I recently purchased a Lumagen HDQ and loaded the latest software on to it.

It turns out the VGA input is far too green and has other issues as well, if you input a 720p signal.

I contacted Lumagen on Friday and they said they would get back to me. At close of business, after not hearing back from them, I called again and was told they had the same problem when they tried a RGB input. Because of this they informed me this would not be fixed until Monday (today).

If you are wondering why I don't go back to an older software verision, apparently Lumagen was trying that and did not find a working version either :confused:

Around 11:30am PST today, I received an email stating Lumagen (has) "been able to duplicate the green color with the VGA input and they would put in a request to look into this issue".

Huh? Thats the same information I had at close of the day on Friday. I immediately responded, asking what kind of timeline they were talking about as this seems to be a pretty serious issue for anyone using a VGA (RGBHV) input, but now as their business day closes again, they have not sent a response (though I see their techs posting on avs less than an hour ago).

Sooooo......

Can anyone tell me

1) is this VGA issue occuring through the other Lumagen product line with the recent software?

2) Is anyone running a software version of the HDQ that DOES NOT have this issue?

Before anyone asks, this is what it looks like:

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/6088/dsc00233in0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

There is an auto input calibration feature you can use for RGBcvS input. It might work for the RGBHV one but I am not sure. If you have a white window test pattern like those on DVE or other test discs then put up the 100ire window pattern and press

MENU 0 9 6 6 then OK.

If it works you should have the green cast removed.

Gordon

not too many people use the HDQ with an RGBHV input, AFAIK.

what is your video source?

not too many people use the HDQ with an RGBHV input, AFAIK.

what is your video source?

An NEC ISS6020 Switch

The auto calibration feature can be used with a RGBHV (VGA) input or a YPbPr (Component) input. Just make sure that the input type on the Lumagen is set correctly to match the input signal.

The simplest way for most people to calibrate the input is to connect a component cable from a DVD player. Display a 100 IRE window pattern from a test DVD. Set the Lumagen input type for component. Calibrate the input by pressing "Menu 0926 Ok". Wait a minute untill the automatic calibration is finished. Then connect the VGA signal and set the Lumagen input to "RGBHV".

Best regards,
Randy Freeman

Any chance to have that feature on the Radiance?

Lenny

My understanding is that the calibration for RGB and YPrPb were stored seperately in the device. So you could calibrate for YPrPb and still have incorrect RGB and vice versa.

The simplest way for most people.....

Is for the people at Lumagen to fix the bug.

For literally the oldest interface of HDTV material to have a bug of this nature in a line that is supposedly known as one of the few as having correct color is just mind numbing.

When one buys a unit for 1 purpose - 1 input - 1 RGBHV in to 1080P HDMI out, the unit is advertised as doing that with no problem and it cannot do that one simple thing correctly....combined with your lack of follow up, its not the least bit reassuring.

BeachComber,

seems like you are about the only person who uses the Lumagens this way.

Frankly I do not know why one would need to go RGBHV into the Lumagen in the analog domain at all and why one would use of all resolutions 720p. This is probably the reason why this fault has not been reported before and slipped by for several years - nobody did it.

I also have to laugh when you say you expect Lumagen to fix this problem within a few working days. Did you ever follow the forums with regard to bugs and the time it takes to fix them with other manufacturers and products even when it affects just about every owner of a certain product ?

So I suggest to either try the autocalibration feature which is neat by the way or just let the people at Lumagen give you a timeline as to when and if you can expect this to work with default settings.

Oliver

BeachComber,

seems like you are about the only person who uses the Lumagens this way.

Frankly I do not know why one would need to go RGBHV into the Lumagen in the analog domain at all and why one would use of all resolutions 720p. This is probably the reason why this fault has not been reported before and slipped by for several years - nobody did it.



Perhaps being in Germany you are unaware that the #1 Network in the USA broadcasts at 720p. All the major sports networks also broadcast in 720p. BEV, the #1 DBS Company in Canada broadcast in ALL THEIR HD IN 720p.

720p or 1080 does not matter - same results. I only posted the 720p to show the stripes on the pictures which 1080 does not produce.

So if you believe that no one has used this unit for 720p and 1080 ever with basic VGA and that's why it wasn't reported, then perhaps you are right. On the other hand, that means literally no units have probably ever been sold, which I tend to doubt.



I also have to laugh when you say you expect Lumagen to fix this problem within a few working days. Did you ever follow the forums with regard to bugs and the time it takes to fix them with other manufacturers and products even when it affects just about every owner of a certain product ?



I have to laugh when I read your response and suggest you re-read what I posted.

