Success!! Because of our complaining here at these forums, Teac are soon to upgrade the firmware for the DV-B420 to eliminate the scratching/popping noises heard when changing to certain channels. I got an email yesterday from Fabian at Teac confirming there will be a new upgrade available shortly that should do the fix. Nice one Teac, thanks!

Yay, what about Captions not staying on so long, and what about extended now and next? http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=9967

Yeah I'm hoping for that as well, but you gotta admit those problems are nowhere near as bad as the sound screeching. Perhaps if you email him you could get the message through to their engineers?

email address?

Excellent.........but untill then, my signature will not change.....

Heh...dunno if I should post his email address here, apparently he is not a customer service guy. Just do a search on google and you should find 1 page with his address on it

Good point, I just used the addresses from the contacts page http://stb.teac.com.au/pages/Contact.htm - hopefully that gets throgh to the correct people.

Just found out there will be no upgrade for another 3 months


Maybe I should try the Nordmende...


                                                        ...THIS SUCKS!!!

He used to post his email on the forums, so it should be alright.

Fabian@teac.com.au is anyway posted on the Australian Caption Centre's website as his email.

Still going good here (Nordmende that is).

Where did you get the Nordmende from? I can't even find an English website for their products, let alone an outlet that sells them.

I just sent Fabian another email asking for detailed information on when the upgrade will be available, and whether it will fix the sound scratching/popping, so hopefully we can find out in advance and decide to keep the Teac knowing that it will definitely be fixed.


Cheers

I have read JB HiFi (Somewhere on the forums it says JB)

Went into JBHiFi yesterday and all they had was Nintaus, Teac, Sony, Panasonic

Sorry about editing my post just as you replied to it

Woops, I thought you said Nintaus.

The Normande's are avalible from my employer, Myer. Well I thnk they still are, I can't recall seeing one when I went into work last Sunday.

Myer works for you? That must be cool, can you get me a free Nordmende then?

I'll check out Myer, any idea what the price is? Also do they have a good refund policy, like even if you just dont like the product?

Woops. That was a bad mistake

Sorry but I have sold Myer to Harvey Norman


I think it was around $169 but I am not sure. Do a search on the forums.


Got no idea as I only have started recently working for Myer. At least I am in a section that I know about the products sold (well except for the vacumms that they put with TV/Sound/IT)

That's pretty good, I paid $179 for the Teac DV-B420.

Now, to get Tandy to refund the Teac that I bought 2 months ago...

Sorry for the delay.
Yes, I got the Nordmende from Myer, yes it was $169.
The model is KMDG46, has 2 x scart outputs, svideo, and composite video outputs.
Also has 2 x rca's for stereo sound output, and a co-axial output for digital audio.
Component video does not seem to be supported, but RGB is via scart.
I can't find any English website either, but so far everything has been going well.
Myer had no problems returning the Teac (which I bought from them), and said it wouldn't be a problem to return the Nordmende if it didn't work out.
(no, I don't work for any of them)

Thanks andw, I'll definitely check it out, but what is the picture like on RGB? I would assume it is identical to component video. I understand there is a slight difference in signal between the two, one being higher bandwidth, but does it look as clear as component video?

Also, have you tried using audio out from the SCART and from the RCA outs at the same time? If so, does it result in some distortion? The Teac has distortion when both are used so I cant connect it to the VCR without buying a selector switch

RGB looks fine to me, don't have component so can't compare.
I found the picture on RGB looks more 'natural' as far as the colors go.
I found after a while that the colors on the 420 in RGB mode had a sort of 'painted' effect, especially peoples faces etc.
In fact, I thought the colors on the Nordmende looked about the same between composite and RGB, just the edges were sharper on RGB, whereas there was a definite color difference switching between composite and RGB on the Teac.
Image is sharp, clear, and colors look good...
I have 1 scart going to the TV (rgb mode) with the sound on the scart plug, and the other (2nd) scart going to the VCR (composite) with the sound also going out the 2nd scart plug.
I have also had the VCR hooked up via the RCA as well, and couldn't notice any difference, but as I had a spare scart plug, I just stuck with that.
Not sure if you can use all 3 outputs at the same time, but it lloks like you can (2 x scart, 1 x composite, oh and svideo as well, haven't tried that).

