LiteOn LVD-2002 DivX/MPEG-4/DVD Player

[Roundabout]

Here's a copy of the email I sent to LieOn, er LiteOn:

Whoster,

Great e-mail! They will be getting the message, I think, with so many pissed-off customers on their hands. This is absolutely ridiculous that they think this is acceptable to treat customers this way. I posted the e-mail they sent me in the other thread, if you want to read it. They insult their customers by saying "you have to use nero". DUH!! I was very pissed when I got that message. If it wasn't burned properly, it would have got the message "current firmware is newer than firmware CD". DUH!

I sent a very angry e-mail back to this guy telling him I know how to burn a NRG file. We'll see if he even responds. I sent him a very similar e-mail to the one you sent, that I have bought my LAST LIE-ON product...(great name for them you came up with, I'll be using it a lot, thanks!)

And as you know, I supported them in this forum, encouraged people to buy their products, so now I look stupid. Sorry for anyone that went out and bought this player based on my recommendation - I apologize. I made the mistake of believing LIE-ON and their promises.

I only hope they get off their butts and do something about this soon. This is unacceptable.

LieOn, and On, and On, and On.....

[whoster69]

Thanks for the info Roundabout, and don't blame yourself. You've provided a lot of excellent support here. Many of us were taken in by Lie-On. I hope they reverse this policy and further support their drives. It's so unfortunate when a company makes an excellent product and then abandons their customer base like this.

[valenz]

I try the followings firmwares On the LVD-2002

2001-02.29
2001-03.31
2001-03.32
2002-03.29
2002-03.32

The error message I am getting is the same "Cannot update firmware.
Current firmware version is newer than Update CD"

Iisonic II2002 Firmware for a clone one don't give the error but do not upgrade


You can find firmwares of the LVD 2002 and clones

* RANSGEAR DVX-200 Japanese clone of the lvd-2002
* Iisonic II2002 Another clone

In this french site

http://liteonteam.free.fr/pages/firmwares.php

Or if you prefer a translation to english
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?lp=fr_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fliteonteam...es_lvd2002.php

[fzero]

so does thet french firmware modified by dyter work? im too afraid to test it.

[valenz]

They say that work's

"This version was tested and functions well
for the LVD 2002 and II2002...."

Wee need a brave tester

[fzero]

That sure as **** isnt me.

[wiggie]

They say that work's

"This version was tested and functions well
for the LVD 2002 and II2002...."

Wee need a brave tester

Does anyone know if the menus of this firmware is in English, French or both? I'll try it.

[Goblin]

I am a brave tester, and I confirm: this works!
I just played with this firmware, and I am really pleased. First of all, folder support. It is really good for mp3 disks. I really loved the way I can browse files now. If before I couldn't scan through mp3 files if a file is already playing (selecting another one would stop the current file and start the new one), now it is possible to do.

Search within AVI files became really fast, it seeked from the beginning of the file to the 1 hour point within 1-2 seconds. Something that Kiss should consider to do. Fast forward remains the same though (or may be a bit faster) but for me it is not a big issue.

I think that now I can even apply the original LiteOn's 3.02 but I don't think it is necesary because the firmware is the same.

[Goblin]

I am a brave tester, and I confirm: this works!
I just played with this firmware, and I am really pleased. First of all, folder support. It is really good for mp3 disks. I really loved the way I can browse files now. If before I couldn't scan through mp3 files if a file is already playing (selecting another one would stop the current file and start the new one), now it is possible to do.

Search within AVI files became really fast, it seeked from the beginning of the file to the 1 hour point within 1-2 seconds. Something that Kiss should consider to do. Fast forward remains the same though (or may be a bit faster) but for me it is not a big issue.

I think that now I can even apply the original LiteOn's 3.02 but I don't think it is necesary because the firmware is the same.

It is in english but it doesn't really matter because there is no user input (except inserting the disk ). Keep in mind, once it starts reading the disk, you screen will go dark. Don't be alarmed, it is normal. After reading, it will start updating the FW. You screen will turn blue with Sonic 2002 logo (NOTE: your original LiteOn logo will remain the same after flashing, so will the interface). It will take another minute to flash, then it will eject cd. Remove the disk and reset the player. You're done.

