Ok Before I get the usual Zensonic Fanboi Flames... THIS is MY Experience... SO Take as you will... However Make your own Mind up and check the forumns youll see most of what I say is being experience by alot of others and the dead unit count is climbing...


SO Here we go...

Nope its not a good one... But alas the Z500series forumn is starting to get a run of noobs telling all and sundry thats its a "Perfect Player" I sat quietly until i could no longer and starting telling the truth..

I then started being accused of all sorts of things on the forumn by the noobs, due to telling the truth...

In the end visit the forumns and make you OWN mind up... Believe me or dont doesnt bother me... But be informed before you make a purchase... (BTW the new stock slated for sale in Jan 2006 has now been delayed till March so what does that tell you?)

Anyways here it is i hope it gives some a persepective... AND NO I have not had a falling out with Zensonic in any way shape or form... Dont dislike them nothing... In fact their Customers Service is and has ALWAYS BEEN 1st CLASS... Just not the z500 product...

The Z500 should have NEVER been released in its Current State... IT is not ready for the RETAILS Market Not even close..

My History, I am currently a BETA tester of the Unit having purchased 1 late last year at its launch here in Australia, As of yesterday I have pulled out of being a BETA tester, so have or will other testers I have spoke to off forumn..
I have 2 other Upscalind DVD Players, and the following HD compatible Displays all had the z500 running off them

1. Panasonic AE700 Projector
2. Panasonic AE900 Projector
3. Panasonic 500A Viera 50" HD Plasma Panel
4. Panasonic 200A 86cm HD CRT TV

NB to Plasma Owners there IS NO SCREEN SAVER as yet, one was partially implememted in a BETA but doenst work..

The Z500 is a COMPLETE LEMON, anyone else telling you anything different is LYING... There are so many noobs reporting it as a sensational player on their froumns its not funny, and arguing some faults dont exist... the Funny part is ZENSONIC have admitted to testers they DO exist... Funny how these guys got SPECIAL units from the rest of us Cool

Ok heres a break down...

MY 1st unit was toatally flawed,it locked up and froze all the time...Zensonic suggested I flash the latest BETA firmware (there have only been 2 in 2 days) this completely stuffed my unit, was supposed to take 40mins to update 4 hrs later was still stalled at 65% and progressed no further after that the player refused to BOOT and the recovery CD would not recover it..
Instructions on Flashing firmware followed to the T.. Other users units died as well as mine..

Zensonics Customer Service is GREAT, they shipped me a replacement a few days later (mind you as a BETA tester to start with if I posted anything at ALL negative about the player I would get a PM asking me not to, from the out start I told them NO way would I not tell the truth about the player on the forumns and if neing a BETA tester was going to gag me I didnt want to be one, they apoligised and agreed, no censorship after that)..

Anyways 2nd Unit sent and apparently tested by Zensonic in Factory at 43c and new firmware loaded before being sent to me... Sorry was a LIE...
Sealed in original Box, had never been opened from the factory and had original shipping firmware still on it... No idea why they lied about it and never did get a reply..

Faults..

1. As its very core function DVD Playback, on both units I could not get ONE DVD to playback in full, every single DVD from PAL to NTSC to DVD-R+R would lock up at some stage of play and would either reboot on its own or require a hard reset, and a chapter ssearch to get back to where you were and hope it didnt lockup..Picture Quality when Scaled WAS good but wasnt excellent, Not anything like the quality you would get out of Fajoiuda chipset player...Its a typical Sigma quality GOOD but NOT great..

2. Divx playback, well some worked some didnt same with HD Divx, very noticeable jerkiness on 99% of all files, no matter what setting teh TV standard was set at was all the Same.... Forget what the encode was, ALL the same files played 100% fine on a Sony NVS92 Upscaling DVD Player and a LG9921 upscaling DVD player, perfect everytime...

3. Divx FF REW, just doesnt work causes the player to hang and hit a bunch of buttons to get it moving again most times it would just reboot..and you get a green screen of death... Best i could get to work was 4x if I was lucky anything else doesnt work, and even when 4 x worked I lost audio when it resumed..

4. Divx, DVD, or any file played back using and UPNP software or SMB using Windows Media Connect... Yup its pretty easy to setup, BUT flawed in basic fucntion playback quality is poor and IF you hit a file it doesnt like... EVERY file after that the Z500 refuses to Play.. EVEN if it played before fine... You need to reboot the Z500 for it recognise and play the files again.. This happens over and over again and gets quite annoying... there is no working bookmarkinf with the Z500 at the moment NOR DVD really ...The supplied Twonky Software works poorly and its not even the latest version.. The majority of Files on the Divx2 test when I did it would cause the player to reboot and in fact teh test took about 2.5 hrs to finally do do to the player reboots..

