What sort of de-interlacer does it have?

Just wondered if it was as good as the Oppo.

I'll ask oh man of weirdest username ever.

As tempting as this is, I think I have to hold myself back. I already have...

1: An Upscaling DVD Player
2: A DVD player with DivX support
3: A Region-Hacked, PAL-playable DVD player
4: A DVD Recorder with HDD
5: A PS2 (Not too applicable, but still)

All hooked up to my TV. Having two or three of those functions in one unit would be nice, though...

Now that's more my price range.  A SRP of just $169 is pretty damn good.  Looks like I may invest in one of these.

dbeamish wrote: I'll ask oh man of weirdest username ever.

Was that aimed at me?  What is weird about it?

i12bnmovie wrote: dbeamish wrote: I'll ask oh man of weirdest username ever.

Was that aimed at me?  What is weird about it?

it is a weird name i12bnmovie so I'd guess yes it was

dumb question I am sure; is this multiregion or can it be made to be?

While you are reviewing this one, please check out how it handles non-anamorphic widescreen DVD's. About 10% of my collection is distorted on the 2825 since it treats everything as anamorphic (Original Dirty Dozen was the latest, along with most of the early Bond movies). Also, be sure to look at some older movies and TV shows to see how they look. The 2825 squeezed them, too.
Have you run into movies that hang up with the 2825? I would estimate about 1 in 30 hang while playing. Hang is consistant on a disk, but you can normaly skip to the next chapter break and watch the rest of the disk.

Anamorphic I have heard that the disks with anamorphic content contain a field that gives the "corrected" display ratio. Non-anamorphic titles don't have this field. Helios appears to "default" to one anamorphic value, instead of using 0 for the adjustment if the field is missing. Some VERY early titles were anamorphic without this flag - didn't work very well.
FYI - Anamorphic is a term from the old days when folks wanted to project a wide screen movie using a 16mm projector. The anamorphic lens was put on the projector to "stretch" the projected image along the horizontal axis without changing the content vertically. DVD's with anamorphic content do the same trick by compressing the vertical information into a smaller window. This lets the disk contain the full 520 lines of information while displaying it in a smaller space. Works best if the image is up-scaled.

Last week I bought via Internet the Helios HVD2085 (compuplus)and, for my surprise, I received the Helios H4000. I paid $139.99 + shipment.  

Weird

Anamorphic MattMN wrote: I just received this player and I'm not very happy with some of the features.  I asked earlier if it could upconvert PAL to NTSC and output HD at the same time and was told it could.  This player can't do both.  Also, I'm getting horrible banding on the 1080i output.  I played NTSC DVDs of Battlestar Galactica and it looked a lot better at 480p than 1080i (I have a HD WS NTSC Mitsubishi 65" TV purchased in Nov. 2002 and it can't handle 720p.)

It also didn't recognize a few of my DVDRs (WhoFan's Series 2 Bootleg DVDRs that are posted on newsgroups) that both my Malata and Phillips did play with no problems.  

I'm working out a review right now, but my TV can get 720p. I'll send your post to the Helios people and see what they say. The only problem I've been having is the fact that the screen saver sometimes puts off the lipsync if you pause a disc rather than stopping it, which I'm sure is something they can fix.

I know as the reviewer I should know these things, but I'm not that smart so I'll ask anyway, forgive my possible ignorance. I think I misunderstood you question originally. I have had a couple of occasions where I needed to go back to the menu on a PAL disc to ensure it was playing HD, but it works for me. As far as the HD upconverting goes, it seems you don't have an HD set (if it can't get 720p), so watching films on 480p would be the better option.

Anyway, I haven't heard back from them in a while, which is why my review still isn't up (I had a few technical questions for them), but any other problems feel free to email me at gabe.powers@dvdactive, and I'll do my best to pass them along to the people in charge.

bchip50 wrote: I have heard that the disks with anamorphic content contain a field that gives the "corrected" display ratio. Non-anamorphic titles don't have this field. Helios appears to "default" to one anamorphic value, instead of using 0 for the adjustment if the field is missing. Some VERY early titles were anamorphic without this flag - didn't work very well.
FYI - Anamorphic is a term from the old days when folks wanted to project a wide screen movie using a 16mm projector. The anamorphic lens was put on the projector to "stretch" the projected image along the horizontal axis without changing the content vertically. DVD's with anamorphic content do the same trick by compressing the vertical information into a smaller window. This lets the disk contain the full 520 lines of information while displaying it in a smaller space. Works best if the image is up-scaled.

Yes, I do understand this. The player does stretch nonanamophic titles in HD mode. I don't think I have any titles that aren't 'flagged'. If you know a few you can check my collection on the link below and ask me a specific DVD to try if you'd like. As it stands, the 480p mode is the only way I can watch nonanamophic titles without distortion.

I can't afford a top of the line player to specifically compare to, but will say that the 4000 is obviously made by a smaller company. There are some bugs in the system (though my player is an early release, and it appears the UPS man dropped the damn box, so God only knows if anything was knocked loose), but the picture and audio quality are pretty great, at least in 720p mode. The only DVD I own two copies of is Suspiria (the LE and the non-LE are both in my house, and feature the exact same transfer). I compared the 2085 and 4000 side by side with this disc, and I did notice a very slight difference in the size of the digital blocking, leading me to say that this player is an improvement over the old one, but only just in the video field.

I apologize that I'm not the most versed technically on the site, nor do I have the top end equipment to test it to some readers liking, but if I'm given specific questions I'll do my best to get answers for my review when I finally finish.

Anamorphic Gabe Powers wrote:

 The only problem I've been having is the fact that the screen saver sometimes puts off the lipsync if you pause a disc rather than stopping it, which I'm sure is something they can fix.


Also I noted this.  I expect can be resolved, since is a little annoying.

TV shows on H4000 My specific concern with non-anamorphic has more to do with TV shows than older movies. It's a real hassle to change resoluctions on my projector and that's why I wanted an upcoverting player. I't a real hassle if I have to keep a second player for TV shows.