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

[junkmalle]

I've had problems with jerky playback and audio that cuts in/out has been with MPEG 4 files with Global Motion Compensation -- and only a few of the files with GMC had problems.

[stevec50]

Well, reencodeing files is too much trouble so I deleted the ones that don't play. I'm really dissappointed in the LVD-2002 though. Everyone has been talking like it's such a great player and it won't play my files any better than my other players.

[junkmalle]

The Liteon 2002 was probably the best player of it's generation (1 to 2 years ago). Other players have surpassed it now, obviously. But you need one of the latest players with newer MPEG 4 decoder chips to play MPEG 4 files with GMC and QPEL well.

The best thing about the 2002 is the fact that you can adjust both the width and height of the picture in small increments and independently. So you can correct the aspect ratio if necessary. Or you can shrink the image a bit to view those fan-sub anime with subs at the very bottom of the picture.

[stevec50]

"The best thing about the 2002 is the fact that you can adjust both the width and height of the picture in small increments and independently."

You must be thinking of some other model. There are no adjustments to do that, just zoom in and 4:3/16:9 aspect ratio controls.

[stevec50]

Also, the darn thing don't even have a volume control like most cheaper models have!

[junkmalle]

When playing Divx/Xvid/Mpeg files off ISO disks you can zoom width and height independently.

[boroda]

steve50, you ain't got no LiteOn LVD-2002. I don't know what you got, but it seems that it is not what you think it is. The LVD-2002 has zoom capabilities which allow you (on an AVI MPEG4 playback) to resize the picture in small increments of height and width.

AFAIK, very few DVD players have volume control. What's that for, if your TV's got volume control?

[Roundabout]

stevec50,

If you read back through this thread, all 14 pages of it, you will see that a lot of people are, and have been, disappointed by this unit. However, for what it is, it's not too bad. My main point of anger is with LiteOn's refusal to support the player after we all went out and bought one with the expectation that it would be supported for a reasonable length of time. It was not, and LiteOn only provided one update and then told everyone that's the end of the road for this unit. Then they abandoned the LVD-2010 that was supposed to be released after this model before it ever got off the ground.

My complaints are mostly referenced to that, but as far as the capabilities of the player itself, I don't think it's that bad of a unit. AFIAK, there aren't any players out there that can play absolutely everything, and the wide specification possibilities of the AVI format precludes the manufacturer from being able to know how someone might encode a file. There's no such thing as a "standard" AVI. The player is capable of playing most AVI's but there have been a few that I've found that won't play. For that, there's Dr.DivX or similar programs.

If it's important to me, I reencode. If not, I delete it. What else can you do?

[stevec50]

Well I didn't build it but it claims to be an LVD-2002, S/N 21B336001340, Mfg. date Sept. 2003. I don't know how people are coming up with all those magical capabilities for the thing but it only has a Zoom that can zoom in 3 times, just like any other player except it doesn't work as well as most players. It really sucks! The damn thing doesn't play most discs very well and jerks and stutters even on normal movie discs.

[junkmalle]

Well I didn't build it but it claims to be an LVD-2002, S/N 21B336001340, Mfg. date Sept. 2003. I don't know how people are coming up with all those magical capabilities for the thing but it only has a Zoom that can zoom in 3 times, just like any other player except it doesn't work as well as most players. It really sucks! The damn thing doesn't play most discs very well and jerks and stutters even on normal movie discs.

Make sure you have one of the later firmware updates. I use 302. Some people prefer an earlier release 229 I think it was.

[stevec50]

Like I said, I updated to the latest firmware, 3.02 it was. Don't know what it was before, there doesn't seem to be any way to tell. Does 229 make it work any better, ie, not as jerky? It tends to freeze the picture for a second everytime there is a loud burst of music or some other loud sound in the audio track.

[junkmalle]

Like I said, I updated to the latest firmware, 3.02 it was. Don't know what it was before, there doesn't seem to be any way to tell. Does 229 make it work any better, ie, not as jerky? It tends to freeze the picture for a second everytime there is a loud burst of music or some other loud sound in the audio track.

I don't have the jerky video problem you describe. I seem to recall some people saying they reverted to 2.29 because it froze less though. The messages were probably in this thread. If not just read some of the other Liteon 2002 or 2001 threads.

The independent width/height zoom works when playing AVI or MPEG files. The unit only has 3 levels of zoom when viewing regular movie DVDs.