1) They promised a return phone call on Friday as I had informed them I had an ISF Scheduled for the following Thursday and had purchased this unit because the ISF Tech recommended it, thus they knew my timeline and schedule. The return phone call never came. I finally had to call them back. On that call they said they could reproduce the problem there and it would be dealt would "unfortunately have to wait to be dealt with on Monday". their timeline, not mine, nor did I ask for one at that time.

2) Monday came and the response from Randy Freeman was "I've been able to duplicate the green color with a VGA input. I put in a request to look into the issue". That is the entire contents of the email and unfortunately, there is nothing different than what he told me on Friday when he stated it would be dealt with on Monday.

So I replied to his email with "what type of time frame are we speaking of?" (that is the entire response) to which I have still never received a response until just now as I am typing this response. They claim they tried to call and got no answer. Interesting as my Caller ID shows all types of phone calls on Monday and not one from them. Perhaps the dog ate the homework?


So I suggest to either try the autocalibration feature which is neat by the way..... or just let the people at Lumagen give you a timeline as to when and if you can expect this to work with default settings.


As you can read above, there is a question as to if the autocalibration will even work.

Furthermore you need a white screen of with IRE 100 on it to make that work, something that I do not have that I can feed the unit in that configuration. Furthermore, does the autocalibration get rid of the stripes?


or just let the people at Lumagen give you a timeline as to when and if you can expect this to work with default settings.


That would be nice, but as stated, there was no response to that request.

If it just needs to be calibrated, it is not a bug at all.

If it just needs to be calibrated, it is not a bug at all.

So, let me understand this.

I can run the switch to any RGB set or through a transcoder to YPbPr through any of 3 different models and no issues whatsoever....but plug it into the HDQ and everything goes green and stripes appear....and all it needs is calibration?

And for 5 days Lumagen has said they were able to reproduce the problem in Beaverton - so their techs did not know that all it needed was calibration?

How highly does that speak of their techs in Beaverton?

I said _if_

So if you believe that no one has used this unit for 720p and 1080 ever with basic VGA and that's why it wasn't reported, then perhaps you are right. On the other hand, that means literally no units have probably ever been sold, which I tend to doubt. .


If this is coming from TV I would suspect that most people do not get their signal via VGA but via component or DVI. I do not know of even ONE settop box where you HAVE to use VGA and where there is neither component nor DVI available, do you have one ?


I have to laugh when I read your response and suggest you re-read what I posted.

I did read it, and saw the timelines and descriptions of what happened. So what if they could not fix the problem right away. I say that IMO your expectations are unreasonable.
You asked for a timeline and now you got to wait for an answer, I agree you should have gotten it earlier as the ISF appointment is today.


They promised a return phone call on Friday as I had informed them I had an ISF Scheduled for the following Thursday and had purchased this unit because the ISF Tech recommended it.
Well you never mentioned it in your original post and I have one suggestion: Cancel the appointment, after all the ISF tech recommended the Lumagen - if it does not work for the job it is supposed to do he cannot calibrate. But he also might have a Laptop that can generate a 100IR window when connected to your switcher (BTW: You are probably typing your posts on one, hint hint ;)) and be fine with it, you should ask him.


Furthermore, does the autocalibration get rid of the stripes?

How would I know there are stripes in the picture that are not supposed to be there ? As with the 1080i input and the ISF calibration you did not tell us about that before I posted.
If you only want to complain then fine if you don't why not tell us about these things from the start ?

Now I am done with the argueing and suggest something constructive:

Why not connect your PC and see what the auto calibration can do ? Get a test pattern suite from Nokia called ntest (it is for free) and open up the full white pattern and try it. It is also easy to set most PCs to 720p or something close to that if needed.
And why do you have to connect that switcher ? Can't you sell it and just go directly into the Lumagen with component or DVI ? If you have too many sources you could even get an additional switcher for them and sell the NEC switcher - you will get more for it than what you have to pay on an Extron that switches component.

Oliver

"Now I am done with the argueing and suggest something constructive:"
I understand what Oliver is getting at. BeachComber - please read the posts with a receptive mindset, and not as an invitation to express more frustration. As a member and obsessive reader for many years I can assure you Oliver and prior posters here have provided constructive and helpful advice, and logical, necessary, step by step procedures. Even if it doesn't seem so to you, your situation is fairly unusual. These people and Lumagen are attempting to help.

It is impossible for any company to have such sophisticated software and hardware that will work 100% of the time with any possible setup. Lumagen is just about the best company in this field for customer service and taking its product responsibilities seriously and personally.

Any fix - assuming that there is something awry with the HDQ - may take some time on Lumagen's part and some patience on your part. This stuff is not simple and easily correctable with a 30-minute or maybe even a 30-hour session. Especially at this point in a product's life cycle - the commonly known and readily fixable bugs have been resolved. At this point the problems are pretty esoteric thus potentially tough to solve.

