Digital Trends

NeuNeo HVD2085 November 30th, 2005 | by Ian Bell

Performance and Picture quality

For our review we hooked the HVD2085 up to the following equipment:

• Hitachi 42HDT51 42” Plasma HDTV
• Onkyo TX-SR701 Receiver
• Axiom Audio Epic 80 Speaker System

Movies used for our review:

• Batman Begins
• Alexander
• Casino
• Ghost in the Shell
• Spanglish

Comparison DVD players include the Oppo Digital OPDV971H, LGLDA-511.

We used the Sony DRU-810A DVD writer to make our recordable media.

We connected the HVD2085 to our television using a straight HDMI output to the HDMI input on our Hitachi 42HDT51, and the digital optical audio connection to our Onkyo TX-SR701 receiver for most of our tests. We also tested the video output mode of the component video connection both by plugging it directly into the Hitachi television and using the transcoding of the Onkyo receiver.

We immediately noticed that once the HVD2085 was connected to our television, that there was very little color adjustments that were needed. We noted in our Oppo Digital OPDV971H review that the Oppo Digital had a noticeable green tint when plugged into our set, but that was not the case with the HVD2085. Now perhaps it was because we were using a DVI to HDMI on adapter on the Oppo Digital player, but whatever the case, adjustments made everything look fine. In comparison to the Oppo Digital player, the HVD2085 has a softer look to the images, especially around the edges, which we actually liked. A lot of the up-converting DVD players out there tend to show higher sharpness levels on the up-converted content and some people like that (and maybe it fools others into thinking the up-converting works). Picture detail on the HVD2085 was good, but not as high quality as the Oppo Digital OPDV971H which tended to do a better with de-interlacing, especially on the older titles and recorded content due to the Faroudja chip it uses.

Black levels are adequate on the HVD2085 but not as good as what you would expect for a player in this price range. If you have a television with a high contrast ratio and good black levels such as most Panasonics, you might not notice the problems the HVD2085 has here. If you have an older Sony plasma or LCD TV for example, then get ready for a lot of washed out black levels — and spending time tweaking your TV settings.

We found the HVD2085 to be compatible with the following media brands:

• Memorex
• Verbatim
• Ricoh
• TDK
• Maxell

The HVD2085 was able to playback video from all of our recordable media without any problems. If you find the HVD2085 does have some problems with a particular recordable format speed or brand, please post in the user review section for others to read.

We also found that some of the movies shot in 4:3 mode looked pretty goofy when up-converted to a 1080i or 720P 16:9 resolution depending on the type of television you have. Our Hitachi lets us keep the picture mode in 4:3 aspect ratio despite a 1080i or 720P signal being sent to it, but not all televisions are that nice, some will try to change the picture format to the 16:9 aspect ratio if a 1080i or 720P signal is sent its way; and that's when you will run into distortion.

On the audio side, the HVD2085 sounded good and the audio was in sync with the video side. The HVD2085 supports audio CD's but not DVD Audio or SACD discs, so if those are important to you, checkout a Pioneer product.