SDI Modded Oppo 971: Works with Crystallio & Plamsa Enhancer but not Lumagen or DVDO

[Neil F Holland]

Anyone come across a similar issue with a player working with one scaler but not another...?

Could it be chipset related?

Cheers.

[welwynnick]

Question 1: Would that be a Pixel Magic Systems SDI output card by any chance?

Question 2: Who on Earth has all those VPs to play with?

Nick

[SeanT]

Originally Posted by welwynnick

Question 2: Who on Earth has all those VPs to play with?

I have Kramer, Focus Centrestage, DVDO and one of the funky curved screen mapping (irregular surface) scalers to play with (can't remember which one?)

[Neil F Holland]

No idea on type of SDI kit used - the mod to the Oppo was done by Henry at CRT. It worked fine on his Crystallio and Plasma Enhancer.

However when shipped to me PAL disks caused lines appeared on my PHD8 scaled through a Lumagen Vision Pro HDP. Another punter who did a self install on a DVDO with the same kit (from Henry) also witnessed the lines appear.

Since I posted I have put on a NTSC disk into the Oppo and via SDI it's stunning. Want to get to the root of the question - is the Oppo playing up or the Lumagen...?

[madshi]

FWIW, I've modded a 963SA with a PixelMagic mod kit and it works fine with my iScan HD+ in PAL. So there's no general incompatability between the PixelMagic SDI kit and the iScans.

[Baggy]

I had a Panasonic RP82 that was fitted with a PMS kit and that was incompatible with my HD Leeza.
This required the kit to be modded to disable "sync detect" and then it was fine.
I don't know why your Oppo seems to work with NTSC but not PAL though,that seems to be a totally different problem.

[Nic Rhodes]

I had a similar issue to baggy and had to hot wire the PMS board. It worked elsewhere however, there are many variants of SDI used in broadcast but in AV we use a fraction of what is possible. Certainly it would be great to get this one fixed, if so I will buying another Oppo!!

[tryingtimes]

Weird - Henry has a note on his site http://www.crtprojectors.co.uk/sdi_dvd.htm that says
"** Currently only suitable for use with Pixel Magic Systems scalers. Other makes being investigated"
I wonder what makes it specific?

[Nic Rhodes]

It looks like it is down to the different defaults for national and genum SDI chips and changes there.

[Neil F Holland]

Originally Posted by tryingtimes

Weird - Henry has a note on his site http://www.crtprojectors.co.uk/sdi_dvd.htm that says
"** Currently only suitable for use with Pixel Magic Systems scalers. Other makes being investigated"
I wonder what makes it specific?

Ah ha... That would be down to me.

Was hoping that Gordon might have a view on this.

[Nic Rhodes]

PAL on the Oppo had a 'timing' issue, could this be manifesting itself in the SDI mod as well with the Lumagen looking for a accurate tollerance where as the other video processor were more 'tollerant' of something out of spec?.

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Hi Neil,

Sorry from your email correspondence I didn't think you were expecting a response from me. I thought you and your dealer were well on the way towards sorting it out.

I cannot speculate on the cause or the method to fix the issue without having both units with me. If it's a hardware issue with the scaler then it would, of course, be replaced. I do not believe it is an inherent issue with Lumagen scalers obviously as there are ALOT of folk using them, playing PAL material with SDI modded DVD players and STB's.

If Henry's mod to the unit doesn't provide a cure or you feel that the scaler may be faulty then get it over to your dealer and I'll come and check it all out.

All the best

Gordon

[Neil F Holland]

Hi Gordon,

Am confident of an amicable resolution with Henry but trying to get to the bottom of it might prove very time consuming... Henry has no lumagen or DVDO, and while I'm happy to help, the tweaking sending across the country and then testing, sending back, could take a while.

Was just wondering if you'd ever come across anything like this before!

Cheers

Neil

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Not that I can remember....

Gordon

[Liam @ Prog AV]

I have Philips 963 modded by Henry, and it works fine with Lumagen DVI, HDP, ProHDP, Crystalio I, Plasma Enhancer Pro, Cinemateq Plus II SDI.