Helios Labs sent us in their H4000 Upscaling DVD/DivX player for an introduction. While at OSNews we are mostly focused on system software, it is interesting to check out such devices from time to time, because of their added video features over the stock products usually found in the market.The H4000 can upscale up to 1080p, it supports analog stereo, 5.1 channel audio, Optical & Coaxial, and it has Composite S-video, Component, HDMI and VGA/RGB-HV outputs. It comes with a user manual, a power cable, an HDMI cable, a remote control and an RCA A/V cable. Except its normal DVD/VCD/SVCD playback features, the H4000 can playback the following file formats, when read from an optical disk: MPEG4, MPEG2, MPEG1, DivX, Xvid, Audio CDs and mp3.
The device is very slim, looks sexy and it’s very light. Its only controls are on the top of the device though, which means that if you stack your home entertainment devices one on top of the other, you won’t be able to reach these controls. The remote control can search, bookmark, change from PAL to NTSC, change resolutions, zoom up to 5x, change angle and eject the disk, among the more normal DVD remote functions.
In our tests with a 32″ 1080i LCD HDTV, the DVD playback portion of the system performed remarkably well. When used in normal 480p, the DVD quality was as you would expect it. However, upscaling it to 720p it looked even better. What’s interesting to note here is the fact that the player not only is region free, but also it allows HD upscaling via component, which actually is not very legal.
Now, as the video enthusiast that I am, the part that I mostly find more interesting is its video playback capabilities. We burned CDs and DVDs with various formats of video in them and tested the device. We found that the device was not able to playback all XViD files we threw at it, although it had a better luck with mpeg 1 and 2. We also tried the cellphone-recorded kind of “mpeg4” and ASF, but the device was not able to play those back.
Regarding DivX, it was able to playback most of the files, but for some of them it would hiccup, even if the bitrate/resolution was smaller than other DivX files that were played back correctly. So, it’s a bit of hit and miss I am afraid, and there are no standard guidelines on how to encode exactly (although CBR will probably help). We were able to playback correctly files up to 655×352, while under some more favorable encodings it should be able to perform up to 720×480. We also fed the H4000 a 720p DivX file, which was unable to work with.
We found a very ugly bug with the video playback algorithms, that doesn’t exist when the H4000 is in DVD mode. When you load a 16:9 widescreen video, the H4000 will feed the TV a 4:3 image, and so when you stretch it on your TV, it will be way too stretched. To view a widescreen video in its normal aspect ratio you will have to put your TV in 4:3 mode! Please note that the H4000 has a setting that you can tell it that your TV is 16:9, but this setting is not taken into account when playing video files instead of DVDs.
Here’s a video showing the user interface, and the stretching problem while playing back a widescreen DivX file.
Overall, this is a nice gadget to have around and enjoy your DVDs in HD upscaling and your DivX files on your HDTV, although we must request one last firmware upgrade to fix the widescreen problem.
Rating: 7/10
Nice and timely review, as I need a new general purpose DVD player. However, I’m not sure what good HDMI and high definition connectors are when it can’t actually play any high definition content………
What’s interesting to note here is the fact that the player not only is region free, but also it allows HD upscaling via component, which actually is not very legal.
I would imagine that is a condition of playing any high definition content, such as from BluRay or HD-DVD, which this device can’t do. It’s basically a legal licensing requirement when you sign up to play back high definition discs, just like region encoding is, and there are many players around that ignore that. I’m not sure why people think that it’s automatically illegal, but I suppose that’s the impression that’s created.
Now, if it were a Myth front-end box then that would be something.
Is it really that hard putting your cam on a tripod or if that’s to expensive, a chair or something? I had the impression there was an earth quake when the video was shot…
It was 2 AM when I did the video, didn’t wanna wake up everybody here.
This thing doesn’t seem to top the Oppo DV-970HD, which does a great job with various XviD/DivX files, and which will also upscale over component with a simple firmware hack.
Also nice about the Oppo 970-HD and 980H is the USB port which can play video and music and show pictures from flash drives.
If i buy a video gadget in 2007 it has to play all DivX/whatever formats i can get my hands on.
Otherwise i will stay with my Xbox Media Center ( that thing even plays video files WITHIN .rar files. Amazing stuff )
So basically, they couldn’t even reach the Oppo in feature, so I won’t even dare to guess how it does image quality wise. I hope all of this is made up with its price, though the Oppo are cheap already.
Outputting HD through component is not illegal, and never was. That’s just that 1080p through component is not in the norm, so it’s wise not to do it. Because as it’s not in the standard, most HDTV don’t accept that through component, but all accept 720p through component, as it’s in the standard.