[fzero]

how are the fonts with the subtitles, someone mention with another firmware it was very hard to read?

[Goblin]

how are the fonts with the subtitles, someone mention with another firmware it was very hard to read?

It was OK for me. White letters, big enough to read. Tested it on 1 non-english movie that had english subs. In order to use subtitles, you have to press the subtitles button. The same way as if you would watch a regular DVD. If you have more than 1 video file on a disk, and they all (or some of them) have subtitles, you have to start the subs every time you go to the next video (that is a preliminary testing, I am not 100% sure but it seems like what I said).

[fzero]

I took the plunge everything worked great. I notice the player boots up quicker now and the seeking is much faster, at least with the XviD i tested.

[Zimdvd]

I can also confirm success on a US player using the French modified updater.

Alas, the one thing I truly wanted was a random/shuffle for mp3 playback (sucks to listen to 1000 mp3s in the same order.. my 1987 CD player can do random, why can't this???). Sadly they did not add this feature (I did email several times requesting it).

Mike

[whoster69]

OK. Finally a fix that works!

You can get the details at:

http://www.liteonit.com.tw/DC/english/download/2002.htm

I used this and I was able to successfully update my LVD-2002 with the latest firmware (302).

Now we just have to convince them to keep supporting the LVD-2002!

[Hideous_Hog]

Finally!!!

I just updated to the 0302 firmware, and was pleased to find that first DIVX movie that I had choppy video problems with NOW PLAYS GREAT.

Make sure to follow the directions on Whoster99's link above. You will need to burn 2 CDR's; one for the little LVD2002.tsp file, and the other for the 0302 firmware update.

Enjoy all.

[Roundabout]

Thanks for the info Roundabout, and don't blame yourself. You've provided a lot of excellent support here. Many of us were taken in by Lie-On. I hope they reverse this policy and further support their drives. It's so unfortunate when a company makes an excellent product and then abandons their customer base like this.

Whoster,

Thanks for the nice words. I guess we were all taken in by LieOn and their (formerly) good reputation for supporting their products. I don't know what made them decide to stop supporting these two players, but it doesn't make sense - if the new 2010 has the same chipset. They could use the same R&D to come up with new F/W for all three models, and make lots of points in the Tech community for keeping everything up to date. Now they have squandered all that by telling people that they won't do anything for us, you have to buy a new unit if you want something up to date. You can be sure when that happens I won't be buying a LieOn unit. I hope by then that we have other options to choose from, I keep hoping that some major mfgrs. will announce a DivX/XviD unit. So far, nothing from Sony, Toshiba, JVC, etc.

I have a feeling LieOn isn't going to change their minds on this one, they had such a tough time coming up with this F/W they probably don't want to be bothered with any more. Maybe they think they've reached the limit of what this chipset can do, I don't know. Regardless, they owe us more than what they've done so far, only one update in nearly six months. I still haven't heard any more from them after the initial e-mail to use Nero to burn the NRG file. They probably won't even bother to contact me again. Their loss, of a customer and backer - and many more.

I think they know by now we're not too happy, but they don't care. I'll be sure not to recommend any to buy the 2010 when it comes out. And friends that were considering purchasing the 2010 will be strongly encouraged to look elsewhere for a better product. I hope the 2010 dies a very quick death. If the CES show were tomorrow, I would be sure to stop by their booth and let them know what I think of them. Now I'll have to wait until next Jan. to give them a piece of my mind. Don't worry, though, I won't forget and I will be there next year and let them know what I think of their company.

[Dstructr]

lmmfao @ Lie-On.

Thats a pretty descriptive name lol

dst

[Black-Wolf]

I would say overall LiteOn is a solid performer, as always.

It's CHEAP and GOOD QUALITY, I believe these were the main points why everyone bought them. At least LiteOn was probably the best deal compared to other DVD Players out there.

