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

[whoster69]

In case you are not able to find one of these players at PC Club (or if they run out of them) you can order the unit also for $109.00 from mypcgoodies.com, click here for direct link:

http://www.mypcgoodies.com/mypcg/details.asp?item=LT33501R

However, the $30.00 rebate will not apply to purchases from this website, that is a PC Club exclusive rebate. If you don't like dealing with rebates, you might want to consider this option.

Thanks! I just ordered mine from My PC GOODIES. Can't wait to get it!

[Roundabout]

Whoster,
Glad you were able to get your hands on one of these units. I think they'll be selling a lot of them this holiday season.

Here's a picture of the remote I took a couple of minutes ago that will give you an idea of what it looks like. I never saw the 2001 remote but I know a lot of people bitched about it looking and feeling cheap. Sorry my camera doesn't take very good pictures close up, but at least you get an idea of the style of remote. Looks OK to me, works OK.

I've hardly been able to get close to the unit to test things out, wife has been using it constantly since yesterday
I did verify that it has the latest firmware already installed (0229). I played a DivX 5.1 disc that I made overnight (transcoded from DivX 3, which the unit really doesn't like too much) and it plays just fine, no complaints. Correction: Sorry, my mistake, it was DivX 5.0 that played fine, I thought I had used 5.1 on that disc.
I tried the 5.1 today, and I don't know if it's a problem with the disc burning or the player on this codec, but I couldn't get it to play. However, it also didn't want to play properly in my PC (bad burn?) so now I'm not sure if it is compatible with 5.1 or not. Have to do more tests. Maybe a firmware upgrade is needed to support 5.1? I can only say for sure that it plays DivX 4 and 5.0 as well as Xvid at this point.
If you do happen to get ahold of older things that are in the DivX 3 format, you may have to transcode them to DivX 4 or 5.0 to get it to play. That's not a problem, though, just let the encoder run while doing something else. Fortunately, not too many things are in this format anymore, the codec is old and not used as much now that the newer versions of DivX are around that are more efficient and faster. Let us know when you get your unit, what you think of it.


LiteOn LVD-2002 Remote Control

[whoster69]

That remote looks very different from the original. Looks much better! Thanks for the pic! Quality is fine for my needs.

You've been a big help! Thanks again!

[Roundabout]

Whoster,

Glad to help, enjoy your unit! Anyone else have questions, blast away. Don't know if I can answer everything but I'll try. I guess they're selling this unit all over the world, I noticed the Euro version has a SCART connector that the US version doesn't have, or need, maybe - I'm probably going to buy another one and send one overseas to relatives (after applying the Region/Macrovision hack to it, natch!).

Since this unit costs little more than an average DVD only player that I had already planned to send, now I can send one of these over there and be able to compress home movies to DivX and fit hours on one 10 cent CD-R... a major advantage when mailing discs to Russia or Ukraine. A least if it gets "lost" on the way, I can make and send another disc easily.
I had originally wanted to buy a LVD-2001 when they came out, but so many people complained about different aspects of it that I finally decided to wait. Glad I did, this one is lower priced and apparently works better. Also will have firmware upgrades coming soon.

I wonder if the firmware for the 2002 will work on the 2001? The FW numbers are the same (0229) for both units, maybe the 2001 owners are panicking too soon over the discontinuance of FW upgrades on their units? Maybe someone with a 2001 should e-mail LiteOn and ask if it's the same upgrade.

[hastey]

I have ordered mine today and can't wait to receive it - I will also give a report on what it can play and can't.

[hastey]

Also on their site it says it wont play anything that has a frame rate: no more than 24 frames per second, (PAL)

Is this true? Seeing as though alot of NTSC is at 29.97 fps.

[Roundabout]

I haven't had any problems playing NTSC (29.97 fps) or PAL (25 fps) at all. It just converts them to NTSC and plays them. I still haven't been able to get even one DivX 3 disc to play properly. Most of the time it will load and begin to play, but then just freezes up, sometimes I have to unplug the player to reset it. So don't count on ever playing DivX 3 on this unit. Everything else is fine, except the lack of update for DivX 5.1 - it needs an upgrade to play the newest version of DivX (the 5.1 codec) as far as I can tell.