The purpose of the HDMI connection is obvious : when the player upscales the DVD signal to 720p or 1080p, then of course, you need a HDMI or a component connection to your TV.
The HD Divx/Xvid not working is perfectly normal, as these are not official formats, and mkv isn’t either.
These upscaling progressive DVD players are NOT HD players as well, they are just upscaling SD resolutions to HD resolutions. They have chips specialized for that. So no, they won’t play any HD format, even official MP4 (AVC-1, H264, …). Lots of people have problems understanding that.
Finally, this review lacks the basics, which are the tests of the upscaling and deinterlacing quality.
Edited 2007-10-24 12:29
I don’t care whether the formats are official, I just care whether they are supported. They are standard formats (scene standards, but still) and at this point more widely adopted than HD-DVD and BluRay combined. If the player appliances haven’t caught up then they are much less useful.
If HD-DVD and BluRay had actually been combined, instead of setting up another format war, then perhaps downloaded video wouldn’t be winning this round.
By WIPO rules, region coding would not be an enforcable portion of a contract with regard to playback devices. WIPO countries are prohibitted from enforcing laws or contract terms which might restrict access to works on the basis of geographical region. In some WIPO signatory countries, region coding is more explicitly a prohibitted anti-competitive practice.
When Region Coding does exist, it’s generally their as a concession to the media industry to foster good relations and cooperation in other parts of the business.
North America (region 1) is the only region where honoring region codes on media is still commonplace.
Unfortunately is doesn’t play SACD’s.
I’m looking for a DVR device. Ideally it could take digital (I’m quite confused about this part
) and analog signal, have output with HDMI (with upscale), use Electronic Program Guide, play DivX, XviD and h.264 encoded videos. Am I asking for too much? Pionieer DVRs look quite good but are limited to DivX videos, does anybody have experience with such hardware that he/she could share?
Building custom MythTV / Windows Media Center computer is too much of a fuss.
Yeah I wondering about the same thing. Anyone know of any DVR devices on the market that can play both avi and mkv containers and support every common codec out there (DivX, Xvid, H264, mp3, ogg, ac3, dts) as well as supporting srt subs?
HD DVD or Bluray support is not needed at all. Why would you want to use that shitty cripleware.
Unfortunately for you, there’s no way to get any DVR that does all that you ask for, unless you go for a pre-made MythTV DVR.
There is no DVR that can do that except MythTV, and this is because of various licensing reasons.
So you have a choice: building custom MythTV, buying one if it does all you want, or buy sth with far far less features.
Im wondering if you get to keep all the stuff you get to review, great job if you do .. even half of it would be nice, why would the company want this cheap upscaler back after its used ..
🙂
Some times we keep the reviewed items because it’s more expensive for the companies to pay back fedex and restock them rather than leave them with us. Sometimes, we have to send them back, if they are more expensive items, yes.
why is it not legal to upscale standard definition to higher resolution and output via component?
Like I said already, it is perfectly legal.
It’s just that you need high quality cable, and outputting 1080p through component is not in the standard.
So upscaling to 720p through component is OK, but 1080p may not work on your display.
Usually, these DVD players allow choice between both definitions when upscaling.
Just a quick note: DivX and Xvid are not file formats. Xvid is a software library that encodes and decodes MPEG-4 ASP video (which is then put into file formats, aka containers, such as AVI or MP4). DivX is a company and a brand name of their commercial products such as the DivX Pro Codec, which, again, is a software product that encodes and decodes MPEG-4 ASP video (which, again, you put into file formats such as AVI or the DivX Media Format, which is a container created by the DivX company, based on AVI). If the device cannot play a particular MPEG-4 video encoded with Xvid, DivX or other MPEG-4 compliant codecs, it’s not because it’s a different format, it’s because unsupported features (Qpel, GMC, multiple B-frames…), resolution, bitrate or an unsupported container format were used.
Edited 2007-10-25 05:30
Yes, we know, thank you.
Yeesh, whatever floats your boat. Still, you only say “was not able to playback all XViD files we threw at it” but fail to mention what you have to do for those files to be playable, which most frequently is a gmc/qpel issue. With divx, you say “but for some of them it would hiccup, even if the bitrate/resolution was smaller than other DivX files” which makes it sound like it’s a resolution issue, but whether it is or it isn’t one can’t really find out. So basically you say we some worked and some didn’t, go figure.
“Yes, we know, thank you.”
I guess that’s why the article says: “the H4000 can playback the following file formats, when read from an optical disk: MPEG4, MPEG2, MPEG1, DivX, Xvid“. 🙂
But OK then…