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

[wiggie]

I know how you feel, it's unacceptable for them to end support for this product in only 6 months. How are we going to watch newer DivX versions? Do we have to buy another new damn player? Isn't it what a firmware is for--TO UPDATE TO NEWER & BETTER VERSIONS? Lite-on really pissed me off. I'm gonna post all over the Internet and tell everyone how LITEON DVD players SUCK! See how they'll react. NEVER MESS WITH THE CONSUMERS!

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.

[boden11]

I bought one of these from pcclub.com (didn't read this thread first, I just searched and searched for it and finally found it available there). Anyways, it came with 2.29 and I upgraded it fine using that tsp disc I made (mode2, multisession, track at once, etc). I played a divx3 low motion copy I had of robin hood prince of thieves and it did well, audio had a humming at parts (probably an encoding issue) and I only got stutter on real fast motion parts. Upgraded to 3.02 and it plays all parts fine (still audio hum). I've thrown a whole crapload at it and haven't had 1 movie not play. Divx 5, Divx4, 3 low and high motion, older xvid stuff, newer xvid stuff, mp3's, even regular mpgs burned on a pc cd-r!! For $125 shipped with tax you just can't beat it. I don't see why everyone is pissed about support of this drive, I'm guessing there's a GOOOOD chance that when divx6 comes out (if it comes out with 1 yr) they WILL release a firmware upgrade if required. Also worked fine with cd-r, cd-rw, dvd+r and dvd-r's.

[Roundabout]

I'm guessing there's a GOOOOD chance that when divx6 comes out (if it comes out with 1 yr) they WILL release a firmware upgrade if required.

I'd say there's almost no chance of that, it cost money to support a product and they have made the decision not to spend any more money on updates for two discontinued units. I'd be surprised (no, shocked) if they reversed their decision after stating it so plainly and clearly (and rudely) that this will be the LAST update for this unit (actually, first and last, they only provided one for the 2002).

I still have numerous discs that will not play no matter what. The only thing they have in common is a slightly lower than average variable audio bitrate. That means I'll have to reencode every one of them. If all your discs play, count yourself lucky. And at some point, you most likely will find discs that will not play - and be in the same situation as most of us.

It's not even so much that LieOn decided to give us the finger, but also the way they did it. I was a big supporter of theirs, if you read this thread that I started way back in November - but they haven't given me any reason to support them any longer. If they decide to reverse course and actually support customers, then I may change my attitude. Until then, thanks for nothing, LieOn...

[boden11]

You must have oddly encoded stuff; so far I've thrown:

*OLD* divx's

Movie1 on CD-R created: Friday, December 01, 2000, 2:43:00 PM
DivX 3 Low-Motion; audio--112 kb/s (56/ch, stereo) CBR ; video--854 kb/s @23.97fps

Movie2 on CD-R created: Tuesday, December 05, 2000, 9:08:00 AM
DivX 3 Fast-Motion; audio--128 kb/s (64/ch, stereo) CBR ; video--753 kb/s @24fps

Movie3 on DVD-R created Today with DivX 4 (OpenDivX) audio--ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc @ 448 kb/s (5 ch) CBR ; video--959 kb/s @ 25fps

also did fine with new stuff:

Movie4 on DVD-R created Friday, March 19, 2004, 11:04:05 AM in DivX 5.0 ; audio--192 kb/s (96/ch, stereo) CBR, video--673 kb/s @ 25fps

Movie5 on DVD-R created Friday, March 19, 2004, 11:04:05 AM in XviD ; audio--ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc @ 384 kb/s (6 ch) CBR ; video--1273 kb/s @ 23.97fps

Movie6 on DVD-R created Friday..... in DivX 5.0 ; audio--159 kb/s (79/ch, stereo) VBR LAME3.93, video--791 kb/s @ 23.97fps

Movie7 on DVD+R created Friday, August 15, 2003, 11:49:37 AM in XviD ; audio--ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc @ 448 kb/s (5 ch) CBR ; video--1130 kb/s @ 25fps

Also played MP3s burned on a CD-RW fine, played MP3's and MPG's (in video cd format, but without the disc formatted as a video cd) on CD-R fine. Played tonight's southpark as a vcd file burned on a cd-rw fine. I really don't know what you want this player to do. And this is not a complete list, but honestly I have thrown a VARIETY of different media types (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R) and formats (MP3, DivX3 fast/slow mo, 4, 5, XviD) AC3, audio @ VBR and CBR and everything has played. While I am **CERTAIN** it won't play everything, it has played enough to my satisfaction.