[Sir Seagal]

Can someone give me a reason as to why a file isn't playing in my LVD 2002? I will now list the Gspot info

Stream Type: OpenDML AVI IMRR: 1.0
I/L 1 vid frame (42 ms) split: Yes

Codec: Xvid
x:y 640x352 (1.82:1) [=20:11]

Bitrate 744 kb/s
FPS 23.976
Qf 0.138 bits/pixel


Audio is plain 128 CBR


My thoughts is that the FPS is screwed. I don't think i've had a file that had 23.976, only 29.970 Any suggestions would be great.

[junkmalle]

The 23.976 frame rate isn't a problem.

Is your file over 1 GB? The player doesn't like files over 1 GB. It might also be encoded with the Quarter Pixel feature of Xvid.

If the file is over 1 GB you can easily split in with VirtualDub. If it's encoded with QPEL you have to reencode without it.

[Sir Seagal]

The file is just under 700 meg. How do i find out if it has that QPL stuff in it? It doesn't show up in Gspot that I can see. I am using gspot 2.21.

[junkmalle]

MPEG4Modifier can tell you if a file has QPEL and/or GMC.

Another possible problem is the audio. The 2002 doesn't like very low mp3 audio bitrates. I'm not sure where the cutoff is but I know it can't play 56 kbps, and it can play 128 kbps. So the cutoff is somewhere between those two.

[Roundabout]

My thoughts is that the FPS is screwed. I don't think i've had a file that had 23.976, only 29.970 Any suggestions would be great.

Whatever your problem is, it's not the FPS. This player has no problem with this FPS at all. From the guides we have on the left side of the forum, the FPS you mentioned is NTSC Film:

NTSC/NTSC Film
Video:
29.97 frames/second: NTSC
23.976 frames/second: NTSC Film

However, the video bitrate is very low, and I don't think I've seen a file before with one that low. The player may not play it, but since we don't know the exact cutoff rate for the video, it's hard to say for sure. I have quite a few files with low video bitrates that won't play, and some with low audio bitrates (usually somewhere below 96kbps) that won't play, either.

What junkmalle suggested is still your best bet. Reencode it to some higher bitrate, at least something like VCD (around 1150kbps). You'll probably have to split the file across two discs, since it will be larger once it's reencoded. I'd be willing to bet that it will play once you do that. If it's 744kbps and a 700MB file, it must be a very long (timewise) video. What is it's length? Is it a movie? (yes or no, no names please). Does it play on your PC?

[junkmalle]

However, the video bitrate is very low, and I don't think I've seen a file before with one that low. The player may not play it

I've played files with as little as 150 kbps video without any problems.

[Roundabout]

Wow, I didn't think the player was capable of playing with that low of a BR. I guess that it's more fussy about the audio BR than video, then. I hadn't noticed, but most likely the ones that I have that don't play have both a low audio and video BR.

There really haven't been that many that won't play for me, but there are some. Once they're reencoded, no problem. What gets me is the resistance people have to a reencode. If they want it to play on this player, there really isn't much other choice.

[Sir Seagal]

I ended up reencoding it without QPEL but that is really strange that 700 is low to your player. Typically I have to reencode anything higher than 1000kbps otherwise it just stutters a lot. The lowest bitrate movie i have is about 400 if i remember correctly.
The length of the qpel movie was 1 hour 50 minutes
12 seconds and it played fine on my pc apart from me having to convert to CBR for audio for this old beast.
I think the lowest mp3 audio i've had that worked was 64 or 96. I'm not too much into the technical stuff. Give me one pass or give me death.

[Sir Seagal]

Does it support packed bitstream ? I just got a file that has that.

[Spyle]

Codec: Xvid
x:y 640x352 (1.82:1) [=20:11]

I think problem is in XviD codec - player not accept Xvid 1.0 and newer.

[rilles]

2001/2002 can play any size of .avi file size up to the ISO limit of 2Gig.

I regularily use VirtualDub and the latest Xvid to re-encode source with QPEL enabled.

I'm guessing the issue is the specific way it was encoded (alpha Xvid or QPEL/GMC enabled).

[Roundabout]

Even more amazing is that this thread is still alive after a year and a half...and so is my LVD-2002.

I bought an extra one a while back for about $50.00 to keep as a spare, or send overseas since it works on 110 or 220, and any system PAL/NTSC. I bought the second one used, hard to turn down for that price.

I think, by and large, these units have disappeared from everywhere.

The end to L/O and their foray into set-top players, I guess. :P

[Robert Simandl]

LiteOn actually did make a follow-up player, the LVD-2010. It had network streaming capability from mpeg-4 files on your PC. But LiteOn never made it available in the USA.

[bmwracer]

Dredging up an old thread:

The DVD mechanism on my LVD-2002 seems to be getting flaky... I've opened up the case and noticed that the drive itself is nothing more than an internal drive for a PC.

