Zenith DVB318 1080i Progressive-Scan DVD Player
DVB318 - Performance Exceeded My Expectations
Late in April 2004 I purchased a Zenith HDTV receiver - C27V36, Zenith HD receiver - HDV420 and Zenith DVD player - DVB312, as my initial foray into the HDTV world. In early January 2005, I became aware fo the Zenith DVB318 DVD player which promised a 1080i DVI upconversion of the standard 480p DVD format. At less than $ 200.00 with a Faroudji chip (as was also present in the HDTV receiver) the DVB318 also would allow me to also utilize the DVI connection on the Zenith HDTV receiver. The DVB318 (as connected to the above system) has surpassed my highest expectations for delivering an remarkably enhanced quality to my DVD playback. The DVB318 unit I received has a build date of October 2004. Initially, after connecting the DVB318 to the Zenith HDTV receiver, I was disappointed with the image quality, which seemed no better than the DVB312 which I'd earlier used with the sytem. The \\"upconversion\\" button on the front of the case, when depressed did not appear to alter the displayed image, making me wonder if I had received a defective unit.  (...). The operations manual did not provide a hint to solve the problem I had encountered.  To access the 720p or 1080i modes, one first turns on the HDTV, then turns on the DVB318 - WITHOUT a DVD disk in the player.  After the initial welcome and DVD screen is displayed on the HDTV, depress the \\"upconversion\\" button - the screen display will show a signal adjustment to the 720p mode.  A second depression of the \\"upconversion\\" button will bring the screen display into the 1080i mode. For some reason, following the same procedure with a DVD disk in IN the unit will not allow you to make this initial upconversion adjustment. It appears that the upconversion adjustment only needs to be done once, when using the DVI connectors.  It does not appear that this process needs to be repeated each time the DVB318 is turned on - so apparently the 1080i selection is held in the system's memory.  As for the image quality of standard 480p DVDs played on the DVB318 at the 1080i setting - the quality is Superb in every aspect and far exceeds my initial expectations for the unit.