Rotel RSP-1098 Serious Video Glitch

[rlin]

Need inputs from owners of RSP-1098

After reading all the posts and pics finally took the plunge and bought the RSP-1098. It is a dream machine - beautiful look, beautiful sound, beautiful LCD.

However I noticed a serious video glitch I don't know if anyone else have noticed. When I hook up my Panasonic F85S progressive scan DVD player (480P output) to Component Video 1 input of 1098 and my projector (InFocus X1) to the component video output of 1098, I see faint virtical stripes "swimming" cross the projector's picture output as though there's severe interference is taking place. I thought it's my other audio components that's causing the interference so I disconnected everything except the DVD player, the 1098, and the projector. No luck - same interference. When I hook up the Panasonic directly to the projector bypassing the RSP-1098 - no interference!! To make things more complicated - passing 1080i signal from my HD Cable box through 1098 into my projector - perfect picture with NO interference.

I thought that perhaps it's my projector that's causing interference so I took the RSP-1098 to my parents' house and hook up just their projector (SONY Cineza) and their progressive scan dvd player (a JVC). Same damn interference!! Final testing - my parents also have a Pioneer 52 inch rear projection HDTV which I hook up to the RSP-1098 as well. Surprisingly, the interference is much less obvious - however I can still see very very faint shimmering when the player is displaying a stationary picture.

This is driving me nuts - otherwise I love the RSP-1098 but I must have the ability of switching 480P progressive component video because my projector only has one component progressive input!!

My conclusion: It seems like the interference occurs only when passing 480P signal through the RSP-1098 but NOT the 1080i signal. The interference is also the most visible through the front projector (my Infocus X1 and my parents' SONY Cineza) Finally, I took my first 1098 back to Myer Emco and exchange for another 1098 - SAME THING!! A salesperson I spoke to at Myer Emco also commented that he also noticed the interference on another 1098 in then store when hooking up to a projector!! It seems like this is a wide spread problem but I have yet to find anyone that have notice this problem.

Sorry for the length of this post but any comments and thoughts greatly appreciated - this is my first venture into high-end audio and I have wasted about 3-4 days just trying to trouble-shoot this video glitch!!

[Danbry39]

Welcome to the forum rlin.

I don't have the 1098, but want to thank you for bringing it to Club Rotel's attention, and, hopefully, via the club, to Rotel's attention. Obvously, this seems to be a problem with several units at the very least. I'm sure other owners will now carefully look to see if the problem exists with their units.

I would contact Rotel and tell them what is going on with your unit. See what they say and, if you wouldn't mind, fill us all in. Usually, there are bugs to be worked out and feedback like yours allows the company to be aware of any design flaws and get to work on fixing them. So, thumbs up to you. :T

Sorry it happened and hoping there's a quick resolution for you.




Keith

[ejfiii]

Man, Myer Emco must love this forum. THat makes two 1098 they have sold from it.

Anyway, form Centerville, I am assuming you went to the Fairfax store in the shopping center with Home Depot? If so, take your 1098 back there and talk to Ted. He is not the manager, but he is more than a sales guy. Tell him E. J. is a friend of yours - he has been very helpful to me over the past few months - and he took back a 5 week old 1065 that turns out was not having any problems, but I thought it was. Maybe even call him ahead of time and tell him the problem and say that you want to come in and set up the 1098 in their projector room so everyone there can see the problem. He will make it right for you no matter the problem.

Good luck and let us know what happens. Hell, let me know when you are going and I'll meet you there - I work about 5 minutes away.

E. J.




My HT

[Andrew Pratt]

Hmm this is interesting. I haven't got my projector yet so I can't test mine out yet but about the only thing that comes to mind is that there's a setting in the menu's to allow for progressive inputs to be displayed on the TFT display properly...I don't think that would effect the projectors display but its worth checking.

[Howie]

The first day I bought and hooked up the machine, I detected the same almost vertical lines going from left to right across the screen. It was most noticeable in 1080i material, both broadcast and DirecTV, but was also evident coming from the DVD player and on 480P and 480i content. I immediately went out and bought an expensive new component cable, thinking there might be a problem with a cheap one that I was using. I hooked up the new cable, but the problem persisted. I was ready to return the unit the next day. I kept watching for several hours that evening, and eventually the interference just went away. I thought that it might have been a break-in issue or warmup or some such thing. The next day, the same interference began when I first turned the unit on. It lasted maybe an hour, and then stopped. It has now been nearly a week since I bought the 1098, and the interference has not returned. The picture appears to be as good or better than when I bypass the unit altogether. Maybe you'll experience the same thing that I did and your picture will clear up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but right now everything is perfect with my unit.

Howie




Howie

[rlin]

Tonight I kept trying different options - turning "progressive" setting within RSP-1098 on/off, turn the LCD on/off, etc. etc. I even let the 1098 warm up for a few hours - still absolutely no improvement - same interference vertical lines swimming from right to left . Dave at Myer Emco at Fairfax has been helpful in contacting Rotel - their only recommendation is trying turning "progressive" setting to "off" which made absolutely no difference. They even suggest "oh just use interlaced component signal" which is totally unacceptable - my projector's only has one progressive component input and having a $3000 processor that only does interlace component switching is just ridiculous.

