Pioneer PDP-505CMX / 507CMX / 607CMX monitor - Page 10

Anyone?

I have the 425cmx and the PDA-5004 card and I have a 4 year old samsung 480i dvd player hooked up and the Pioneer upscales sd-dvd to perfection.

Hi Chris,

Thank you for the info.

Are you aware of any technical KD-PC2 review ? I have been trying to find one in the magazines and online, but to no avail.

You're making my decision harder ! I am trying to understand whether KD-PC is really so great as a lot fo folks claim, but cannot find any technical info that would convince me that it is really so (or not).

Thanks anyway

I can't provide any definitive answer. However, the weak link in the video chain (after source quality) is processor performance. This performance is determined mostly by the quality of the processing algorithms. Key Digital has been working in just this field for some time and is well regarded for their algorithms. Scaling and particularly de-interlacing are complex tasks along with noise reduction in its various forms. Key Digital offers a lot in these areas. Several 4-6k state-of-the-art external video processors are appearing that would be best. Next are the current processors generally in the 1-2k range. The key card began as a $1500 processor and should based on its features compete well with this later group. It certainly should exceed processors internal to displays except perhaps for Fujitsu and perhaps NEC although it could beat the NEC.

You might want to read through Key Digital's site and glean what info you can although they are not good about explaining all their technology and features.

Cheers,

Gary

Right.


Yes, I am familiar with Key Digital's reputation in this area, but still would like to see some techical review despite the fact that subjective impression of various people seems to be uniformly positive.


Thank you very much for your thoughts.

Your word is quite good as personal perception/impression but being an EE I've got a certain weakness for tech reviews

VC, I was also looking for any kind of tech or review articles, for the same reason you are looking, for my 505/KD combo...I did find one short (and non-technical) squib in an on-line PC site on the Pio, but could find nothing at all on the card. I did a bunch of "lurking" & reading what I could find, but I couldn't even find a Pio panel to look at first hand, best I could do was a 5070 consumer (which knocked my socks off). After talking to Chris at Cleveland a few times, I ordered the panel & the card sight unseen...and took a deep breath.

IMHO, I have never seen a better picture than mine anywhere...and it's a 505! No dead or stuck pixels, wonderful out of the box (after I installed the card). I know it's a pretty big investment, but the folks who hang around this thread were my primary reason for taking the plunge. It would have been nice to read some tech articles beforehand...but am I pleased I did!

Good luck in your research, if you do find something let us know in this thread...

Fred,

thank you for sharing your experience with the 505cmx/kd-pc combo.

If I find anything, I will surely write about it here...

So are you guys saying that I have to buy a video card to use this Plasma. I was under the impression that I could use the DVI input for my Directv H20 and use a component to VGA breakout cable from my dvd player the the VGA input. I would be interested in getting the video card, just not right away. Please clarify this if you can and how much the combination of monitor/video card would run. You can PM me. Thanks.

I have the 425 and the Key card hooked to a DirectTV HR10-250 Hd Tivo and an Oppo 970 DVD player. The picture quality is oustanding, but source dependent as always, not all of DirectTV's feeds are the greatest. SD is still rather lackluster but no more so than other HD sets with the exception of crts.

My comparision is to a Pioneer Elite 510 rear projection set that I have always found to be superb with an appropriate feed. I would say that the 425 has more of the "through the window" feel, and my wife thinks that it is noticeably better than the 510 overall. The 425 is Hers! I won't go that far, but I will say that except for the size difference 42" versus 53" I enjoy watching the 425 every bit as much as the 510. The Plasma does have the glare issues that the 510 with front glass removed does not. I would not like the 425 in a room without good light control.

It seems like I am watching an Elite with more tweaks at half the price!

Unless that 510 you have is actually a 610, it's not a 58" set. The 510 is 53", the 610 is 58", and the 710 is a 64".

No wonder it seems so small! You are of course correct, I don't know where that came from. Shouldn't post so late.


I will also note that I tried to see a difference between HDMI and component hookups between the HR10-250 and the Key card; I was unable to tell that one was better than the other. I decided to leave the HDMI hookups direct to the card with audio going to a receiver over optical.

I recently received my Key Digital card which I've now installed it in my 505CMX.

The picture quality out of the box without any adjustments looks real clean and smooth but it's a little on the dark side. I've found a couple of threads that refer to settings for other Pio's but I haven't been able to find anything specific for the 505CMX with the Key Digital card.

If anyone with this set up can let me know what adjustments they're making to the Pio and the Key Digital card to get the best picture it'd be much appreciated. I'm currently set up with a Comcast DVR and a cheap Toshiba up-converting DVD player both with HDMI.

Mat

Hey, Mat, congrats! FWIW, my post of Feb. 3....

"That's exactly what I did with my 505/KD combo. I never could find a set of "break-in" suggestions, so simply backed off on contrast & sat. settings for 200 hours, then experimented. Most settings were at the mid-points then, I backed off contrast (-2) and toned the green back a tiny bit. I had (have) problems with the S-Video input, but everything else is HDMI on mine. I have just a spectacular picture that everyone who has seen it agrees, is untoppable! I use Dish Net DVR as my primary HD source, and an upconverting (not HD) DVD unit that is pretty damned good, but not HD. I'd really like to see a 507 in action, if it beats the 505 it's got to be a simply incredible picture. I'd be curious as to the final settings you use for yours, Skillet... "

Anyone??? Will I benefit from say an OPPO?? If so which one?

