Cheaper Component to S-Video Converter - Page 3

You're right, they sure look the same. I did notice under the description of the MR-YPBPR-AV there is an FBI Anti-Piracy warning. I wonder if it removes copy protection and the cheaper unit does not.

Let us know how your unit works out and then I'll call the company again & try to find out the difference.

Well, I received the Lenkeng unit yesterday. What was interesting is that the instruction/spec sheet in the box showed the model number as MR-YPBPR-AV.
Anyway, when I first hooked up the device, all I could get was a black & white image.
I finally discovered that the labeling for the PAL/NTSC slide switch is reversed, and what one would think would be the PAL position is actually NTSC. It did indeed downconvert all input resolutions to 480i. However, using my DirecTV Receiver/DVR as the source produced poor results with color banding, shifting and some interference patterns. I then tried it on an old non-upconverting Pioneer Elite DVD player (480p) the results were nearly perfect. So, I guess it just doesn't like the component output from my DirecTV receiver, which is what I inended to use it with. So, I really didn't get a chance to check the copy protection issue as I plan to return it for refund. But. it looks like depending on the component video source, it may work OK for some. YMMV.

Did you use the composite or S-video output of your Pio DVD player?
Did you check the output of the converter if you fed it 480i component instead of HD resolutions? IOW maybe the problem lies in the conversion from HD to SD.

RonnieJP,

That's too bad the Lenkeng did not work with your DirecTV. I was hoping this inexpensive unit would really be the "Cheaper Component to S-Video Converter". Since the paperwork in the box showed model MR-YPBPR-AV, I wonder what you really received. Is there any identification on the unit itself? If it happens to be a MR-YPBPR-AV, then spending an extra $100 for that model would not have made any difference.

It is possible that you have defective unit. Just a thought, perhaps contact the seller & explain that you have a color banding problem and see if they will exchange units, and hopefully send you a prepaid return label for your unit. Thereby costing you nothing to try another one.

You mentioned the results with the Pioneer were nearly perfect. Was there any particular problem that stood out?

Hi Guys,

There is a paper label on the unit with some numbers, but I think they relate to a production lot or perhaps serial number of some kind. I used it only from Component to S-Video - didn't try composite. I did try 480i, 480p. 720p and 1080i as the input resolution since my DirecTV box alllows be to switch manually. All the downconversion seemed fine. The color banding and shifting was the same no matter what the input resolution. My old Pioneer does not upconvert, so output is fixed at 480p and it looked very good when that was the source. So, I don't think the converter is defective, it just may be somewhat sensitive to a particular input device. On my Pioneer DVD player, it looks great; on my DirecTV Receiver, pretty poor. Since they did not even wince when I asked them for an RMA number to return it for credit, it's probably worth a try.

I thought the converters above were expensive 'till I saw this hot mess on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=120363399309

If you start reading from page two, this product has already been mentioned. Yeah it's pricy, but it does what everyone here is hoping it would do AND you can pass the HD signal to your HDTV. I was hoping that spider12 would have reported back to see if it truly does strip the copy protection. Not that I need to strip copy protection at this point but in this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1149753 ) people are getting copy protection on ABC from their OTA source.. Something to think about as we near the final transition date

I will probably have one of these in the next month or two.....

The $69 one is cheap compared to anything else I've seen. If you do an Internet search you'll find the $169 version to probably be the next cheapest. It's not just a matter of changing the pin connections, you need some electronics. And you have a limited market, so there is no real sales volume such as selling recorders or TVs. From plans I found about a year ago on building one, IIRC it would cost over $69 for the parts. Of course that was for ordering single quantities of parts.

Thanks to comments in this topic I am able to get my unit working.

Yes, the video converter unit is definitely "receiver sensitive".

I am outputting component video from a Motorola DCT-6200 STB. I first tried S-video and composite output to a Hauppauge PVR-150 26xxx. The picture looked like a weak over-the-air SD transmission. After reading your forum, I tried the output to a Hauppauge HVR-1600 and it works! Coloring is good but not great and definition is good. I am recording to Sagetv software.

Hi, this is Jane from Lenkeng. If you are referring to our product Component to S-Video converter, I have something to say:

1. It is not because of bad design of our product, but it depends on the fact that the resolution of Component Video can up to 1080P, while resolution of S-Video is typically at 480i or 576i resolution. (Refer to wikipedia)

As long as it is a product that converts Component Video to S-Video, the output resolution has to be 480i or 576i.