5.USB port... Well I have 4 diffrent manuafturers USB 2.00 External HDD's and a Tvix 3000 and 5000 (which show up as ext HDDS)...... Everyone of them are recognised when connected, however NO files show up, it simple cannot see anything on any drive.. No matter how you tuen them on or boot the Z500.. All my devices are USB 2.0 compliant... AND ALL work on atleast 60-70 Computers No problems At all but just refuse to work on the Zenosnic 500, it would appaear it likes some USB 2.0 devices but not others...

6. Networking 10/100 wired and 54G wireless... To start off Wifi is NOT good at streaming anything HD... Dont even try never designed as such either, and it doesnt work properly.. Streaming works fine, however once you encounter a file playback error, you lose your connection and a reboot is necessary.. The player is supplied with V2.91 of Twonky the latest is 3.0, and alson come with WMC.. over all networking is pretty easy to setup... But a FULL test of everything is nigh impossible due to the other flaws in the poduct...

7. Video Connections, I only used the Component and HDMI connectors, neither worked flawlessy, and I found the component better than the HDMI, intersting was the Players shipping fware had a setting on video for 1080P@50hz but none of my panels projectors could play this.. I was told it was an error and should say 1080i@50hz (which we use in Australia as our HDTV standard) however again all my device support this but would not work with it..Aspect problems abound with the use of HDMI, and you cannot use HDMI through a HDMI swictch, I have a Yamaha 1600 receiver with HDMI switching I get No pircture at all running the z500 through it... I do on my other 2 HDMI Dvd players..

8. Audio I used SPDIF out, there is also 5.1 anologue outputs on the rear of the player NOTE however they are Mapped wrong and there is addendum in the OWNERS Manual stating they are NOT whats on the Player and to use the Adendum when connecting the player (Not good on a shipping unit when the outputs are labelled incorrectly and if not for the forumns I would have even found the added peice of paper in the manual.. I have good ears but I dont think the DD 5.1 is palying right its mapping seems to be off as well... tested several other DVD players through it allsounded the same the Z500 sounded way different... Annoying bug was changing ausio tracks in DVD playback DTS comes up as 5.1 audio and so does DD so its a guess as to what your selecting..

9. Remote, well its big heavy and clunky, and has some nice backlighting.. Thats where it ends.. The lil joystick has a tendedncy to stop working at times.. and its annoying that the joystick navigates all files but then doesnt do the same when playing DVD's you gotta use the buttons.. However I didnt have too many problems with MY remote... But reading the forumns QUITE a few DIED within days of the Unit being purchased, and haveing to replaced by Zensonic, some buttons stop working, some remotes just stop working ALL together.. Zensonic are looking into whats causing this... they though batteries, but that theory has been scrapped...

10. Build Quality.. From looking at it and feeling its weight CONSTRUCTION of it would be one of the best ive seen, problem is thats where it finishes...
There are HUGE problems with the Power Supply and Over Heating, Zensonic have admitted to me teh power supplies on some units are faulty (Id say all as they came in the same batch) and have actually got some new ones coming from the factory in China to test) the power supply runs HOT very HOT, I took DVD's from the tray of the unit that were too HOT to handle ypu the discs were way to hot... Feeling the top of the unit (mines by itself with plenty of ventialation) again very very hot you couldnt leave your hand on it without injury for more than a few seconds... there appers to be no active colling inside the unit... And NO venting of any sorts on the case... Others have reported their units run cool, however I think they just dont wanna admit they paid $500+ AU for a lemon... ALL units supplied in Australia have come from the same bacth.. Zensonic thus far have refused to do a RECALL of the product due to the power supply issue..

11. DONOT leave the unit in standby mode many users including myslef have found that if left in standby mode will cause the player from time to time NOT boot up... I actually found mine would boot up at all ever again others have found swicthing it off at the socket for a few hours can bring it back to life but not all... For now Forumn members recommend swicthing it off at the pwer socket when NOT in use..

CONCLUSION

This Player should NEVER EVER been released as it is, I think it was a case of Zensonic maybe wanting to beat its competitors to the market.. Its not stable in anyway shape or form, and needs months of testing before it will be ready matured for general release to the public..

In its purest form it cannot even playback DVD's correctly leave alone anything else.. And the amount of reported DEAD units altogether are mounting up by the day..

IT has so much potential but I fear the harm done to Zensonics Reputation will kill this product before that can happen..

There have been only 2 BETA firmwares released, both within days of each other.. 1.2b1 1.2b2 ,Neither one of them fixed a single BUG but they sure did add a few more bugs to the list...