Another anomaly, last night I couldn't get it to play a raw MPEG-1 file (unauthored ISO MPEG) that my Daewoo plays without a hitch. Now, this morning, I put the same disc in and it plays it perfectly! Don't know what that's all about. Tried other raw MPEG's (NTSC and PAL) and now they all play fine. Maybe just a glitch last night? I did have the unit unplugged all night last night so maybe...

Overall I'm still very happy with the price/performance of this unit, and I didn't expect it to be perfect, I guess this is still as close as we're gonna get in this price range. Hopefully we'll see some firmware update soon, I'd like to reencode all my DivX 3 discs to 5.1, but now I'm waiting. If not, I'll use 5.05 and let it go at that.

[teramesher]

that's me. I convert all my 3.11 to 5.05. No biggie except when 3.11 are encoded with vbr audio. Then I have to fix the sync problem.

I wrote a quick review on 2002. 29 reads, but no reply. I must've sucked reviewing it.

[noki]

Roundabout
thanks for all the info. you might have covered this in one of your posts above but can you tell me how the quality of the Divx output is compared to the DVD version of it? i know it is highly subjective, but let's say you converted the matrix (original movie, not reloaded) into Divx (on one CD [700M]) with any of the flavors of encoders...how is the output on you tv compared to the DVD? is it at least SVCD quality in your opinion? thanks for your info.

[hastey]

Roundabout - it doesn't play the layest DIVX 5.1?

[Roundabout]

@ Noki,
I haven't tried ripping any DVD's to DivX, but I think that it would be a subjective opinion in any case. I think it would be more up to the encoding of the disc on your PC than what this player does, the player can only do whatever you give it to do. I'm sure that anything encoded to DivX couldn't be as good a quality as the original, but I don't think it's intended to be. In my case, I'm mostly using it for watching DivX encoded Russian movies (my wife's movies, actually) so we haven't needed to use it for playing ripped DVD > DivX movies. I'm assuming that it uses the same encoder that the 2001 model used, I'll try to verify that - and if it does, then the results should be similar to what people have said about the 2001. Personally, I'm not too picky about playback of DivX, as long as it plays without skipping or freezing, I'm happy.

@ Hastey,
No, it doesn't play DivX 5.1, at least it won't play the disc I encoded with Dr DivX (took me 12 hours to encode @ VBR 2-pass) and I was a little disappointed that it didn't play. It's possible I did something wrong, it's my first attempt at 5.1 encoding and maybe I set something incorrectly, so I can't yet say for 100% sure that it won't play any disc encoded with 5.1 - it seems to play 5.05 discs O.K. though. Since 5.1 is recent, I think if it's a problem with firmware, they will be upgrading this soon. I sent an e-mail to LiteOn about it, haven't heard back from them yet (and may not, they seem to be spotty about answering e-mails).

@ Teramesher,
You did a great job reviewing the unit, I read it already. I think you'll be seeing more people respond as more people get one of these, it's still pretty new on the market. After a while, I'll start posting my responses to inquiries on your review post, because the deal is going to expire soon on the PC Club offer and my post won't apply anymore. Hopefully, more people will ring in with their results on this unit as they get one. A lot of people post about the 2001 because it's been around longer and a lot of people went out and got one as soon as it became available. This unit (2002) will be eventually discontinued someday too, and probably firmware support will end, maybe in a year or two. By then there will probably be a lot of DivX players on the market that will be better and cheaper. That's the way it goes with this stuff, just like with PC's, today's hot model is tomorrow's junk.
Still, overall, I'm happy with the unit and I'm glad I bought it, I think for the money it can't be beat right now. If you don't need the specific playback for DivX, then you should wait before buying a player like this, until next year when more are on the market and the market matures a little.

[ps2wiz]

I had originally wanted to buy a LVD-2001 when they came out, but so many people complained about different aspects of it that I finally decided to wait. Glad I did, this one is lower priced and apparently works better. Also will have firmware upgrades coming soon.

What exactly are the problems that the 2001 had that the 2002 doenst? The only thing that I can think of is the remote. Which is cosmetic to my standards.