I will wait for further recommendations from Rotel but I hope they can provide a fix within 30 days before my return period runs out.

[Jurgen]

This seems to be very similar to the problems I encountered with my Panasonic lcd projector. And since the Rotel makes use of the same technology, I thought I’d share my findings with you. Perhaps some of it could be useful:

When I made the upgrade to progressive (with a denon 2800), I noticed the same vertical swimming lines (especially noticeable with a blue background). At first I thought the player was at fault, so I’ve sent it for repairs. No improvements were made. I’ve tested several models: Harman kardon dv25, pioneer 747ai, rotel rdv1080 and the arcam dv88+. Since progressive pal is very important to me, I did not have a very wide selection of players at my disposal.

The results were mixed: the pioneer and rotel did not show the lines(but could not handle prog pal, so no option for me, and the rotel image stuttered with dts), the denon and Harman did show the lines in ntsc progressive and the arcam displayed the lines at progressive pal. I choose the latter because of the overall quality it offered but the lines persisted.

I contacted Panasonic and Arcam and I was given several suggestions(reverse the power plug, shorter cables,) but all to no avail. Both the distributors claimed it could be because of incompatibility problems and interference of macro vision, so that wasn’t very helpful.

Finally I went to my dealer with the Arcam and the projector: At the store the lines were also visible(so I could rule out local interference at my place) but another Panasonic projector(same type) gave far less problems. So I sent my projector for repairs to the Dutch Panasonic repair centre along with a detailed description of the problem. Their response: “we could not find any problems with your projector. You are probably feeding it with signals that are not within specification.” Yeah Right!

Fortunately my dealer helped me out and very shortly I am the owner of a Sanyo plv z1(which seems to display a clean signal).

The way I see it, there are some possibilities for you: either you start experimenting with other DVD players (the rdv 1060 could be an option) or you keep on swapping the processor until you do get a clean signal.

I am aware that this could be an entirely different problem altogether, but I’ve been hassling with this issue for more than 8 months now and I would hate to see that you would have to do the same.

Good luck,
Jurgen.

[rlin]

I want to thank everyone for their inputs...in summary, so far I have already tried THREE progressive scan DVD players - SONY, Panasonic, and JVC each uses completely different progressive chip sets and all have the same interference when connecting through the RSP-1098 using 480P signal. When each of these players was connected DIRECTLY to a projector, no interference. In addition, I have tried TWO projectors - SONY Cineza and InFocus X1 and each one through the RSP-1098 displays interference on 480P signals. Finally, the interference occurs in TWO RSP-1098 and possibly a third unit in the store. Conclusion so far I can draw is that this is a RSP-1098 specific problem.

To give Myer Emco credit, the store manager called me today personally to advise me to bring the unit into the store for service so they can look into the problem. I will post update here to see that they find.

[Danbry39]

I know this must be testing your patience. But, at the very least, it seems you have a great dealer who's willing to go the extra mile.




Keith

[Andrew Pratt]

I know Rotel watches this forum so I'm sure they've already seen this but I've also forwared it onto some people that will hopefully be able to help out.

[rlin]

Followup on the video glitch...brought the 1098 back to store and swap for the THIRD UNIT - FINALLY - No more wavy / moving vertical lines. In addition, I have noticed that the firmware has changed - now you can set PROGRESSIVE on/off to each of the four video inputs. Finally, they also fixed the display bug (basically on the two prev. 1098 if I shut off the LCD display by holding the display button, later on pushing the same button again, nothing comes up on screen except LCD's backlight. Now this is fixed as well!!!

Bottom Line: I think there's a bad batch of video boards in the older 1098s. Anyone experiencing video interferences should bring it in for an exchange.

Rob

[Danbry39]

Rlin,

Great post!!! I'm sure a lot of 1098 owners and potential owners are VERY interested in the information you gave.




Keith

[Azeke]

Rob,

That indeed is a great post. When I upgrade to progressive scan I wondering if I will encounter the same issues.

What is the current firmware version number on your new 1098?

I currently running version 1.0.0-0305211.

Thanks,

Azeke

[skipm]

Rob-

That's great news. They say third time is a charm. What version of firmware does your new 1098 have? Mine has v1.1.0 - 030626

-Skip

[OnlyOne]

This sounds very much like the problem I've been having with my new 1055. Except that the wavy lines I get are horizontal and quite intermittant, but with me, they seem to happen after the unit warms up for a while.

The really nasty addendum is the huge vertical bar that runs the length of the screen from right to left on my component 1 input, but that would seem to be a video board problem. For which my dealer *still* has not gotten my replacement.

But thats my fault, I demand a silver faced unit.

I hope the replacement does not have the wavy horizontal lines on it, that would upset me a great deal.

[rlin]

My firmware is 1.11-030715

I think we should start a new thread on RSP-1098 Firmwares for people to report their new firmwares.

Rob

[Azeke]

Rob,

I was thinking the exact same thing.

I'll start it.

Regards,

Azeke