Unofrtunatly ater that the softwar engineers went on Vacation and have not retuned so nothing new has come out... Nor is it expected till the END of Jan/Feb and only then the firmwares we have been told will only target faulty DVD playback nothing else... Add to that another month or 2 of BETA testing Im guessing Maybe March April for a Better Public release.. My gues about 5 months if they can actually do it to have the player 80% Stable ..

There are SO many faults and bugs I havent listed cos I just dont have the time... ive only touched on a few of the ones I consider MAJOR...

Sadly Zensonics main reps arent even in Australia at the Moment to answer all our quries on the forumns (they do try hard but) as they believe it or not are in Las Vegas at CES trying to gather distributors all over the world... And thats gonna be pretty hard demoing the player as it is...

But then again Judge for yourself and have a look at the users say on the Z500 forumns... And remember they would be about 5% of the owners

Zen Faults


Zen Faults 2


Zen Faults 3


PSS and Update I have asked for a refund throu my reseller... ANd I got the Following Reply so really its a case of BUYER BEWARE... Zensonic are playing funny buggers or it could be they are just playing with me as they are NOT very Happy with ny review...

Heres the Direct Quote Email I got from Kadek I (WA) today

"Hi Wayne,

Ok I've gotten through to them, but alas they are not honouring it for a refund. How much of the player is still together (ie pieces etc), how resellable is the unit?

Kind Regards,

Kadek IT - Sales

PS the Player is 100% complete and I have never taken a Screwdriver to it, Andre means is everything with it mnaul cd cables original packaging etc...


EDIT... Kadek Have sorted out the Refund and Are Refunding... ANOTHER star for Kadek Andre and Kadek have outstanding Customer Service.... Thanks...

Wayne7497,

I don't usually post in this thread, but your review about the Zensonic prompted me to say a few words.
I've been using a HTPC (Home Theathre PC) for more than two years and have come across all sorts of problems. This was expected as HTPC's are not appliances. You can fiddle with them for days and still leave room for some more tweaking. This is the beauty of HTPC's: you make them work the way you want.
STB's on the other hand should behave like appliances which mean they work out of the box.
This certainly wasn't your experience with Zensonic.
I was in disbelief after I read your review. Zensonic has done more harm then good by releasing this product in it's current form.
I clicked on the links you've posted and none of them worked. I wonder if Zensonic is trying to hide something?
I found this however, on their own forums. I won't post a link to it so they can delete the post:

Shocking bugs indeed!

I'm not sure what was deleted, if you read through the forums there are plenty of bugs reported, they are being used by the engineers to get the firmware sorted out and are important, for some reason though there is some bias being shown whenever someone disagrees, here's an example http://www.z500series.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=681 it was also reviewed over on MPC club forums and the outcome was much different, bugs were also acknowledged as part of the process and the reviewer was accused of not even having a unit for review because his opinion was different.

Let us be fair and not read into it, that which is not there.

The web links did not work because of web & URL related issues, not because of Zensonic "trying to hide something".

You went directly to Zensonic web site and entered Forums to copy & paste some of the Z500 forum chat so you proved the whole sad saga open for all to see.

Here is a link that works, Zensonic Z500 Forum covering a range of topics

Regards,

robokopp

Bias on my Part Jokn11 ?? Ok fine please just tell everyone that none of those BUGS exist ?? If you do then surely Ill been shown as a Liar and this thread will be deleted ?? But you know it wont because all of them do exist... And are still there today..

Your link... Well the most askd question I get about the z500 is how many dead units, I mean the DEAD UNITS thread is the most viewed on the forumn and well Zensonic has been asked by many users just how many dead units have come back and there was silence.... NB Jokn11 CLOSED the thread... Why well he is the opposite of me a fanboi...

Hi Jacks review at MPC could not have been a fair reveiw for the "Average" user Jokn11, and recently he explained his methology to all and sundry why he gave it the #1 Spot... and that was becuase currently there is Nothing else on the market that can do what the z500 can do, and he knows about all the faults... he states its potentially a GREAT player (once bugs fixed) I agree... But I wouldnt agree giving it a #1 just cos there is nothing out there with the type of features...Nothing out there has the same specs as the Z500 but hey #1 Especially if most dont work...? Im not so sure thats a fair reveiew...

But hey each to his own... This is just my experience....

PS robokopp

All Links were working fine as of yesterday... Now they aint... use any other link besides those 3 and wala they work ? Who knows why all of a sudden they mysteriusly stopped working ...

I also find the Z500 buggy but still works acceptably. Here is my response to Waynes 11 faults:

1. Maybe 10-15% of dvds lock up at some stage during a movie. Picture quality is as good as all but the Denon upscaler I have had (and I've had most of them).