If you want a higher resolution output, we suggest you use our Component to HDMI Converter LKV351, which is a product with real scaler, the output resolution is fixed at 720P. And LENKENG also has a powerful product that converts all kinds of video, like composite video, component video, s-video, vga, scart, HDMI 720p, 1080P to HDMI 1080P, P/N. is LKV391.

2. We have found the mistake of PAL/NTSC reversion for long and the new version has all been revised. If the reversed products influence usage, please return them to our distributors and we will bear the responsibility.

To be added, LENKENG is a factory, a responsible factory.

I am sorry I am a Chinese and don't speak good English. Maybe my English sounds strange.

Have a good day,

Jane

Jane, we always like to hear from manufacturers around here, so thanks for posting! Your English isn't bad, I think everyone will understand it.

Dropping the resolution during conversion is not a problem, we want that. We are using these converters, converting component to S-Vid, so that we can make anamorphic DVDs. Most cable boxes only output a letter-boxed signal on S-Vid, but output an anamorphic signal over component outputs. However, DVD recorders typically do not have component inputs, only S-Vid, and composite inputs. So, we use your converters to make the anamorphic signal recordable by the DVD recorder.

Jane,
Thank you for your comments.

Are you saying that if a 480i component input signal is used then there should be no problem obtaining a 480i S-Video output signal?

To be added first, the product in the ebay link is not Lenkeng Product.

Excuse me, but we don't have a DirecTV Receiver/DVR in China and had not seen such a thing before. Is it IPTV? What's the output resolution of it?

Unless you're stuck with an older device for some reason, I don't see why you'd spend the money on these converters when you can get decent flatscreen tvs for under $200 now. If you have an analog big-screen tv that you can't part with, or some kind of installation that you don't want to re-do, I can see that; but HDTVs are so cheap these days, especially for bedroom sizes, you might want to think about that.

The typical Motorola HD STB only puts out a full screen wide screen 16:9 image from the HDMI & component outputs. Problem is that most DVD recorders do not have component inputs. Therefore you need to use the Motorola's S-video or composite outputs if you want to record from it. But these outputs send out a letterbox image with not only black letterbox bars but also black pillarbox bars. So you end up recording a small floating postage stamp picture & wasting a lot of recording pixels on recording all the black bars.

What is needed is a high quality converter to convert the STB's FS WS 16:9 component output to S-Video so that a recorder is using all of its pixels to record a picture, not a bunch of black.

I don't relish doing my main TV watching on a 19", 16:9 screen.

Bump.

Looking for the latest and greatest affordable comonent to S-video converter for the USA market. Is the SVideo brand AppleTV converter (now $149) the best bet, or what is better/cheaper?

Read through this thread about the Lenkeng which is quite a bit cheaper. Also look in "Comcast HD STB as tuner for DVDR" thread that's currently active re Lenkeng.

Updated review for anyone considering the Lenkeng Video Converter (alternately referred to as either LKV7611 or "YPBPR to AV". I just bought one, and I am quite disappointed - my results were very similar to those above, although my NTSC/PAL switch was labeled correctly.

I have problems with both color banding/interference and reduced brightness of the output. The color banding/interference problem is ONLY on the s-vid out and does not appear on the composite out. I can confirm, however, that there is no copy protection on either output signal.

I tested with component output from several DVD players and my high definition TiVo. I checked the Video Converter output side-by-side with the raw s-vid output from each test box for PQ when either used as input to a Panasonic EA18 DVD recorder or fed directly into a Sony plasma TV.

When viewed directly on the plasma TV, the s-vid output PQ is just slightly worse than the s-vid feed taken directly from any of the source units (about on par with a straight composite feed). The composite output of the Video Converter is almost identical to the direct feed composite, but it actually looks just a tiny bit better when viewed very close to the screen due to slight blurring of the jagged edges. When fed directly into the TV, neither Video Converter output signals showed any color banding/interference or brightness shift.

Bottom line is that when fed directly into my Sony plasma TV, BOTH Video Converter outputs looked identical and of similar quality to unaltered composite output, but without any copy protection signal. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no reason to ever feed the output of the Video Converter directly into a TV, so this has no value!