Would/could it be possible to replace that drive with another one (from a different manufacturer maybe) and still have it work properly?

Has anyone tried this with their LVD-2002 or similar?


Thanks in advance.

[bmwracer]

No suggestions/recomendations??

[VideoJockey2002]

To: bmwracer

(I really like the LVD-2002 more and more these days as I discover that it is still one of the very few DivX/XviD players that will display long file names of DivX files. I swear, it seems that most current DivX players truncate to 14 characters ... that's practically useless! As long as we can replace the drive, I think the motherboard and the PS of the LVD-2002 will last a long, long time.)

Anyway, when the drive died, I salvaged mine doing just what you suggest. I decided to stick with LiteON replacements because their RPC is easily modified.

You can replace the drive with any IDE burner or IDE reader. Anything will work. The only real challenge is cosmetic appearance after the mod.

Me? I don't care about keeping the original appearance. Long ago, I made a square hole in the top cover of the LVD-2002 so that it would vent heat through a 120 mm stainless steel fan filter covering the hole. It looked good and the power supply heat vented effectively.

Now that the internal drive has died, I have used that heat vent hole to provide the exit point for an IDE cable and a power supply cable to a LiteON DVD burner (SOHW-1633S) that I wasn't using. I just added a couple of stainless steel washers under the screws of the stainless steel vent screen to raise the screen allowing passage of the Molex power cable extension and an 18 inch IDE ribbon cable. I just used velcro to attach the drive to the top cover of the LVD-2002. Later on, I'll be looking for a low-priced external enclosure of some sort that I can modify with a Dremel. I think I can hide the wires in the enclosure along with the drive, paint the enclosure silver to match the LVD-2002 case, and, then, in the future, I'll be able to replace the drive in a matter of minutes just by popping the top of the external enclosure. I'll just make a new hole in the top cover of the LVD-2002 so that the IDE and Molex cables exit directly into the enclosure mounted on the top cover. It will look good, I think.

Mounting a drive internally has been successfully accomplished by several people. I've read about them. Most of those reports involve using a hot glue gun to attach the blue bezel of the old drive tray to the new drive tray. LiteON drives have removeable bezels but the design of the tray bezel in the LVD-2002 doesn't mate with the new LiteON drive trays.

LiteON drives cost very little but they don't seem to last long. I don't want to spend a lot of time modifying one to fit the LVD-2002 internally because I know I'll probably have to replace the drive every year or so. Each time I replace the drive, I'll have to unglue the tray bezel, glue it to the new drive, remove the drive shroud, and so on and so forth. That's too much work.

However, if I fix up an external enclosure on top of the LVD-2002, I know that I'll be able to pop the top and replace the drive in just a few minutes for about $18 whenever it goes bad. Actually, since I use the LVD-2002 in my computer room, it looks quite fine as it is now--with a burner sitting on top of the LVD-2002. However, I know that in the future, I'll do some modding to an external enclosure so that it looks "tricked out."

I did explore the possibility of mounting a replacement drive internally. It would require removal of the bottom metal shroud of the replacement drive. This would allow the drive to set low enough for the drive tray to mate with the hole of the LVD-2002 front escutcheon plate.

Removal of the metal shroud will expose the circuit board of the new drive to the metal of the bottom of the LVD-2002. The original drive of the LVD-2002 is similarly exposed but the entire drive assembly is a few mm shorter than current models of LiteON drives. When the LVD-2002 was manufactured, all LiteON had to do was place a few pieces of rubber cushions on the circuit board to keep the drive insulated from the metal of the LVD-2002 housing. The LiteON drive I wanted to mount was a few millimeters too tall. There was no space for rubber cushions because that would cause the drive tray to bind in the escutcheon. I do have some thin flat rubber sheets that I use for making gaskets. I'm sure I could have used a sheet of that to insulate the new drive from the LVD-2002 housing.

Further mods are necessary to make a new drive fit in the LVD-2002 case. The decorative front bezel of the LVD-2002 interferes with the housing of a standard IDE burner or reader--even after you remove the bottom metal shroud of the replacement drive and even after you remove the front plastic escutcheon of the new drive. Some plastic would have to be removed from the front bezel of the LVD-2002 in order to allow the replacement drive to rest adjacent to the LVD-2002 front bezel.

Maybe one of the "slim" drives might fit better. However, since they are usually made for notebooks, I think there would be other cosmetic and dimensional problems.

So ... I just gave up and decided to go with external mounting of a drive.