2. Agree. Divx is a bit picky with this unit. Plays some HD files but not all. Certainly nowhere near as good as the LG.

3. Only had problem with FF on divx once or twice causing it to hang for 10 secs or so. 4X is way too slow. The unit has never rebooted itself or locked up though.

4. Havent tried UPnP but SMB over wireless works fine for low bitrate stuff, music and picture viewing.

5. USB mass storage drives work fine. Have connected a seagate 80gb, a western digital 250gb, an apacer 256 key, an iriver 40gb, a psp, and a 1gb SD card in a multicard reader. Every now and then it shows the drive as empty but I just unplug it then plug it in again. This USB support works great and is the sole reason I wanted this unit and the only reason I am keeping it (given the other annoying bugs).

6. I agree that streaming HD files over wireless is useless.

7. My unit has a huge yellow push using HDMI to my AE700 and synch issues to my AWA LCD requiring me to enter the video setup menu each time i turn it on to synch it.

8. For audio I just use the stereo outs to a 2 channel mini system and the sound is fine. No issues. Didnt connect it to my amp.

9. The remote is an absolute dog - worst I've ever had. The backlighting reminds me way too much of my old kameleon. Too heavy, too hard to push buttons. The joystick needs to work everywhere.

10. I havent actually checked the temperature of the unit as it sits under a pile of other components but I havent had any heat issues and havent noticed discs to be hot when removing. Build quality is nothing special so I dont really know where all the weight comes from as its easily twice as heavy as my other players.

11. Mines been in standby mode since mid december with no issues.


In conclusion, you just can't use this player as a replacement for a normal dvd player. It's just too fiddly. But i am using it as a replacement for a HTPC and it does the job. I have 250gb of simpsons on a drive and it's working fine with that (for now). I am however surprised with all the bugs and issues this has, given that it about 12ths late to market. It must have been a dog 6 mths ago!!

Thanks Mr Plou

Nice mini review, nice to have anothers perspective..

Yup some are lucky some are unlucky... No doubt there is a range of problems... Ill stick to me trusty LG for now hoping down the track Zensonic get it right...

Someone else on DBA Forumns posted their experience with the Z500 too... Makes for interesting reading..

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=28553

OUCH!! Well, cross this off my shopping list for a while.....a long while......

I think part of the problem is so many people are having different issues with the player. Like Wayne, I purchased a unit and was nominated for beta testing with the newer playback firmware because of issues with playback.
Unlike wayne, my unit runs nice and cool - and we get different problems - my player crashes, but not due to vob length (I can play a movie end to end). But I have had it crash while playing audio cd's, crash while playing dvix/mp4 file. not play nero .mp4 files correctly, crash trying to navigate files off the smb, get confused (very confused) while finding wireless access points, etc. Issues with transfer rates on wireless (slower than you might expect). Other people have mentioned slower than expected usb speed, but I haven't tested this (yet) so it might be a design issue...
I think a lot of these things can be fixed with updates from Zensonic, and as Wayne said, they have been _really_ good on the customer service side of things! I'm going to persist for a while and see where the updates take us.

Also, I think the problems arising from the faulty powersupply are making it a lot harder to document the _actual_ issues with the player - on each glitch, it's a "is that a real problem, or a random failure?" While my unit doesn't run hot, it is making funny noises which make me thing I have a dud powersupply too - just not as dud as some :-)

time will tell - and hey, I'd still recommend Zensonic - they are trying _really_ hard to sort out the issues with the product.
Jen

Oh but one of the other reasons why people might want one of these... it's linux based!! and we should be seeing some source code releases before too long (I suspect as soon as they get a decent release out the door) open linux distro,ARM cpu with hardware mp4 assist, usb2, pata/ide, 802.11g, 100Bt, 5.1 out plus s/pdif, etc etc - going to be cool!

reading this reads like the product is indeed a disaster.

honestly life on the bleading edge !. we must be freaken brainless to be putting up with stuff like this. can zensonic not provide some units for beta testing prior to release. I'm sure there'll be plenty who'll put their hand up to do this sort of thing for free(suckers that we are). This way the product goes through proper beta testing. Product gets released relatively bug free(yes there'll always be some minor bugs left lurking), Zensonic is happy, customers are happy. What more can we ask for.

Well none of this surprises me at all with a Zensonic product. After the Z330 spin motor fiasco they will never receive any of my money again. I would rate them below TEAC and that is saying something.

Still no news on a newer firmware as yet... But looks like they may have new Power supply in a few weeks although doesnt look like they will be swappign everyones out... Only those that ask...or have a drama..

And interesting response I got when I asked a question on the WP forums to Jayker (zensonic employee sales I believe) make of it as you will..

jaykers writes...
Yes this is because he stated that he didn't give refunds on the time frame that you had had the product, only warranty


wayne writes
Which does bring up the question which some have asked... If after the next firmware release comes out and a user is still not happy... (eg strathfields 7 day only ret policy) how would a user go about getting refund then? Especially with the time expired since purchase ??

