Adding 2.09 firmware to DV-578a: Anybody Know Definitively? - Page 3

I would just put in the fontcreator v 4b firmware - it works on my 578a, should work on yours too

Yeah! I've burned the discs with Nero. I think I will try one machine with the foncreator firmware and pray that I don't have letterbox or PAL/NTSC conversion problems. I would have thought that the PAL/NTSC conversion was in the hardware domain and not firmware effected - might be quite wrong. I'm no technical boffin. I'm a music lover first and home theatre second. The technology is just a means to an end for me. Long history with Magneplanar loudspeakers and Audio Research electronics

Out of interest - does the 4b firmware allow the player to output PAL if a PAL disc is played or are we stuck with everything being converted to NTSC on the 578A? Where I come from all TV sets are multisystem so we don't have the US problem where the majority of sets are NTSC only. I would rather watch PAL as PAL due to better definition & colour rendition although I am very aware that movies are running fast in PAL.

That's a good question! I don't have a PAL set (living in the US) so I can't say for sure. My 578a does play PAL discs fine (on my NTSC set).

In the setup menu, under video options, it has a selection for TV type: NTSC, PAL, or Multisynch TV. So I bet if you set the 578a to PAL, it would output PAL.

Regards
DigiPete

I'm on a business trip. Will see when I get home. It's going to be interesting and this is possibly where the firmware for the 575/676 might vary slightly from the 578. Both the 575 & 676 do output PAL from PAL.

The 4b firmware & 2.09 (575) firmware obviously provide for selection of "TV Type" under video options instead of front panel fiddling with the skip & standby controls, whereas the standard firmware for the 578 (1.44) does not. The common owners manual for these three machines suggests that you can't set the TV system for the 575 or 578 - only 676 which is patently nonsense for the 575.

Will let you know once I've tried it out.
Regards

It should work. I will set mine to PAL tonight, and if my set does not like the signal, that's a pretty good sign the 578a is outputting PAL. I assume PAL works over component and S-video?

Yes, PAL works over composite, component, S-video & RGB SCART (mainly for UK).
You might get a black & white picture with or without sound or any combination of these - or nothing but hash with a PAL signal into NTSC set.

To make matters worse there are a number of different PAL standards - PAL I,D,K,R,M etc. South Africa and UK are PAL I i.e. 5.5 MHz from centre picture to centre sound - That's why outside the US manufacturers usually only market multisystem TV sets to handle and autodetect all the PAL/NTSC/SECAM(French) derivatives (and we thought that the Beta/VHS war was bad)

I set the 578a to PAL, turned it off, turned it back on (setting was not effective until I did this) and put in a PAL Region 2 DVD.

I got a black and white picture that oveflowed the boundaries and was offset. Seems like the 578a is putting out PAL.

DigiPete

Great DP - I get home tomorrow and will try and load 4b. This is encouraging. Now hopefully if one sets it to multisynch it will autodetect and output PAL from PAL discs and NTSC from NTSC discs like most players outside the US. If not, too bad - turning on and off is hardly a chore.

Will revert. Thanks for your considerable patience & help.

I think you will be pleased.

DigiPete

Hi DP. Loaded 4ba Firmware without having to resort to BIN file designation changes and it achieves everything claimed plus much more. Had no glitches - uploads so fast that I did not think that it had even read the disc.

No problems experienced with letterbox or transcode. This is obviously a a mostly universal chassis much as the Elite 47A (US which I own), 747A (Europe) and 733A (Asia) which are a universal chassis right down to being autovolt which is not claimed in the common owners manual or on the case or box.

Anyway, to the 578A

- Update is everything claimed plus more except for DivX VOD which is not of
consequence to me
- Region free on all disc types and I have all
- NTSC Picture improvement at default setting. Colour not oversaturated and
more like PAL. Excellent skin tones. Not that NTSC is bad off of DVD but PAL
conversion to NTSC involves compromise. Even blacks are more black, without
resorting to blacker than black adjustment. I'll bet default is now 0 IRE
- Some updates are great and some less so, such as DSP. This is personal
- As you suspected and thanks for trying on your machine for me. Once updated
and set to Mutisync TV the unit autosenses and outputs PAL as PAL and NTSC
as NTSC
- The PAL picture is stunning
- If you set the unit to NTSC TV it still converts PAL to NTSC
- This might be of interest to others. When you set the unit to PAL TV it converts
NTSC to PAL most competently - good news if you have a PAL only TV set
- Hi Res audio performance unchanged
- There are many other operational improvements over the 1.44 Firmware but .
they have been mentioned before in different places and I've said enough

All in all, most satisfactory. Thank you for persisting with me. I hope other forum members gain further useful insight. I'm going to flash my other machine tonight now that I have established that there are no glitches.

My next task is to establish whether the 578A is autovolt as with the other universal models referenced above. It has a switch mode power supply so why would a manufacturer in mass production choose to make a 110 volt only unit as stated in the manual? Especially when using a switch mode supply. I did see another thread on the web a short while back suggesting that the 578 could be made autovolt with a minor component change. I really doubt this and would bet on the 578 being autovolt but don't want to fry my machines. Maybe someone will be able to answer this.

Again, thank you and regards

Flashed my second 578A last night with equal success to above

Good deal! Another happy camper

I have a PIONEER DV-578a and wanted to make it region free. I had made some CD-R coasters too until I renamed it with the B4EA then it FINALLY READ THE CD!