[Roundabout]

I'm not trying to say the 2001 isn't a good unit, I know it is, and I almost bought one myself. However, some of the things people complained about were, of course, the remote - but beside that, someone complained about the noisy drive, another about green streaks on Xvid and frame freezing, another about no WMA support, another about no DTS, and now, the biggest complaint may turn out to be the discontinuance of Firmware support. I don't know if everyone had these problems, or only a few, but there were enough people who were doubtful that I thought I'd hold off till the next generation of players. That's just my opinion, I'm not trying to give advice or sound like I'm cutting down the 2001, really. I like both units.
I hope that LiteOn will continue to update the firmware on the 2001 model, the unit isn't exactly "old" and they have IMHO an obligation to keep it updated for at least a reasonable amount of time. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence that they would not support a unit that is only around a year old, and I also wonder about how long they'll support the 2002 unit...who knows?
I think the firmware may turn out to be the same for both units, in the end. It has the same beta number (0229) and is probably identical. In that case, the people with 2001 units will be able to continue upgrading theirs with the 2002 FW (hopefully).

[Roundabout]

Update:
I tried re-encoding a music video to DivX 5.1 and it plays perfectly. The file I tried the other night was basically the same, and tonight it "almost" played O.K. - It loaded the disc and the player locked up the first time, so I unplugged it, plugged it in again, reloaded the disc, it read and started playing. However, it would stop on a frame, then start again then stop again. The problem looks like it was in my encoding, not the player. I used DrDivx for both, here is what I got from AVI codec reader:

Music Video (with a lot of very fast motion scenes, plays perfectly):
Video: 915 kbps, 352X272 4:3 PAL
Audio: 96 kbps, 44.1 Khz, MP3

Movie (skips/stutters):
Video: 884 kbps, 416X256 16:9 PAL
Audio: 96 kbps, 44.1 Khz, MP3

So the only difference is the bitrate of the video and aspect ratio. The bitrate of the music video that played fine is higher than the movie, so I assume the problem wasn't because of the higher bitrate. Aspect ratio shouldn't be an issue so... looks like my encoding of the movie was crap, or I got a bad blank disc. At least now I know for sure the player will indeed play DivX 5.1 properly. One less issue to deal with.

[hastey]

Thats good news!

[pairustwo]

Hi,
I just purchased the LVD 2002 and I am pretty much thrilled.
I do have a couple of questions though as I am new to home a/v. Really I just bought a Television and a VCR at the same time.

I dropped in a XVID film on CD-R and found that there were some color smears, as if there were vein like areas that were a little out of focus. This doesn’t happen when watching on a PC using a DIVX player.
Is this normal? Perhaps a difference in the resolution of a TV and a PC monitor? I realize that XVID or DIVX encodes are not always great quality but, as I said It looks good on a PC.

I also see this in .jpg photos that I viewed from a CD-RW. The images appear to be resized to fit the TV screen and there is some noise introduced. These are low res photos that were posted on the web so maybe that is the problem.

The TV is a nice Toshiba Flat screen CRT 20" so I don't think that is the problem.

Any similar reports about the LVD-2002 out there? Is there something I should know about sideshows on a TV? Is there a secret to encoding DIVX correctly for a TV monitor?

Thanks
Pairustwo

[Robert Simandl]

Just got mine hooked up... played the first XviD CD-R I put into it fine and dandy. No color smears. Woo hoo!!!!

Plays a PAL SVCD fine and dandy, too. Double woo hoo!!!!!!

It's currently playing a DivX 5.11 avi with no problems so far. Triple woo hoo!!!!!

I'm most definitely a happy camper!

So how do I make it Region/MacroVision-free?

Thanks,

[ps2wiz]

Roundabout, the lvd-2001 and lvd-2002 pretty much use the same hardware. Lets take the example of the drive being noisy. Both of these players use the Lite On 163 DVD-ROM drive. So the problem would prabally only relate to the individuals drive. As for all the the other problems, the are firmwire related and once again both of these drives have a 95% similarity in their firmwire. LVD-2002 doesnt have a PCIMA slot, no high progresive scan, and etc... These units are identical (besides they dvd remote) except the lvd-2002 is the striped down vesrion of the LVD-2001. There were lots more problems reported about the lvd-2001 because it was out in production before the lvd-2002. As time comes you will hear these problems. As a problem was just reported about the color smears the the photo resizing in this thread.

