500 (or if this has already been covered in this thread), my humble apologies. Good luck.

-BigFoot_Lives

I saw an online picture! Remote does not have open/close button?

UK Model - with multiregion override
I've had a couple of days to play around with this new player, following the multi-region hack (same as that for the Philips 900SA:
Multiregion hack:
-Turn on the player without disc in it.
-Press Play button on the front panel.
-Press 1-5-9 on the remote.
-Display on the player will show "------------"
-Press 222 222 005 255 on the remote.
-Press Play on the remote.

To get firmware version:
-Open the disc tray
-Press Menu on remote.



Interesting. Any idea if this works for the US model?

1. DVDA discs take three seconds to complete a chapter skip - I kept pressing skip and nothing appeared to happen, until I found I was 3 tracks further forward than expected!

I find that chapter/track skipping is slow with any format

2. When some DVD and DVDA discs load the initial menu screen- the player pops up a blue message box at the bottom of the screen which reads 'Dolby Pro-Logic II'. This is not related to the 'Status' Display which locates at top of screen (and can be defeated). It is an annoyance and I've not yet found a way to suppress it.

That's because all stereo material -- including menu chapters of DVD and DVD-As -- is processed with DPLII if you have selected '5.1' as the analog out option. This outputs a synthetic surround from the 6-channel analog outputs. I don't think it's suppressable. It has no effect on the ilink output.


4. The navigation is a bit quirky - there is not the standard Title/Top button (to take you to the top menu) - Yamaha have a title/chapter button which list those avaialble. Also, they've combined the skip and search buttons. To scan forward or back, you have to press the skip button, but hold it down for 2 seconds. This is a bit clunky and takes some getting used to. This search only provides X4 and X32 speeds using this method - if you want other speeds, you have to select via the GUI. Using the pause button will allow frame advance.

I'm finding it easier to just program Yamaha functions onto my Radio Shack remote, instead of using the rather dodgy, non-backlit Yamaha remote.

I do wish there was a way to display format -- e.g whether the source was 2- channel, 4 channel, 6 channel, and what the sampling/bitdepths/bitrates are

Any idea!! Kris pls? If you will be reviewing it soon?

How does this player stack up in the Secrets review?

I dont think it has been shot out yet!

I have one on my way, so I can either accept for return?

1. DVDA discs take three seconds to complete a chapter skip - I kept pressing skip and nothing appeared to happen, until I found I was 3 tracks further forward than expected!

2. When some DVD and DVDA discs load the initial menu screen- the player pops up a blue message box at the bottom of the screen which reads 'Dolby Pro-Logic II'. This is not related to the 'Status' Display which locates at top of screen (and can be defeated). It is an annoyance and I've not yet found a way to suppress it.

3. The Progressive/Interlaced switching is not controlled via the GUI - there's a slider switch on the back panel - not sure why they have chosen this method - seems a bit retrograde and makes it a bit difficult if you don't have easy access to the back of the kit after installation.

4. The navigation is a bit quirky - there is not the standard Title/Top button (to take you to the top menu) - Yamaha have a title/chapter button which list those avaialble. Also, they've combined the skip and search buttons. To scan forward or back, you have to press the skip button, but hold it down for 2 seconds. This is a bit clunky and takes some getting used to. This search only provides X4 and X32 speeds using this method - if you want other speeds, you have to select via the GUI. Using the pause button will allow frame advance.
These are exactly the same issues my Philips 963SA has.

The slowness is unavoidable, but it is something you get used to.
The Pro Logic message always appears when you set the player to do internal pro logic encoding (which, by the way, you can apply to the digital output, not just the analogue one). Simply set the surround encoding to "Stereo" and it'll never appear.
I rarely have had to switch between interlace and progressive. No big deal about that.
It took me ages before I discovered that the > button fast forwards. Once you learn that it's no problem. Not being able to select 8x FF without going to the menu is a pain in the arse though.

nother hidden feature is that pressing-and-holding stop should eject the disc tray.
Now that is a new one to me. I wonder if it'll work on the 963...?

These are exactly the same issues my Philips 963SA has.

The slowness is unavoidable, but it is something you get used to.
The Pro Logic message always appears when you set the player to do internal pro logic encoding (which, by the way, you can apply to the digital output, not just the analogue one). Simply set the surround encoding to "Stereo" and it'll never appear.

? Perhaps I'm reading the manual wrong, but it looks to me like, if analog output is set to multichannel, rather than stereo, the S2500 applies DPLII to the *analogue* output, not digital...that is, it will output a 2-channel analog source as '6 channel' via its 6-channel analog outputs, after DPL II processing. (The exceptions are >88 kHz and SACD sources, which aren't processed). I was curious to know what that does to the 'dedicated' 2-channel analog outputs, but my impression is that those are left alone (i.e., they output normal 2-channel, rather than just the two front channels of a DPL II 'remix').

BigFooot, Carled,

Thanks for the advice.

ProLogic II Banner - I tried chaning the Analogue Output from 'multichannel' to 'stereo' and it suppressed the banner message. Unfortunately, it also reduced the iLINK audio output from 5.1 to 2.0 channels !! I don't know why this should be the case as analogue changes should not affect digital outs.
So if I want the banner suppressed, I have to remember to reset the anlogue uadio to multichannel whenever I play DVD-Audio.
Not very user friendly!

Navigation - Tried the arrow keys during playback, but only the up arrow functioned (forward step).

I've also noted another couple of things:
4:3 Aspect Switching
At first I thought this wasn't working - I played back X-men 1.5 in the 'enhanced mode' - this includes branching to behind the scenes video segments in 4:3 format. When the segment is displayed, it did not display the image in a 4:3 pillarbox on my 16:9 screen. The image was stretched.
If I set the played to 'pillarbox mode', then the video segment was pillarboxed OK in the centre of the screen, but when the movie playback resumed, it was windowboxed within the 4:3 image.

However, all is not lost - I popped in the 'Incredibles' disc and the 4:3 switching worked fine.
The 'coming attractions' screen was pillar boxed, 'Cars' trailer was full width anamorphic, 'Chicken Little' was 1.85 windowboxed in the 4:3 pillarbox image. Then the Incedibles menus and movie itself played back full width anamorphic.
The 4:3 aspect mode is set to auto.

So I'm thinking that maybe Xmen 1.5 doesn't have the correct flags set for the 4:3 material, whereas Incredibles does.

Erratic Menu display
I have noticed that the S2500 does not consistently display the correct DVD menu when 'menu' is pressed during movie playback.
Some Menu selection screens are preceded by short video sequences that normally only playback once, when the disc is loaded. After that, the next time the menu is selected, this intro sequence is bypassed.
I've found with several discs (including X-Men 1.5 and Monsters Inc), that during playback, if the menu button is pressed, they will sometimes return to either this video intro, or the primary language selection screen (English, French, Spanish etc, rather than the audio format, Dolby, DTS etc), rather than the main menu.

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and since all the S2500 owners seem to be here, and I just purchased one, I thought I'd add my two cents... er, two problems...

I am getting slight pauses between the tracks that run together on the QUEEN "A Night at the Opera" DVD-A. Oddly, if you start at the second of two tracks and search back a bit, then play, it works fine. But when just playing through from the beginning of the first track the problem is quite apparent (and most annoying).

Also on disc 1 of the Fawlty Towers set, when the fourth episode is selected it stalls a bit then jumps right to the second chapter!

If anyone could test out these titles to compare or has any advice etc I'd certainly appreciate it.

Cheers,
Dave

S2500 owners,

Could you look up your owner's manual and tell me what kind of recordable/rewritable DVDs this player can play? I couldn't find any information on this on Yamaha web-site or this thread. Pioneer 59AVi is guaranteed to play only DVD-R/DVD-RW, while S2300 can play DVD +/- R/RW. What about S2500?

Did some one hack a R1 player to make it region free?
How is pal to tsc conversion?

jheoaustin,
according to the DVD-S2500 manual, here are the supported formats

DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, Super Audio-CD, Stereo/Multi-channel and Hybrid disc, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, Video CD (VCD), Super Video (SVCD), CD-Audio (CD-DA), CD-R/CD-RW (CD-DA, VCD, SVCD), MP3, JPEG

brianhahne,

Thank you very much for your information. It seems to play all the format I want or may want, except DivX. That seems to be one advantage of s2500 over 59AVi...

