obliviON

I remember having the same issues with Ten HD on my Hotchip 4000. It would report it as SD and the picture would look SD. However, when I power cycled the box (turned it off and on at the wall) Ten HD came back up. This happened at least 3-4 times. I have no idea why!

Guys, I will be in US at the time Toshiba HD-A2 launches next week. I'm seriously thinking of getting one, but would like to know whether it will play PAL SD DVDs we use in Australia. The ad at http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail...657&Redir=1 indicates that it will support PAL DVDs, but I am not 100% convinced. Region coding of the SD DVD player in HD-A2 is not much of an issue, as the region coding on discs can be easily removed Does anybody know?

I haven't bought one yet, but I did see them in Retravision, Ballajura (the new one on Marshall Rd). Did not ask about the price.

Yeah, I agree 7 days is a bit too long. If you can take it in yourself, I recommend you do that. At least Teac have their own dedicated service centre, which typically means that they have parts on hand and that turnaround time is not that long.

Yes, that is the service centre I took my plasma too. I suggest you ring them and see whether they can come out to your house and replace the sustain boards. They seem to be well aware of the sparkling pixel problem and I know that at this moment, they have replacement stock of these boards, and the turnaround time is very short (a day or two if you bring the plasma in yourself).

I'm digging up an old thread to share my experience with the Teac service centre here in Perth. My Teac PLH4220SD plasma would not turn on Wednesday night (11/10/06). In fact, it would turn on (you could hear the plasma buzz at the back) but picture would never appear. Anyway, I rang Teac and their field technicians were all booked out until Monday 16/10/06. As I could not wait, I dropped it off myself to them on Thursday and just a day later, my plasma is back up and running! I'm very happy with their service. They replaced (under warranty) the control board responsible for the fault. They even replaced the y-sustain and z-sustain board to prevent "sparkling pixel issue". Apparently, for any plasma that comes in to service, they replace this board if it has not been replaced yet. The guys there were polite, well-spoken and knowledgable. For some reason, I did not expect to see this level of service from Teac. I'm happy I was wrong!

The quote at the bottom of that post is in regards to a DVD player / STB combo, not DVD recorder / STB combo. At $329, this is WAY cheaper than DGTEC. We really need someone to test-drive this machine! I must say that I don't have high expectations of this device.

For those interested, Harris Scarfe catalogue is available at http://www.harrisscarfe.com.au/img/catalog...ebCatalogue.pdf The DVD/STB combo is on page 15 of the above PDF file.

Mate, I know exactly what you are talking about. I have a cousin who has a widescreen CRT and Foxtel set to 4:3. When I ask him why he does that, he says he can't stand the black bars on the side for 4:3 material. Apparently, on the other hand, a distorted, strecthed-out, picture for 16:9 material is OK It's strange how often you see this in people's homes. Some people go out and buy top brand TV's, supposedly for better picture quality, and then watch everything strecthed out.

I have just set up a Supernet 8050T set top box for a friend. I can confirm that the component video output does indeed have weak colour. However, if you can adjust the colour setting for this input independently, it is no problem at all! As for other things, so far so good. It seems a very good purchase for $80!

Thanks guys for these comments. I have one question though. How do the two boxes stack up with chaseplay. What I am really interested in is a one-button rewind to the start of the chaseplay (timeshift) buffer. My DVD/HDD recorder allows me to do this, which I find very handy, especially for sports events for which I do not want to know the score. How long is the timeshift buffer in these units anyway?

Yes, it will work. VCR scart outputs composite even when YUV is enabled on TV scart. However, if you enable s-video on TV scart, VCR scart will output s-video too.

I second this. Same thing here in Perth. Just horrible. SBS HD lacks pixellation but for some reason, on my Hotchip 4000HD STB it is blurry..... Can't get a decent picture at all....

I think such limitation is found in many other set-top boxes, including Pace 420 box for Foxtel Digital (maybe other Foxtel boxes too, but I have never seen them).

I have had exactly the same problem. The picture would break up when Pace 420 (not IQ) box was put in standby or AV. Not sure what was going on there. Thus, I went and bought a $40 component switch on Ebay.

