CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

m2b · Joined: 03 Feb 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Maryland

Hi everyone! I hope this question is in the right forum.

I’ve been wanting to put a video processor in my system for some time and finally pulled the trigger on a Lumagen Radiance Mini3D a few days ago. It arrived today, but unfortunately I’ve been having problems feeding its output into my Moome EXT- FullHD V3.

With the Radiance in the video path, the image smoothly alternates between looking normal and being distorted by vertical waves. About every two seconds the image "scrunches up" into a wavy mess and then goes back to normal. It’s hard to describe, but hopefully this image I put together in photoshop will demonstrate:

I’m using two displays: a Sony GDM-FW900 CRT monitor and an Infocus SP4805 DLP projector. The digital input on the Infocus died years ago, so I’ve been using the Moome to convert HDMI to VGA. The Moome’s output is fed into a powered Monoprice VGA splitter that sends the signal to both displays. I tried connecting the Radiance/ Moome combo to each display directly, no change.

I’ve been using a PS3 outputting 1080p60 as a source going into the Radiance for most of my testing, but also swapped it out with an Oppo 980H outputting 480p and it didn’t make a difference. I also tried different HDMI/ VGA cables to no avail. Switching the Radiance output to 720p60 also didn’t affect anything.

My best guess as to the source of the distortion is AC line interference, but what’s so frustrating is that the picture is perfect if I take the Radiance out of the chain! Removing/ switching power strips, changing outlets, and even moving all my gear to a different circuit didn’t help.

Now, as I do not have any displays in the house with built-in HDMI or DVI, I haven’t been able to test the Radiance without the Moome in front of it. I’m going to try to see if I can test the Radiance on my neighbors’ HDMI equipped TV tomorrow.

The only other thing I can think of would be to plug everything into an AC line conditioner to see if that fixes it, but before I shell out the cash for one I thought I’d see if anyone here had any suggestions.

Thanks in advance for your input!

-Zack

CIR Engineering · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:13 am Post subject:

UPDATED with GOOD news:

Just got this from Jim.

Nashou66 · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:20 pm Post subject:

Hmm, i had similar issues when trying to marry my Lumagen XS to my Tv-one scalers. at first i thought it was timing issues due to marquees needing a longer than 1us sync timing. I then made sure Genlock was on and those squigglies went away.

Not sure if this is anything similar but the images above were similar.

Athanasios

CIR Engineering · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:33 pm Post subject:

CIR Engineering

UPDATED with GOOD news:

Just got this from Jim.

CIR Engineering · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:59 pm Post subject:

I just updated the above post so please read it again if you already have... it has more details now.

...and I am giving away some of my trade secrets... sigh Confused

craigr

dturco · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:19 pm Post subject:

Cool Craig, I printed out that timings page in case you have a change of heart, or come to your senses?

CIR Engineering · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:38 pm Post subject:

wildchild22 · Joined: 16 Aug 2008 Posts: 165

If this works I maybe ordering a mini. Too bad I didn't know this before the deadline expired.

m2b · Joined: 03 Feb 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Maryland

Craig,

I can't thank you enough for your detailed replies! I've been doing more testing per your suggestions and here are my results.

I have confirmed that Genlock is disabled. I tried turning it to "Auto" and it had no effect (but thanks, Athanasios, for the suggestion!). I've left Genlock disabled for the rest of my testing.

I tried every available input resolution from the PS3 going into the Radiance (480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p60, 1080p24), with the Radiance outputting 1080p60, no change. I also tried every available preset output resolution available on the Radiance with the PS3 feeding it 1080p60. The distortion is there at all output resolutions to some degree, although the size and severity of the waves varies. 540p60 has the least amount of distortion, although it is still there if I look closely.

Next I tried the custom timings you posted, and neither made a visible difference on my setup.

I appreciate very much your thorough and informative responses, thank you again!

-Zack

CIR Engineering · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:49 pm Post subject:

CIR Engineering · Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:57 am Post subject:

I just got this from Moome after he applied Jim's fix:

m2b · Joined: 03 Feb 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Maryland

Wow, that is fantastic news indeed! Thumbs Up

I'll go ahead and send Lumagen an email to see if they can apply the fix to my MINI.

CIR Engineering · Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:18 pm Post subject:

dturco · Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:25 pm Post subject:

m2b · Joined: 03 Feb 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Maryland

Well, I just got my Mini back from Lumagen and it looks like the fix worked! The distortion/ noise is completely gone.

Kudos to Lumagen for addressing this problem so quickly!

**kal** · Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 2:32 pm Post subject:

Update: This only affects the RadianceMini with serial numbers ending 2000 to 2036. All others are not affected. Lumagen is pretty certain they have fixed this issue for everyone who might possibly be affected by it.

Kal

CIR Engineering · Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:51 pm Post subject:

Yeah Kal, I helped Jim with the fix way back months ago. It is absolutely 100% without doubt fixed. If you have one of the early affected serials you can send it back to Lumagen for a free fix. It had to do with jitter getting into the FPGA from the power supply due to the (at that time) new architecture of the MINI. Jim redesigned the power circuit and Patrick improved the firmware to create less jitter on the entire Radiance line.

craigr