VP50-Pro upgrade anyone going for it?

Upgrading to VP50-Pro?


  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .

Steve_B

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Now the pricing is equal for US and Int customers. £625 approx from VP50 to Pro is anyone taking the plunge, I still can't decide if it is worth it?

Still don't understand why DVDO are not releasing the NDA on testers? This concerns me the most, as what are they not wanting early adopters to find out? or is it I am just paranoid?
 
I am sort of in the same boat here Steve....

However, I think the overall price of the VP50Pro is not that expensive comparing to other (similar or more priced VPs) for what you get.

I do feel a bit let down as I bought the VP50 with NR advertised for that model and of-course we now know that it was never going to be in due to hardware (ie not enough size of FPGAs etc).

I am thinking that if I go for the upgrade I'll pay 625 or ~700 (incl the HD-SDI), I get features missing from the VP50 (ie NR) and additional ones such as hdmi 1.3 and HD-SDI and the whole "must-have" of video (1080p24in1080p24 out ;) so that my future FPJ convert this to 1080@96 :D.

Initially I thought it was not worth it. But now, I think that if I want to fit HD-SDI I'd pay at least £500 (or more) here in the UK. Also, I was thinking that I could buy a flea for the NR filtering. But that also costs another £500 or more. So for less than the price of fitting hd-sdi separately and buying NR filtering, I also get hdmi 1.3 i/ps and o/p. Sure I wish the pro came with 2 o/ps but I can live with this as I am using hdmi splitter for my Direct View and FPJ.

Also, I don't understand why the beta testers are not talking about the features and improvements. Probably because they are not that big. Today, a beta tester over at AVS noted that there is a significant difference with NR over OTA SD signals. This is really good news for me, as I am very happy with the current features of VP50 in terms of scaling etc.
Nevertheless, even if it performs similarily to current VP50 (I know people have complained about audio drop-outs but I never had any with latest firmware) I still think it is a good deal.
I do wish that they actually had a proper Colour Management System for calibration purposes, like the new Radiance will have, but I don't see this happening with DVDO soon.

Finally, for me, it comes down to this; I bought the Vp50 for £1300. Now I pay another 700ish and I get a complete (debatable but I am positive :D) , future proof, VP. At a net price of ~ £2000 it is not really bad for the videophile. Of-course, this is my thinking and opinion. Plus, the other option of changing, say to radiance XD, would cost me more (unless they offer competition products trade-in which I think they don't)

Regards,

Kostas
 
At the moment I'm not going to bother and unless some very good reviews appear or the the upgrade price reduces, then things won't change.

I can't say I was impressed by the NR issue. ABT could have made a statement ages ago and just said that it couldn't be fitted into the VP50, and that the addition of it to their spec sheet was done in haste.

The keeping fairly quiet about the performance of the Pro doesn't look good at all. Either the unit just isn't that much better than the VP50, or it still has issues to be resolved. In either case, it's very off-putting.

Going back to the VP-50, the spec sheet (and other documents) stated that rack mounts and a USB convertor were included - they weren't. ABT's response was "Sorry, it was a mistake". Another spec sheet for the VP-50 stated that NR was to be included. Now we're told "Sorry no...but you can buy this one for only $$". What makes that worse is that they say "Have it now for a price reduction but you've only a few days to get this price reduction...but we're not telling you how good it is, or even if it still has bugs to be fixed"! Maybe that'll change before the deadline, who knows.

I've liked both my VP-50 and the HD+ before it, but unfortunately I have now lost some faith/trust in ABT...and I can't say I'm impressed with how they handle customers at times (no response to my last e-mail to them).

So it's still very unlikely that I'll bother with this 'upgrade'.
 
Kostas I see where you are going... very much my initial justifications, then the whole NDA thing over welmed the process.

re: HD-SDI, the reviews I have read about it over HDMI, say it is only "slightly" better... Then there is the additional cost (+£500) to mod an HD player, which are still in their infancy. If you are looking for perfection then I suppose it is a step in the right direction.

Of course if you are using SD-SDI currently then it is your only choice unfortunately...

Steve I have to agree with you on all your points, DVDO's handling of the "whole" experience is very disappointing. Yep the you can get it cheap now... but we ain't going to share any info with you... smells slightly smelly to me....

