LG BH200: Is anyone still experiencing VIDEO dropouts with March firmware?

I was wondering if anyone has had the issue of video dropouts since installing the March firmware. I have had this issue on several occasions, primarily with HD DVDs. I tried turning off the 1080p Film Mode option and while it seems the issue has improved somewhat, it has not been eliminated. I'm not sure how frequently the dropouts occurred before the March firmware came out, as I installed it right out of the box. Is anyone else still having this issue and if so, is it happening with HD DVD, BD, DVD, or all three?

Thanks.

I don't think it's a hardware problem because it only seems to happen with certain discs. I have watched Saw II & IV, Hostel I & II, and Day of the Dead on Blu-ray all the way through without issue (though I did see one dropout during a featurette on Hostel II).

The first video dropout I noticed during a movie was on the German HD DVD of Saw. It happened twice - once near the beginning and once near the end. I watched the HD DVD versions of The Frighteners, Scary Movie 4, and Saw III (Dutch Filmworks import) without any dropouts. I noticed a dropout near the beginning of Wolf Creek (Weinstein) - this is the disc that seems to give me the most trouble. Yesterday, I turned off the 1080p Film Mode option and rewatched Saw without any video dropouts. They are still present on Wolf Creek however. I watched about 20-30 minutes of Shaun of the Dead and Land of the Dead and so far no dropouts.

I think this should be able to be corrected with a firmware update, and my hope is that putting it out there will help get the ball rolling. Note that I have not experienced any audio dropouts with the BH200. I am running audio via optical cable into a Sony receiver, HDMI into the TV with the TV volume turned down all the way.

I had several video dropouts with my Toshiba XA2 as well, but it wasn't until I upgraded to Firmware 2.7 (which enabled 1080p/24) that this started to happen. After I began to notice dropouts, I set the player to 1080p/24 (even though my display is not 120hz) and that seemed to solve the problem. So this further leads me to believe it is a firmware issue and not hardware.

On a side note, turning off 1080p Film Mode also seemed to fix another minor issue. After a disc would load up, I noticed several instances where the video on studio logos would start about a second after the audio. Also, some issues I was having with Weinstein HD DVD menus (Feast and Wolf Creek) have disappeared after switching off this feature.

stpat,

Is Planet Earth the only disc you're having trouble with?

I haven't downloaded the 702 driver either (I have 701). I wonder if that might be the problem. Could some of you who are not experiencing video dropouts kindly confirm which driver you are running? Also, how do you upgrade the driver...just hook the player to the internet?

Thanks.

P.S.: I just tried to play Seed of Chucky HD DVD...video dropout less than 2 minutes into the movie.

I'm thinking about updating the driver when I get home, and then maybe re-flashing (as I believe others have done). I tend to think that if a re-flash was necessary, then some of the other problems with this player would have re-surfaced, such as audio dropouts and the DVD green line issue.

Which format? I'm seeing the problem mainly with HD DVD so far. I haven't watched a standard DVD all the way through yet, so I'm not sure if it's an issue with DVD as well.

When I got home I updated the driver to 0702. Then I popped in Wolf Creek... video dropout in 3 minutes. So I re-installed the March firmware. Popped in Wolf Creek again...dropout in 2 minutes. I am beginning to get pissed.

I really don't want to have to exchange this player (I ordered it on line), especially since there is a chance that a replacement player will have the same issue. I hope this problem can be corrected with a new firmware update. I am finding these dropouts increasingly annoying!

Audio over toslink. I haven't tried turning up the audio on the TV yet to see if the audio drops out over HDMI. I'll have to check that out.

How's your new player working so far?

OK, I now have reason to believe that the cause of the dropouts is the HDMI connection. (I believe this is what has been referred to as a handshake issue.) I was playing with the BH200 settings before and all of a sudden my TV screen went blank, causing me to nearly have a heart attack because I thought my player was bricked. I flipped the HDMI cable around and the picture came back, but I still had intermittent dropouts. This is without a disc in the player. I've also noticed that every time I switch inputs to the BH200 on my TV (Sony 52XBR2), a box appears on the screen that says something like "unsupported audio signal, check input device". I had gotten the same message quite a few times when my Toshiba XA2 was hooked up. I also tried to switch out the HDMI cable with the one from my cable box, but I still lost picture. My feeling is that the problem is with the HDMI jack on the BH200, and the dropouts that some of us have been experiencing are not related to disc compatibility. If I had any patience left right now I'd hook up the component cables and see if there are still dropouts. Question is, if it is an problem with HDMI, can it be fixed with new firmware?

Well the first thing I did was hook the player up to another input on the TV with an RCA cable to see if I got the "Home" menu screen. That worked, so then I just reversed the HDMI connection (stuck the TV side of the cable into the player and vice versa). Picture came back, but then dropped out again when the cable wiggled. A couple of times the picture would stay blank for a while, and other times there would be brief dropouts very similar to those which occurred while watching a movie...only there was no disc in the player during this process.

My wife was watching a DVD on the BH200 yesterday and she told me that she noticed a video/audio dropout. In her case the audio was over HDMI into the TV (the receiver was off), so it definitely seems to me like an HDMI-related issue. I'm also still getting that message on the TV screen that says "unsupported audio signal - check output device" every time I turn the player on.