Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems M really can't do video!!!

I sympathise with the upset customer and I hope that US consumer protection legislation will provide a fair solution without the lawyer earning too many more 500-series Mercedes :-)

I have now read through this thread and the one at AVS forums twice. Then I searched the Meridian & Faroujda web-site to try and find equipment details and specs.

In between the obviously pi**ed off customer and veering very close to libel, I could not for the life of me find out what equipment was involved, what didn't work or why. Was this a faulty PJ, a faulty video processor or a video processor/PJ combination that did not provide a promised 2.35:1 solution from an HD source?

To avoid anyone else ending up as disappointed could we have a base-line of the equipment and what the problem was please?

Ok guys- I am a little calmer today so here we go- Jerry after talking with a few folks - I tend to agree that the legal issue is not the way to go and will look at either the cII or lumagen (any suggestions)-
Gianni- The short version is the first MF-1 came to me D.O.A.-after a few phone calls they sent out another one- I hooked it up and the processor(1080mf) would not take the signal- After MANY phone calls and waiting 10 days for luke rawls to call back-he agreed that the processor was now bad and sent another processor out-therefore 2 PJ's and 2 processors-During this whole time I had been talking with luke about my 2.35 setup and he and everyone at M said it is coming and is a download away- So I waited till I saw they were releasing it at CES- I called rawls and he said yes it is ready and downloaded to Kevin Miller(ISF) for installation in my unit- Well it did not work and actually made things worse-We called rawls back and got a - UH! OH!!
We sent a letter to Norm(hd. of M usa) and rawls explaining the problem- 1 month went by without so much a phone call to my dealer or myself-So patiently I sat waiting for a solution and none came- when I finally blew up is when they gave me the - It is not ready for prime time speech-All they say to me is - where does it say that it will do 2.35- I told them that I did not think I had to tape record my conversations to prove it- Why else would I have a download if it is not available- MY ISF guy(kevin Miller- Is also fit to be tied because he spoke to them and they never told him that it is not ready either- So there ya go- gary

In the UK, you cannot sue anyone for 'future promise'. So basically a company can say that their product will do something in the future and if you buy it on this basis and the company fails to deliver, you cannot do anything about it.

Which basically means that you would have to prove that the intention was to not deliver. Obviously if you were UK based, which you are not, I would say the chance of this was about as close to NIL as makes no odds. But I am sure that a solicitor would be happy to take your money, in which case, you may get them on future promise as it would be clear from the start that the case had no chance of winning but the solicitor would be happy to take your money irrespective!

I had this happen to a Silicon Graphics workstation that I bought. SGI promised that it would so something but in the end they never delivered on that piece of functionality. I could do nothing about it. 'Thankfully' I did get my own back because what they did deliver had an inherent design fault and when I came to upgrade its capabilities it did not work. It took SGI ages to fix and I got much of the upgrade cost for free.

Gary:

I would say that the choice of video processor depends on your added patience...if you need one today I would go with the Crystallo II...if you can wait another 3 to 6 months I would hold out for Lumagen as its advanatages are:

-- Newer GEnnum chipset
-- Two HDMI outputs
-- Unsurpassed cutomer support
-- Upgradability via the use of daughter boards

to name but a few...and yes, I am biased as I now use a Lumagen and have already ordered their RadianceXD..

So have I based on the spec and Lumagen's outstanding reputation and customer support.

Big advantage of any Lumagen product vs. the competition is the NoRing (TM) scaling. Basically the cleanest scaling available (at sensible prices).

I am a long time user of Lumagen's product offering and would not even consider looking elsewhere...where elase can you pick up a telephone and speak to either the president or the chief engineer -- simply a company with outstanding customer service mated to a great product.

+1 on Lumagen. Best customer support I've ever received for any A/V product. Never mind that the product is great.

Doody

Sorry for the thread jack but the guys who have experience with an outboard video processor...what is your opinion of DVDO?

govcon - There have been changes at DVDO recently following the departure of founder Dale Adams. Seems as if DVDO aren't terribly customer focused any more...

See this thread on AVForums (with contributions from Mr Adams himself...). Skip to post #19 on page 2 if you can't be bothered to read the whole thing. Gets more interesting on page 3.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=480624

OK, getting there now. Trying to be objective and undestand end-to-end process.....

The PJ is the D-ILA 1080p aka MF1, a Meridian-badged, Faroudja-engineered JVC HD10K - cost ~$21k. The procesor is the matching DVP-1080p - cost ~$5k. The first PJ did not work so it was replaced. The second PJ would not talk to the processor so that was replaced. And this combo worked? Was the replacement done in a timely manner? Who did the install - the customer or the dealer? There are obvious concerns here about quality control in manufacture and pre-delivery testing but if the result was something that worked as sold in a reasonable time - what is the problem? If Meridian had to facilitate that resolution then I am sure they know how to manage their dealer base.

Then there is the entirely separate question of the ability to handle/process 2.35:1. I don't know or understand the technology but it is not about that, it is about what the vendor promised the customer. And how much its absence hurts. Attorneys on stand-by. If Meridian have determined that their 2.35:1 solution is not ready for market then that is a better call than to launch something buggy?

So I think the statement "M really can't do video" comes down to:
(1) they knew they needed projector expertise and bought it in
(2) they may have yet to address quality controls at that acquisition
(3) they are being cautious about bringing out new features on that kit
(4) this instance is a single unfortunate one combining two separate problems with multiple interested parties.

I think it is reasonable to reject the title assertion unless or until we see significant evidence to the contrary (i.e. more cases of the same) or if Meridian don't start to wow the market with their own new leading edge high-end PJ products to match the sources.

Myself, I now know Grahams (N. London UK) have this combo installed and researching for this thread I now know prices and capabilities so I may be taking a trip to demo it. So my interest is piqued....thanks to Gary.

Ok as the mf-1 turns continues- I spoke to mark Kovall the other day as Norm NEVER picks up my calls- He said he would look into it and get back to me- I just spoke to him and of course he said he looked thru the correspondence and never saw a mention of 2.35- I asked him why I got a download and he said that Kevin miller just asked for an update and they gave him one- Luke Rawls flatly LIED and said he never mentioned 2.35 to anyone??- Mark said they are working on it and ONE DAY it will come out- Kevin Miller is calling mark to tell him the truth!!! What a terrible company and it is a shame that they treat customers like that- I told him do you want to listen to luke or hear the truth!!- gary

Also it seems odd for a company that does not hav 2.35 they sent this press release in Jan for CES-
http://media.Meridian-audio.com/press/CES07-presskit/lenses_pr-ces07.pdf

why bother if you do not seem ready to have 2.35-