[boden11]

and btw that list is in no means a comprehensive list of movies i have gotten to play on the LVD-2002, it is just a sample of many videos I have watched, but I wanted you to get a feel for the variety of files i have been able to play. i'm sorry, but for $125 shipped (in 2 days nonetheless) it has done more than exceed my expectations.

[whoster69]

I don't see why everyone is pissed about support of this drive, I'm guessing there's a GOOOOD chance that when divx6 comes out (if it comes out with 1 yr) they WILL release a firmware upgrade if required.

The reason why we're angy is because support was promised and then we were told it wouldn't be there. What is there to not understand?

Why would you guess they'll support DivX 6 when LieOn has stated they won't create any more firmwares for the 2002? How will they support it with no more firmware updates? Or do you think they'll just reverse their policy suddenly because DivX 6 has come out. Do you really think they'd anger their customer base by saying they'd support the 2002, then do a reversal and say they won't, only to then create another firmware for the 2002 with DivX 6 support later? This makes no sense whatsoever.

You sound like you work for LieOn. I can't see any other reason for you to act this way. This is pretty simple stuff to understand, yet you seem unable or unwilling to grasp it.

I'm glad you're happy with your DVD player, but there's a huge difference between your purchase and most of our purchases. You bought knowing that it wouldn't be supported in the future (or not caring if it would). Those of us that are angry bought relying on LieOn's claim that it would be supported. We relied on this and you didn't. That is the essential difference. I didn't buy a DVD player for it to just work today, but for it to have some legs into the future as well. I carefully studied the DVD players on the market and picked the LieOn because LieOn said they'd support it. Now they've decided not to. You bet I'm pissed.

Also, Roundabout isn't the only one with discs that don't play. There are many of us with this problem (and yet another reason for a firmware upgrade). I have several discs that don't work with my 2002, particularly DivX 3 discs, but also some XVID and MP3 discs. All work fine on my PC.

[wulf109]

Philips DVP642,$69. at Compusa,DIVX and macrovision free out of the box.

[FulciLives]

Philips DVP642,$69. at Compusa,DIVX and macrovision free out of the box.

Yes I have been hearing alot about this lately but sadly not many details. I assume like most other Philips models that it can do PAL to NTSC but I also need it to be region free. Macrovision free is always a plus but not really needed ... at least not for me.

I'm more interested in PAL to NTSC conversion and region free and of courser DivX 4+ playback (and Xvid playback would be nice too).

I could care less about DivX 3

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Roundabout]

You must have oddly encoded stuff.

The only thing "odd" about it is the audio bitrate. Anything with a VBR audio bitrate of less than 75kb/s is a crapshoot, in most cases they will not play. The disc will load and act like it's going to play it, then it just sits there. Sometimes it will even lock up and have to be reset by unplugging it and replugging. The only improvement I've seen in F/W 0302 is that DivX 3.11 plays slightly better and there's folder support. That hardly qualifies as a major FW update.

Most things with CBR audio will play, but many times the files I get are encoded with VBR to save space for a better video bitrate. The only choice to play it is reencoding. Like Whoster69 says, many people have a lot of discs that won't play. The unit is marketed as a player that will play DivX discs. Many don't play at all. So this is inaccurate to state that it plays these discs. They should have said "plays certain DivX discs if the moon and stars are in phase on the second Saturday after the Vernal Equinox". Well, that's just about how ridiculous their claim of it playing DivX. There should have been a clearly stated spec sheet saying exactly what it is and isn't capable of playing. Last time I checked the owner's manual that came with mine, there are no such specs.