A few have asked that question ?


jakers response
Why would some one wait till it it is potentially too late? That is their choice.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-repli...=455585&p=5#r93

if the product is not performing as specified, the mention of consumer affairs will change their tune in regard to 100% refunds !!!

I guarantee that !

It seems that to develop a good quality top machine is harder than expected. There is still good side of the Z500, like the HDMI, DivX HD for people want to enjoy HD video from computer or external HDD. My view is that no such machines (Network DVD Players) at this stage are perfect. Hope the March batch will be much better.

No need, Wayne's refund is already on the way

Well it hasnt arrived as yet... But yes I suppose its on its way...

My comment on Jaykers (Zensonic GM I believe) was more to do with his difference in opinion to the Z500 boards in that he says, ppl shouldnt wait until its too late vs be patient we are fixing things (on the z500 boards) ...

Ahh 3 weeks now and still no refund....

Got your refund yet?
Would be nice if you could finally put this to bed and hopefully start posting things that really matter to users instead of just your frustrations about your reseller.

Yes Finally got my refund..

As poting about eh Z500 sorry it aint gonna happen... Its gone back.... I have another 8620 Player the helios X3620 and it does everything the Z500 was supposed without any of the bugs...

So look elsewhere if you wnat anything on the z500...

PS its now Feb still no NEW power Supply still no NEW firmware.... what dos that tell you about zensonic and the z500..?

lol
So in one breath you say no more posting and then you give a p.s. bagging them again
Tells me more about you than anything else.

Anyway good luck with the Helios. Except from you, I havent heard anything crash hot about it.
I guess we can expect posts from you in the future with it.

i smell a finger in a pie! and its not yours wayne @#$%$ zensonic they sound like a bunch of money hungry ARS@^$$
STAND UP AND BE COUNTED
WELL DONE WARNING PEOPLE OF THEIR CRAPPY PRODUCT
IF I AM GONNA GET SCR#@ED DINNER AND A MOVIE PLEASE MAYBE EVEN A KISS FIRST !!!!!

Hmmm, first to third post attacking Wayne on his thoughts on the Zensonic. A more cynical person would probably deduce that you are most likely a Zensonic employee trying to make out that you are in fact just an ordinary joe who is happy with their Zensonic. Hmmm, maybe you are and then maybe I am just a cynic.

Sorry the guy is just plain wrong he wasnt looking at the right screw holes... This has been confirmed by Roy at Neodigits... Notice how he hasnt said anything since ?? Why cos it was fixed at no cost to him.. I hardly think a incorrectly aligned DVD loader to be a major fault or bug especially when it was fixed ASAP at no cost and the unit was a BETA at that... Again I stress there was No cutting to be done...I have the exact same unit... A screwdriver and 4 minutes of time wouldve fixed it... (mine didnt need to be it worked fine outta the box)... And Jeez they went with one of the most epensive loaders you can Get LITE ON wouldnt you be happy with that compared to the crappy ones in most Chinese DVD players incuding the Z500??

As to the Unit itself... About 98% better than the z500, not even close to the bugs of the Unit... Not one lockup reboot or freeze... Plays all DVD's and Divx perfectly.. No Jitter no nothing... Am I happy ?? You bet have I got support ?? You bet 2 firmwares with additions I asked for within days... FF and REW flawlessly on xvid and divx.. Remotes a pearler and works... DVD loader loads DVD in half the time compared to the z500... Boots the player in 10 seconds compared to the z500 20 -30 seconds... Wirless and Wired Streams flawleslly... And Tversity, Twonky, Nero Media Home and myIhomepc ALL work fine and also my READYNAS X6 (1 TB NAS) works flawlessly as well.. USB Drives are ALL recognised on the Helios unlike the Z500... its DVI although the HDMI will prolly be in the shipping units even using the DVI-HDMI adaptor now and it works perefectly... And NO DHCP on any of the HD outputs.. Region Free outta the box.... The list goes on...

Oh the power supply... Thats right NEW ones coming right? next week right ?? WRONG... How about the TEST Unit going out to BETA testers sometime this week ?? YUP thats right 1 UNIT yup you got it ONE Power supply and then they aint even sure if this ones gonna Fix ALL the problems...Then another few weeks after that for the PS to be come over from China... My Guess Mid Late March.. heheh chuna has told some people it has a fan now it doesnt have a fan, and now the POWER SUPPLY is waiting for a firmware Update ??? Yup thats right... hehehe Never ever heard of a Power Supply needing a firmware update... Any of this starting to sound fishy to you...

