Sticky: Zenith DVB318 FAQs - Page 12

only problem with the no double box or double box option is they dont ask you. so if you dont know they will double box for a fee it does not help you. wish I knew this before I ordered mine. I would have paid for it.

I wonder how many units shipped and not double boxed are ones that are DOA ?

Anybody order one from Savinglots.com or Dynadirect.com?

Hey all,

Quick update on my quest to get back my 318 and a revelation previously unknown about my tv.

First off, Gochnauers has not emailed me back with a price (dont know how it works, but the site said to email for price) I sent him an email at 8:45 this morning Easterntime, stating my interest in the unit and asking if it had the old firmware. I'm so lost and confused, I'm not used to dealing with these "mail order" types of online shopping. I'm thinking of going with dynadirect, anybody agree? its still less than MSRP, and they have a better return policy I guess. I'll wait till morning and see if anybody replies stating otherwise.

I'm still assuming that the firmware implemented models are not yet available correct???? Its getting dangerously close, and i'm scrambling to get my much desired unit.

I just now remembered that on the back of the 318, labeled under the component connections it states 480,720 and 1080. I dont think they would go thru all the trouble of advertising 1080 upconversion on the back, if it was only gonna work with a handful of dvds. But thats just my opinion.

Now the new "revelation" about my tv is actually something that i completely forgot. I'm sure some people have similar types of projection tv's that did the same thing (I think Sony is/was a major advertiser of such a feature) but my 55 inch sharpvision can upconvert a 480i signal to 1080i (or 480p). So I guess in theory it does what the zenith dvd player does as well? Which one was/will be doing the upconversion when playing a dvd (tv or dvd player) I have no way of figuring this out. I dont want to have it done twice and lose picture quality over it. but i guess theres nothing i can do. Is there really a need for me to be getting my much desired zenith unit back? if my tv supposedly does upconversion already? The picture did look better, but was it the zenith, or did my tv have a hand in this as well? does the tv's upscaling feature get disable when fed an already 1080 signal?

Eitherway, I'm still interested the most in knowing if the shipment of disabled upconversion thru component units are out yet? Any ideas when? I take it that nobody has gotten one yet. Any theories on how its gonna come about? perhaps a unit drought (out of stock everywhere) then availability late next month or something?

I just got an email from gochnauers over the weekend that mine will be shipped today, so they must have gotten the new shipment in late last week. They told me they are still the old firmware so I will report back as soon as I get it to verify. As for your TV upconverting, if it isn't DCDi processor then I would let the 318 do the upconversion. There may be a way to bypass or disable your tv's internal processor. I have read that double processing of the signal will probably result in a degradation of picture quality.

Jeff

I ordered mine from Dynadirect last tue and it is " On FedEx vehicle for delivery" as we speak so I will let you guys know when I get home from work all the particulars.

For Gochnauers you email them with shipping address/etc info, then you can fax or email your c/c# ( I used fax, a bit more secure..). I haven't heard anything but my email went down this morning so... Hopefully mine is on it's way.

yeah, they got back to me the same day with the price including shipping, which was competitive with other retailers (ie amazon...)

Ordered mine from Dynadirect they did have them in stock last Thursday. Called them up to verify firmware. However, no one could guarantee old firmware. Cancelled order. Them ordered from Gochnauers. They emailed and stated in stock soon with old firmware shipped for $ 160.00 by Friday. Well I hope I did not wait to long. I emailed back today and got this response (Next batch within 48 hours hopefully). I'am starting to worry. My old dvd player phillips dvdr985 that won't play it just gives me (dv failed) and will not do anything. Need to call phillips but I'am not hopefull with that units problems..

I just ordered from Amazon with 2-day shipping. Scheduled delivery is for this thursday. 2day shipping was for 15bucks I'll let everyone know if it has the old or new firmware. If it has the new one I hope they come out with a hack to enable 1080i on component.

Hey all,

I know this thread was not meant for a "i ordered from blah blah blah", but I guess we're all in a wait and see approach since we're pretty close to the new firmwared units. We need to be on the lookout for "new" units, so that they dont take us by surprise (those of us who need the component upconversion from the unit).

Just to update everyone about my situation (if you care at all...lol) I ordered from Gochnauers(their price couldnt be beat and i finally got the courage to trust them based on our forum members experience with the site) and I got this email:

"Your order has been received and is being processed now. We will e-mail
you tracking numbers
as soon as new units arrive soon and ship. Thanks for your valued business."