Even though I am not really satisified with this low-life policy (Exactly 6 months after I got it), but I would consider buying the new model if it performs good.

Thanks!

[Roundabout]

I agree that the unit is cheap and good quality, but the company sells these with the idea that they will provide updates/upgrades for it for a reasonable period of time. The problem is that they only provided ONE upgrade and then months later than promised. Now they have stated that they won't provide any more, regardless, because the unit is "discontinued". There are many on this forum that bought this unit as late as Jan/Feb of this year, so they've only had it a couple of months and it's already discontinued and won't be updated beyond the 0302 F/W. I think they have an obligation to provide support for at least a year, to be reasonable. We're not asking for upgrades forever, just for enough time before something better comes on the market. For them to abandon their customers like this so soon after the unit was released is unforgivable. That's not just my opinion, I think it's shared by most everyone on this site that bought one of these. Read some of the other posts and you'll see what I mean.

[Hideous_Hog]

Does anybody have references that Lite-On made concerning the upgrading of firmware? I am interested in writing an e-mail to protest the stopping of support after the 0302 update, and would like to include any misrepresentations that they made in this regard.

TIA

[whoster69]

I agree that the unit is cheap and good quality, but the company sells these with the idea that they will provide updates/upgrades for it for a reasonable period of time. The problem is that they only provided ONE upgrade and then months later than promised. Now they have stated that they won't provide any more, regardless, because the unit is "discontinued". There are many on this forum that bought this unit as late as Jan/Feb of this year, so they've only had it a couple of months and it's already discontinued and won't be updated beyond the 0302 F/W. I think they have an obligation to provide support for at least a year, to be reasonable. We're not asking for upgrades forever, just for enough time before something better comes on the market. For them to abandon their customers like this so soon after the unit was released is unforgivable. That's not just my opinion, I think it's shared by most everyone on this site that bought one of these. Read some of the other posts and you'll see what I mean.

I think you're too damn lenient Roundabout. I expect upgrades for a minimum of 2 years for something like a DVD player. I don't replace these very often (probably once every 5 to 8 years) and I expect to have service during this time period. For a computer product, I might understand a shorter term (like 1 year) but probably not.

In other news, I finally got a reply from LieOn. It muddies the water as to what the hell is actually going on. Here's what it said:

It seems their is a bug with the latest firmware and it will be a few days before it is corrected.
As for the support for this product. Once this drives firmware is fix it will be the last update to it since all the "bugs" would have been address.

Thank you for contacting Lite-On Tech Support. If you reply please include all previous emails.

Best Regards,
Eliseo


Lite-On (USA) Tech Support,


http://www.liteonamericas.com

This email was received from DCUS_Service@liteonit.com

It was in the strangest looking font I've ever seen. Readable but it almost looked like someone had cut the letters from a newspaper. I assume this is because it was translated or something like that.

So will we get a patch for their admittedly buggy firmware? I've got it working now and am curious what the bugs are. I hope it's nothing more than installation bugs, because I'd be very angry if my player stops working because of this one and only patch!

[Roundabout]

Whoster,

Well, I was feeling generous when I said a year...

Here is the email I sent to them a few days ago (after the "use Nero" idiotic response), notice in the reply afterwards he made no mention of the issues I bought up about non-support, he just ignored completely what I said (sorry about the paragraph spacing, I copied and pasted from my Hotmail window):


Eliseo,


I know that you have to use Nero to burn a .NRG file - the file burned properly
and it loaded on the
player. If it wasn't burned properly it would not have gotten the message: "The
current firmware is
newer than the update CD". I am not the only one having this problem, there are
dozens of people -
EVERYONE that tries it has the same error!!!! The users on the forum are
tech-savvy and know how to
do a simple Nero file (.NRG) burn. Someone in your company needs to look into
why it will not
update the LVD-2002 players, the firmware for the LVD-2001 updates the 2001
players, but the
firmware for the 2002 will not update the 2002's. It's as simple as that.
Someone in your tech dept.
did not even bother to check and see if the firmware works on the 2002's, they
just released it and
didn't even bother to try it.