[Roundabout]

@ Robert Simandl,
I've been down with the flu the past few days and didn't have a chance to respond to your inquiry. I have PM'd the Region hack to you for the player. It's the same as the one for the 2001 unit and works as it's supposed to.

@ Hastey,
I reburned the DivX 5.1 file to disc (and used a different brand of disc), and whattya know...played perfectly! I just got a crap disc, the file itself was fine. Only in two spots on the entire movie did I notice some small motion artifacts, nothing to be too upset about. Beyond that, the quality of playback was outstanding on this disc. Now I'll be able to reencode all the 3.11 discs I have to 5.1 and toss the older versions. Very happy with the playback now.

@ Pairustwo,
I'm not an expert on DivX codecs, but I do know that it's not unusual to have some occasional smear or artifact in the video. I noticed that mostly on dark scenes (or black areas) that the would be some macroblocking but it would disappear after a couple of seconds. Maybe someone who knows more about DivX can explain what causes that, or do a search on this forum, I'm sure the topic has been discussed before.

@ ps2wiz,
I can tell you the drive in my unit is extremly quiet. I can't hear it when it's running unless I put my ear near the unit. As far as other problems go, we will see if the same issues appear on the 2002 that the 2001 has. No, the unit doesn't have a PCMCIA slot, but that is basically unused and I think it was a good idea that they eliminated it, if they don't intend to support it. They were able to lower the cost of the unit by not including that in this model, making it more attractive to purchase (it's below the magic $100 mark finally). I don't doubt that more problems might appear as more people get this unit and test all functions of it. Nonetheless, it is a new model and it will be supported for at least a while, so maybe whatever crops up will be fixed by firmware updates. We can't be sure that the 2001 will be supported beyond this point with updates, so if someone is in the market to buy one of the two units, it's obvious that they would most likely want the 2002, both for the lower price and support. That was my point mostly, not that the 2002 is "so much better" than the 2001. I know they are mostly the same. However, there is a better chance the problems will be corrected in the newer model. If not, I'm still very happy with mine and what it does for the price I paid.

On another note, I noticed today that the Mypcgoodies website raised their price by $5.00 on this unit. They had about 45 of them a few days ago, now they have 4 left, so it must be popular enough for them to think they can get away with raising the price. PC Club still has it on their site for $129.99 and the rebate is still effective for a while, so it's still possible to pickup one of these for the $99.99 price - to be sure, you should call PC Club and make sure that's still the price. You can fill out the rebate form at www.rebateshq.com (that's what I did) and it supposedly speeds up the rebate process - we'll see.

[hastey]

Roundabout - I'm gonna start converting my DIVX 3's to DIVX 5.x - I prefer to use VirtualDub, but thats just a matter of preference than anything. Just a question regarding video bitrates. On the LiteOn website it gurantees that playback if the following parameters are met....

the suggested parameters for composing MPEG 4 video are:
1. Frame size: no larger than 720 x 576(PAL)
2. Frame rate: no more than 24 frames per second, (PAL)
3. Bit rate: less than 1MBps
4. Sound sampling rate: lower than 44.1 KHz

Does this mean I have to keep the video bitrate below 1MBps? Also the audio bitrate - is that keep it less than 44.1 or above it? All ove my vids are at 48 khz. Have you played any with a bitrate of 48 khz?

[69Dartman]

HMMM.. My 2001 is a later unit, they quit using the 163 and started using a dvd loader they have designed and make that usue a belt drive and no ABS bearings so it's quiet now. I haven't had any issues with DTS not working, or WMA for that matter, it pretty much plays anything I feed it. I don't do much DIVX but the newer ones I have play fine.
LiteOn pretty much said in many e-mails that they are going to unify the firmware because the 2002 is basicly a cheapened, easier to build 2001 so the updates should still work, maybe with just a quick rename or it'll just work like Sony did with the 500a/ax dvd burners.
I think they just got a good toehold in the market and are now cutting back features to save themselves money because people have proven they will buy the product and demand continues for a lesser unit.
Many manufacturers play this game, enter the market with a new, killer product, then slowly take away features to reduce costs after buyers have accepted the new product and are brand loyal.
They have had a excellent track record of supporting their outdated cd burners with firmware updates for years so any of these players has a good chance of staying current plus the hacking factor.

