DV6500 Internals, Set-up, Remote, and Measurements

The build quality the unit is pretty standard for a mass market player, with a main board containing the power supply plus audio/video output stages, and a separate digital processing board containing the MPEG decoder and audio/video DACs, plus a dedicated shielded board for multi-channel audio.

The stock unit is based on a previous generation Panasonic design (probably an OEM version of the DVD-F65). Essentially, almost all processing functions are handled by a single LSIC: Panasonic MN2DS0004AB. Video DACs are based on the MN35202 (10-bit 54MHz) and the player uses a single chip 8 channel Audio DAC: TI/Burr Brown DSD1608 (a multi-format, multi-level delta sigma modulator design rated at 108dB SNR/dynamic range and 0.0012% THD). The 2-channel audio analogue output uses a KIA4558F op amp, and the multi-channel analogue audio stage is based on JRC4580 op amps.

Most of JLTi’s modifications on the prototype/demo player (transformer, additional audio stage and power regulation) are carefully slotted in an otherwise unused corner of the chassis, and the improved clock is affixed onto the digital processing board using a set of short patch wires.

On the newer production player, the modifications are more discreet. The clock is on a mini circuit board of its own, mounted underneath the DSP board and affixed to the rear of the chassis. The transformer is at the same place as on the prototype, but there’s no separate output stage, and it looks like the multi-channel analogue audio circuit board has been patched with a few extra components.

Just a word on the clock: The original Marantz DV-6500 uses a single master clock at 27MHz. An SM8707FV dual-PLL clock generator IC generates independent audio, video and DSP clock outputs from the master clock. The JLTi modification replaces the stock 27MHz master clock with an improved low jitter TENT Labs design. However, the audio/video jitter performance is still limited by the jitter characteristics of the SM8707FV (20ps for video, and 40ps for audio). I feel a better, but more intrusive design, would need to bypass the SM8707FV for true low jitter performance.

Player Set-Up

Pressing the Setup button on the remote control brings up the menu system for configuring the DVD player. You can choose between Quick Setup, Custom Setup, or Initialize (which returns the player back to factory default settings, apart from parental control and video out).The menus are usable even on the small 7” LCD monitor that I use for configuring players. The Quick Setup option allows you to enter the most common configuration settings on a single submenu page.

There are four setup categories, corresponding with the four icons on the top of the On Screen Display: Language, Display, Audio, and Parental Control.

The “Language” submenu allows you to set the default language for the audio track, subtitle track, disc menus and player menus. You can select “Original” for the default audio track, and “Off” for the subtitle track. Common languages are directly selectable from a list, for the rest you have to type the four digit code associated with the language.

The “Display” submenu allows setting of the TV aspect ratio (4:3 LB, 4:3 P&S, 16:9), Still Mode (Auto, Field, Frame), Angle Icon (On/Off), Auto Power Off (On/Off), Panel Display (Bright, Dimmer, Auto), and Video Out (SCART, Component Interlaced, Component Progressive).

The “Audio” submenu governs what formats are allowable on the digital output (PCM 96kHz, Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG) as well as DRC (Dynamic Range Control) for Dolby Digital. It also allows you to specify 2.0 or 5.1 outputs for analogue audio.

The speaker settings allow you to specify speaker presence and size, time alignment, and channel balance. Time delay settings can be specified in meters or feet, but the player assumes the Front Left/Right and Surround Left/Right pairs are equidistant. You can set speaker levels for all 5.1 channels individually (0 to -12dB in 1dB increments)

Finally, the “Parental” submenu allows you to set the parental restriction level (1-8 plus All) and parental control password (4 digit number).

Remote Control

This is a pretty average looking remote control. The buttons are reasonably well laid out, but the all important transport control buttons towards the bottom are too small and hard to distinguish from each other. In addition, there is no back-lighting, so the remote is basically impossible to use in the dark.

On the plus side, the Group button is usable without requiring a video display, the Sound Mode button is used to select between multiple audio tracks and layers on SA-CD, and the Search Mode button is nice, but requires the video display to be active to be usable.

Video and Audio Measurements & Testing

Performing measurements and tests on a DVD player using tools at our disposal is somewhat objective, but still results in a certain amount of subjective decision-making in terms of scoring and evaluation. As such, we recommend that these test results be used as a guideline only. For the review of this DVD player, the performance was based on the player in conjunction with the display monitor. We used the Sony VPL-VW11HT projector which was calibrated as close as possible to ISF reference standards using the SMART III calibration software. For the test and evaluation of the JLTi we used selections from Digital Video Essentials, the Microsoft WHQL 3.0 DVD Test Annex and the Silicon Optix HQV Technology benchmark DVD test discs in addition to various test clips from popular movies.

All final test scores were derived using the JLTi component video output in progressive scan mode.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130

The player performed very poorly on HQV as a progressive scan player, failing nearly every single test (including Film 3:2 cadence detection). The score: only 20/130 which is the lowest performance to date on DVD players tested in our Benchmark.

*All tests were done with the component video output at 480p.

Comments on Audioholics DVD Torture Tests

For the full list of features and testing, please see the new DVD Player Features and Benchmark Comparisons Chart. As you can see, you probably don’t really want to use this as a progressive scan player apart from a display with better deinterlacing ability. We’d recommend feeding the 480i outputs to a more qualified television of projection system. Keep in mind, however that the HQV tests are all unflagged and that good, correctly flagged source material may produce better results than what is shown here.

Even on the color bar test, it’s clear that this player has an unacceptably soft picture, smearing the alternating black-and-white bar pattern, with accompanying flickering which is an indication of poor deinterlacing. The softness is also apparent in the Picture Detail test. To add insult to injury, no noise reduction options are available. As to be expected, the player did not pass any of the esoteric cadence patterns, but it was not even able to recognize basic 3:2 pulldown.

In terms of other components of the DVD Torture Tests, the JLTi player passed most of them except for a Y/C delay of around -0.07 in the red channel, plus pixel cropping of 5 pixels (2 on the left, and 3 on the right). In addition, the presence of moiré patterns on the AVIA resolution test in the vertical wedge again reinforces that the “softness” evident on this player is due to incorrect deinterlacing.

Layer changes were okay, with the WHQL “worst case scenario” layer change coming in at just under one second. Boot up time was reasonable, around 5 seconds. After the WHQL disc was inserted, it took around 11 seconds before it brought up the menu, and around 6 seconds to eject the disc from the main menu. Overall, the player feels a bit sluggish with front panel and remote buttons responding in a rather delayed fashion.