Argh, I'm still confused! I understand the box does RGB which is the same as component video, isn't it? As long as it uses the R G and B pins on the SCART and reproduces the highest quality image I'll be happy, cos I just spent $45 on a SCART to component video cable (RCA cables on it are labelled R, G and B )

I assume it will work since I've had the Teac DV-B350 which had an "RGB scart out" setting which I used and I was getting component/RGB/YUV/YPbPr/YCbCr (whatever it's called) type clarity through the same cable.

Doesn't really matter anyway, the Nordmende is arriving tomorrow afternoon from Myer ($169) and is refundable

fingers crossed

Cheers

RGB is different than YUV/YPbPr/YCbCr (or whatever they want to call it).
But doesn't really matter, if you had your previous box set to RGB out and it worked, it should work the same.
Good luck.

*sigh*

So close yet so far...

here's the deal with the Nordmende:

1. RGB doesn't work through my SCART cable despite the connections saying 'R' 'G' and 'B' (I think the manufacturer of the cable thinks RGB is the same as YUV) and picture quality is very crappy through composite S-Video is there and I'm sure it'd look better (dont have a cable for it to test) but in the end I refuse to settle for anything less than component 'cause of the trouble i've gone through to get a component setup working

2. Impulse noise occurs more frequently on the Nordmende than on the Teac 420 (every lightswitch on/off interferes) but never makes the harsh scratching noise. It handles it almost identically to the Teac 350

3. Channel change is a bit long

4. Menus are poorly designed and difficult to navigate with the spongy remote

5. No aspect ratio change button on the remote, I really need this button


I don't know what to say... I've tried 5 STB's now and none of them do the job right. I'm sure someone out there will just tell me to get a topfield PVR or something but I just dont have the cash for that

The Nordemende is Ok overall, but doesnt quite cut it for what I need.

sick of this, looks like i'm gonna have to wait till #$!*&#@ February for the Teac upgrade

1. That's a shame, I have a Scart to Scart cable, and RGB works well.
I think you might be right about the cable.

2. mine gets the same or less than the 420, but the removal of that awful noise is the best bit for me.

3. agreed, longer than the 420

4. remote is definitley spongy

5. 'page +' & 'page -' does the aspect change, not obvious but it works.

Sorry it didn't work out for you.
The topfield ones do sound good, especially the PVR's (just want them a bit cheaper)

interesting...maybe I'll get an S-video cable and see how good the picture is before I return the Nordmende.

Right now I just want something reliable and watchable. Have you experienced any freezes with the STB? If it doesnt freeze and s-video looks really good I may just keep it...

So far, it has once not come out of standby.
Don't know why, unplugged it and plugged it back in, and everything was fine.
Lost 7, and had to rescan another time.

I just connected my Nordmende up again today to give it another try before deciding on keeping it and to my horror it started making those scratching/screetching noises when impulse noise occurred. It almost never happened on ch10 but on ch7 it was just like the Teac 420, only a bit less frequent. Sometimes it is a harsh loud scratch, the rest of the time it's sound blanking.

My Teac 420 is also stuffed, last night i completely lost a strong ch10 signal (and it is still weak right now and refuses to come back) but the Nordmende is picking up very strong signals (85%+). Now they are both going back to the shop and I need to start all over again



Uh oh, this sounds exactly like the Teac DV-B350. Run for your life!

hehe, sounds like they are all stuffed, just have to pick the best out of all of the stuffed ones.

where abouts would u go to get a null modem cable so you can upgrade the firmware in your decoder box?

http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=WC7514