I would like to see 2 cpmpared neck to neck too!

? Perhaps I'm reading the manual wrong, but it looks to me like, if analog output is set to multichannel, rather than stereo, the S2500 applies DPLII to the *analogue* output, not digital...that is, it will output a 2-channel analog source as '6 channel' via its 6-channel analog outputs, after DPL II processing. (The exceptions are >88 kHz and SACD sources, which aren't processed). I was curious to know what that does to the 'dedicated' 2-channel analog outputs, but my impression is that those are left alone (i.e., they output normal 2-channel, rather than just the two front channels of a DPL II 'remix').
Well I can't speak for the 2500, but the 963s manual was totally useless with respect to all the many oddities of the player. I can (and used to) apply surround processing to the digital outs when playing back 2.0 stuff. I'm not sure if it was an oversight or intentional, but it was pretty cool in a weird sort of way. The 963 only had pro logic I, though, so it's not something I've ended up using much.

I have not seen much talk about the picture quality of the 2500, in comparsion to players like the Denon 2910 and the Pioneer 59avi. I have a Sony 900v which I might play an occasional SACD. So I'm more interested in the video quality of this player and if it would be a step up from the Sony.

Thanks, Bill

I have not seen much talk about the picture quality of the 2500, in comparsion to players like the Denon 2910 and the Pioneer 59avi. I have a Sony 900v which I might play an occasional SACD. So I'm more interested in the video quality of this player and if it would be a step up from the Sony.

Thanks, Bill

The S2500 is too recent in release to have been thoroughly reviewed. Stay tuned!

The S2500 is too recent in release to have been thoroughly reviewed. Stay tuned!

I understand that, I was thinking of people on the forum that have the 2500.

Bill

Manual downloadble: http://www.yamaha-online.de/downloadbedienungt.php?archivset=&country=DE&newsset=&idcat1=1&idcat2=4&idcat3=4&idprod=1181&lang=e&dlid=1567

Page 26 speaks to fast forward and reverse.

Anyone try this remote region hack that works for some other Yamaha models (US):
1. Power up. 2. Open tray. 3. Press "On Screen". 4. Press 99990 (0 is for region free - you can change to whatever you want). 5. Press enter. 6. It should now say Region:0 on the top left(along with firmware, etc.). 6. Close tray. 7. Play

Earlier Gary reported this remote region hack for his UK machine:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5750022&&#post5750022

I understand that, I was thinking of people on the forum that have the 2500.
Well if you look back a few posts, there was a comparison made to the Denon 3910. And it compared very well to that, and the 3910 is twice the price of the 2910. So if anything, it should compare just as well or better against the 2910, while offering more features for about the same price.

Thanks Johnla I forgot about that post.

Bill

Manual downloadble: http://www.yamaha-online.de/downloadbedienungt.php?archivset=&country=DE&newsset=&idcat1=1&idcat2=4&idcat3=4&idprod=1181&lang=e&dlid=1567

Page 26 speaks to fast forward and reverse.

Anyone try this remote region hack that works for some other Yamaha models (US):
1. Power up. 2. Open tray. 3. Press "On Screen". 4. Press 99990 (0 is for region free - you can change to whatever you want). 5. Press enter. 6. It should now say Region:0 on the top left(along with firmware, etc.). 6. Close tray. 7. Play

Earlier Gary reported this remote region hack for his UK machine:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5750022&&#post5750022

Randall, I tried this, but when you press on screen, then set up menue pop ups!

and it does not take those numbers! Pls advise?

Any word on Macroblocking and the layer switch? I'm running a JVC HD-ILA and tried out a Panny S77 but took it back because of the MB. I know this is a DCDi product but would like the upconversion and a reduction in the layer switch from my Denon 1600 if possible.

Thanks in advance!

Randall, I tried this, but when you press on screen, then set up menue pop ups!

and it does not take those numbers! Pls advise?
Sorry to hear that. I've only applied this remote region hack to the S5750. Maybe an S1500 owner might have some pointers?

Any word on Macroblocking and the layer switch? I'm running a JVC HD-ILA and tried out a Panny S77 but took it back because of the MB. I know this is a DCDi product but would like the upconversion and a reduction in the layer switch from my Denon 1600 if possible.

Thanks in advance!
If you saw bad MB with the S77, you really need to go with a non-Faroudja player, like a Sony, Samsung, Pioneer, or Onkyo upscaling player. The S1500 had MB, and I have no doubt the S2500 does as well.

Thanks for the reply. The red wall in AOTC chapter 4 came alive on the S77. Probably not enough for most people to notice but I would be looking for it in every movie. Just like the CUE and the convergence on our old Sony CRT RPTV, once I saw it, I cannot not see it.

I did the same thing to my wife on the expand mode on 4:3. She didn't like the grey bars. "Look at the distortion on the edges." Now we watch all 4:3 in OAR.

It sounds like I am "stuck" with my 1600 until something better/cheaper comes out as I know I will get my clock cleaned for the SP1000 or 59AVi and know better than to ask about the 5910. I really like the DCDi on my 1600 so this is unfortunate that the 23xx chips cause problems. :(

DVD Compatability.
Hit a problem with the new 'jarre in china' DVD. The player is unable to lock on to the audio for Disc#1. Neither the menu intro/loop nor the concert itself can maintain a stable audio signal (it drops in/ou 2 or 3 times a second). I've tried iLINK, digital co-ax and analogue multichannel outs. I even sourced a second copy of the DVD and same problem.
This disc plays back fine on my older players.

Disc#2 of this 3 disc set plays back without error.
I'm guessing that the S2500 doesn't like something about the way the Disc #1 is (THX)mastered, which is surprising as it seems to handle tricky discs which cause problems on my other players.

I've flagged this with my UK Yamaha contact - he's already notified Japan of some other issues I raised, so hopefully a firmware upgrade will be forthcoming.

Can anyone definitely confirm that the following hack is working to make the drive region free?

--------------------
-Turn on the player without any disc in it.
-Press the Play button on the player itself.
-Push slowly 1-5-9 on the original remote.
-The display on the player should then show "------------"
-Push 222 222 005 255 on the remote.
-Push Play on the remote

For step 1, 2, 3 always wait until any OSD message disappear between a
command and the other
--------------------

Gary stated that it's working on his UK player. Anyone with US or other european players?

Hi,

It does work on European and US players, and it also works on it's more than cousin Philips 9000s ;)

--Patrice

Hello,

Had anybody bought this from BrandNamez.com? It seems to be the best-price place on the internet. I'd like to hear your opinions about where to buy, or how Brandnamez.com is rated.

Well with BrandNamez.com, you will also not have any valid factory warranty. And they are only about $28 cheaper than what I was quoted right off the street at one local B&M, that is a authorized Yamaha dealer. And I know another local authorized B&M that will very likely go a bit lower than that one did. So when you figure in any differences of S&H, against what my local sales tax is, it's almost a "wash"... And I might save all of about $10 or so with buying it online. And with that, for me at least. Then I'd say that buying one online for price like what BrandNamez.com is asking, is just really not worth it for something not having a valid factory warranty.

Johnla,

Thank you for your reply, and I envy you as I don't have such a good Yamaha authorized dealer nearby in Houston, AFAIK.

I actually have maybe a total of around 11 different Yamaha dealers, (and that's with counting but only 1, of the almost a dozen Tweeters alone in my area) all within about a 5-40 mile radius here in the Chicago suburbs. And about another 5 more, if I want to travel a bit further and up to as much as 90 miles away and even over the border into Wisconsin. So they all tend to compete with each other some to try and get your business.
And even though Tweeter has by far the most stores in this area, they are also about the absolute worst, as far as trying to get a decent price on anything they sell.

After months of waiting it finally arrived on my doorstep last Saturday :-).

