FleaHDMI - Time to iron out the facts? - Page 8

What the hell ... trigger has been pulled

Looking forward to your impressions.

Google EXT-FULLHD - it's one of the best HDMI-RGB converters out there.

That looks pretty awesome ... though its a HDMI to RGB converter, we're talking about the other way around

Meh, it's pretty late here. Then check from the same mfr...

I'm actually trying to see if they make something like that, but I can't find the manufacturers site. They are called Moome?

Grrr my flea is the culprit with an issue im having, when i switch from rgb to hd dvd or blue ray the picture is washed out with to much brightness. I have to hit the brightness or contrast slider then the proper black/brightness kicks in! Im assuming its not switching to proper video levels after.

Very annoying.

Im thinking of just putting a dvi adapter in the chain wont that turn everything into rgb? Then I can just recalibrate. Its either that or I add macros to all my activities turning it on and off whenever i switch inputs.

Actually my old splitter hdmi I sold converted everything to pc levels for some reason, maybe I should get this so my display is consistant finally among different sources. Is there any draw back to be using pc level if you calibrate properly?

Well im stumped at what the flea and or the projector i have is doing. Im thinking its the flea though.

At various times switching back and forth I put the dve blacker then black pattern on my ps3, and hd dvd which output YBR422 and 444. Then switched between sources the rgb hd satellite and 360 which are rgb, sometimes when switching back to hd dvd and ps3 it would be way to bright all of a sudden, next time it would be right where it should be. I dont get it.

The only way to solve it was to create a macro for each activity/device, turning the flea off and on everytime i switch devices.

If im understanding this though pc levels should be darker? Maybe in 2.07 the last firmware algolith tried to correct it by increasing brightness on rgb or maybe my projector is trying to move it to studio levels?

I am at a loss for words on this one. Does not make sense. Especially when it only happens some of the time, and the only consistant way to solve it was to create a macro to turn flea off and on each time.

My Flea suddenly stopped passing audio through HDMI and the blue light was off. I also noticed that it was a tad hotter than normal. My room is not especially warm and the Flea is sitting on a corner of my stand a good distance from any heat generators or walls.

I unplugged everything and let the Flea cool down and it seems to be working fine once again. Although I freaked out for a bit things seem okay now. Is there any reason to have the Flea flushed against the stand? After the above incident I decided to keep it at a steeper angle so that the bottom vents are exposed instead of against the base.

I keep a small room fan pointed at my Flea/Receiver/TV quite often. Mostly because I noticed my Flea gets really hot, and my plasma is like a room heater. It's a small bump in my electric bill, but it's worth piece of mind...

The flea should be well ventilated in front and behind the unit.

Who is still selling these? And what ballpark price range are they selling for?

There is a "No discussion of prices other than MSRP" rule on AVS if I recall. With that said I will say I bought mine used for a real good deal about the same time the VP50 Pro was released. There were a handful of people who were getting rid of their Fleas on this board as well as on eBay during this time since I suspect many of them thought the VP50 Pro's noise reduction would be sufficient.

There seems to be fewer of them available since then with the majority of Flea and Mosquito units that I've found being of the non-HDMI variety.

Is there actually an MSRP for a product that is discontinued?

Isn't the Flea discontinued?

They are discontinued but I sent an email to Sales at Algolith and was told they still have Flea HDMI and Mosquito units in stock. Standard 1 year warranty applies but no returns (so I can't try it without fully committing). As far as price, I figure what I was told in the email is the new MSRP now that there's a limited supply; it is $795 for the Flea HDMI. International shipping available.

I wish they would still accept returns since I would like to be able to try it out in my setup to see if it makes enough of a difference to justify the cost. Who knows, maybe DVDO will seize this opportunity and start making a separate noise reduction unit to accompany my VP50. (Wishful thinking?)

I guess that's 20% less than the retail price used to be, if I remember correctly. It is an excellent product. I purchased mine from AVS around 1.5 years ago and it has been worth it.