And the other issue which hasn't been addressed by anyone, is why your company
has stated that they
will provide no further updates for a new unit - I bought it in December and
it's already
discontinued and your company says "Tough Luck"??? What kind of way is that to
treat customers? You
release an item with the promise of updates and then discontinue it right away
and won't provide any
updates? Then the ONE update that comes MONTHS late doesn't even work? Please do
not try to pass this
off as if we're doing something wrong. The problem is with your firmware and the
sooner someone at
your headquarters knows about it, the sooner it can be corrected.


I also would like to have an answer as to why the player has been discontinued
right away and
support non-existent. I think we (as customers) deserve better treatment. I
myself supported your
product in the forum and encouraged people to buy it based on LiteOn's
reputation for quality and
support, and many people bought this unit based on my recommendation. Now I have
to try to explain
why your company doesn't want to support it any longer. Everyone, without
exception, says the same
thing: If this is how customer support issues are treated, we (meaning everyone
who bought one of
these units) have bought the last LiteOn product in this lifetime. Your company
needs to understand
that you can't just release a product only to discontinue it immediately and not
support it at all.
It's still in warranty and still doesn't play DivX3 Files properly, still
doesn't support subtitles,
and still doesn't play VBR MP3 audio properly.


You have a lot of angry customers, not only myself, that are very disappointed
with LiteOn and
unless this issue is addressed, I think your company can forget about the
LVD-2010 that is just
being released - the word is out that you won't support your products and to
stay away from LiteOn
units - your company can't be trusted to keep their promises.


I am awaiting a resolution to this problem and look forward to hearing from you
as soon as possible
with better news. Thank you for your assistance.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AND THE REPLY

If you encounter that LVD2001 can't update with F/W 0302 (Cannot update
firmware. The current
firmware version is newer than Update CD".
Then you can visit our website at
http://www.liteonit.com/DC/english/customer.htm#6 and follow the
instruction as the content.
After that try to update with 0302 disc to update 2001 ,and verify if it worked
or not.

2.we also release the solution of can't update LVD2002 with F/W 0302 and it was
posted on our
website at
http://www.liteonit.com/DC/english/download/2002.htm

Thank you for contacting Lite-On Tech Support. If you reply please include all
previous emails.

Best Regards,
Eliseo


Lite-On (USA) Tech Support,


http://www.liteonamericas.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, by the time he responded, I already knew there was a fix for the update. This guy is worthless. I need a better email address for someone in marketing at their HQ that might actually elicit a normal response. This chucklehead doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

BTW: I updated my player, didn't see much improvement. One or two discs that were DivX 3 play better, a little - but all the ones with VBR MP3 audio (the ones that were below about 75K sampling rate) still don't play at all. I was hoping, but they obviously didn't even attempt to address this problem. No chance of it happening now, I guess. No more LieOn products for me - and every chance I get to bad-mouth them from this point forward will be used to its utmost effect, whether it be in a retail store where I happen to be standing next to a customer contemplating a purchase of LieOn, or telling friends to avoid their products.

[Mastropiero]

Hi, I have a question about the sutitles issue. I am quite a newbie at this, so thanks in advance for bearing with me.

I keep reading that with the new firmware it´ll read .sub files. What exactly does that mean? Could it mean that if I burn a video file and then the subs on the same CD i can use those subs at will when playing the video?

Thanks

[Roundabout]

According to what wiggie was saying, the player supports subtitles in the .SRT format. I haven't tried any yet, though I do have some things with separate subtitle files with them. I haven't burned them to disc yet to try it. Here is a quote from his post:

-MULTIPLE subtitles (SRT) work! I have a movie with TWO SUBTITLES, one named some_movie.xxx.srt, and the other some_movie.srt. When I pressed the Subtitle key, the player rotated through these two files. There is a slight delay (video freezes) when you press the subtitle key. I also tried out a movie with Chinese subtitles, but they are shown as garbage text, even though I changed the language to Chinese. So subtitle support is still not perfect.