But the real insult was, and remains, their steadfast refusal to support the player beyond yesterday. For that, they have earned a place in the Manufacturer's Hall of Shame. LieON

[boden11]

From the very beginning divx files have always been a hassle to play. I use **6** different players on my COMPUTER to ensure I can play what I download (BSPlayer, MPlayer 6.4, Mplayer 8, DivX Player, Mplayer Classic and QuickTime for those 3ivx files). Even then I will still occasionally get files that just won't play (even with nimo codec pack installed, newest DivX, Xvid, etc etc etc) others will play with some players and not others. There's so many different ways to encode a file that one always has to tweak settings and whatnot to get a file to play. I can't believe anyone would purchase a DivX standalone player and really expect it to literally play *EVERYTHING* you threw at it.

To say that it 'plays certain divx discs if the moon and stars are in phase....' is just trash. This player has played everything I've thrown at it with near perfection, esp after upgrading to v3.02. I'm sure I will eventually find some stuff it won't play, but so far I still haven't!! I went through like 40+ divx files the other day and still didn't find anything under 75kb/s with VBR. Most audio is encoded at at least 128 and anything >700 megs for 100 minutes will definitely be high bitrate audio and video.

I realize that we bought this player with different assumptions, you with the expectation that LiteOn would continually upgrade firmware to support as much as it could, me with the assumption that what I got, I got and that was it.

Most things with CBR audio will play, but many times the files I get are encoded with VBR to save space for a better video bitrate. The only choice to play it is reencoding. Like Whoster69 says, many people have a lot of discs that won't play. The unit is marketed as a player that will play DivX discs. Many don't play at all. So this is inaccurate to state that it plays these discs. They should have said "plays certain DivX discs if the moon and stars are in phase on the second Saturday after the Vernal Equinox".

[LisaB]

Did anyone else notice that PC Club has very high shipping?

$18 for fedex ground to the east coast!

[jmgallego]

Doggonnit...

I finally got the courage to do the upgrade to 3.02... I did this morning, now I am getting frezees/skips/jiggers/jumps on my family DVDs!! We watch one of them last night!!! I try these DVDs on my older DVD player and works fine.

I tried cleaning up the player, still get them.

I tried reversing the firmware version and it is telling me that the firmware version on the cd is older and does not burn it.

Does anyone know how can I "update" the firmware with an older version?

Thanks!

[EatMoreChickens]

I have some mpeg1 files w/ dual audio. Is it possible to switch audio tracks on an mpg-iso discs? Or does it need to be authored to a VCD before switching is possible? TIA

[Hideous_Hog]

Question:

Does the Lite-On play all region DVD's? I just heard that "Kill Bill" region 2 (Japanese release) has a bunch of scenes cut from the US version, including no b/w. All the gore, in color!

TIA

[boden11]

yeah, if u open the cd tray and then punch in 2-9-6-0 it pops up a menu where u can disable macrovision and select a difft region (or no region pref). tho, u can download the dvd divx rip of the uncensored one and play that one too... (worked fine on a dvd+rw)

mebbe its 2-6-9-0

try both

[Roundabout]

I can't believe anyone would purchase a DivX standalone player and really expect it to literally play *EVERYTHING* you threw at it.

I don't expect it to play EVERYTHING. But I have an entire box of DivX discs that don't play. Not just one or two. At least 40 discs that have VBR audio do not play at all. The player will load them, show "ISO DISC" and then just sit there. That's my main complaint. The unit is very fussy about what it will play when it comes to DivX. That is the only thing I bought it for, and it doesn't play many of them. With the lack of further FW upgrades, there's no chance that it ever will. That is why I'm not a happy camper now.

To say that it 'plays certain divx discs if the moon and stars are in phase....' is just trash.

This is an intentional exaggeration to make a point, that there is nothing stated regarding specs on what this unit will or won't play. The O/M says it plays DivX discs. That's what I expect it to do. Many don't. Point made.

I'm sure I will eventually find some stuff it won't play, but so far I still haven't!!

Don't worry, it'll happen eventually. Depends on where your source material is coming from. I have no control over the encoding of the material that I have. There is no consensus in the community on what the "standard" (or ad hoc) encoding should be. I wish there were.

I realize that we bought this player with different assumptions, you with the expectation that LiteOn would continually upgrade firmware to support as much as it could, me with the assumption that what I got, I got and that was it.

Exactly.