[Robert Simandl]

the suggested parameters for composing MPEG 4 video are:
1. Frame size: no larger than 720 x 576(PAL)
2. Frame rate: no more than 24 frames per second, (PAL)
3. Bit rate: less than 1MBps
4. Sound sampling rate: lower than 44.1 KHz

Does this mean I have to keep the video bitrate below 1MBps? Also the audio bitrate - is that keep it less than 44.1 or above it? All ove my vids are at 48 khz. Have you played any with a bitrate of 48 khz?

Hey Hastey,

Don't know if this answers your question (probably not ), but Dr. DivX pretty much configures its own settings... you don't have much choice in the matter if you use that program. And so far every Dr. DivX-created file has worked flawlessly in this player.

And I've been using the DivX 5.1.1 codec that some people have said shouldn't work!

Hope that helps a little,

[hastey]

^^^ cool, thanks for the reply - I might give Dr.Divx a try if my VirtualDub ones don't play.

[Macfixer01]

Hey Hastey,

Don't know if this answers your question (probably not :lol: ), but Dr. DivX pretty much configures its own settings... you don't have much choice in the matter if you use that program. And so far every Dr. DivX-created file has worked flawlessly in this player.

And I've been using the DivX 5.1.1 codec that some people have said shouldn't work! :shock:

Hope that helps a little,

That's great that you say it works on the 2002, but I would still like to know if DIVX 5.1 should work on the LVD-2001? That's where I had the problem.

[Brutus1234]

I have an LVD-2001 and I have played dozens of Divx5.1 with AC3 sound files on it with no problem. Every time I get a Divx3 file I run it thru Dr Divx to convert the video and then merge the AC3 Audio file back in and its never been an issue.

I have seen a couple of sporadic stutters when I play files written to DVD-RW and CD-RW media but not CD-R or DVD-R. I have noticed the DVD-ROM unit does not read some media that my DVD-RW drive will read perfectly.

It has not been a problem because I only use the RW media to test files before putting them on DVD-R or CD-R.

If you are not getting 5.1 audio check your audio configuration. It should be set to "Bit Stream" not "2CH PCM". You also need to use a Digital COAX or SPDIF cable. It works perfectly.

Brutus

[ps2wiz]

My DVD-ROM is as quiet too. But "problems" what problems do you keep talking about... Im glad that lite on made the lvd-2001 with the PCIMA slot. And they included PCIMA adapters too. I can go snap some pictures on my digi cam, then put in in the adapter and bang! Its on the TV. And the same with with its higher progresive rates. The lvd-2001 is a more feature packed player the lvd-2002. 99% of the problems encountered with the lvd-2001 is shared with the lvd-2002.

[Roundabout]

I got a bit of a surprise last night when I decided to try a DivX 3 disc that I burned recently... it played without one skip or stutter. I really didn't expect it to play, and I was shocked when it did. I have another disc that is DivX 3 that won't play, and now I think I have my answer.

I realized that the ones that don't play are discs I made in my old worn out Samsung burner several months ago (now retired) and I had gotten other bad burns out of that same player, which is why I replaced it more recently. When I started looking at the specs of the files themselves, it became obvious, the discs at the higher bitrate played, while some at the lower bitrate failed!