Good on you... You wait for the Firmwares ... How many have been released for the Z500 since 12th of December 2005 when it was released???. Oh thats right NONE... And its now February 2006..

Ok lets look at the Firmwares

Shipping Firmware Laughable a complete failure and a joke...
1.2b3 added new bugs fixed none
1.2b4 Fixed a quite few (DVD playback only) added more bugs as well to divx and xvids..
1.2b5 due sometime this week to Beta Testers... Apparently looking at just DVD playback bugs...

Maybe a weeks time itll be out to you.... Just maybe... My guess ppl will be hell pissed given the time and how little bugs it actually fixes... Itll just be Zensonic stringing ppl along till the next BETA.... I mean how long are you prepared to wait ?? I would have waited if this was a useable unit... it wasnt pure and simple... It couldnt even play a DVD without stuffing up.... And Dvix forget it nothing worse when you get an error file and then you have to reboot the player and re start just to ge the next file to play.... Or cant FF thru any... or REW...

Then there are the Myriad OF DEAD Remote Controls... We dont even have an answer on these from Zensonic just send it back and we will send you another one and then ppl are getting the new units and they are dying again ??? Whats the point of that ???

Hehehe laugable go read the forumns and the bug posts and then compare to the Positive posts about 20 to 1.. against..

As to me ramming it down ppls throat I dont think so .... You were the tool who came on here and started bagging away at me... Jump at me and Ill jump back plain and simple.... The only people Ramming it down people throats are people like you who dont like any criticism of the z500 and get all Defensive... BUT by ALL MEANS if all the thing in my OP dont exist.... List them one by one and Ill post a link each and EVERY on them ??? Can be fairer than that ??? Can I ??

I REPEAT go to www.z500series.com and make up your own mind People DONOT believe me... MAKE UP YOUR own mind if this is a good buy... My guess after 6 posts youll come to the same conclusion as I ....





No they just believe the Zensonic PR BS.... And are very very very patient ppl... who Paid $500 Plus to BETA test a near on useless unit... (no my helios was way less than that shipped as a BETA tester)... Nor do i blame them the Zensonic PR BS train is long and Believeable at 1st.... But give it till Mid March and watch them jump ship real quick...

I mean who wants to admit they bought a Lemon...??

I know some of the BETA testers still there and they AINT happy with whats been coming their way... If they aint what chance dos the ordinary user have ??

Anyways to those interested in the HELIOS X3620 I will be doing a complete revew in the next week.... And the player will be available about End of March from a Local Distrubtor... At less than the z500... I can guarantee its build quality pisses all over the Z500 in every aspects from Power supply... Look at the sucker More heatsinks than anything Ive ever seen.. AND YES they really did change all the Internal components to "upgraded" More expensive High AudioOnes like they said they would....

PS the X3620 Weighs 9+ Kilograms what does that tell you... AND Its BLACK.... Gotta love black matches everything incl my Amp and other HT gear...etc...

X3620

X3620 Brouchure

No not at all.
And nobody is attacking anybody.
My posts are my opinion just like Waynes are his.
The only reason they have Wayne involved is that he is dissing a product that I have and I dont particularily admire his tactics. In fact if you read through them you will find that the first couple were just a bit of ribbing, no more. At some point though I guess enough is enough and I get sick of hearing the same things when ever I look up posts for my unit.




Wayne, your link says US$499.00 how will this get sold for less than AU$500.00 in Australia?

Pretty Simple... the $499USD price is retail... not Wholesale... and its also a the 1 buy price... As I have the Wholesale price list I can say it will easily go for under that why ? 1 distributor buying in bulk.... and Yes its a Local Ditributor here in Australia

As to whether Im dissing a product you have who cares ? What do you think its a personal vendetta against you...? No vendetaa at all its "MY" reveiw on the Z500... thats right MY me what i think of it.... AND if you have a Z500 you will know that each and all of those faults listed by me exist plain and simple...

If you look up the z500 on here your gonna find posts that are not positive about the z500, thats life cos its a lemon plain and simple... Jesus dont go over to the z500 forumn cos by your way of thinking youd prolly top yourself with all those negative thoughts...

And there are No tactics that would suggest I have some "sinister plan" I dont I simply posted to save all and sundry wasting $500 on something that doesnt do what its advertised to do.. I have no gain here none whatsoever... As to the ribbing look at the shite Ive had to put from by the Z500 fan bois and Zensonic employees... I think any ribbing you may think I have done is well and truly justified after the crap they have thrown at me for telling the truth...

especially since neodigits quotes $499us and extra for the wireless adaptor (add your own, another $50+ on the price)
Maybe for once Aus will get a good price compared to other countries. Ah - ok, good price because Wayne is sacrificing some of his dealer margin... (wayne must have posted while I was typing)

Jen

If you are importing a competing product and then dissing others I'd say that is gain!