When output from the Video Converter was fed into a Panasonic EA18 DVD recorder, the results were completely unsatisfactory. Both the composite and s-vid outputs were considerably darker than a direct s-vid or composite feed, causing skin tones to be quite orange. In addition to that problem, the s-vid output exhibited significant color banding/interference patterns (which were there on both the pass-through video and on a recorded DVD. Although the Video Converter does allow one to record copy protected sources, such as a commercial DVD or flagged cable signals, this is meaningless because the result, at least on my EA18 recorder, is unacceptable! The new TiVos no longer have any s-vid outputs at all, and many cable companies are copy protecting virtually all signals, so I had hoped this would be a cost effective solution. Alas no; it is worthless. This is one of those situations where you get less than you pay for. I hope this information helps prevent others from wasting $50 on this thing.
Goose

Thanks for the info V7Goose. Of course, I just placed an order yesterday for the Lenkeng.

It is strange that it is fine going straight to the TV, but poor going into the DVD Recorder. I knew when I placed the order that this could very well be another example of why I should just spend more and do things right the first time, but the $50 "solution" lured me in as opposed to the $150-$200 solutions. I guess I'll see when mine shows up. This will be fed from an SA 8300HD into a Pioneer DVR-660 in my case.

It probably won't help things but worth a try. The Panasonic should have several settings for input adjustments. One is in the FUNCTIONS, OTHER FUNCTIONS, SETUP, VIDEO menu. I always have mine set for, DARKER for S-vid/composite input. Lighter is way too light. You should also check the DISPLAY button when displaying the line input. It should have settings for line input such as ability to turn on/off the NR as well as sharpness control.
I'm going off what ES series Panasonics have, forgive me if the EAs don't have such settings but I'd think they would.

All filters will probably degrade the picture a little, my Sima has no banding problems but does slightly brighten the darks even with my Pannys set to DARKER, set to LIGHTER it really looks awful. Funny thing I just noticed the other day, if the source has MV the picture will be a tad to light, if the source has no CP the output will look fine. I would have though it would be always lighter but that's not the case.

Thanx for the ideas, jjef, but I had already tried all that with no change at all. The EA18 is quite similar to the ES series, so most of what you know about them translates over just fine. I haven't taken the time yet to test this POS with my motorola HD cable box, but I have no reason to suspect it might be any different than my TiVo or DVD players. But since it does not have the same problems with the plasma TV, it might work better with a different recorder. Unfortunately, I don't have any other DVD recorders with s-vid inputs right now, so I'm looking forward to someone else reporting on their experience. Even if it works with some other recorder, that won't do much for me, since nothing else currently has the PQ of the EA or ES Panasonics.
Goose

Well Goose, thanks to your post, I shot off an e-mail to Deal Extreme, and was able to cancel my order for the Lenkeng converter. It might have ended up working fine with my setup, but I'll probably just bite the bullet and get the Apple TV converter from svideo.com. Hope you get your situation sorted out.

Check out item 1 in the list of converters here as a possiblity at 1/3 the price of the Apple? Not nearly as much info as on the Apple, but ???

Thanks wajo, but that is the Lenkeng converter that Goose bought and disliked due to banding and other issues (as did the earlier poster). That is the exact one that I had ordered from Deal Extreme, and cancelled. Trust me, at $52.50, it was tempting and I'd love to spend that instead of the $150 for the Apple TV one or $200 for the Ambery one. I'm just not convinced that the Lenkeng is up to the others in doing this conversion.

Thanks for the heads-up... I looked to make sure it wasn't Lenkeng but apparently overlooked their name. After this, I'm going to remove it from the list!

wajo, totally up to you, but you might keep that Lenkeng listed, but with the caveat that there are reports of banding and other video issues in the conversion process, with some STB's and DVD recorders. Again, I haven't used one, but this does seem to be a possible issue with the Lenkeng. At $52, it still may be worth a try for someone willing to take a shot, and who doesn't want to shell out the $150 or $200 for a different option.

In my case, I am now leaning towards the Ambery model. If what Nextoo said is correct, that with the SA 8300HD, I'd have to keep setting my output to 480i in order to send my HD recordings to my DVD recorder, that may be too much of a pain for me. The Ambery seems to be a converter that you can connect, and then just leave your usual settings where they are. That convenience may be worth the extra $50 to me over the svideo.com Apple TV model.

More good info and good suggestions. I esp. like your logic on going for the Ambery, which others might benefit from in making their decision.

Thanks!

Just confirming that this is indeed the same item I bought (and I bought it from Deal Extreme also). Just like Jeffrey, I was seduced by the low price and hope that we might actually have found a great little solution to a big problem. I'm just thankful it was only a $52 lesson instead of a $152 lesson! At least at that price I don't mind letting it sit in the drawer in case I somehow find a need for it where it actually works in the future. Good luck all,
Goose