[boden11]

I've been pulling down 700-1400 meg divx rips of the latest movies (backups of course) for the past like 2-3 yrs. I have a collection of something like 50 dvd-r's to the brim of divx's, another 50-60 cd-rs with divx's and then a whole grip of dvd's and dvd-r videos. I like movies. And yet I still haven't found anything that won't play on this liteon. The encoding dates on these files go back as far as 2000 for some, to a few days ago for the latest tv episode...all play. Give me the names of the stuff you're trying to play; is it obscure????

Don't worry, it'll happen eventually. Depends on where your source material is coming from. I have no control over the encoding of the material that I have. There is no consensus in the community on what the "standard" (or ad hoc) encoding should be. I wish there were.

[Roundabout]

Give me the names of the stuff you're trying to play; is it obscure????

It could be considered obscure, depending on where you live. It's mostly Russian TV shows and movies. Some of the titles:

Kluch ot Spalni
Antikiller I
Odinokaya Jenshina Jelaet Poznakomitsya
Krizis Srednego Vozrasta
Pacany
Eralasch 2003
Spasti I Vyzhit
Chornyi Voron (52-cd set, a couple play, most don't)
Zdravstvuite Ya Vasha Tetya
Kukushka
Bynt
Zajchik
Chuk I Gek
LaBoum
Rusamazonki (12 Parts)
DMB

The list goes on. About 20 - 25% of the Russian stuff doesn't play, and mostly for the same reason stated. The one thing in common in most (but not all) is VBR audio. They play on the PC but not in the LiteOn. I don't know why you don't believe it, but it is true. And apparently I'm not the only one that has problems with this player. Maybe other people have different problems/reasons, but the result is the same - discs don't play.

I'm happy for you if all your discs play. For me, the player doesn't play as well as expected, and I'm not happy about that. I started this thread back in November, and if you read far enough back, you can see that I was a big supporter of this product, because while I knew it wasn't by any means perfect, I (along with others) expected it to be improved and updated occasionally. This did not happen, and will not happen. For that reason, more than the fact that many discs don't play, I am no longer a supporter of LiteOn products. Simple as that.

[Hideous_Hog]

2960 is the correct code. Thanks.

[snesromz99]

Please help me, I can't find this player for sale anywhere...

[snesromz99]

anyone?

[junkmalle]

Please help me, I can't find this player for sale anywhere...

It has been discontinued by Liteon. I saw one on ebay -- "buy it now" for $139. Pcclub.com doesn't list it anymore. Some Pcclub stores might still have some.

[Roundabout]

Yes, like junkmalle said, someone on eBay still has them for $139.99 + $19.00 s/h, showing that they have 6 available, or you can order one from Firebird Systems for $165.00. Kinda steep, when PC Club had them around a week or so ago for $109.00. They may get some more in, as they have several times already. They run out, then they get some more in stock, so they must be getting whatever is left in the whse. at LiteOn.

If you don't need it immediately, you could wait and see if PCC gets some more, or look into other mfgrs such as the Philips unit being discussed in another thread in this forum. Seems like it might be a good one to go with, and you can get it at CompUSA for cheap.

Just something to think about.

[radek]

I don't know why people complain about not being able to upgrade F/W.
Probably it has been posted here already, but here it is again:
http://www.liteonit.com/DC/english/download/2002.htm
Follow these steps, and it's got to load. I can switch between old F/W and the new one, and back to old one again.

The newest release is Ok; it supports SRT, directory browsing, plays smoothly, provided your DivX is encoded right (with correct interleaving).
If it doesn't I just re-encode it.
Having said that, I'm still pissed. I burnt a lot of DVDs with multple AVIs, TV series, cartoons for my kid, etc.
When I have more then about 15 DivX movies on one DVD, it just hangs up. The only way I can bring it back is to unplug the thing.
So now, I have to switch to and thro, depending on whether I need subtitles, or play multiple movies (the old version did not seem to have this problem).
It sucks -- I don't expect them to support this forever, and mak it play anything that DivX comes up with in the future, but releasing this uprade that has a bug, and saying that you're stuck with this, is unacceptable

[Roundabout]

It sucks -- I don't expect them to support this forever, and mak it play anything that DivX comes up with in the future, but releasing this uprade that has a bug, and saying that you're stuck with this, is unacceptable

Exactly the reason why everyone is pissed, like you said, we don't expect it to be supported forever but it would be more than reasonable to expect it to be supported for at least a year or so. They've ruined their name by doing the kind of thing they've done in leaving us high and dry with no updates.