I aint importing anything... I am not the Australian Distributor... There has been a Neodigits Distributor in Australia for years... Now who looks silly..?

I simple have access to a Dealer price list... Thats it ... And even with a decent mark up itll still be cheaper than the Z500.. Im sure dealers out there who eventually sell it will make a healthy profit..

The $499US proce mark pretty much just guide at the moment till the retail products in Full Retail production...

PS Like ive said I dont need to diss the Z500 its own forumns do that without my help...

Wayne, I have read many of your posts regarding the z500, and I tend to agree that it still requires a lot of work before it is truly ready for retail.

I am interested in the Helios and will be keeping an eye out for how well it performs, but I am concerned that it does not support 50Hz for either 720P or 1080i output. Is there any planned firmware upgrade to include 50Hz support, as the motion judder and frame skipping would drive me crazy.

I have purchased MP3 players and DVD players from Roy before, and I've had a mixed bag in terms of reliability. I hope the Helios as a "Premium Product" will fare better in this regard. One thing that I cannot fault however is the service that I received from Roy at Neodigits, very prompt and polite.

My only complaint about the Neodigits service was that I had to post the faulty goods back to China (at my own cost) for repair, and when they eventually came back after many weeks, they still weren't working! I would hope that a local distributor would circumvent this shortcoming, and this may once again pique my interest in a NeuNeo product... I look forward to hearing more about the Helios over the next few weeks.

EDIT: after Wayne posted that he is not the importer

Yes the Firmware is in progress to add 1080i@50hz and 720P@50hz... Actually I thought there would be visibile tearing playing back my PAL DVD's at 1080i@60hz and 720P@60hz Im happy to say there wasnt PIC quality is excellent..

Yes know about some of Roys other products... But alas he ONLY manufactures the DVD Players everything else he gets as is from whatever supplier he has at the time... Nothing else but his DVD players appear on the Wholesale Price list... He wont even offer bulk wholesale discounts on anything but the DVD players..

No posting back with the Helios its 9kgs.. All sales and repairs will be done right here Australia...By the Australian Distributor which is located in NSW...

Ill give Roy this he listen to everything his customers tell him and where possible he acts upon their suggestions and complaints... He has top notch service thats very true... And Tim Beloney the NeoDigits Sale Manager is even better... Quick responses... And if a product is shite He tells you up front and it quickly dissapears... I really couldnt lose with Roy he guranteed me 100% satisfaction with the Helios or a full refund... Incl postage ... And it hasnt disspaointed me one lil bit... Does all it says it can do and then some...

Thanks Wayne, I wait with baited breath... one more question though (we should probably start a Helios thread) :

Can it output 576i via the DVI port?

According to the specs, it can't, but this is important to me and about 10 other members on here as we want to use our external DVDO Video processors to do the de-interlacing, rather than the one in the DVD player.... perhaps in a future firmware release :fingers crossed:

Hmmm 576i not sure... there are about 11 different video settings Ill have a look and see what works with DVI.. its a mixutire of HD settings and Pc settings...

Doesn't take much to close a thread down at the Z500 forum any more.

http://www.z500series.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=848

Pretty pathetic.

Long live free speech!!

More laughable was the fact that the MOD Andw Changed the rules right in the middle of the thread by adding..

"Pointless posts or threads attacking Zensonic will be deleted.
Continued pointless posts or threads attacking Zensonic will get the user banned without warning."

None of these were there at the start....

Yes typical Zensonic.... And watchout for the #1 Fanboi Blitzed... Sure as hell once he sees your post he will start attacking you... An Absoulte Knob.......

Hmm and I was spot on announcement stating 1st week in march for Faulty PS and Remotes to be fixed... Id bet late march as in they havent even tested their new PS (the single unit they have) yet...

They have conned so many people and now they want hear what they want to hear.

The disgruntled people need to speak up more and not put up with moderators telling them that their unit is fine and to just switch it off at the power point instead of it going into stanbye. Imagine Pioneer saying this. What a joke they are.

For what it is worth... (not much by the looks of it)
andw is NOT a Zensonic employee.

well like with anything new to the market place, there will always be headaches associated with it, no dvd player is faultless when its 1st released, sometimes you got to take account what you are watching on dvd, as dvd media in itself can be picky on what unit it plays on and how it was encoded, just because the player supports various playback options on media and media connections doesn't mean they're going to be happy working together...


i've used a few units over the years and each has its good and bad points, most things we watch on the idiot box come in either on 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio, you also get a pseudo wide screen in various aspect formats...
as for 1080p unless you have a projection system like the omni theatre in perth and the screen to view it on the format is a waste of time to support..

