NeuNeo HVD2085 1080p Upconverting DVD Player Review
Posted on Friday, December 30 2005 @ 03:44:39 CET by LSDsmurf
HomeTheater Magazine checked out a DVD player from NeuNeo:
I must admit I, and I assume you, had never heard of this company before this review. The boss (Maureen Jenson) had been talking with them and had a review sample sent to our studio. I didn't find that part out until later. As far as I knew, this product quietly and unceremoniously just showed up. Its plain, unlabeled brown box was so nondescript that it lay unnoticed for several days. Had we not been clearing space to make room for the six RPTVs from the Face Off we had just finished (see our February 2005 issue), who knows how long it may have sat there. I opened the box to check out what it was, and my eye caught what your eye surely caught when you read the headline above: 1080p. As I investigated further, this DVD player only got cooler.
I've set up the subject player using the THX optimizer test patterns for contrast and grey scale. I've observed the following serious problems, or deficiencies:
- on source video that is dark like; room interiors, caves, night the video this player
produces is an unwatchable mass of black with very little visible detail ( observed in
several movies but very noticeable in Raiders of the Lost Arc opening scenes, etc ).
- player will not display 1080p on my 1080p capable toshiba 72MX195
- player "skipped" a minute of the arrival in venice in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade.
It did this repeatedly. I was not able to watch that minute of the movie. Then, through
out venice, and after, the movie would stutter over seconds of video. It would also lose
video and audio sync ( voice and mouth movement would not match ).
I am astonished at how badly the HVD2085 player performs on video that is dark. Of the several DVD players I've had ranging from $25 to $600, i.e.: several toshibas, an apex, a koch, and the panasonic RP-91, this NeuNeo player is by far the worst I've ever seen when it comes to reproducing blacks and dark scenes in general. The remote is weak, difficult to use, and generally the worst remote I've ever tried to use.
Conclusion: Avoid this player and this company.
Contacting Neodigist technical support was equally frustrating. I sent them an email, waited for two weeks, and recieved no reply. I finally recieved a reply to an email the seller of this player sent on my behalf.
Recommended: Click here to Update all your outdated drivers