"How highly does that speak of their techs in Beaverton?"
Everyone on this Forum who has had any contact with Lumagen will confirm the superiority of the company's techs, overall service, customer concern, and owner responsibility. It doesn't get much better, especially for a small specialty company.

You have received some helpful, productive responses and suggestions. The best thing you can do is work through the calibration, go through your system again from the start, and have some patience. Good luck.

For the record, I want to assure everyone that we did try to call this customer a number of times. There was no answer and no way to leave a message.

We issued a RMA# for the return of this HDQ. We will test this unit and make sure that this customer has a HDQ with a good VGA input. We stand behind our products and we are sorry for any inconvenience.

Best regards,
Randy Freeman

How would I know there are stripes in the picture that are not supposed to be there ?



As I stated, above the picture was too green as well as "other problems"


....if you don't why not tell us about these things from the start ?


If you re-read my original post, I asked about anyone else having a bug with the HDQ and if this problem existed on any other models.

To this date, no one has answered that question.

Instead, others, such as yourself have told me to run this, connect to this, told me to totally revamp my entire setup or sell my switcher and all the associated minutiae instead of answering the original question.

It seems you are the one who wants to argue.

But he also might have a Laptop that can generate a 100IR window when connected to your switcher (BTW: You are probably typing your posts on one, hint hint ;)) and be fine with it, you should ask him.

Why not connect your PC and see what the auto calibration can do ? Get a test pattern suite from Nokia called ntest (it is for free) and open up the full white pattern and try it. It is also easy to set most PCs to 720p or something close to that if needed.



Again, I refer you to Gordon's post #8 above.



And why do you have to connect that switcher ? Can't you sell it and just go directly into the Lumagen with component or DVI ? If you have too many sources you could even get an additional switcher for them and sell the NEC switcher - you will get more for it than what you have to pay on an Extron that switches component.


So to get a working Lumagen, I should 1) Sell my 2 switchers which are set up to work on 18 inputs 2) Sell my customized input cards for the switcher 3) Buy another 2 switchers 4) Buy all new cabling and the like and 5) Cut my bandwidth significantly going from RGBHV to YPbPr just to get a working Lumagen?

I don't think so.

For the record, I want to assure everyone that we did try to call this customer a number of times. There was no answer and no way to leave a message.

We issued a RMA# for the return of this HDQ. We will test this unit and make sure that this customer has a HDQ with a good VGA input. We stand behind our products and we are sorry for any inconvenience.

Best regards,
Randy Freeman

Yes there is a RMA now.

And no there was no record of any phone call on Caller ID nor was there any voicemail, while there are plenty of other voicemails and Caller IDs in the same time frame.

"Now I am done with the argueing and suggest something constructive:"
I understand what Oliver is getting at. BeachComber - please read the posts with a receptive mindset, and not as an invitation to express more frustration. As a member and obsessive reader for many years I can assure you Oliver and prior posters here have provided constructive and helpful advice, and logical, necessary, step by step procedures. Even if it doesn't seem so to you, your situation is fairly unusual. These people and Lumagen are attempting to help.

It is impossible for any company to have such sophisticated software and hardware that will work 100% of the time with any possible setup. Lumagen is just about the best company in this field for customer service and taking its product responsibilities seriously and personally.

Any fix - assuming that there is something awry with the HDQ - may take some time on Lumagen's part and some patience on your part. This stuff is not simple and easily correctable with a 30-minute or maybe even a 30-hour session. Especially at this point in a product's life cycle - the commonly known and readily fixable bugs have been resolved. At this point the problems are pretty esoteric thus potentially tough to solve.

"How highly does that speak of their techs in Beaverton?"
Everyone on this Forum who has had any contact with Lumagen will confirm the superiority of the company's techs, overall service, customer concern, and owner responsibility. It doesn't get much better, especially for a small specialty company.

You have received some helpful, productive responses and suggestions. The best thing you can do is work through the calibration, go through your system again from the start, and have some patience. Good luck.

See his last post. He does not want to do anything about this, not even the auto calibration. As far as he is concerned if it does not work out of the box the way he wants it it is broken.

As he also ups the ante with every post with more and more information (18 input sources ? Oh well I should have known that of course) in order to justify himself not doing anything. He might need help but not mine and fortunately I do not HAVE to deal with him :)

Not to prolong the pain of this thread, Oliver, but I agree with you directly above. There are situations when some individuals just cannot hear the help. It gets drowned out by the inability to find the >>Rant OFF<< button. :)

At this point it's time to select input 0 on my HDQ, press "Play" on the 3910 and chill.
After that I can start studying the manual for my new Radiance ...
:D

See his last post. He does not want to do anything about this, not even the auto calibration. As far as he is concerned if it does not work out of the box the way he wants it it is broken.