As far as settings you might give GetGray a try. It is discussed in the Display Calibration forum; if I remember correctly it is only $20 dollars. You down load and burn a disc to use in DVD player.

I did that and adjusted contrast, brightness and saturation (need a blue filter for saturation) with it and I am pleased with the results. I then backed of on both brightness and contrast waiting for the set to get to 200 hours; then I will check it again and set it as it should be.

Thanks for the responses, but now I'm confused, I was screwing around with some adjustments and I set the kd-pc2 card to video output of HDTV instead of where I originally had it WXGA, when I did this the Pio black screened on me and I couldn't see the KD menu, then I figured out that the Pio had to be set to FRC mode 1 for the picture to be seen, any other mode causes it to black screen. While in these settings when I push the set/display button on the Pio it shows a 750p 45.1khz 60.0khz. When the KD card is set to output HDTV the Pio will only let me select 750p or 750 pc any other settings that were available while in WXGA are not shown.

Some advantages I noticed when the KD Card is set to output HDTV output is the color and brightness on the Pio is exceptional without any adjustment unlike in WXGA where I had to make adjustments to the contrast and brightness and color the other advantage was the availability of more settings on the Pio's set up menu such as "purecinema", which wasn't available to me when I had the KD card in WXGA. The picture was also perfectly centered from the get go, when in WXGA mode I had to adjust the hort. and vert. to keep it from shifting all the way to the right.

One disadvantage while the HDTV video output was set was what seemed to be a slight loss in picture quality, It isn't as smooth and clean as it was while in WXGA.

What should the KD card video output be set to for the 505cmx? in HDTV or WXGA?
I hate to lose the additional adjustments and color while in WXGA but the picture quality seems better in WXGA. Or have I done something wrong in setting it up.

Mat

Mat, from my experience on the kd card with my 507, it all depends on the signal format that you set on the Pio remote.

On my set, setting the FRC mode to on or off doesn't matter.

When you go to WXGA on the kd, you have to match the setting on the signal format of the display using the Pio remote. I tried the setting using the manual that's posted on the KD website for adjusting my particular set to the WXGA mode, but I couldn't fix the shifting problem to my satisfaction. I have sent an e-mail to KD to try to explain to me what I'm doing wrong...lol

Right now, I have it set on HDTV mode and the picture is awesome!! I put the Pio setting on Mode1 in the energy savings mode and 0's across the board on the Pio picture mode and have been using the kd remote for adjusting the picture quality. I'm still playing with it and waiting for a calibration report from somebody on this site to help me...lol

I have just past the 390 hr. mark, so I've set the settings a little bit higher, and boy, what a difference! I'll probably use the standard 2 mode after 500 hrs. and do another evaluation.

I haven't used any calibration disks to set anything yet.

I know this reply doesn't help you much, sorry. The kd card is so new that it's a whole lot of trial and error in my opinion.

Garry

Garry

Yeah, there isn't much info out there for the 505cmx I guess I'll just have to fend for myself. Can you tell me what you're display resloution is when your set to HDTV on the video output of the KD-PC2. Again, my Pio is displaying 750p 45.1khz 60.0khz with no other option for additional display setting except 720-PC.

Mat: Which firmware edition are you running on your card?

I can't recall the latest firmware version right now but that's what it shipped with, I checked that initially.

I downloaded the Key Digital set up manual for the 425cmx and 507 went through those set up steps to see if defaulting all the settings would change anything, nope, same thing.

With the KD card video output in HDTV I get 750p with great color, brightness, centered picture and more setup adjustments in the Pio's menu but not as clean a picture. In WXGA I get the native resolution with clean picture but less than stellar color, brightness and fewer setup adjustments in the Pio's menu.

One other thing is in WXGA the Pio is displayed in Dot by Dot (but it fills the screen) and I don't have any other adjustments availible such as Full or Wide.

Is this what other are experiencing with the 505cmx and KD Card?

This is what's on my screen when I hit display on the Pio remote:

45.0
60.0
1280x720
pol. H:-
pol. V:-
750P

I'm going through a DirecTV HD Tivo HR10-250.

I can scale through the resolution settings on the Tivo: 480I, 480P, 720P, 1080I and the output video numbers on the KD remote reflects those numbers. The Pio display above stays the same.

Garry

After reading all the recent posts about all the setup issues with the pio/cmx combo I am really starting to wonder if all of this is worth it. Don't get me wrong, I like the whole idea of the processing and flexability, and I like fooling with settings/cards(ISF) and such, but is the gain really that drastic as compared to the 5070. I mean, plug it in and boom-great picture. I know the SD converision is better,but is that it? From what I've seen and heard KD's cust service isn't the best, and their setup instructions are sort of a joke. I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on the CMX, but things like these keep popping up to make me think, I gotta deal with this? Why can't the NEC just come with an all black matte frame with no silver

The guts of this KD card are a few years old. I wonder if they are ever going to upgrade to a new version, something other than a firmware update to fix the res issues?

The NEC industial models have the typical industrial black matte frame with no silver:

Look for the NEC "XM" series (instead of XR residential).