That's too bad that the product is discontinued now. I hope that mine doesn't break down anytime soon. I really wouldn't want to go back to watching broadcast TV without it.

I don't see algolith not being able to repair a product they made, I'm sure the processor was developed and manufactured both by them, and if they're still offering a 1 year warranty for any unit's available then it means they have the resources available to repair the product also. If your looking for one you should try the dealers listed on algolith's site that sell them. I also hoped the new Vp-50pro had sofisticated Mosquito noise reduction also, but it seems that> that technology is a whole different ball-park altogether, and DVDO hasn't expressed interest in further persuing in the development of that technology, algolith's MSN is the best in the industry, DVDO's MSN is 2D not 3D, and only apply's to static objects that don't move.

From my understanding, MSN and 3DNR are separate technologies. MSN is a 2D noise reduction (specifically attempting to find MPEG2 mosquito noise on a frame-by-frame basis), whereas 3DNR, which some call 'random noise reduction', is specifically for noise found during motion. The latter not necessarily and artifact specific to MPEG2.

Granted, some processors/TV's may couple these techs together, but they are separately adjustable on many others. It should also be noted that DVDO does in fact have 3DNR on some of the processors, including the Vp-50pro.

As stated though, in my experience Alogolith's tech is the best available, and that includes what I've seen from Silicon Optix (Reon in my case).

OT but that is a really cool avatar.

I guess my question, albeit a more hypothetical one, is how soon will cable/satellite providers get with the program and stop compressing the signal so poorly? Isn't compression the culprit for a lot of the problems seen in cable/satellite signals that the Flea fixes? I am just wondering if the "grin and bear it until technology catches up" solution is better than paying up front for a Flea HDMI. I'm a little worried that stock will run out by the time I decide if I want one and I'll be out of luck. Meh, such is life.

Thanks


I have mad skillz for doing MSpaint touch-ups!

I don't see many cable/sat providers changing bandwidth levels anytime soon. Stuff like FiOS though, has little to none from my understanding (other than what the broadcasters themselves use).

However, cable/sat providers will likely move to MPEG4 (or potentially VC1/AVC), which will allow for better pictures given the same bandwidth. If/when that happens, I hope the picture is a serious improvement, otherwise it will actually be counterproductive for us Algolith owners. Those encoding methods use totally different compression, so other than the 3DNR, the other features of the Algolith products won't really work correctly for 'fixing' the picture. Worse still, I'm not aware of anyone working on advanced noise reduction for those codecs

I use the flea with vc-1 and avc encodes of blue ray and hd dvd the flea still works on that to, removing grain. I asked a question about this on blue ray forum and someone said noise reduction see's any type of artifact and will remove it including film grain noise. Thats why on blue ray forum they hate dnr because it removes grain.

I do notice a difference grain is less noticeable thats for sure, and I compared with my settings and there was no loss of detail.

Settings

2D-6
3D-2
Detail-4

3DNR should certainly work for random motion noise ... I'm talking about the MPEG2 specific 2D noise reduction; block noise and mosquito noise (though mosquito might work, kind of ish).

Block noise though, that can't work properly. And if anything, will damage the image.

Not a big market for it. If there was, Algolith would probably still be making the FLEA.

I agree unfortunately. Seems weird though, you think people spending big bucks on video processors would want better noise reduction

Weirder still, I was under the impression the Flea actually sold pretty well.

Okay, so

current compression methods - the Flea rocks
future codecs - unsure about block noise

I guess my final question would be concerning DVD. That is the one format that I know I will continue watching and that standard obviously won't change. In your opinion, would the addition of the Flea to my video chain before my VP50 result in enough improvement that, in addition to improving current cable/satellite codecs, justifies buying one?

From what I've read, yes. I haven't done enough DVD testing though.

I'll post impressions when I do - I've been pretty swamped.