My first impressions are very positive. I have hooked it up to my Sony HS50 with a $10(!) 25ft. HDMI cable, and it produces a beautiful image at 480p. For some silly reason (and I'm convinced the $10 cable has *nothing* to do with it ;-) 720p just produces a full screen of "white noise". Amusing, didn't even know that was possible with a digital connection. I would expect some speckles or something with such a cheap cable, but not a complete loss of image. However, since the projector *does* switch to 720p, I am finally able to determine the impact of the infamous blanking problem (since I still have the original firmware in the projector) and decided that I''ll take the 480p output for now. To be honest, the scaling of the projector really seems fine to me - especially now I'm feeding it a digital signal. It is the deinterlacing that I wasn't too impressed about that made me decide to buy a new DVD player. For instance, the projector is not able to properly deinterlace some video material (mostly TV shows that I watch on DVD) and I also noticed serious artifacts on some titles, such as the scrolling text at the opening of the SW: Episode 2, or a water scene in Back To The Future part 2.

Anyway, the last few weeks I have been using the projector with a Yamaha DVD-S830. Since this is my first projector, I didn't have much to complain about. Until I hooked up the DVD-S2500 that is ;-). I can't believe the extra amount of information the S2500 displays compared to the S830 - even hooked up through s-vhs. And the HDMI connection is even better. Lots of detail, deep rich colours, lots of detail in the dark scenes, very stable image and no more artifacts in those tricky DVDs that I mentioned earlier. Especially an early scene in Episode 2 where some of the Jedis and the Senator have a meeting made me drop my jaw. The amount of detail in the faces, clothing and background was just unbelievable. A simple A-B comparison to s-VHS easily shows all the extra detail. "The Incredibles" looks so good, it's just unbelievable. Even the difference with a notoriously bad disk (SW: Episode 1) is amazing.

I have the player hooked up to a Yamaha AZ1 (European equivalent of the RX-Z1). Can't say much about the audio department, since I only use a digital connection. I've tried several analog connections from high(er)-end players in the past, and I was never able to tell the difference (and yes, I used source-direct to bypass the internal A/D-D/A stage), so it seems I'm satisfied with the quality the AZ1 produces and I'll leave it at that ;-). And to be honest, I can't be bothered hooking up 6 analog cables to enjoy the full quality of DVD-audio or SACD (don't even have one of those yet). Perhaps in the near future, but for now 5.1 audio for music is not high on my priority list - possibly when Roger Waters' new album finally comes out ;-).

I also can't tell you much about features and gizmos, since I usually don't use those. I find the setup-menus absolutely horrible (kudos to those engineers at Philips - at least they managed to keep up their reputation!). Then again, how often do you access those? If I can stop, start and pause a DVD I'm happy. If I can read the time on the display I'm happy.

A few little things that bug me:

- If I switch off the projector when using an HDMI connection, the player sometimes stops after 10-15s. It seems it can't handle a loss of the HDMI signal, even if you're playing a regular audio CD. If you start the CD again it works just fine. I'm sure that could be fixed with a firmware upgrade.
- In Finding Nemo I sometimes see a bit of "staircasing". Not quite staircasing, but don't know how else to describe it. Don't know if that is caused by the player or by the projector and it's the only disc that I noticed it on so far. Would love to try native 720p, but as long as a decent 25ft HDMI cable costs >$200, they can kiss my boots ;-). Maybe I'll pick up a shorter cable just to try it out and see if it makes a difference or not. Then again, as long as I don't know, I don't care - ignorance is bliss ;-).
- Already mentioned by someone else: The audio on Jean Michel Jarre's latest "live" DVD (as live as tutankhamon I would say) won't lock. No idea why. Only disk I have had problems with so far.

And an honorary mention to the disc-read speed. Yes, it takes a bit of time before the player has figured out what it should do with a disk. I doesn't really bug me, but I can understand other people have a problem with it. The player *does* seem to read any flavor of disk I've thrown at it so far: CD, DVD, DVD+R(W) and CDR. I guess that's the price to pay for compatibility. I've tried a Denon 3910 for a few days - it was considerably faster, but after 3 days of using it I already had a pile of CDs and DVDs that would either skip severely or not play at all...

Hope this information is of some use. I would say the DVD-S2500 is excellent value for money: DCDi, HDMI and - if you care about that - SACD and DVD-audio, all for less than $750 street price. Image quality is absolutely fantastic, I'm sure audio quality is up to the same standards. Now all you need to do is actually find one ;-).

Setup: Yamaha AZ1, Yamaha DVD-S830, Yamaha DVD-S2500, Sony HS50 (ISF calibrated) and $10 HDMI cable ;-).

All S2500 owners,

Could you do me a favor by posting where you bought this player?

Thank you.

S2500 manual contains really funny comment regarding i.link:

- Copy-protected96 kHz DVD-Video Discs are downsampled to 48kHz when using an i.Link connection.

Can anybody tell me what the heck this means? It passes more heavily copy-protected DVD-A and SACD contents without downsampling, but downsamples DVD-Video 96kHz soundtrack??

S2500 manual contains really funny comment regarding i.link:

- Copy-protected96 kHz DVD-Video Discs are downsampled to 48kHz when using an i.Link connection.

Can anybody tell me what the heck this means? It passes more heavily copy-protected DVD-A and SACD contents without downsampling, but downsamples DVD-Video 96kHz soundtrack??

It passes SACD over i-link??? Manual clearly states that it doesn't - can anyone confirm this? I would consider upgrading my amp if it does... Right now I find the whole high-resolution audio a big let-down because I have to invest in 6 good analog interlinks to be able to hear multi-channel SACD.

Don't know of any 96khz audio tracks on DVD-Video discs. Perhaps the DTS 96/24 tracks that exist, *somewhere* out there?

From personal experience I can assure you that the S2500 most certainly does pass SACD over ilink. I use it for that purpose often, passing SACD and DVD-A digitally to my 56txi.

I suspect you are misreading the manual. It says SACD cannot be passed over the *HDMI* output, or from the digital out jacks (meaning coax or optical, not ilink).

I wouldn't worry about downsampling from 96 to 48 kHz. Even if it happens, do you REALLY think you're likely to hear it?

From personal experience I can assure you that the S2500 most certainly does pass SACD over ilink. I use it for that purpose often, passing SACD and DVD-A digitally to my 56txi.


Well, the manual says that SACD is not output from digital-out jacks - I just assumed that i-link was considered a digital-out jack. Glad to hear it isn't. Or actually - I'm not, because now I have to seriously consider upgrading my amp ;-).

I wouldn't worry about downsampling from 96 to 48 kHz. Even if it happens, do you REALLY think you're likely to hear it?

If that were the case, very likely. Although from my reading of the manual, there is no downconversion for SACD or DVD-audio.


What about bass-management for DVD-audio? It seems to have extensive bass management for SACD, but no mention of DVD-audio.

It passes SACD over i-link??? Manual clearly states that it doesn't - can anyone confirm this? I would consider upgrading my amp if it does... Right now I find the whole high-resolution audio a big let-down because I have to invest in 6 good analog interlinks to be able to hear multi-channel SACD.

Don't know of any 96khz audio tracks on DVD-Video discs. Perhaps the DTS 96/24 tracks that exist, *somewhere* out there?

There are/were some DVD-V titles with 96kHz PCM sound track. Many of them have no video and are called "DAD". I also know a Pioneer DVD-V title with video and 96kHz stereo PCM.

From personal experience I can assure you that the S2500 most certainly does pass SACD over ilink. I use it for that purpose often, passing SACD and DVD-A digitally to my 56txi.

I suspect you are misreading the manual. It says SACD cannot be passed over the *HDMI* output, or from the digital out jacks (meaning coax or optical, not ilink).

I wouldn't worry about downsampling from 96 to 48 kHz. Even if it happens, do you REALLY think you're likely to hear it?

Actually I am not that bothered, as I have only one DAD disc which I now regret to buy because of this. I may be able to hear the difference, or may be not. But this is not a show stopper... :)

I visited my Local Tweeter today. They said they have the Yamaha S-2500 in their wherehouse and are seling it for $699.00.

Just to clarify that the S2500 does NOT do CD upsampling DSD like its twin Philips 9000 does. Could not find this spec in the manual.