Example:

(movie that plays)
Time 1:28:23 Quality: 40%
Video: 1032 Kbps 25 FPS PAL 480X360 (4:3) DivX 3 Low Motion
Audio: 47 Kbps 44.1 Khz 1 Channel Mpeg Layer 3

(movie that doesn't play)
Time 2:02:53 Quality: 34%
Video: 600 Kbps 25 FPS PAL 512X300 (16:9) DivX 3 Low Motion
Audio: 96 Kbps 44.1 Khz 2 channels Mpeg Layer 3

I figured out that the Samsung was the culprit when I started trying other discs that should play but wouldn't (including some that were DivX 5.05 that I knew should play but didn't). So maybe the DivX 3 support on this player is much better than I suspected, and my only problem was a bad burner. All the discs I've tested with the new burner work fine in this player. I would have had more done in testing earlier but I've been on my back with the flu for a couple of days, and only managed to post occasionally since Friday, otherwise I would have known sooner and mentioned it here. If anyone else has DivX 3 discs they should try it before spending the time converting them, they just might play fine. Now I'm even happier than I was with the player, since it seems it's going to play pretty much everything. I need more time to test and verify everything, something probably most of us don't have this season.

BTW: Robert S, you can change quite a few settings in DrDivX if you so desire, or just let it do it's thing. It wanted to shrink a DivX 3 file I had that filled a disc (~700mb) down to about half that in DivX 5.1, which was probably going to lose a lot of quality...I set it to make a disc the same size but just in 5.1 encoding, that's the one that played fine a couple of days ago. I lowered the audio bitrate to 96 Kbps also (from 128 Kbps).

[Roundabout]

That's great that you say it works on the 2002, but I would still like to know if DIVX 5.1 should work on the LVD-2001? That's where I had the problem.

Maybe someone with a 2001 can shed some light on this subject, but it would seem that if the firmware and chipset is the same in both units (not verified by me, so I can't tell you if it is or isn't) that DivX 5.1 should work in either unit. Have you tried more than one disc encoded this way? I mentioned earlier about what happened to me, it turned out to be defective discs and/or burner that caused my problems.

[alex2004]

Just in addition to the previous notes on a $99.00 deal with PCClub.
If I buy it today from PCClub I pay $129.00+$18.00 (shipment)+$147.00 that would go down to $117 in 6-8 weeks.
An interesting alternative may be Mwave.com for $110 or Newegg.com for $113 - no rebates, no waiting 6-8 weeks. Hope it helps.
Alexander

PC Club has the LiteOn LVD-2002 for $99.99 (after rebate) this week and can be purchased online or in one of their many retail stores. Lowest priced DivX player out there right now. Plays DviX/Xvid/MPEG-4 as well as DVD/VCD/SVCD/MP3/JPEG discs. Converts PAL to NTSC and NTSC to PAL flawlessly. Progressive Scan / Component Video Output, DTS. Works on 110/220 volts, 50/60 Hz. Has hack available to make it Region Free and Macrovision free.

Link to store ad below:

http://www.pcclub.com/promo/printads/LA_8x11_112203_allweb.pdf

Or order the unit for the same price online for $129.99 and get rebate for $30.00 = final cost $99.99
To be eligible for the rebate, purchase your unit between 11/28/03 to 12/13/03 (this info is from the rebate form itself). That means if the unit is still available for $129.99 even after 12/5/03, it's not too late, you can still get the rebate if you purchase before the 13th of Dec.
All rebates must be postmarked within 14 days of purchase.
Direct link to unit below:

http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1546968#


From part of the store ad with the player

This player is the newer updated version of the LVD-2001 that is so popular.


Photo of LiteOn LVD-2002

[scrotus]

My 2001 (Mfg date Aug 2003, Firmware 229) has played every DiVX disc (avi or mpg) that I've thrown at it. It did not play my TTT Xvid, but my other xvids will. I believe that all my divx files are 5.0 or later. But I haven't confirmed.

I haven't seen any smears or green lines. My drive is quiet. I can barely hear it operate.

I haven't got any divx files that are AC3 yet. So, I have not tested it's ability on that.

This player is awesome. I think the main differences of the 2001/2002 is that the 2001:
1. upconverts to 720 and 1080. The 2002 only has 480
2. PCMCIA slot (i think this is a cool feature while some people are meh about it)
3. The remote sucks, yeah. But youre not buying this player for the remote. It does what it's supposed to. At least Lite-on provides the hex codes so you can program your all in one remotes with the discrete codes. So if you have a pronto or other PC compat remote, you can throw the codes on there.

My suggestion is that if you plan or already have a TV that will scale to 720 to 1080, then get the 2001.