I just got a new DVDO Iscan Plus for less than $500 shipped from winegenius@yahoo.com. Overall, I'm impressed with it, but I noticed some glitches that I wasn't expecting. These problems seem to occur whether I use composite or S-Video connections. My signal chain is:
Panasonic SVHS 7670 VCR or Pioneer 704 LD
Harmon Kardon AVR80 receiver
DVDO Iscan Plus
Linksys KVM switcher
Sony 1272Q front projector
Here are the problems I've seen:
1. When surfing CATV channels from the VCR, the image jitters very severely vertically (like 10% of screen height) for about a second or two, each time I change channels. Then it locks on and is fine. The video is almost unwatchable during the jitter period, and would probably give an epilectic person seizures. This happens every time I change to any channel.
2. Some highlights (almost-white areas) are "blasted out" and lose details. I think that this is because the internal non-adjustable white level inside the unit is cranked too high, so it causes the video DACs to clip.
3. The shadows also seem to have lost slight details, although not as much as the highlights.
4. Two VHS rental tapes (Girl on a Bike, Passion of Ayn Rand) that play fine without the Iscan exhibit extreme distortion, which causes the normally vertical sides of the image to bend in a curve, especially towards the top, by about 10% of the screen's width. I verified that this occurs both on the projector and on a computer 17" monitor, so it's definitely the Iscan that's causing it. And a herringbone pattern appears over the whole image. It's almost unwatchable, definitely much worse than without the Iscan. I'm wondering if this is caused by Macrovision on the tape. I never have this problem on SVHS tapes that I recorded. Another rental tape (the Story of Us) didn't have this problem.
5. When visual fast forwarding, rewinding, or pausing a VCR tape, the Iscan seems to lose sync and the image gets very distorted, sometimes only filling only about the top half or quarter of the screen. It's almost bad enough that when fastforwarding through commercials you have a hard time telling when the program has started up again.
6. During the credits at the end of a movie, the credits wave back and forth, as if rather than going straight down the screen they slalom down. They only deviate by maybe 2% of screen width, but it's enough that you notice it and say "that's not right". This waving back and forth is also slightly noticeable on parts of the movie where the camera pans up or down.
As an experiment I removed the Linksys KVM and the receiver from the signal chain, and these problems still occurred.
Overall, when a movie is playing on LD or VCR I am very impressed with this unit's deinterlacing quality. It even does a decent job of deinterlacing video (TV) sources.
Does anyone else experience these same problems? I'm wondering if I got a bad unit or if there are workarounds.
Thanks!
-Tom
------------------
You can email me at: tmorrow at us dot oracle dot com
[This message has been edited by Tom Morrow (edited 08-29-2000).]
Panasonic SVHS 7670 VCR or Pioneer 704 LD
Harmon Kardon AVR80 receiver
DVDO Iscan Plus
Linksys KVM switcher
Sony 1272Q front projector
Here are the problems I've seen:
1. When surfing CATV channels from the VCR, the image jitters very severely vertically (like 10% of screen height) for about a second or two, each time I change channels. Then it locks on and is fine. The video is almost unwatchable during the jitter period, and would probably give an epilectic person seizures. This happens every time I change to any channel.
2. Some highlights (almost-white areas) are "blasted out" and lose details. I think that this is because the internal non-adjustable white level inside the unit is cranked too high, so it causes the video DACs to clip.
3. The shadows also seem to have lost slight details, although not as much as the highlights.
4. Two VHS rental tapes (Girl on a Bike, Passion of Ayn Rand) that play fine without the Iscan exhibit extreme distortion, which causes the normally vertical sides of the image to bend in a curve, especially towards the top, by about 10% of the screen's width. I verified that this occurs both on the projector and on a computer 17" monitor, so it's definitely the Iscan that's causing it. And a herringbone pattern appears over the whole image. It's almost unwatchable, definitely much worse than without the Iscan. I'm wondering if this is caused by Macrovision on the tape. I never have this problem on SVHS tapes that I recorded. Another rental tape (the Story of Us) didn't have this problem.
5. When visual fast forwarding, rewinding, or pausing a VCR tape, the Iscan seems to lose sync and the image gets very distorted, sometimes only filling only about the top half or quarter of the screen. It's almost bad enough that when fastforwarding through commercials you have a hard time telling when the program has started up again.
6. During the credits at the end of a movie, the credits wave back and forth, as if rather than going straight down the screen they slalom down. They only deviate by maybe 2% of screen width, but it's enough that you notice it and say "that's not right". This waving back and forth is also slightly noticeable on parts of the movie where the camera pans up or down.
As an experiment I removed the Linksys KVM and the receiver from the signal chain, and these problems still occurred.
Overall, when a movie is playing on LD or VCR I am very impressed with this unit's deinterlacing quality. It even does a decent job of deinterlacing video (TV) sources.
Does anyone else experience these same problems? I'm wondering if I got a bad unit or if there are workarounds.
Thanks!
-Tom
------------------
You can email me at: tmorrow at us dot oracle dot com
[This message has been edited by Tom Morrow (edited 08-29-2000).]