Thanks.

Ben

Just to clarify that the S2500 does NOT do CD upsampling DSD like its twin Philips 9000 does. Could not find this spec in the manual.

Thanks.

Ben

It's good to see that Yamaha doesn't do such a stupid and unnecessarily resource-consuming thing.

It's good to see that Yamaha doesn't do such a stupid and unnecessarily resource-consuming thing.
That depends on whether or not you consider DSD upsampling to be a good thing or not.

After a few more days of testing, I can add the following to my earlier post:

- Using an HDMI link, I get audio-sync issues. both the s-vhs and component links are fine.
- The staircasing effect I talked about is not staircasing. It seems that very bright pure colors sometimes have some sort of artifact in it. Again, only on HDMI. Component doesn't show this artifact. Read extensively about macro-blocking and chroma-upsampling, and don't think its either of those.
- Since both problems are not present on the component link, you would guess I would be using that one by now, but the HDMI image quality is so much better - even compared to component - that I'm willing to take these things for granted. My amp has an audio delay feature, the artifacts only shows in some very specific scenes (mostly pixar movies ;-)

I would have to try the player on a different projector and a different player on my projector to determine which one is causing the problem. I'm assuming the player for now, but have no evidence to back that up.

That depends on whether or not you consider DSD upsampling to be a good thing or not.

DSD upsampling can't be technically good. Most DACs do the similar thing for DA conversion actually. However 1-bit DAC is inferior to advanced multi-bit delta-sigma DACs these days, due to too high quantization and excessive noise-shaping because of the final DAC being 1-bit. PCM DACs normally generates 64 ~ 256fs 3 ~ 5 bit PDM stream for DAC. But DSD upsampling generate only 64fs 1-bit PDM stream. This is technically much inferior to what PCM DAC does.
Bottom line: let PCM DAC do PCM/Analog conversion.

New owner of and S2500. So far, I'm very impressed with the sound quality and picture. However, two questions:

1. During a movie last night, I (think I) saw some lip sych issues. These were intermittent, self correcting, and not repeatable. Has anyone else noticed anything like this? I'm hooked up via component and 6-channel audio outs.

2. I played with the True Life setting, and all it did was introduce horrendous artifacts. Of course, I'll leave it off, but I was wondering if anyone has found a use for this "feature."

I'm really interested in the lip sync issue. If this is going to be a noticeable problem on many discs, it will be a deal breaker for me.

DSD upsampling can't be technically good. Most DACs do the similar thing for DA conversion actually. However 1-bit DAC is inferior to advanced multi-bit delta-sigma DACs these days, due to too high quantization and excessive noise-shaping because of the final DAC being 1-bit. PCM DACs normally generates 64 ~ 256fs 3 ~ 5 bit PDM stream for DAC. But DSD upsampling generate only 64fs 1-bit PDM stream. This is technically much inferior to what PCM DAC does.
Bottom line: let PCM DAC do PCM/Analog conversion.
1 bit/5.2MHz is much more precise than 16 bit/44.1KHz, though. Noise shaping is an issue, but it bothers people to different extents.

In any case, I meant my statement as in a subjective sense - that some people may prefer it. I think one would have a hard time arguing that DSD upsampling would never sound better to anyone under any circumstances.


2. I played with the True Life setting, and all it did was introduce horrendous artifacts. Of course, I'll leave it off, but I was wondering if anyone has found a use for this "feature."
Philips' implentation of True Life is god awful. Just ignore it.

Even when used well True Life isn't that great, so you aren't missing much.

1 bit/5.2MHz is much more precise than 16 bit/44.1KHz, though. Noise shaping is an issue, but it bothers people to different extents.



What I meant is, when the DSD upsampling is not used, 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM is upsampled/noise-shaped to 2.8 ~ 11.2MHz 3~6bit data and fed to the high-speed DAC inside the DAC chip. When DSD upsampling is used, it is only 2.8MHz 1-bit. Both paths involve upsampling and noise-shaping. DSD upsampling is just an inferior way to do the DA conversion.

I just got DVD-S2500 and am still in the process of trying things. One strange behavior I noticed was when playing a stereo SACD: Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3, Sony Music, Volodos/Levine.
It suddenly stopped playing after about 5 minutes, and I saw the display showing only "009". It appears to be some error code, but have no idea why it displayed that. I tried replaying the disc and it played throughout the disc without problem at 2nd time.
Does anybody have any idea? Should this be taken seriously?

I just got DVD-S2500 and am still in the process of trying things. One strange behavior I noticed was when playing a stereo SACD: Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3, Sony Music, Volodos/Levine.
It suddenly stopped playing after about 5 minutes, and I saw the display showing only "009". It appears to be some error code, but have no idea why it displayed that. I tried replaying the disc and it played throughout the disc without problem at 2nd time.
Does anybody have any idea? Should this be taken seriously?

I'm not sure if this is related, but I had some problems today. I listened to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon yesterday, and all was well. Today, I put it in (I only have 2 SACDs right now) and, after about 20 seconds, the S2500 spit it out. I tried five more times, with the same result.

I then watched a DVD, tried DSOTM again, and it worked. Later in the day, I tried it again, just to see, and it rejected it three straight times. During the disk rejection, most times there was no message, but one "009" and one "010." Additionally, I put in a DVD, and after about 20 seconds, it gave me a NO DISK message. I opened the tray, and the disk was there. Closed it again, and all was fine.

This is not building much confidence for me. Also, today I saw a lot of macroblock enhance over component. Mine may be defective, but after today's experience, I don't think the S2500 is for me.

jpco,

Sorry to see the symptom on yours. Mine didn't reject the SACD, but I haven't tried further. I also tried a DVD+R disc this morning, and it gave me "NO DISC" at first trial. The 2nd trial worked. I feel that I need to watch closer on mine.

As far as lip-synching, IIRC this is an issue with the de-interlacer implementation.

Faroudja really needs to bring out their next DCDi chip. :(

It's unfortunate that in the low end, you need to pick your poison between either (relatively) poor video de-interlacing, or macroblock and intermittent lip-sync errors.

I just got my S2500 the other night. I have a handful of hi-rez titles (SACD & DVD-A) and the player has run into some difficulty with a couple of them. The first is Queen The Game on DVD-A. When I choose the DVD-A surround function, the only sound that comes out is the center channel, mainly Freddie's vocals and a little Brian May guitar. It is kinda cool just to hear Freddie's vocals isolated in hi-rez, but it would be nice to hear the rest of the music too. :p When I play other DVD-A's like Sting Brand New Day or Seal IV, this problem is not present. The other disc the player has issues with is Sting Sacred Love on SACD. This disc does not even read and the player spits it out. I was successful with other SACD's like The Police The Classics Multi-channel, Billy Joel The Stranger Multi and Allison Krauss Forget About It Stereo SACD. The discs that do work sound excellent on my Ascend 340C and 340 Mains. The S2500 is connected to my Pioneer Elite 43tx via analog inputs (no iLink on the 43tx). I think my next upgrade may have to be a firewire receiver while I wait for 1080p and the prices to go down a little more on display devices. Has anyone else run into reading problems with other hi-rez discs with their S2500?

I finally encountered major problems today with s2500. I tried 3 DVD-A titles and encountered a severe problem with 2 titles, basically same as above:

AIX records, Chopin 4 ballades, Anita Chang
Silverline DVD-A, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, Commisiona, Baltimore Symphony

At first title, I could get only center and surround audio. I tried also stereo track on it, and I got NO sound. I turned it off and waited for a while, but I got the same result after turning it back on.
I got really concerned about DVD-As, so I put Mahler Symphony No. 5 from EMI, and that played fine. But the Silverline disc didn't give any front contents, and the worst came last. Suddenly it generated loud electronics noise to front channels, which could almost damage the speakers. I lost the courage to try more DVD-A titles, and I decided to return it. It's good that I bought it from a renowned online retailer at close-to-MSRP price. I hope I will stay away from this mess without losing money, now. :(

I'm having the same DVD-Audio problems as you are, only 1 of my 4 DVD-Audio discs plays correctly, if you go into the menu and select dvd-video mode to on, the disc then plays fine in Dolby Digital, but through regular hi-rez dvd-audio I get no sound from the front 2 channels, I really hope it's something that we're doing wrong and not a Yammie bug.