When I inquired first about availability they told me they would get some within 5 days with the old firmware. So, I'm hoping everything goes thru as planned.

I read about somebody getting an order thru from amazon a couple of posts back, strange because they told me they were not getting anymore from their supplier and thats why i couldnt get a replacement. I hope the people that are getting their units from amazon the best. Please check your units thoroughly to verify that it is not a defective one (just to be on the safe side, as it unfortunately happened to be the case with mine.) The tracking number for the zenith that i returned to them does not appear in the ups database anymore(guess they received it) I'm just waiting for an email from them saying that they credited back the amount to my credit card. Does anybody know any additional details about amazon's return protocol?.

P.S. Just to add to this thread, I noticed that when this unit was in my house, the dolby digital sound was much better than my trusty akai progressive scan (that little dude is a workhorse and made region free to boot). Unfortunately that Akai has the chroma bug and also displays just a little hint of pixelation (enough to be seen on a projection tv i guess). they were both at 96khz (or something like that) as opposed to 40 something (I apologize for my not knowing exact numbers on that) Any reasoning behind this, or was I just hearing things because of the excitement?

You are not the first to report improved sound from the DVB-318. Many (though far from all) DVB-318 owners have reported the same. No one has come up with a plausible explanation yet though.

yes, its pretty obvious that the audio part of this unit is very nice. I wonder how good SACD/DVD-A would have been ?

Wishful thinking is the explanation. Unless you are using the analog RCAs or something..... Most people use the digital outputs.

Well got home from work and there it was sitting in my garage it wasn't double boxed like I'd hope but the box was in good shape, no foot prints or crushed corners. I think Fedex does a much better handling job than UPS.
Anyway I opened it up and it wasn't the march 2004 manufacture date I expected it was Dec 2003 date and yes component upconvert works great so far.Tried a couple of disks "Kill Bill 2" and "The Fifth Element" and the look awsome on my pioneer 610HD RPTV.
Haven't tried DVI yet on my Pany 50PHD6UY and don't expect much.I will try it Tomorrow.
I'll tell you what though from what I've seen so far I'm seriously thinking about ordering another one. For the price these can't be beat.
All we need now is some good coder out there that can mess with the firmware so it updates the DVI and leaves the Component alone.

Probably. I admit I remain skeptical about any real differences (I certainly never heard any with my DVB-318). But there are an awful lot of people reporting that they did: even using the digital outputs. I try to keep an open mind, but short of evidence that Zenith is manipulating the digital stream somehow*, I remain skeptical.

*For instance, there are a couple of locations in the DD data format that could be manipulated to affect volume level, though I doubt that Zentih is doing so.

Yes they do, by a factor of 10..... Only people worse than UPS for handling is USPS (aka The Mail).

Well shucks... I cancelled my order from Amazon since they were saying shipping: Late Sept. But today they are saying NEXT DAY delivery is available? Argh!

Fedex does a TON better job! They are also better at updating there tracking numbers and there website.

No doubt! I thought there was a 318 availability thread... if that's not the case maybe someone should start it. There is no reason for shipping details to be in a sticky FAQ.

Yes please do report on the 1080i component issue. I'll hold off ordering until we find out for sure. Or is it pretty safe to order? Has the new firmware left its beta stage?

I'm getting mine from Amazon tomorrow...was supposed to get it today but wife wasn't home to accept it I got one from BB right before I found out that Amazon had it for much less, so I turned around and ordered it there. Anyways, what is the new firmware version that it is supposed to have so I can let you know? The one I got from BB does 1080i over component....was that an issue or something? (sorry, haven't kept up with this thread)

Now I'm debating whether to order from Amazon and cancel my Gochnauers order.

Yeah Gouchner or whatever I felt really leary ordering from so I decided not to get one. Then all of a sudden Amazon had them in stock so I ordered from them. I'm supposed to get it on thursday I'll check the component for 1080i. I also have the starwars episode II dvd which was confirmed not to work at 1080i on the new firmware. If it works then this new batch is safe to order from.

Great. We wait with bated breath.

LOL. Maybe we can make it an Olympic sport.

Synchronized bated breath!

Just ordered from amazon on 8/31 with one day shipping. Est. ship on 9/1. Est. delivery on 9/2. When delivered will post manufacture date.

So what is the story? Is 1080i output over the component video outputs? Do we really know for sure?

So what is the story? Is 1080i output over the component video outputs? Do we really know for sure?