Info and forum posts by 'JLGMAX'

RE: WHAT IS THAT I SMELL ITs**************** ANOTHER FRYED ENCORE

I managed to freeze my Encore 450 in the pursuit of Macrovision removal and the guys at Encore were brilliant. I didnt get charged anything, and even got a free copy of Wild Wild West and a Wallace and Gromit DVD which is apparently standard practice if you have your player serviced by this excellent customer-focused company.

RE: New Encore 450 firmware coming soon....

Doubtful. More likely to deal with problem discs e.g. Sleepy Hollow and hopefully (!) remove some of the artifacts and pulsing on certain discs.

RE: ENCORE 450 - NO LONGER A TOASTER !!!

Well Ive watched this one for a while now and think its time to make a comment. I am running my Encore 450 (latest firmware, macro disabled) through RGB Scart into my Panasonic PK2 pure flat widescreen TV.

I previously owned an Eclipse DVD 595 (a Mico in a different case to all intents and purposes) and find the picture which the Encore delivers to be massively superior.

OK, now down to business.......artifacts and "pulsing". I have seen BOTH of these effects on the Region 2 DVD "Interview With The Vampire". The disc does look pretty s***e to be honest. However, all of my other DVDs (both R1 and R2) appear fine. Yes, there are sometimes artifacts noticable but these are no worse than those which I have seen on every DVD player which I have ever watched (and that list includes Phillips, Sony, Toshiba).

If you have a copy of R2 IWAV (I havent any more cause I sold my copy) then pop it in and have a look at Chapter 4 (I think its chapter 4 anyway - the one which starts with Brad Pitt lying in a four poster bed and pointing his gun at Tom Cruise when he enters the room). On this scene in particular both artifacts and pulsing were visible on my unit/disc combination.

Id be interested to see what the Aiwa boys say about this - if you have a copy of R2 IWAV post here what you find, but please avoid the temptation to be biased just because you own the unit !! I purchased an Encore 450 as I got it at a good price and a good spec for the money but am under no illusions that better players exist if you are prepared to pay for them and even better players (like Encores forthcoming progressive scan player) are coming soon.

For now Im happy with the player but certainly wont over estimate its performance simply because I own one !

RE: Encore 450 - it works, by god !!!!!!

Wish youd been here 2 weeks ago m8 (b4 I fried my player with 2.0a firmware) !!

Mind you, having said that, I have found Encore Direct to be literally the BEST company I have ever dealt with for after sales service (and I am a Purchasing Manager for a living so I know what CS is all about....!).

All Id like to know now is:

1) How did you discover the hack ?!

and

2) What does the CSS option do ?

Cheers !!

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE - SH**TY ENCODING ??!

Ive had the R2 Interview with the vampire for a few weeks and have finally got round to watching it. It looks awful on my Encore 450 - really bad banding/pulsing in the background.

I know that it isnt my player as all the other discs look and play fine !

Has anyone else found this to be the case on this DVD ? I never realised that the quality of encoding could vary so much !!

RE: ENCORE 450 2.0A FIRMWARE FIASCO - UPDATE

Yep - I think they call it "stock rotation" !!! Obviously they were shipping both types out over the last couple of weeks !

ENCORE 450 2.0A FIRMWARE FIASCO - UPDATE

Having spoken to the very helpful and understanding staff at Encore they believe that players which are locked up through the use of 2.0A firmware will require a new chip and/or circuit board depending upon how far through the write-process the player had got when it froze. (They will be able to tell from the player what has been written to the memory upon examining it).

It would appear that the likely solution to the inconsitency of results is that the chipset and layout of the newest batch of units has changed. Therefore the success or otherwise of loading 2.0a is dependant upon the actual physical chipset of your machine, rather than the firmware version currently loaded.

i.e. some players which have been despatched with the newest 3.3 firmware preloaded have an older chipset than the newest current batch of players. The newest batch freeze up if you try to load the Sampo 2.0a version firmware as it references to a chip/chips which no longer exists in the player in that format.

