crystalio II user report - Page 2

Yes it will - I'll Stay tuned to this channel [GRIN] for breaking News Events.

Add another happy CII user to the list. I've had it a few months now and could not consider going back.

Apart from the SDI-modded RP91, I have a TiVo Series 3 (the new HD TiVo) hooked up to it and they make a stunning combination.

My only area of concern is the media player component. It's almost usable, but its UI is not upto par with the rest of the CII at all.

Chris.

Can anyone suggest any reasonably priced Internet dealers that are selling CII? The NA dealer list on their web site is pathetic and I do not want to pay MSRP.

Eugene

I'm not sure, but I think AVS might sell them. If so, that would be your best bet.

What's AVS?

The forum that you and I are communicating on right now!

Try contacting Jason Turk, Daniel Hutnicki, or Tryg. You can find them right here on this forum!

joerod or anyone else, does the Crystalio 2 do 1080p60 and 1080p50 over its component outputs? I think it already does this over the RGBHV outputs, but I am not sure of component.

I just ordered a CII at a discounted price from Jason at AVS yesterday. It just takes a few days for him to obtain one. Drop him an email or give him a call. Great service and great person to work with!

His email: jason@avscience.com
His phone: 315-538-9806

Lore

I acquired mine for a really good price from Alan at AVS. I PM'ed him to discuss it and used the good old telephone to pass over payment details.

I needed to do a warranty replacement on it (Serial port was defective) and the service from AVS (Alan in this case) was nothing short of fabulous.

I wholeheartedly recommend using AVS. I also recommend the CII, though my experience with other scalers is limited.

Chris.

Screen Research Clearpix2 80w (92d) lit by Sony Ruby at min throw + 1
Component in: 480i from Sony RGR-GX7 DVD-R, (no dvi or hdmi)
HDMI in: auto-hdmi from Sony DHGHDD500 (hdr) for OTA [H]DTV
(1080i over component from this unit looks almost as good as hdmi)

Plan A: SD DVD player ($800 - 1800) with good sound now, C2 (3300) or equiv 2Q2007,
a survivor of HD/BR follies if (any) 4Q 2007.
Plan B: C2 now, 2Q2007 DVD player(s) < $3,000 or so.

Shelf/cabinet space is at a premium. Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, abuse?

Drop me a line if you have any questions.

Component is limited to 1080i both in and out.

I have a 1080P TV ( Sony A2000 SXRD) and I notice that with HD sports the grass blurrs a bit when the camera horizontal pans. Does the pixel by pixel motion adaptive deinterlacing in the Pixel magic chip in the Crytallio II improve 1080i sports picture quality in this regard? (i.e. sharpen the picture for fast motion sports and horizontal panning)? in what way is the PQ improved for watching fast motion sports with 720P (ESPN) or 1080i (HDNet) input from Dishnetwork satillite box? Much thanks.

Thanks, Thoth.

In case any of you are interested, the manufacturer Pixel Magic Systems drop ships orders for AVS from Hong Kong. Mine shipped out today via UPS international (shipping was not cheap-- $ 132). Apparently they don't stock via a distributor in the US. And keep in mind all repairs have to go BACK to Hong Kong!

Is there anything about this unit that's not expensive?

I know but I'm running out of cash before the holiday buying spree for family gifts...

Can I ask a few quick Qs abt CII to the happy owners here ?

1) Does the CII really have no obvious useability bugs right now ? (i.e. audio dropout, HDMI handshake, etc, aka those ppl in the other brands are complaining ?)

2) For 1080i60 film performance, is there any significant difference between CII/VantageHD/HDP/VP50 ? (I think some of the users here either are ex-user of another make or even have both concurrently).

3) My other source would be 1080i50 video, but I'd imagine there are very few users here having this signal. If u do (Europe guys), is it good ?

4) Does HDMI take 1080p24 now ? And 1080p60 ? ( would use it as a switch)

Thanks

Mine, and the warranty replacement, came from/to AVS in New York state. Though this was a handful of months ago.

Chris.

I have the 3800 (since July) and the mediaplayer is filled with bugs(still beta firmware though)
I have some HDMI problems that are annoying but not a showstopper for me. For example: My receiver gets hdmi(audio) in from the CII and after switching inputs on the CII sometimes the sound will be gone and I need to cycle (off/on) the receiver to get sound working again. Startup sequence is important in my system to avoid problems:I have to make sure the CII starts up before my screen or else no picture
Usabillity problems: The IR receiver in the CII is sensitive for stray IR (lcd/plasma screens etc) again not a showstopper because Pixelmagic made a firmware change that allows to set the IR receiver behaviour to prevent the "jumping around" of the cursor when in the menus, downside is that you have to do multiple button presses instead of holding down the remote buttons to change things. (Annoying when you are calibrating and going through long lists etc)
The CII takes around 25 seconds to boot after the latest firmware, before that it was even slower. They are working on it though...
I sometimes wonder about the Pixelmagic quality control/testing on the firmwares they release:some erase all user settings some dont. In the firmware before the latest one BTB and WTW are crushed. Latest one I had to manually rename to get it working.


Yes it is good

Despite my negative remarks I like the CII *a lot* If Pixelmagic keeps on improving(they have added a lot features that were requested) and removes the remaining problems I think its price is remarkably cheap for what it does.

Same for me.

But you can now easily save/restore your settings to/from a USB drive, which should help (assuming they maintain file compatibility).

I'm still very happy with my 3300.

The Crystalio might be in my future soon

It would seem to fit in with your Avatar line "Dream Systems".

A couple of quick questions.

The 25 second boot time - is this everytime you go from standby to power on?

Any new insight on the benefits of the 3800 vs 3300, now that the media player is sort of working, HD DVD and BD mods beginning to surface for HD-SDI? Any tangible benefits to this precision clock?