I'll probably wind up shipping mine to overseas relatives to use and buy something newer and more up to date, as soon as it is not able to play the next generation of DivX.

One thing I won't be doing is buying another Lie-On product. I'm keeping it for now, only because I paid only $99.00 for it back in Nov. and I want to get my money's worth out of it as much as possible before it's totally obsoleted by newer codecs. It's not even six months old, and it's obsolete because of the lack of support on the part of the manufacturer. Sad.

[radek]

This is it. I tried beta release hoping it'd be better than T3.02,
and the thing just died. After unplugging and powering back on, all I get is HELLO.
Anybody knows how to make it work again?

[Roundabout]

This is it. I tried beta release hoping it'd be better than T3.02,
and the thing just died. After unplugging and powering back on, all I get is HELLO.
Anybody knows how to make it work again?

Which beta release are you trying to use? The 0301 beta? I guess I'm a little confused, you said this in your previous post:

Follow these steps, and it's got to load. I can switch between old F/W and the new one, and back to old one again.

If you were able to switch between them, what happened? Any luck yet? Did you try contacting them (L/O) and asking if they have any idea? The unit must still be in warranty so if it doesn't function, and you can't get it to work at all, I'd be contacting them for an RMA. I haven't tried to switch between F/W, I considered myself lucky that I got the 0302 F/W to work and I just left it alone. I didn't see much improvement in the functionality of the unit with the new F/W, but I guess this is as good as it's gonna get for now (probably forever).

[radek]

In the past I was switching between 2 official releases: 2.29 and 3.02.
Like I wrote before, the recent 3.02 would work fine for me (smooth FForward, strt subs, directory navigation, etc ), except it would not play DVDs with multiple DivX files (approx. 10). So when I needed subs I'd use 3.02; if I needed to play multi-file DVD, I'd switch to 2.29.
Last time I got tired of it, and I gave the unofficial beta 3.01 a try, hoping (based on DivX forum) that maybe it was not perfect, but they had not screwed this multi-file thing yet, as they did with 3.02.

After I loaded the 3.01 CD, it died. I was doing this with 3.02 loaded. Maybe, if I tried changing from 2.29 to 3.01, it'd work.
Anyway, I contacted L/O next day, on Monday (much to my surprise, it turned out they have 24/7 support).
They said they'd replace the unit. I did not have the s/n on me, and when I called later with s/n, I was told that they have to escalate this to the corporate HQ, and if I don't hear from them (e-mail) within 48h, to call them again.
We'll see

[Roundabout]

That's great if they'll replace the unit. I hope you got the name of the person that told you that. It's been my experience that if you don't know who promised you a certain thing, they'll deny it later, claiming you made it up. I always get names + dates + times I spoke to whomever it was that promised to take care of my problem.

That said, maybe we can hope that at least if L/O doesn't intend to provide upgrades, they'll at least fix these damn players when they crap out. I don't use mine everyday, but it does get a fair amount of use. Hope it at least lasts a year, then I'll be looking for something better.

Good luck and let us know if LieOn lies again. :P

[boden11]

You know, for somebody who spent a whopping $99 on a dvd standalone player you sure have a lot of hate built up in you. IT WAS FRICKING $99!!! Used models sell for more than that on ebay. So if you really hate this player so much, sell it on ebay, pocket a cool $20 profit and buy that new $70 player everyone's raving about and pocket another $30 and stop whining like a girl.

That's great if they'll replace the unit. I hope you got the name of the person that told you that. It's been my experience that if you don't know who promised you a certain thing, they'll deny it later, claiming you made it up. I always get names + dates + times I spoke to whomever it was that promised to take care of my problem.

That said, maybe we can hope that at least if L/O doesn't intend to provide upgrades, they'll at least fix these damn players when they crap out. I don't use mine everyday, but it does get a fair amount of use. Hope it at least lasts a year, then I'll be looking for something better.

Good luck and let us know if LieOn lies again. :P