Encore are currently in the process of trying to contact the German website to request that they at least post a warning message alongside the file to warn potential downloaders of the problems which they may encounter - and ideally that they remove the file altogther.

RE: ENCORE 450 - DO NOT USE 2.0A FIRMWARE ON THIS PLAYER !!!

Mine locked up using the discs that you burnt for me mate !!

The "official" line from Encore is that the chipset in the Encore 450 has changed from that which was in the players when the 2.0a firmware was the current version - hence the lockup.

This however doesnt explain why some people get away with doing it whilst others dont !

Just for anyone who is still considering trying it my advice would be not to bother, as you are looking at a £25 - £45 charge for Encore to fix the player if it locks up.

RE: Encore 2.0A firmware update - WARNING

I would warn other users who are planning to perform this trick to remove Macrovision to think carefully before going ahead with it !

My player is currently frozen with no signs of this changing any time soon !

It looks like this can happen even when you follow the directions which clayts posted above.

RE: Encore 450 for 150quid!!!!!!!!!

Thats where I got mine from 2 weeks ago and its fine thanks......!

3.3 - yes, silver - yes, duff - no !

RE: Encore 450 - Playback troubles

Ive had a few stuttering / pausing moments. Was watching a movie last night and it was stuttering. Took the disc out, wiped it and put it back in. It played absolutely fine for the rest of the disc.

This was on a brand new disc that Id literally just undone the packaging on ! Try wiping your discs and see if that helps with your problem.

BEST VIDEO PERFORMANCE - R1 NTSC OR R2 PAL ?

I have a multi standard compatible widescreen Tv and a DVD player which is capable of outputting in NTSC or PAL. If I had a choice between a R1 NTSC disc and a R2 PAL disc (of the same movie !) which would (theoretically) output the "better" video quality on the TV ?

This item was edited on Sunday, 26th November 2000, 21:53

RE: ENCORE all mails sent >>

I hope everyone will join me in saying "cheers" to bedlam for helping everyone out with the Encore firmware problems !

Cheers !

RE: Anyone Got an Encore with No problems???????????

PS - Clayts, would you mind emailing me the two firmware versions please so that I can get them burnt onto a CDR ?

Cheers.

RE: Anyone Got an Encore with No problems???????????

Its not actually a menu as such, more an input code. You can enter it at any time, but I suggest doing this whilst a disc is playing to see the effect which switching to say NTSC from PAL has (particularly noicable on Gladiator R2).

Type 72555 on the remote and the player will switch to the next format in the sequence. This is displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen. From memory (Im at work at the moment !!) I think the cycle goes PAL > MULTI > NTSC > PAL.

Try it on the Gladiator disc - on my S Video connection the picture changes noticably when changing to NTSC (black bars are increased, change in picture tone etc). Make sure that your TV can handle an NTSC signal before you do this though.

I was advised that if my TV can handle NTSC (which it can - Panasonic PK2) then it is best to leave the player set to "MULTI" which automatically selects the relevant output appropriate for the disc which you are playing. (As a default the player is set to output PAL).

Hope this helps, and would be very interested to hear technically what the effect is of outputing R2 PAL discs via an NTSC signal ?!

RE: Anyone Got an Encore with No problems???????????

Got mine about a week ago. No problems on Regions 1 or 2 with Lip Sync. Having spoken to Encore`s Technical lads it seems that the lip sync issues are caused by setting the player to output PAL when using an NTSC disc on a TV which cannot handle the signal and vice versa. Using the hidden "transmission format" menu allows you to alter the settings to PAL, NTSC or AUTO (which detects the disc`s format and transmits in the applicable format).

Overall a great player, better dolby seperation and much better picture than my previous Eclipse 595.........but Im missing the macrovision disable function !

RE: Encore DV450 hack?

This is exactly what I have just been talking to Encores Technical support about !

They are not going to include the Macrovision disable feature in any future firmware versions and all recent units have shipped with the 3.3 firmware, so I want to load the 2.0 version like you, but am concerned that I may lose functionality by doing so.

The question is, if you downgrade to 2.0, disable Macrovision then reload the 3.3, will macrovision remain disabled ?