I'm having the same DVD-Audio problems as you are, only 1 of my 4 DVD-Audio discs plays correctly, if you go into the menu and select dvd-video mode to on, the disc then plays fine in Dolby Digital, but through regular hi-rez dvd-audio I get no sound from the front 2 channels, I really hope it's something that we're doing wrong and not a Yammie bug.

As there are many posts about SACD and video on this players, but not many mentions on DVD-A, and there are 3 people having same symptoms for some DVD-A titiles, I am afraid that this is a Yamaha problem which wasn't discovered due to less thorough testing before the product release.

I questioned before that there would be better universal player platform to modify from into S2500, why Yamaha would/did use Philips one which doesn't have DVD-A capability. In other word, this design hasn't been proven in the market for DVD-A. I think my concern came true.

As there are many posts about SACD and video on this players, but not many mentions on DVD-A, and there are 3 people having same symptoms for some DVD-A titiles, I am afraid that this is a Yamaha problem which wasn't discovered due to less thorough testing before the product release.

I questioned before that there would be better universal player platform to modify from into S2500, why Yamaha would/did use Philips one which doesn't have DVD-A capability. In other word, this design hasn't been proven in the market for DVD-A. I think my concern came true.
Wow that's very upseting, but I have to agree with you, what you're saying makes alot of sense. It looks like Yamaha didn't do their homework with this player. Maybe it's something that a firmware could fix, I hope yamaha realizes what's going on which this player and does something to correct it.

Wow that's very upseting, but I have to agree with you, what you're saying makes alot of sense. It looks like Yamaha didn't do their homework with this player. Maybe it's something that a firmware could fix, I hope yamaha realizes what's going on which this player and does something to correct it.


Sorry for upsetting you. I didn't mean to. As you might have less DVD-A dependency than I do, you may be okay to wait. But I am not, and the fact that the player made a potentially speaker-damaging artifact noise makes it unacceptable to me.

I am now bothered by the lack of response to my return request to ABT electronics. They have a fine print saying that DVD players have only 15 days of grace period for return from the original ship date. The shipping took me about a week, and another half week is passing. If ABT is trying to put me into the fine-print trap, they will be in BIG trouble. They had better reply sooner.

PS: I chat with ABT electronics person on line, and found that I have 30 day return periods and the return request is being processed. Sorry if anybody see this and got upset or got negative feeling about ABT electronics.

You guys might want to try another unit. I tried a few of the titles mentioned and didn't have any problems. And i haven't with any of the others I have.

Sorry for upsetting you. I didn't mean to. As you might have less DVD-A dependency than I do, you may be okay to wait. But I am not, and the fact that the player made a potentially speaker-damaging artifact noise makes it unacceptable to me.

I am now bothered by the lack of response to my return request to ABT electronics. They have a fine print saying that DVD players have only 15 days of grace period for return from the original ship date. The shipping took me about a week, and another half week is passing. If ABT is trying to put me into the fine-print trap, they will be in BIG trouble. They had better reply sooner.
Yeah I don't have many DVD-Audio discs so I'm not totally bumbed, but I hate for things to not work correctly. As far as Abt goes, Abt is a reputable dealer I couldn't imagine them giving you any problems, especially if the player is defective (as it obviously is), if they refuse give'em hell. Good luck buddy.

You guys might want to try another unit. I tried a few of the titles mentioned and didn't have any problems. And i haven't with any of the others I have.
Hi Carbo, when you pop your DVD-Audio discs in they play fine? You don't have to go through any menu settings?

Yeah I don't have many DVD-Audio discs so I'm not totally bumbed, but I hate for things to not work correctly. As far as Abt goes, Abt is a reputable dealer I couldn't imagine them giving you any problems, especially if the player is defective (as it obviously is), if they refuse give'em hell. Good luck buddy.

It seems turning out that you are right. The fine print applies to only portable DVDPs. I will get a return slip soon.

You guys might want to try another unit. I tried a few of the titles mentioned and didn't have any problems. And i haven't with any of the others I have.

Carbo,

Thank you for your information. So you tried AIX: Chopin 4 ballades, and Silverline: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4? I am asking just because it's difficult to see people listening to classical music. Could you elaborate on your trial a little bit? :)

I tried "Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4" and had no problems. It also has not spit out some of SACD above (Pink floyd and the police). It is a finicky player though. And it responds slowly to some commands. For the price it does alot but it is not with out problems. But so far it has played everything I have thrown at it and with out any changes needed to the menu.

Carbo,

Thank you for your information. Could you confirm that the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 is conducted/performed by Sergiu Commissiona(?) and Baltimore Symphony? I am afraid I was not clear on this.

Yup, I didn't know that there was another.

Carbo,

Thank you for your confirmation. I don't know either if there is another Tchaikovsky #4 in DVD-A. -.-;

Could you tell me your s2500's SN# or any production info. in the back. When I get back home, I will post mine.

Carbo,

Thank you for your confirmation. I don't know either if there is another Tchaikovsky #4 in DVD-A. -.-;

Could you tell me your s2500's SN# or any production info. in the back. When I get back home, I will post mine.

SN# of mine is Z020065PR.

As there are many posts about SACD and video on this players, but not many mentions on DVD-A, and there are 3 people having same symptoms for some DVD-A titiles, I am afraid that this is a Yamaha problem which wasn't discovered due to less thorough testing before the product release.

I questioned before that there would be better universal player platform to modify from into S2500, why Yamaha would/did use Philips one which doesn't have DVD-A capability. In other word, this design hasn't been proven in the market for DVD-A. I think my concern came true.


I have a dozen or so DVD-As, and can verify that five of them -- T Rex 'Electric Warrior', Yes 'Fragile', ELP 'Brain Salad Surgery', EMI 'Turnagalila Symphonie', and one set of Morton Subotnik works, exhibited no problems playing the DVD-A surround version. I haven't played any others since I got it, IIRC.

I did notice a curious thing about a recent SACD purchase (Peter Gabriel's UP) -- I couldn't get it to output surround at all (using ilink). The receiver was verifying 'SACD multi' as the input, but the sound was only coming out of the front left and right. Then I changed the *analog* output from 2-channel to multi. That fixed it. Which makes me wonder why on earth the *analog* output setting should have ANY effect on the ilink output???

(FWIW the player is has no connections from its analog 6-channel outs -- only the ilink and 2-channel outputs are connected to my receiver, the latter only so that I can use DPLII on two-channel SACD/DVD-A material)

Is this player able to output 480i over HDMI?

Is this player able to output 480i over HDMI?

no.

Hit a problem with the new 'jarre in china' DVD. The player is unable to lock on to the audio for Disc#1....

...I've flagged this with my UK Yamaha contact - he's already notified Japan of some other issues I raised, so hopefully a firmware upgrade will be forthcoming.

Any news about a firmware update?

IMO it is a shame if Yamaha doesn't do something to correct these issues with DVD-A and DVD-V.

After almost 3 weeks with no activity on this thread, are there any new experiences/opinions with this player that current owners might want to share?

None here. ilink's working great, picture looks fine, my only complaints remain the slow loading time, the sparse disc-info display (no info about bitrates etc) , and the crappy remote (but I've mapped most of htose buttons over to another remote).

My only complaint is that it really seems to hate DVD-R media, media that a $50 player will play with no issues at all.

...ilink's working great, picture looks fine...

It's good to hear that!... I'm seriously considering getting one, but I am a little concerned about reports of compatibility problems with certain discs and with DVD-A in particular.

People have been mentioning the possibility of a firmware update, have you heard anything about this?

I take it from your message that you listen to SACD and DVD-A through ilink. That's one of the things I'm after, I really don't like the idea of having to run 6 extra cables :)

My only complaint is that it really seems to hate DVD-R media, media that a $50 player will play with no issues at all.

It's one of those things one is taking for granted at this player's level.