Having spent another 1.5 hours reviewing all the posts etc this morning, I have to say I cannot justify to myself the few "upgrades" being offered for the money on any level... Only the "I want the latest" is causing a rift in the decision making process.


As for NR and EE of course no news on how it performs on PAL stuff... I personally never see any ringing on my scaled SD SKY image - except that which is delivered by SKY in the first place (as viewed via a standard CRT TV).
It may become more apparent on 1080... but I am still on the lowly 720 :eek:
 
I am fairly convinced that the improvements for the Pro won't be that big or even noticeable much (over Vp50). If I do see ANY improvement over compressed OTA SD signals then I'll be very happy.

Does this worth £700ish? On it's own probably not.

Since my AV Amp and HD sources have (hd-dvd going to be) hdmi 1.3, I like this hardware offer in the Pro model. Does this make that much difference to justify the cost? Probably not at the moment (I can get raw pcm for the HD codecs).

HD-SDI - Can I get a better picture from a modded SKY-HD and other Sat receivers with SD-SDI? probably yes. Does it worth the extra cost? Again probably not.

TBH, I don't even have that much time to watch all the stuff I own ;)
However, for when I do watch, I am looking to get the best video and Audio possible out of the kit I own without costing me too much.

Finally, I look at the whole upgrade as: Would I spent £2000ish for a VP50 advertised with the NR spec (ie as it was indeed advertised when I bought it) , hd-sdi and hdmi 1.3? Having been around for a while the answer is NO.

Looking at my current and future needs: How much will the alternative solution (for the same features) cost me? Would I spent £700 for it? Absolutely yes!


Hence my positive outlook for the upgrade. (btw, looks like I am the only one in the poll voting positive so far :D

Regarding DVDO not answering emails I have experienced this as well. But I always call them (instead of email them) so I always get the support I want and promised :hiya:

P.S. Please note that I am not trying to change anyone's mind either way. I just post what I think and believe.
 
Like Steve, its the principle that bugs me... I bought my VP50 as a simple upgrade to the HD+ and did not benefit from any early order/AVS discounts and now feel like I've been screwed on the VP50 if it doesn't meet the advertised specs at the time I upgraded.

I know that DVDO offer a "great upgrade service" but this means nothing if the products fail to meet the advertised specs in the first place. I can be construed as a "con" saying "you pay more for our product to meet our specs"... in the UK it could be considered as "not fit for purpose" or "misleading advertising"...

My current opinion is that I will not pay for the upgrade... after all, there is no guarantee that the VP50 pro will do what the specs state and obviously future f/ware upgrade/update promises to give the advertised functions are not worth the paper (electrons) they're printed on... now a proven fact.

Regards
 
I'm happy with my current VP50 and setup, this time we have to pay a lot for little improvement and i'm not buying it.

If i'm to upgrade it will be a new screen with features needed built in, selling my current display with the VP will help with this but again i'm happy at the moment and don't see anything for a worthy upgrade, IMHO.

I'm with the comments from above, along with the hoard of others and will not rely on speculation or rumor of benefits, DVDO has been a bit of a let down doing this, instead they should release something completely different from the VP50 not just add things promised with the 50 and charge a ridiculous upgrade fee.

I bought my VP50 after read the aforementioned PDF with the promise of NR etc... but if business is business good luck to them, customers will diminish playing by this route and i can only feel sorry for those that have been let down like myself.

I'd rather wait 6 months and get a completely different system, one thats worth the extra money.

:thumbsdow
 
How about an "oh god, can't make my mind up!" option. I ordered my VP50 as an early order upgrade from the VP30, so can't complain too much about the lack of NR - since it wasn't talked about in those days. And, whilst NR won't make any difference to decent sources, what about crap ones, like Champions League on ITV with it's terrible compression artifacts - might it not make a difference to that? On the other hand, the complete lack of responses from DVDO to any questions on features and the gag on the nda guys make me think not.... I currently have no idea which way to jump....
 
kostas13 said:
1080p24in 1080p24 out
Got to be worth $3500 of anyone's money, that particular piece of processing magic ;)

As for me, no, the vp50 is good enough for another year.
 

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