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Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=6782
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Author:  admin [ 08 Mar 2017, 20:00 ]
Post subject:  Re: Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance

admin wrote:
All right, I'm biting the bullet on this one and will order one Lumagen 2144 based on knowledgeable comments, reviews and recommendations from this forum (googling around on this specific model also brings very positive reviews). Time to invest :-)


Quick review right after installing the 2144 in my system!

First, it's simplifying greatly the number of cables needed. Now the projector only gets an HDMI cable with DVI adapter. Gone are the components (and component switch box), composite, and S-Video going in and out of the A/V Amp.

Attachment:
File comment: Misc cables... now useless
IMG_6210.JPG
IMG_6210.JPG [ 79.84 KiB | Viewed 3937 times ]


The R2144 is becoming the center switch box of all things video now.

  • HDMI1 = HD DVD 1080p
  • HDMI2 = HTPC 1080i
  • HDMI4 = DVD 1080i
  • Component (RGB) = Hi-Vision decoder
  • Composite = HLD-X9

Attachment:
File comment: R2144 handling anything analog or digital
IMG_6212.JPG
IMG_6212.JPG [ 61.77 KiB | Viewed 3937 times ]


A brief test of the LD replay (Contact AC3/LBX, Trainspotting Criterion, Basic Instinct Squeeze) via the R2144 shows obvious improvements in stability, black depth, colors. It's as if a layer of dust had been removed to provide a more digital-like quality. Of course it doesn't make a DVD or a BD from a LD, but it gets the picture quality as far as the LD can go. The update from the LD-S9 to the HLD-X9 was obvious. Hooking up the HLD-X9 to the R2144 bought yet another level of improvement.

It wasn't a cheap purchase for sure, but I will rewatch some old LDs again, to appreciate the improved quality.
Probably some time will be needed to optimize settings for anime, movies, videos, etc.

Thank you substance for the tips!

Julien

Author:  stridsvognen [ 08 Mar 2017, 21:11 ]
Post subject:  Re: Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance

What are you comparing the Radiance to.?

Author:  admin [ 09 Mar 2017, 05:23 ]
Post subject:  Re: Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance

stridsvognen wrote:
What are you comparing the Radiance to.?


Comparing to my previous NEC HT1100 projector/scaler (768p), I know it's not ideal.

The improvement comes from inserting the R2144 between the LD player and the NEC. I wish I had enough $$$ to try other video processors before but I finally decided to jump on the boat before the analog input start disappearing or are equipped with cheap/poor circuitry.

The next system upgrade will be the projector (getting too old), if I get some extra bonus this month.

Julien

Author:  audioboyz1973 [ 09 Mar 2017, 17:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance

I feel the need to add some comment here too.

In short I can't recommend the Lumagen enough, not just because I'm getting a clearly superior result to the DVDO Duo, but also due to the excellent customer support.

I had huge issues integrating it into my system at first, turns out that the way I dealt with 0IRE discs with the DVDO did not translate well to the 2144 and so everything seemed a bit off. Jim and the team at Lumagen went above and beyond to help. Even to the point of shipping new boards to me out here in Australia when we thought the unit had a fault.

Eventually we worked it all out - a new firmware revision went up on the Lumagen website just today so that now the analogue inputs can be properly set for 0IRE vs 7.5IRE discs. If you have certain later Japanese discs in your collection this is very important (perhaps you Julien?). They even added audio mute delay to the analogue inputs because of an issue my old processor was having.

Although it was somewhat frustrating and difficult getting there, we did; and this is customer service and product backup far beyond what I have ever experienced before.

Author:  admin [ 09 Mar 2017, 17:46 ]
Post subject:  Re: Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance

audioboyz1973 wrote:
In short I can't recommend the Lumagen enough, not just because I'm getting a clearly superior result to the DVDO Duo, but also due to the excellent customer support.


I can't agree more. My first R2144 arrived DOA (could never get to power it up).
They swiftly issued a RMA for pickup and shipped a new one, the one I'm using right now.

audioboyz1973 wrote:
Eventually we worked it all out - a new firmware revision went up on the Lumagen website just today so that now the analogue inputs can be properly set for 0IRE vs 7.5IRE discs. They even added audio delay to the analogue inputs because of an issue my old processor was having.


Indeed, Jim from Lumagen mentioned it yesterday and I installed the new 030517 firmware tonight to fix the 0IRE setting.
He also mentioned the Long Mute setting for the output coax and I set it up as well to protect my speakers from pops on the sound output.

Indirectly the COAX OUT - that I didn't really notice initially - is fixing another problem I had recently (the need for an external SDPIF that can pass 2 ch/DD 5.1/DTS 5.1) and the Radiance 2144 is just doing that, passing the audio over HDMI then splitting video to HDMI OUT and the sound to COAX OUT to my A/V Amp perfectly. Just saved another $50~100.

I still have to play with settings extensively (and upgrade the video projector) but it has been suggested that maybe we could started a dedicated Radiance R2144 owners thread for hints and tips. I'm all for that!

Julien

Author:  audioboyz1973 [ 09 Mar 2017, 18:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance

admin wrote:
I still have to play with settings extensively

extensively? haha we may not hear from you for a while......

And I too feel like re-watching discs through 'new eyes'.

admin wrote:
it has been suggested that maybe we could started a dedicated Radiance R2144 owners thread for hints and tips. I'm all for that!

Let's do it!

Author:  substance [ 09 Mar 2017, 18:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance

I am glad I didn't disappoint with my recommendations. Now that we have a few owners here, we can discuss bugs and potential features. There still is a bug with auto aspect ratio for example.

Author:  admin [ 10 Mar 2017, 04:32 ]
Post subject:  Re: Lumagen Radiance 2144 - Always listen to Substance

Note: I'm closing this topic to move the discussion over to the following thread

Lumagen Radiance 2124 2144 owners

See you there!

Julien

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