I haven't heard of a firmware update, but I haven't been listening for it either . ;>

Yes, I play everything -- CD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A -- through ilink. The only disappointment there is that the *receiver* I have (the 56txi) won't apply DPLIIx to hi-res ilink input...has to be analog. (It applies speaker level, distance, and room correction to all ilink input, though).

It's one of those things one is taking for granted at this player's level.

Well it's certainly irritating as hell, especially when it's listed as being able to play DVD-R/+R media. It's so bad that it often won't even hardly show past the menu screen and in some cases it even gives a "no disk" message on anything recorded on a DVD-R. And if I'm really lucky, it will play about 1/2 way through a disk and then the sound goes nuts and starts "stuttering". Yet a $50 player will play those exact same DVD-R's just fine. I even tried different brands of media, different brand of DVD burners, and different ways/software and even slower speeds in burning them, and it did not help.

You are right, it is to note that its (more than) cousin, Philips 9000s have the exact same (bad) behavior...

BTW, no firmware update for both S-2500 and 9000s, so far.

--Patrice

heh, yeah, I just returned mine today along with the rx-v4600(ordered the rx-v2600).
The read speed after putting in a disk was ridiculous. At least 40 seconds. My $60 walmart DVD player takes somewhere between 5-10 seconds.
And forget about it if the disk has some scratches. A lot of my kids disks wouldn't play at all, too scratchy. The walmart one plays them fine. I also experienced the problem you had with burned disks. It didn't like them at all. Not sure anyone mentioned yet, but the HDMI handshake between the 2500 and the v4600 was quirky. Both Yamaha. I'd expect better for $700.

Well it's certainly irritating as hell, especially when it's listed as being able to play DVD-R/+R media. It's so bad that it often won't even hardly show past the menu screen and in some cases it even gives a "no disk" message on anything recorded on a DVD-R. And if I'm really lucky, it will play about 1/2 way through a disk and then the sound goes nuts and starts "stuttering". Yet a $50 player will play those exact same DVD-R's just fine. I even tried different brands of media, different brand of DVD burners, and different ways/software and even slower speeds in burning them, and it did not help.

Yeah the load and read speed after inserting a disk is borderline on being totaly ridiculous. I have two Sony DVP-CX777ES 400 disk and one DVP-CX875P 300 disk Meagachangers that are faster than the S-2500 is in loading and reading disks, and they are far from being any sort of speed demons in that regard just from the fact that they have a lot more mechanism to deal with than a single disk player does. I bought the S-2500 primarily for the i-Link and the ability to play DVD-A and SACD and not so much for watching movies. And I use the 3 (soon to be 4) Sony megachangers along with the Cinemar DVDLobby software for all my movies.

I use it for movies and music and so far I guess I've been lucky, since every DVD I've rented has played fine. I just clean off thumbprints and dust before loading them.

The load time *is* absurdly long, don't know how I forgot that. Surely Yamaha should address this.

Just picked mine up at Sound Advice. The load time is very slow! The picture quality is outstanding! The skip chapter from the remote is very slow. The audio is Outstanding! I have it hooked up with the I link cable and component video. It's a love / hate relationship so far. Does yamaha ever offer firmware updates for its hardware. I never saw one before, have you?

S2500 is a Philips DVP9000S clone + DVD-A + i-link ... and so suffers from the same sloooow initial loading ... once passed this initial loading, the access time becomes much more acceptable.

BTW, I opened my 9000S and saw a ROM drive ... I think that's at least partly responsible for its slow initial loading.

S2500 is a Philips DVP9000S clone + DVD-A + i-link ... and so suffers from the same sloooow initial loading ... once passed this initial loading, the access time becomes much more acceptable.

BTW, I opened my 9000S and saw a ROM drive ... I think that's at least partly responsible for its slow initial loading.
Does it also have a very slow chapter skip? Have their been any firmware updates for your player?

Both Qs - no

Had mine 2500 for a couple of days no problems yet.

Yes it read the disk slow, most dvd a scad comb do,
between track some delay, again most comb do.

Audio using ilink was great plug and play my elite pioneer came up and displayed
yamaha s2500, my dvd player menu came up in one spot a said it was hook to a elite 57 txi all disk have played. one dikl the 5th element skiped a track once haven't re tried,

Remember the cheap brands wal mart etc read standard dvd video and mabe a mp3 c and cd-r the newer version read so many format there more likely to mis read or be a little slower, i think its the nature of the beast. but i'd like to hear from pioneer 59 and denon 3910 player with ilink abot there read time mis read etc.

But for great audio and picture it great. i use componet and hdmi with ilink :D

Just bought mine yesterday. Yes disk read time is slow on insert but seems to work fine for DVD-Video and CD Playback. I am using Coakial digital output to my Rotel processor for DVD movies and CD playback.

The problem am having is with DVD-Audio play back through the analog outputs.
First I sampled Neil Young's On The Beach DVD-Audio disc which was only mixed two channel stereo. It played fine on front L&R channels and sounded good.
Audio indicated it was playing PPCM at the proper resolution.

I then sampled 3 more DVD-Audio discs (Beach Boys Pet Sounds, Best of REM, and Harvest) and here is where my problem begins.
When I choose the multi-channel audio on these discs I get no sound on the Front L&R channel. When I switch audio to stereo I get no sound at all.
However when I switch off the analog discrete inputs on the Rotel I get the Front L&R coming through the coaxial digital no matter what audio selection I have made on disc.
I have tried disabling digital output on the DVD player and have tried disabling coaxial input on the Rotel with no luck.
Front L&R channels play fine with CD Audio and movies on both coaxial digital and analog 6 channel so I know it is not my hookups.

Please help before I take this back to the dealer.

Thanks,

Normally I use ilink, but I also checked analog playback via my receiver's multichannel inputs, and Harvest and Pet Sounds work fine for me. I don't own the REM. Btw, you shouldn't be getting any *center* output from the Pet Sounds 5.1 DVD-A mix (e.g., PPCM 96/24 6ch, Groups 1 or 3)-- there's nothing mixed into the center channel on that one (though the channel is still 'active').

Not sure what's wrong with your setup, but I suspect some menu item isn't set right. FWIW, the pertinent settings in my Yamaha are

Audio Menu
Digital output : All
Analog Output: Multi-channel
PCM output: 96 kHz
SACD Direct: Off
HDMI Audio: Off

Speakers: all set to large

Tonight I tried again to make DVD-A work. Replicated your settings exactly (only difference was I had SACD Direct ON). Here is the sequence of events:

1. Popped in Beach Boys Pet Sounds - audio only from rears with audio indicating 24/96 6 channel.

2. Popped in Pat Metheny Imaginary Day - This DVD-A played perfectly with audio indicating 24/88.2 kHz 6 channel. Also played in stereo too.

3. Popped in Doobie Brothers Captain and Me. Interesting thing about this disc is that it is double sided with one side DVD-A surround and the other DVD-A stereo.
This disc played perfect on both sides and sounded great. All audio was indicating properly.

4. Popped in Beach Boys Pet Sounds again - This time the disc auto-played right to the 24/96 6 channel audio and I had sound in front channels! I switched songs and still had good sound.

5. Popped in Fleetwood Mac Rumours - DVD-A surround played center and rears only, no fronts. Stereo no sound at all.

6. Popped in Beach Boys Pet Sounds again - No sound from fronts once again. only sound from rears.

I have deduced that this problem has something to do wih the Dolby Pro Logic II DSP in this machine. Whenever I insert a disc where the Dolby Pro Logic II banner pops up in the menu, after that I have the problem of no sound from front channels. You cannot disable DPL II. Since the Pat Metheny and the Doobie Brothers discs had no menu audio they played fine. Neil Young's On The Beach and American Stars and Bars also playback fine in DVD-A stereo (no menu audio).
I cannot figure out the Beach Boys problem as that disc auto plays to 24/96 6 channel and did work fine on only two occasions.

I think maybe the Doobie Brothers disc played so well because there is only one audio otion on each side. The problem seems to occur for me on discs that have multiple groups of audio with PCM menu audio for the menus. That seems to be confusing the Yamaha.

Bottom line is I am in no mood to try and diagnose the problem. I have tried everything with both the player and processor settings. The unit is being returned.