So you should be able to use subtitles now. You can use the left/right/enter keys to adjust the sync of the subtitles when playing AVI files. I believe it also supports the .sub format, the 2001 does so the 2002 should also, the chip and FW are the same.

[Roundabout]

Update 4/4/04:

PC Club renews their stock of LVD-2002, now $109.99...



Apparently PC Club was able to find some more somewhere. Anyone that still needs one can get it now. They are even showing stock in my local store here in California. They will ship the units also. Price is the lowest it's been in a while, but anyone ordering should check out the thread about the Firmware upgrade before buying. I am guessing that it still has the 0229 FW and will need to be upgraded to 0302 when you get the unit.

Disclaimer:
I hestiated to post this, because I am not happy with LiteOn and their stated intention not to provide further FW upgrades, but as long as anyone ordering one of these understands that going in, then you can make your own decision about the purchase. I'm no longer advocating the purchase of any of their products. This post is for information only.

[zanos]

I'm lost. Why is a firmware update to this player important?

[somebodeez]

I'm lost. Why is a firmware update to this player important?

Without firmware upgrades, it will be obsolete when new codecs come out aside from the fact that they never seemed to be able to fix the issues with DivX3.11 and subtitles.

[Roundabout]

I'm lost. Why is a firmware update to this player important?

Zanos,

Firmware updates help keep the unit future-proof. What if DivX 6.0 comes out and the player won't work with those files? Also, although the player works fine now with DivX 3, 4, and 5 - there's still no support for other formats. The player still won't play some DivX files if the audio bitrate is under 75kb/s VBR. I have several files that use VBR audio and I'm going to have to reencode them to CBR.

The player is acceptable as it is right now, for what it is, if you don't expect a lot. I think, along with everyone else on this forum, that they have an obligation to keep the player up to date for a reasonable amount of time. We don't consider one firmware update as sufficient. The player was released around last fall, and it's already discontinued and there won't be any update for the firmware past the 0302 version.

Unfortunately, there isn't much competition on the market for this type of player, at least not here in the USA. There's virtually none in the retail stores, with the widely panned Polaroid unit being one of the few available through retail channels. This LiteOn unit can be purchased from PC Club in their stores or ordered over the internet from them. This makes them one of the few that do, at this point. I don't know where they got more of them from, because they've been out of stock virtually everywhere for over a month now. If you want one, better order it now, because they'll probably run out again and that may be the end of it, period.

Read other threads in this forum about the updates, it can be done and most people had no problem once they corrected their screwup. I was able to do it with no problem at that point. If you need help, just holler.

To be fair, I do like my unit and use it a lot, it's just that I'm very disappointed in LiteOn and their policy of not providing future updates. I'm not alone. We're all pissed. They may rethink their policy, but there's no guarantee of this. As long as the player accomplishes what you need and you're happy, then you will probably like using it. Just be aware of what it is and what it can and can't do.

I hope that answers your questions. Ask if you need more information.

[whoster69]

I think it also needs to be stated again that LieOn said they'd support this player and barely 6 months after it's release they end support with only 1 update.

My expectation was that they would support it with frequent updates for a minimum of two years. One of the selling features of this player was that it could be updated. To pull support for this after one update and only six months is inexcusable. I will NOT be buying any more LieOn products as a result of this companies short sightedness and disregard for it's loyal customers.

[EatMoreChickens]

I finally bit the bullet the ordered one yesterday. Yeah the player’s not perfect but like Roundabout said, what other choices are there.

I'm probably in the minority, in that I'm not as upset w/ Lite-on as some of the other ppl. (disappointed, but not pissed to hell) As long as they provided f/w updates for the LVD-2002 to play all the current divx/xvid formats, what else can we ask for? It's not their fault that Divx Network keeps changing their formats every few months or that ppl encode in wierd bitrates. Someone should build a consensus on a format and stick with it. I think the lack of a standard really prevents Divx from establishing itself as a legitimate medium.