Basicly 1080P covers imax presentation quality...
even having a tv that supports 1080p it would still have to scale it down to 3:2 pulldown aspect ratio to veiw it on a 100+cm plasma or lcd tv or lcd projector...

I read this thread because I have a Z500 and was interested to read peoples thoughts and opinions of the unit. But the whole forum concept gets a bit dull when it turns into a full on bitch fight by suposedly grown men (or women). Lets get back to the topic. If there is no more to be said then leave it alone. PLEASE!

As for the Z500 itself. I received mine in the first shipment in December. I love it. On a whole I think it is an excellent unit with great potential. For what I wanted it for it's fantastic.

However, I do agree that it is full of bugs and it really should not have been released when it was. More testing was certainly required.

The problems I have experienced with mine so far are.

When putting the unit into standby with the remote, it will rarely come out of standby with the remote. A cold boot is required.

If the player does not recognise a particular type of file, no other files from SMB or USB will play until a cold boot is done.

USB devices are not recognised if they are plugged in when the unit is turned on or taken out of stand by. You have to unplug and plug them back in.

Green line down the left hand side of screen when unti is turned on (LG 42PX4DV Plasma - HDMI connection). I have to go to video settings and re-apply every time.

Standard over heating. The longer the player is on the more quirky it gets.

I have however never had the unit lock up, or pause/stop during DVD or file playback. (I must be one of the lucky few without this problem)

All in all I am over the moon with the Z500. It is exactly what I have been looking for and am happy I bought it. (even with the bugs). But as mentioned, I can agree that it was released too quickly.

Hopefully they can get the bugs out soon with new firmware and new power supplies. once they do, jump on board because its a great player.

Tidied up this thread a bit, and handed out the whipping stick to the people who decided to have a bit of a go inside the thread.

I just updated the firmware via wireless lan and can't really give a report on the changes as the HDMI handshake is even worse now. When loading a dvd the handshake drops out and it won't synch back to my display so useless firmware for my display.

The only advantage for me is that the standby message doesn't flash anymore.

HDMI fixes are being released in version 1.3 firmware, ETA around 3 weeks time.

a point when doing any firmware update, make sure to have a hard wired connection, as with wireless you can loose a much needed packet wich could lead to a bad install of the firmware...

It can also been done from disc if there is any concern.

Doesnt seem like its fixed too many of the bugs but added a few others..

My guess is nothings gonna work right anyhow until after the power supply is swapped over..

And I think reading the forumn that will be around mid march..

Does Helios do their own firmware or are they using syabas firmware for the x3620?

They do their own...

Luckily I have not had any of the same Dramas the Z500 suffers from...

Sorry mate but according to Sigma they use the Syabas Middleware.

Sorry mate you dont own one...

But hang Iodata use Syabas as do a myiriad of others but hmm let see they dont customise their own firmwares ??

YES they use Syabas Middleware so what ? Thats doesnt mean they DONT customise their OWN firmware.. As they DO.. Their backend is and has always been done "inhouse" with Syabas providing the middleware.. Ever notice why they all look different ? 8620 players ?

Your constant knocking of Syabas middleware always amazes me... Heres a BIG point... Syabas Middleware works yours (sliceware) doesnt and isnt proven...yet.. pretty simple really... 3 Months from launch alas still no stable product in the z500... Firmwares have fixed little... Maybe the march Power Supply might help... But then again who really knows...

Please do tell though what exactly that Sliceware "can" do or does "better" than Syabas so we all know ??

There are numeorus other 8620 players out there (using syabas) that do what they advertise... And they are stable... And the Helios is one of them..

Gee did I come across rude at all? All I said was sorry it uses Syabas middleware as to the posters question does it use Syabas firmware. We all know no one uses Syabas as a middleware without customization.

Was I wrong in my post that it uses Syabas middleware?

Please Wayne I am not here to argue or start any flaming wars. That was never my intention and I am sorry if I came across rude for you to take a stab like that. I never attacked Syabas when I said it uses Syabas middleware. I was merely correcting you because form that post it came across like it had nothing to do with Syabas.

Just for your info I am not here to compare what Sliceware or Zensonic can do and Syabas cant etc. That was not my intention when I posted this and I dont intend to.

No Offence taken Chuna... But we both know that we arent mates...Otherwise Id still have access to your forumn..8-)

But Please if you could, just elaborate what it is that Sliceware does or potentially can do better... than Syabas ?? I suppose it has relevance to this thread as the Z500 has gone out on its own with Sliceware there was obviously a reason...

And as such spose a few would like to know (before they purchase) as to "Why is the Z500 better" or Why is iodata helios etc better ?

Faults aside and no pun intended Ive always wondered myself...

Cheers

Wayne