It said "UPDATE found" Press Play

After it updated....I removed the CD from the tray.....and the PIONEER logo/screen turned black and white and the "screen" started scrolling up and down. I think there is a glitch with the picture. Because I can't read anything it looks like it got messed up. I put in a PAL Region 2 DVD and it READ it. The disc played and I can hear the music, but its still in black/white and scrolling uncontrollably.

Is there anyway I can reset my dvd's firmware back to 2.05? I'm scared that I screwed up the DVD player. What did I do wrong? I followed all the instructions meticulously..

OT but does anybody know of firmware somewhere for my 563a? I would love to add the firmware myself for this unit, taking it in just so a tech can plug in a cd seems silly and a waste of my time if I can do it.

NEWSFLASH: After all but giving up, as no version would work for me, I just upgraded my 578A-S firmware (1.44) with the one posted here.
Not only do I have all the additional features listed previously, I now can play DivX.

I did not have to rename (B4EA2106 which I tried first, didn't work). I did have to set back to NTSC (power off then hold ">>" and then "Power" on front panel) and set region to 0 (hold "Enter" on remote until shutdown). (strider213, this is your problem)

It will change your background. It's pretty cool but it does say DV-575A very lightly on the side (didn't even notice it at first). It also changes speaker distances to meters.

One more very happy camper.

I had to send mine in to get it done. $25 for postage plus 3 weeks waiting time. All for a 10 minute upgrade. I dealt with Pioneer Canada, YMMV

will it add divx and make it region free too?

No, there is no divx capability possible on the 563...

I thought 578a could not do DIVX. Have you actually played a DIVX on your 578a?

Glad you got your rig working.

DigiPete

Yes, I have.
Thanks again for your help, DigiPete.

What is a .rar file and how would I open it?

Archive file like .zip. WinRAR can be found here.
or just email me for the .bin file.

Oh, crap. Now I'm going to have to learn the metric system?

Nah, lots of converters online.

bw191,
I'm just getting around to doing this. Do I just burn that .bin file to a cd or do I need to convert to .iso first? and are the instructions the same for the other firmware? and finally, should I upgrade to the 2.09 first or go straight to this one?

Yes.

Yes.
Straight to this one.
I must mention again though, that my experience seems to have been different than everyone else that posted here as none of the other firmware versions or names worked for me. So something must be different about my unit.

...Never had any complaints though.

strider 213, did you come right with your black and white scrolling problem? As alluded to below this is almost certainly as a result of feeding a PAL signal to an NTSC only TV set. You need to set your TV type to NTSC
Regards

Hi there I have a 578a-s, I live in Brasil, my 578er is from Brasil too, if that matters, and I have a feeling it does!! The question has been asked before, but I did not have any luck, so I will ask again: how do you check firmware/version number, I tryed to look everywhere, outside the dvd, and on the screen with and without media, playing and not playing, but absl. nothing, I really need to know the ver.nr. to know where to go from, right?

I want the dvd to play divx, and there is atleast one inhere that have done it, I wonder if he is from brasil?

and just one more question for now, What is ´Blacker than black´?

I have allready tryed to update, (bad boy), with cd , but... can´t read disk...

btw. Todo bem Brasil

Hi,

Take remote with machine switched on and no disc present:
Go to HOME MENU and select (push ENTER)
Go to INITIAL SETTINGS and select
Scroll down to OPTIONS on INITIAL SETTINGS screen - DO NOT SELECT !!!!!!!!
Press DISPLAY button on your remote and you will see your firmware version on screen

For Divx see the Softpedia site. It is apparently possible with Gufiak firmware. The 578A is a universal chassis and is capable of Divx. I'm not interested in VOD MPEG4. I have loaded the Foncreator 4b firmware update and I am happy.


Regarding your BLACKER THAN BLACK query - please note that I'm doing my best to explain in layman's terms. I am not a technical boffin, I am a music and film lover.

BLACKER THAN BLACK is a confusing misnomer

For reasons best known to the manufacturers/DVD forum/NTSC DVD standards. Almost all players have their black level set to 7.5 IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers - IRE is an arbitrary scale from 0 to 100 denoting video signal brightness - possibly set to default to 7.5 IRE to enhance brightness?)

7.5 IRE is not black, it is very dark grey. 0 IRE is BLACK

TRUE BLACK is the cut on/cut off (ie conduction point of your display - in the case of CRTs 160 volts - you cannot get BLACKER than the display cut off point. If the display is off you have the best BLACK LEVEL it can achieve)

So called BLACKER THAN BLACK settings on your DVD player allow you to take the BLACK LEVEL down from 7.5 IRE to 0 IRE - TRUE BLACK.

I come from a PAL area and terminology used by the Americans for NTSC etc is quite different to most of the rest of the world.

So - there is no such thing as BLACKER THAN BLACK - it purely means that you can adjust your DVD Player's video output down from DARK GREY 7.5 IRE to TRUE BLACK 0 IRE - the point at which you loose conduction.

I hope that this helps. If someone else with greater technical knowledge wishes to comment - please do.

If you are still confused, take a look at a few Web Sites such as Joe Kane's Video Essentials site.

Is your 578A a 220/240volt model? I,m interested because I am sure that they are all autovolt models, never mind what the case or owners manual says. This is certainly true of some of the Elite models for USA and Korea. They say that they are 110 volt models but work just fine on 220/240 volts
Regards

The manual says 110v , and that´s what I have, so I am stuck with that !
Allright!! I have "Region 1" "Rom Version 2.05"
where do we go from here?