Page 1 of SCAN Quandry

Since I had my faulty Aiwa`s I I have been wanting to get a replacement DVD player. The Scan looked good, but the comments on this forum put me off a bit.
Yesterday, quite by accident, I discovered that the son of my brother-in-law`s neighbour (got that?) got a Scan in December last year.
Anyway, he is only 12 miles away so after taking my son swimming early this morning, I drove over there with my `Das Boot` DVD (the one about the German submarine). It has lots of dark scenes so I thought it would be a good test for the Scan, going on what`s been said in the past on here.

Well, bugger me, but the thing played it absolutely brilliantly. The picture was really, really good. Now I am really confused! This film goes on for about three hours and we watched about 2 hours worth.
I am not a technical expert, but can someone explain how I would see the `pixellation`; there are lots of dark scenes on Das Boot and we didn`t see any problems, even looking closely at the screen. Maybe the colour was not as `deep` as it should be (we turned up the `colour` control a bit more) but there was no `noise` on the picture. The 19 year old lad who owns this player reckons he`s pleased with it and has not had problems.
If the Scan is supposed to be a `bad` DVD player then the best ones must be absolutely bloody brilliant!! I find it hard to believe that the picture could be improved much (he has a fairly new Toshiba TV, not widescreen).

Anyway, a question: Is it possible to get some kind of test disk with lines, light and dark areas etc. that could be used to test out a DVD player like the scan?? Maybe Das Boot is not a very rigourous test? Is it possible that the chipset that Ironduke goes on about has been altered or improved in some way to get a better picture?

The lad who`s got the player does not have a PC and he`s asked me to try and find out the following from other Scan owners:

1. Why is the sound too quiet on some films (can it be fixed?)
2. What do the settings in the secret menu do (`non-flicker`, hi-res etc. etc. - is there an explanation somewhere).

I will pass any messages on. Thanks.

Bernard

Das Boot is a good movie is it not? One of my favourites :-)
Anyway to answer some of your questions.

> 1. Why is the sound too quiet on some films (can it be fixed?)

I had this problem and updating the firmware seems to have sorted it out. To check the firmware version using the remote control press

POWER ON - OPEN - SETUP - STOP - STEP – MENU

Then you get a blue screen.

MAIN VER tells you firmware version. 164 and above can be upgraded. A player bought in December will probably be 187. My firmware is now v204s which is also macrovision free. If you require firmware email me on yklam[at]ten.esirpretne and I will send you the file.

> 2. What do the settings in the secret menu do (`non-flicker`, hi-res etc. etc. - is there an explanation somewhere).

The secret menu is for engineers I assume (we`re all engineers when it comes to multi-region though!). After playing about with the settings and not noticing any difference I left them alone.

The decoder chip was changed from a CS4955 to a ADV7172 and this has improved the picture. All scan players sold after 26th October use this chip and have upgradeable firmware.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the movie Magnolia is a good test for a DVD player. Not sure about a dedicated test disk. Hadn`t thought about it before. Must have a look on the net...... ;-)

I bought my scan before I found this forum and I probably wouldn`t have if I had read the comments in this forum first :-) But apart from some audio problems (fixed with firmware) it has performed well enough for me.

I`ve never had any picture problems with my scan player (bought November) and I`ve put about 40 different DVD`s (both region 1 and 2) through it now. It has played every DVD perfectly including all extras even with discs with known problems. The picture may not have the quality of a Sony but it is fine for me and I can play my collection of MP3`s too (listening to them now in fact).

The main downside to Scan seems to be their after sales service though. Numerous people appear to have problems getting replies to emails and getting replacements etc. But I`ve dealt with other companies that are exactly the same.

Hope this helps.

Malcolm