You may be able to get results you want with a simple DVD recorder (no HDD). I think Panasonic ones have RGB inputs, which may give you better picture than DVD recorders with S-Video/Composite inputs.

This also means that you cannot output YUV to say, your plasma, and S-video to a DVD-HDD recorder at the same time. Thus, you cannot watch the best quality picture and record the best quality picture without changing settings all the time. In my opinion, this is a pity. I have now set up the Pace 420 to output S-Video to my DVD-HDD recorder, which outputs YUV to plasma. It's OK, but the picture is marginally worse than when Pace 420 is outputting YUV to plasma directly. At least, I get to do timeshifting this way....

I use amp for audio from the DVD player. However, I need to put the STB on standby while watching movies...

Hi deegee, I have had the Teac plasma for five months now, and have been very happy with it. I do not know whether it is the best value for money now, but to me, it was five months ago ($1799 at JB). One thing to note is that I have found that DVI, VGA and Component are much, much better way to connect things to this plasma than S-Video and Composite. So my advice is to get set-top box/DVD player/ Foxtel box/DVD recorder that connect through DVI, VGA or Component. Unfortunately, there is only one Component input on the plasma, so a Component switch may be needed. I circumvented this 'problem' by getting a DVI-based DVD player, VGA-based set-top box, and Component-based DVD-HDD recorder through which I watch Foxtel Pace 420 box.

I see such lines too. They are most obvious on red background, but they can also be seen on orange, or even yellow backgrounds. I have a Teac 4220SD plasma connected via component. I am pretty sure it is not the plasma, since if I "daisy chain" Foxtel through a DVD-HDD recorder (S-video out of Foxtel, S-Video in on DVD-HDD, 576i over component out of DVD-HDD) those lines disappear and in all other terms, the picture is just as good.

It is too late now, unfortunately, but I do agree that it is something that I was probably better off pursuing. Anyway, I spoke to JVC today and they said that the main board had to be replaced - thus waiting for parts. This is so dragging on - it has been more than a week now. Let us know how your "re-conditioned" recorder is doing when you get it.

Thanks Golly for your reply. You have pointed out exactly my feelings at this moment. The service centre people have given me (I hope not false) confidence that the problem is repairable (by repairable, I mean if fixed, it will not happen again). I cannot wait to get it back (they said 1-2 weeks maximum). I am still keen on this unit from reading all the comments on its good PQ. I just hope that the Loading bug goes away forever.

Hello everyone, Last week I purchased a JVC DR-MH30 160GB DVD/HDD recorder from GraysOnline. I could not pass up on a good bargain, even though I read manu user stories describing the infamous "Loading" bug with JVC DVD recorders (not just this model, but others too). For those that do not know, the "Loading" bug is where the recorder flashes "Loading" on the front panel and none of the front panel or remote keys work. More details can be found at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/ind...p/t-495447.html but there are more and better pages elsewhere. I guess I read too many good stories on how good the picture quality of recordings on this recorder is, etc... Funnily enough, with the recorder came a note from JVC saying what to do if Loading keeps flashing!!! And I plugged it in, and guess what, Loading was indeed flashing. I did as JVC instructed me, and nothing helped. So my great new purchase is already at a service centre being repaired (the unit carries 6-month warranty), one day after receiving it. I wonder if there are any other people on this forum that had this problem, maybe had it fixed and want to share their thoughts on the quality of repairs. The service centre people seemed to be very confident, they said they had seen this problem many times before and they knew exactly what to do (apparently the board needs to be "modded" with some extra components or something). There was even another same model on their desk returned yesterday with the same problem. Has anyone else bought this recorder from GraysOnline? Within the last three weeks, they sold something like 30 of these units and there are more on sale (just beware of the Loading bug ) I would hope that at least one of the buyers visits these forums. All these units are meant to be factory reconditioned, but I doubt thei reconditioning and testing procedures now. Any thoughts?

Are you sure that is the same unit? I don't think the one you linked has a HDD.

Unfortunately, it does not. It has DVI and VGA (for HD/progressive outputs) and composite for SD output. On mine, DVI does not work properly (I think my box may be faulty or there is some compatibility issue) so I use VGA for Hotchip. This is handy, as it freed up the DVI port for Samsung HD747 dvd player.