As he also ups the ante with every post with more and more information (18 input sources ? Oh well I should have known that of course) in order to justify himself not doing anything. He might need help but not mine and fortunately I do not HAVE to deal with him :)

What a joke. There you go assuming facts not in evidence again.

You might want to re-read Gordon's Post #8 - you seem to ignore that.

Your "constructive criticism" consisted of

1) Never answering the question in post #1 or #2

2) Questioning why anyone would use 720p, despite ABC, FOX and ESPN all broadcsting in 720p

3) Stating to dump my entire switching system and all associated modules and cable.

I should have not have to detail every piece of cabling or source input, especially when Lumagen techs get the same results I get 3,000 miles away with different switchers, resolution and the like.

Might I suggest that in the future for posters that ask for your opinion of their systems, you can give your mighty dribble. For those who do not want your opinion of their system, but have specific questions about VERIFIED BUGS in a piece of equipment and lack of follow through by a Company, limit your responses to the original question. That way you don't waste your time as you have mine.

And for the record, I doubt that Lumagen would have responded without this being on AVS, which forced them to respond, despite what they originally claimed.

That most likely is the best outcome of this thread.

Not to prolong the pain of this thread, Oliver, but I agree with you directly above. There are situations when some individuals just cannot hear the help. It gets drowned out by the inability to find the >>Rant OFF<< button. :)

At this point it's time to select input 0 on my HDQ, press "Play" on the 3910 and chill.
After that I can start studying the manual for my new Radiance ...
:D

Again, there you go assuming.

Read above. It applies to you as well.

And for the record, I doubt that Lumagen would have responded without this being on AVS, which forced them to respond, despite what they originally claimed.

This has to be close, if not, the largest amount of BS that anyone has posted on this forum. Lumagen's customer service is extraordinarily good. I currently have the Radiance which is my 3rd Lumagen VP. They have taken care of any problem I have had imediately and well. Your comments suggest that you are one of those customers that companies wish they didn't have.

I have to jump in here too and say that IMO, Lumagen's customer service is without a doubt the best in the industry.

I have called them on many instances to ask very specific questions about my HDQ and there was ALWAYS someone there to take my call and answer my technical questions. There was none of the press 1 for this 2 for that and then get someones voice mail to hell that is all too common with companies these days.

I agree, they have the best customer service I have ever dealt with. Can they always solve a problem within a short period of time, sometimes they can and sometimes they cant but they will be up front with you about it.

Pretty much all other video processor manufacturers wouldn't fix a bug like this for weeks or months, if at all.

Count your blessings. Another vote for Lumagen.

Nick

Here, Here, Lumagen gets my vote as well for having the best customer service. They stand by their products. My HDQ keeps getting better and better with the evolving and constantly improving firmware.

There is an auto input calibration feature you can use for RGBcvS input. It might work for the RGBHV one but I am not sure. If you have a white window test pattern like those on DVE or other test discs then put up the 100ire window pattern and press

MENU 0 9 6 6 then OK.

If it works you should have the green cast removed.

Gordon

he auto calibration feature can be used with a RGBHV (VGA) input or a YPbPr (Component) input. Just make sure that the input type on the Lumagen is set correctly to match the input signal.

The simplest way for most people to calibrate the input is to connect a component cable from a DVD player. Display a 100 IRE window pattern from a test DVD. Set the Lumagen input type for component. Calibrate the input by pressing "Menu 0926 Ok". Wait a minute untill the automatic calibration is finished. Then connect the VGA signal and set the Lumagen input to "RGBHV".

Best regards,
Randy Freeman

Which one is it? 0966 or 0926? And will this work for any input?like DVI?

Athanasios

it is only for the HD analogue component inputs on Vision HDP, DVI, HDP Pro and HDQ.

MENU 0966 affects solely the input you are on
MENU 0926 when applied while on INPUT3 on HDP, HDP PRO and DVI will do IN4 at same time (so if you have a weirdo source you can have independant calibrations for each input)

Your comments suggest that you are one of those customers that companies wish they didn't have.

He is also the first member on AVS that made my ignore list so I would understand that sentiment :)

OK. I need to pop in and post my humble opinion that Lumagen has excellent world-class customer support. They were able to spend time with me prior to my purchase. They have answered several critical questions in a very timely manner.

My Radiance required a repair and they handled it quickly and professionally.

They have returned my calls and email also.

My Dearest Beachcomber, maybe if you hadn't been so pompous and actually persevered with asking your questions about the Vantage-HD (repeated attempts to contact us - my ar$e!! IMO) then you wouldn't have this problem!!

Any of our US based distributors and dealers could have helped you - maybe you could try harder next time, I mean we only list them all on the website for Bob's sake.

You also hold the record as the first to go on my ignore list! Jeez I think I got off lightly - to think I could have had to support you!!! :D


Look me up - sometime, maybe, never.

Zax :D