Have you tried playing something *other than* the first track on the Beach Boys disc?
Because while fooling with the BB disc I noticed the Yamaha occasioanlly 'choked' on the first track -- playing the track with no audio output. If I skipped to track two, it plays, then if I go back to track one, that plays too.

I was also able to 'confuse' the player by doing lots of fast switching between groups , using the *player's* disc navigation menu. Sometimes after a lot of transistions it would simply lock up and refuse to switch any more. I had to 'unlock' the player power powering it down and up again. But I don't normally do such intensive switching., nor do I normally use the player's menus -- I navigate using the disc menus instead.

I also noticed during all that disc-navigation switching in one case that the player stopped showing the background graphic for the menu -- it showed black screen with just the word 'tracklist' .

Finally, are you sure your receiver is capable of handling 96 kHz input?

Sounds like your Yamaha is buggy too. Yes I have tried switching tracks on the BB disc and no luck. I have gotten the BB disc to play properly twice out of about 12 times and both times were right after the proper playing Pat Metheny disc (no menu audio for DPL II to grab and 24/88.2 kHz 6 channel).

My Rotel RSP976 has 6 channel discrete analog inputs and outputs that pass analog through unaltered to the amplifier. The Rotel DACS are 24/96 capable however the Rotel DACS shouldnot come into play using analog pass through. Multi-channel analog outputs work fine on DD5.1 and DTS movie soundtracks but I use coaxial digital for those anyway. I just checked to make sure the unit was passing analog through to all channels during the movies.

Others on this forum have had the same problem with the multi-channel analog outputs and DVD-A.
I just want a unit that works good and does what I need it to do with no hassle.
That is why the Yamaha is going away. I have a 7 day refund period and I do not want to risk keeping a bad player. For $700 I expect a good quality player that does what it advertises.

Others on this forum have had the same problem with the multi-channel analog outputs and DVD-A.
I just want a unit that works good and does what I need it to do with no hassle.
That is why the Yamaha is going away. I have a 7 day refund period and I do not want to risk keeping a bad player. For $700 I expect a good quality player that does what it advertises.

I am so, so, so glad I checked on forumns before buying this Yamaha as it is such a downer to get a new something, only to find it has problems and to waste time/money/gas/shipping costs to return it.

I got a Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi and I plugged it in to my RX-Z9 receiver via iLink (the only audio connection I am using on this unit) and wamo - it plays correctly any DVD-A, SACD, CD, DVD, etc. I put into it. On top of that, picture via the component output (it also has HDMI) looks wonderful. Since the DV-59AVi is being disconitnued due to the new DV-79AVi (suppose to be better everything and a lower U.S. list price of only $ 1000 US), the 59AVi can be picked up for easily under $ 700.00 (U.S. List was $ 1600 US)

I am so, so, so glad I checked on forumns before buying this Yamaha as it is such a downer to get a new something, only to find it has problems and to waste time/money/gas/shipping costs to return it.

I got a Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi and I plugged it in to my RX-Z9 receiver via iLink (the only audio connection I am using on this unit) and wamo - it plays correctly any DVD-A, SACD, CD, DVD, etc. I put into it. On top of that, picture via the component output (it also has HDMI) looks wonderful. Since the DV-59AVi is being disconitnued due to the new DV-79AVi (suppose to be better everything and a lower U.S. list price of only $ 1000 US), the 59AVi can be picked up for easily under $ 700.00 (U.S. List was $ 1600 US)
I can say the same thing about the S2500 as you just said about the 59AVi. I guess everyones setup is different. Some good experiences and some bad. I am happy with mine.

Sounds like your Yamaha is buggy too. Yes I have tried switching tracks on the BB disc and no luck. I have gotten the BB disc to play properly twice out of about 12 times and both times were right after the proper playing Pat Metheny disc (no menu audio for DPL II to grab and 24/88.2 kHz 6 channel).

Let me be clear -- in my normal use -- that is, just sticking the disc in, optionally picking the playback format from the disc menu (surround or stereo), and pressing play -- the S2500 hasn't failed me. It's only when I was zipping from group to group via the player's onscreen menu, to see if I could replicate your problem, that some glitches appeared...mainly, I suspect, because it's so slow at responding to button-commands.

So to be clear, I've *never* encountered the audio output problems you've had (rear only, etc). But then again, I normally output via the digital ilink.

Some DVD-A discs are authored strangely -- there doesnt' seem to be any strictly-enforced standard -- and I've never heard of a DVD-A player yet that *didn't* have a minor or major issue with one or more discs (including Pioneers). I suspect your Yamaha S2500 is simply defective, since mine seems to work.

Thanks Krabapple,
I would also like to clarify that I am experiencing my problems using the multi-channel analog outputs for DVD-A. I have not tested SACD through the analog multi out. At least two other avsforum members have identified problems using analog outs almost identical in description to my problems.

I have heard that this problem does not occur using the iLink firewire connection so if anyone has a processor or receiver that has iLink input the Yamaha DVD-S2500 may be the right choice for you. I do not have that option.

I can report on the positive aspects of this unit which are great DVD-Video playback, excellent PQ, and great PCM CD Audio through digital out.
Perhaps my unit is just defective as it is one of the first units out on the market (bought the dealer demo machine). The dealer was probably only using the iLink connector because I did listen to a DVD-A in the store on this unit and it sounded superb. So for iLink users I would recommend the Yamaha DVD-S2500 highly.

I repeat again, though, that all of my attempts to replicate your problems used the *multichannel analog output* (though digital output was used for comparison), and I had 1) no problem with the Neil Young disc and 2) intermittent problems with the Beach Boys disc, when I was quick-switching, and 3) the problems were not the ones you reported. I never lost fronts-speaker output only, for example. I only ever lost audio output once or twice (and in those cases I completely lost output, to all channels) when trying to play track #1, and this was remedied by skipping to track 2, then back.

As far as navigation i have no problems jumping back and forth on te s2500, but if
you are using the yamaha with dvd audio or sacd make your selection then u have to wait 3 sec if your start giving it commands before this time errors can occur, read the manual on navigation and notice the wording about for example click the disk foward breifly, or for two track do disk foward 2 times quickly then of course wait as this is my first dvd a and sacd this may be similiar or other machine such as 59avi pioneer i read on review where it called the command sluglish but no real detail. PS on dts dobly digital etc no problems they work quickly

Took the Yamaha back for full refund. Bought a Marantz DV7600 and put it through the paces on different formats.

DVD-Video: Incredible using interlaced component out to a DVDO. Both DD5.1 and DTS pass through as Bitstream to my Rotel processor.

DVD-Audio: All discs WORK! No problems at all using analog outputs. Sound quality is incredible. Played every disc several times just to make sure and nothing but pure musical enjoyment.

CD Audio: Very Nice both SPDIF out and analog out sound great. PCM has the option of Bitstream out through SPDIF.

JPEG Slide Shows: This is where the Marantz blows the Yamaha away. On the Yamaha I was getting fuzzy images with a blue screen background. On the Marantz the same images look crystal clear with awesome color rendition and fill the screen (horizontal shots). Vertical shots have black screen on the sides.

DVD-R Home made videos: No problems at all.

SACD: Untested still.

The new Yamaha firmware v. 58 will fix the DVD-Audio problem.

The new Yamaha firmware v. 58 will fix the DVD-Audio problem.

Do you have a link to the new firmware?

Yes, just where is this new firmware?
As it is not even available in the "dealers only" D/L area of Yamahas web site. And there is not even any info about such a thing there either.

I am currently testing this player for the benchmark and I've noticed some things. This player does not pass a below black pluge via HDMI. I also noticed that none of the picture adjustments work for the HDMI output (Y/C Delay, brightness, etc.). Am I the only one noticing this??

Hi,

No, you are not the only one, only TrueLife is available on HDMI, nothing else... :(

That's one of the reasons we are doing some hacking stuff to it to allow these to be available ;)
Note that the behavior on HDMI is quite different depending if you are using an RGB our YCrCb connection. (Unfortunatly it's not possible to chose this on the player, your display must have a way to force it).
Last, it looks like, as on many Philips/Yamaha players, the REC601 / 709 conversion is not done correctly... Changing it make it way better... ;)

--Patrice

I am currently testing this player for the benchmark and I've noticed some things. This player does not pass a below black pluge via HDMI. I also noticed that none of the picture adjustments work for the HDMI output (Y/C Delay, brightness, etc.). Am I the only one noticing this??