I've noticed that with the LiteON burner (SOHW-1633S) attached to the LVD-2002, there's an extra 30 second wait time for the LVD-2002 to boot up. Why the extra wait? I don't know. When I attached a LiteON DVD-ROM read-only drive (SHD-16P1S) to the LVD-2002, there wasn't that extra wait time. So, with the reader attached, it boots up in the expected time period. With the burner attached, it takes an extra 30 seconds or so for the entire boot process to activate the drive and display the LiteON logo on the TV screen. Either way, though, the LVD-2002 performs perfectly. Actually, once you get past the extra wait for boot up, the burners that I've attached operate more quietly than the readers that I've attached. (Just for the hell of it, I attached several readers and burners--Toshiba, LG, ASUS--just to see if they all worked. Yep. No problems except that any burner requires that extra 30 second boot up wait time.)

I actually ordered the LiteON DVD-ROM (SHD-16P1S) to fix the LVD-2002. Unfortunately, the DVD-ROM is defective and I have to exchange it with NewEgg. That particular DVD-ROM stalls and freezes when performing a continuous playback as when playing a movie. It does the same thing when its mounted in my computer so I know it's the drive's fault.

So, it doesn't matter whether you use a burner or a reader. Any IDE burner or reader will work.

The IDE cable might be the only snag. The LVD-2002 uses the old ATA spec IDE connector header so when you look at the connector header on the LVD-2002 motherboard, you'll see there are no pins missing in the array.

Today's IDE spec cables will have one pin hole blocked and today's IDE connector header will be missing one pin. If you want to use one of the new style cables, you'll have to bore a hole at the blocked port in the connector on the cable or use a heated pin or paper clip to melt a hole. You could break the pin off of the header of the LVD-2002 but for myself I don't like that approach. The cables are about $3 each. I'd rather mod the cable than the player. Some day, I might wish that pin was still there in the LVD-2002 connector header--so I chose not to break that pin off.

Now, if you have one of the old ATA cables that were originally designed for this purpose, that cable will work. The old style ATA cables don't have any blocked ports and the old style IDE connector headers have pins in all locations. I have several of the old cables but I chose not to use them. I used one of the new 80 wire 40 pin IDE cables and I bored out the appropriate location on the blue colored connector of the cable. This accomodates the "extra pin" that will be found on the LVD-2002 mother board IDE connector.

Extensions for the power cable are available at all sorts of computer outlets. Case modding web sites can lead you to all sorts of extensions.

So, it's easy to fix-up a new drive to work. It all depends on how you want it to look.

I love this LVD-2002. I figure it will last through several drive replacements. I have to thank LiteON for utilizing conventional IDE interfacing here. In the past, I've complained that it looked like a prototype. Now, I realize that's an advantage because--being a prototype--it offers compatibility with parts I can easily buy over the counter.

I like the fact that the LVD-2002 displays long file names. I've got several DVD+RDL's that each contain 4 to 6 seasons of TV shows. The LVD-2002 has no problem displaying season number, episode number, and episode title for all those files on a disc and it has no problem seeking and playing them. It really works great with the burner attached--it seems to be a more precise reader as well.

Writing this post makes me wonder what the LVD-2002 would do with a hard drive connected? I'll have to try it some day. I'll have to rig up a separate power supply for the hard drive, though. I wouldn't want to stress the little power supply in the LVD-2002 with a hard drive spin-up surge.

But I'm wondering now if the WinBond chip of the LVD-2002 also has nested instruction sets for LBA addressing of a hard drive? Since the LVD-2002 is obviously a prototype built out of parts available at the time, it's possible that it could manage a hard drive of some size.

If I try the hard drive implementation, I'll come back to these forums to post results.

Good luck with your mod!

[bmwracer]

Wow, thanks for that comprehensive post... It's been so long, I completely forgot about my post.

Hmm, I did have some concerns about fitting another IDE drive in the same place as the existing drive, not to mention dealing with the front bezel.

Now that I've read that you've successfully made the mod, I've got a lot more motivation to try it out... Thanks!

[VideoJockey2002]

I've got a bunch of projects in the works, so it might be a while before I try a hard drive. However, I plan to try some hard drives attached to the LVD-2002 when I buy an enclosure. I forgot that enclosures come with power supplies. That provided power supply will give the spin-up power for the platters. I won't need to rig up any special components for the hard drive test.

Actually, I'm just looking for an empty case. I don't need the components in the case. I'll wind up gutting it so I can make space for the cables that communicate with the LVD-2002. Can't seem to locate empty cases. I have found several aluminum USB2 cases for about $20 online. I won't have to paint the aluminum. It will match the LVD-2002 closely enough.

There's some cases by http://www.mapower.com that are sold under many different brand names and they have aluminum cases with thumbscrews. No tools needed to replace the drive once the mod is complete. Just unscrew the cover of the external case and hook up another $18 drive when the previous one craps out.