All,

I thought it would be appropriate for me to report my experience so far with HDXplorer (now KD-PC2) from KeyDigital, which brings 4 HMDI (HDCP) compliant input to pre-HDCP-era Pioneer Plasmas.

After reading reviews in this forum, I decided to go ahead and order the card.

I was fortunate enough to locate a KD authorized resseller who was willing to ship to Europe, where I live, and honor the price of other resellers. A few days later, I get my card. I install the card and everything looks great in YUV (like it does with the built-in card of my 50MXE1, perhaps with a slight pinkish cast on the image).

My primary material source is a DVIX Tvico M5000U, which aside from being a really cool media center capable of outputing YUV, DVI, Composite and S-Video in 1080i, 720p and other SD resolutions (over the appropriate cables, of course) is also the ultimate Divx playing machine; and more importantly the repository of all of our HDV home movies (filmed with a Sony HC3 in 1080i/50) : :) . Anyway, I was preparing to beef up my entire installation with a HD-DVD/Blueray player and transitioning my plasma to HDMI was the first step.

Things got a little more complicated when I wanted to plug-in a composite signal or a VGA signal :confused: :

- Composite input did not work... Whether it would be NTSC or PAL.
- VGA/RGB or VGA/YUV input did not work in the card, regardless of resolution

So I sent an email to KD's tech support, and learned that YUV over VGA is not supported and that I may need to solder a resistor ( :eek: ) accross two terminals to overcome some of the early units bugs. Sure enough I stayed away from that - I fried enough stuff and knew better than touching a 700 Euros piece of kit). I tried again in proper VGA (e.g. VGA with RGB) - no go. :mad:

I was also invited to flash the card to upgrade its old firmware (1.22a to the latest available, 2.07B). To do that, I am told that I wil need a computer with a built-in Parrallel port... Of course, my shuttle PC does not have such a port (let's face it; they are getting harder and harder to find). Still, full of good will and thinking that a firmware upgrade could solve my problems I attempt this operation. The shuttle PC has a COM/LPT port rolled up into one, which is not adequate for the (very) obscure flash program provided by KD. So, I bought a PCI to LPT port card, along with a longer Parrallel cable (try figuring out which one is easier to move: the Plasma or the PC with all its cable)....

Still no go.

I had to bring myself to ship the card back, and requested an RMA. I send the card back (on my dime, 57 Euros), it was flashed and I am kindly asked to provide my credit card number so they can charge me for return shipping....:( When I voiced that I was not told about this return shipping fee, I was nearly threatened to be assessed :eek: - in addition to return shipping - a $75 fee because the card was not found defective...:mad:

Politely put, I remain unimpressed with KD's service... :(

So now, my card is sitting at KD and I am refusing to pay the return shipping. :mad:

Honestly, I can understand that the return shipping for international repairs is with the original owner of the card (it is a bit unfair, but so are many other things in life...); but I can not understand the poor attitude and the thug-like threats, especially when I brought up the fact that nowere on the RMA forms I filled it says that international repairs should pay for their own return shipping.

So, opinions welcome... Am I making a big fuss over nothing? Did I choose the wrong vendor?

:(

Well, join the club of dissapointed Key Digital customers.... :mad:

I'm in Europe as well and I bought the I-sync Pro but had some problems with it too. So I contacted their support and got into a friendly mail correspondance for about 3 email untill it was revealed that I was an International customer. After that all correspondance stopped suddently and my mails would get rejected in the recieving end. One doesn't have to be a genious to figure that one out :confused:

I never returned the product because I knew it would cost me 1/7 the price I paid for the product so instead I have a VP limited to 40 procent of the use I intended for it.

I can only say that International customers should stay the h... away from Key Digital, I can't say for U.S. customers but I would still avoid a company with this kind of customer service.......just my 10-cents.

Ah well I wish I knew that before buying....

But Cinemateq being for sale, that does not leave a whole lot of European companies to buy from, unfortunately. Thanks for your input, and sorry about your failed component. What was wrong with it anyway?

nstelmach,

I really do feel bad about your situation, and would like to work with you to get the problem resolved since you stated your barriers to returning it. Or we can arrange something on the return I'm sure. Did you post all of the symptoms here that I can run through with the KD engineers? I dont have a way to test for European/PAL type video but sure can help to get a dialogue between you and the KD staff.

DigitalConnection is where I bought the card from... They were very nice and friendly to work with...

I wish KD would get a clue and be at least half as good.

nstelmach,

I really do feel bad about your situation, and would like to work with you to get the problem resolved since you stated your barriers to returning it. Or we can arrange something on the return I'm sure. Did you post all of the symptoms here that I can run through with the KD engineers? I dont have a way to test for European/PAL type video but sure can help to get a dialogue between you and the KD staff.

Is there any info whether Key Digital is going to be coming out with another card for the Pioneer 507cmx since the KD-2 has been discontinued?

The KD-PC2 has not been discontinued... The HD Xplorer was renamed KD-PC2.

You just do not want to buy it ;-).

The KD-PC2 has not been discontinued... The HD Xplorer was renamed KD-PC2.

You just do not want to buy it ;-).


Check out the thread in the Pioneer 507cmx thread in the plasma forum. Two sources say it has, one from KD and one from Pioneer. Other than the ****** customer service, why shouldn't I buy it?

DigitalConnection is where I bought the card from... They were very nice and friendly to work with...

I wish KD would get a clue and be at least half as good.

smovan,

If you purchased the card from us, then please PM me with the info. We can help with the shipment back. I'm not familiar with any problems other European users have encuntered at this point so lets hope the problem was corrected indeed.