Kris,
During your test on it, will you be testing it any for compatibilities with DVD recordables?

Because even though Yamaha says it's compatible with them, this is one of the absolute worst players that I have ever had for playing back anything made on DVD recordable.

Kris,

I have the DVD-C950 changer with HDMI and it has the same problems.

Jay

Your local authorized service depot should have it. I got mine fixed by the dealer.

I do not have a link to this file. Mine is upgraded by the dealer.

Kris,
During your test on it, will you be testing it any for compatibilities with DVD recordables?

Because even though Yamaha says it's compatible with them, this is one of the absolute worst players that I have ever had for playing back anything made on DVD recordable.

I have no problem playing DVD+r on it and they look great. Much better than any of my other players.

I emailed Yamaha support about a supposed firmware update for the S2500 . Here's the reply I got

We do not have any firmware upgrades available for that unit. If you have any more questions please feel free to contact
us at our toll free Customer Support line. 1-800-292-2982 Hours: Monday Thru Friday 8 AM to 4 PM Pacific time.
Sincerely
Ken

I am currently testing this player for the benchmark and I've noticed some things. This player does not pass a below black pluge via HDMI. I also noticed that none of the picture adjustments work for the HDMI output (Y/C Delay, brightness, etc.). Am I the only one noticing this??


The adjustments available (and not available) through various outputs are noted in the user's manual. There's a whole set that don't apply to HDMI or component out.

Also, there was a lot of talk early in this thread about HDMI and below-black pluge re: this player (before it even came out). Check out the first two or three pages of posts (e.g. post #44)

Btw, to make other remotes 'see' the S2500, you may have to tell them it's a Phillips, not a Yamaha, DVD player. I had to do this in order to get a Pioneer AVR remote work with the S2500.

Btw, to make other remotes 'see' the S2500, you may have to tell them it's a Phillips, not a Yamaha, DVD player. I had to do this in order to get a Pioneer AVR remote work with the S2500.

My Harmony 880 recognized it as a Yamaha.

UK Model - with multiregion override
I've had a couple of days to play around with this new player, following the multi-region hack (same as that for the Philips 900SA:
Multiregion hack:
-Turn on the player without disc in it.
-Press Play button on the front panel.
-Press 1-5-9 on the remote.
-Display on the player will show "------------"
-Press 222 222 005 255 on the remote.
-Press Play on the remote.

To get firmware version:
-Open the disc tray
-Press Menu on remote.



bumping this -- two questions . My player is a US version of the S2500.

1) I did the 'firmware' check -- there's five or six lines of info displayed -- which of the lines is the firmware #?

2) Tried the hack -- the 'firmware' info did not change. However, I have no non-region 1 discs at hand yet to check if the hack worked. Also, when inputting the 222 222 005 255 string, the player display was 222 222 00A. I'm guessing it's because the display isn't long enough. Nothing obvious happens after pressing play, have to shut the player down then restart, to get it active again.


NB -- checked a region hack site (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?select=Yamaha+DVD+S2500)
and their instructions are slightly different --e.g., 274 instead of 159, all done on remote.

Remove any CD's or DVD's

Use the remote for the following steps:

1. Switch the player off and on again
2. press Play
3. enter 274 - you will now see "------------" on the display
4. enter 222222005255 - this does not fit on the display !!
5. press Play
6. Switch the player off and on again

It seems this is a Philps style hack

I have uploaded newfirmware to webfile.ru/702365

This is RAR archive with firmware and upgrage instruction inside. New firmware sorts out DVDA problem. Before upgrading check the version of your firmware so you probably don't need it.
File will be available till 27.12 10:44 CET

You uploaded it to where?

I'm guessing here:

http://webfile.ru/702365

But I don't read Russian.

And again, which line of the information list that's displayed when I do the firmware check, *is* the firmware? I'd like to at least know which firmware I have installed already.

The firmware version is the last number in the second row.

Anyone there who's doing the upgrade with this download...?

Wellllll, I dunno how much I'd trust something like a firmware file that's only posted on a Russian website. And that could also have the potential to really screw up your US version S2500, even if it is a real FW update. So I think I'd let someone else risk trying it before I would. Even when I used Babel Fish, it translated in to only this very little about it.

"information about the file: Name: Dvds2500 UPDATA.rar The category: Programs The size: 2524 kbyte is the numbers: 702365 it is placed: 20.12.2005 12:44 it is accessible to: 27.12.2005 12:44 To skachat'/Download".


But I decided to download it and then just try to translate whatever "readme" file is included with it. But that website must be on something as slow as a dial up, as the estimated D/L time for it, is like 58 minutes......
So maybe I'll know more about it in a hour or so... Because so far I'm 28% done with the D/L, and it shows almost still 40 minutes left to go.....:rolleyes:

I hear you on the Russian firmware update. I'm not exactly eager to beta test that one, though I did download it. But I did try the region hack (the first version, posted by Gary Nash), and I can now confirm that it worked.

What exactly is the problem the new firmware is supposed to fix, anyway?

Well finally got it D/L, but I'll certainly take a pass on trying it. I just don't really trust it.

Unzipped, there is 4 files inside.

(1) The xjunk.xxx which is 146,280,960 bytes in size, and dated Tuesday, July 22, 2003, 7:06:36 PM

(2) The 1junk.xxx file which is also 146,280,960 bytes, and also dated Tuesday, July 22, 2003, 7:06:36 PM


(3) The PRODINFO txt file, that is 101 bytes in size, and made on Tuesday, September 30, 2003, 1:07:02 PM. Not to mention that it really tells you nothing at all about a upgrading. Actually, how could any files from 2003, even relate to a S2500 in anyway at all? This is all it says.

"#BEGIN_PRODUCT_INFO
AW_CDVDP_Z5ds 9999 CWARE_V0_9999 AWARE_V0_9999 AWAREDVD.bin
#END_PRODUCT_INFO"



(4) The awaredvd.bin file, which is the actual bin file itself. And it's 2,602,368 bytes in size, an it's dated September 15, 2005, 11:18:00 AM


So the first two files are "XXX" files, And even they are not porn files as far as I can tell. I also could find any refences about how to open or view them.


And the 2nd file, the text file pretty much tells you nothing about what the 4th file is. Not even how to setup and run "awaredvd.bin" file, or even what it may be, how or what it maybe/will fix. And that's assuming that it really is legit, and just not some form of a unofficial FW hack.

I also downloaded the file and checked it...if you look to an original update from yamaha europe (f.e. DVD-S550) you also find these XXX files dated 2003 (the same size and date as in this 2500 upgrade file. So I think it is really no 'porn' content - maybe you know that the yammi is produced and mostly develloped by philips - I used a 963SA before and the firmware updates for this box has the same curious files in it.

Maybe Chuk_i_gek could bring more light into this if he would tell us where he got this file...

It's also typical that the yamaha hotline don't (want to) know of any updates - but the service has version 58.

Uups,

Sorry pals. Upgrade manual is on webfile.ru/704738
Its .pdf file 54k long, so I hope there will be now problem download it. You don't have to read Russian, just click download link in the centre of the screen.

Before downloading firmware itself, do the steps 13 and 14 of the manual and check your firmware. If you already have 58 version, you do not need an upgrade.
FYI, this is not Russian but general firmware upgrade so after final reset you'll have to do multiregion trick once again. For me its all worked pretty well.

Cheers

And of course, in order to upgrade, you'll have to have and Upgrade disc :) - Just burn the files from firmware archive on CD without any directories and you've got it!

very good...thank you

I will try today evening.

well...thank you again.

I can confirm that these files and update informations are o.k. and the update is working without problems. My DVD-S2500 is from germany, but as far as I know there is only one model worldwide (produced from Philips China)

If you are able to receive future updates it would be very nice if you let us know in this forum.