Anyone heard the Onkyo sp 1000 yet?

Has the well documented A/V sync issue been resolved? I had the DV-SP1000 for about 1 week. My Theta DaViD II was noticeably better on audio, whereas the Onkyo clearly excelled in video. I bought the Onkyo for video, not audio, so it did not matter to me that the Onkyo was inferior on audio. However, sync was horrible. While my pre-pro allows for up to 110 milliseconds of delay, I needed considerably more. As such, I returned the unit. Unless and until the sync issue is resolved, this unit is a nonstarter. With the sync problem, it was like watching an old Godzilla movie in high definition - video was beautiful, but audio was absolutely horrible.

Originally posted by EARS:

"Rmaidenburg,
You are the very first person on any audio based board to ever mention having lip sync issues on an SP1000."

I will respond factually and without any adjectives.

Unless you (User Name "Ears" here at AudiogoN) are not the same person as EARZ (User Name at AVScience), who regularly posts in defense of, and with high praise for, the SP1000 in the AVS Forum on DVD Players, you know very well that many people have experienced lip sync issues on not only the SP1000 but also the Integra version of this player.

Heck, Q of BanditZ even started a thread at AVS to try to diagnose the problem in order to work with Onkyo on a fix: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=484072. Indeed, if you (Ears) are the same person as (Earz), you were the seventh poster to that thread and posted as recently as 2/15/05.

However, so that there is no doubt, and so that the readers of this thread here at AudiogoN can read the facts, I will quote from Q's very first post in the AVS Forum thread:

"It's taken several threads and failed polls, but our purpose here is to determine what, if any, common denominators exist as we try to troubleshoot down the lip synch issue that some owners of these units have experienced.

"This is going to strictly be a hard information, data thread for interested parties and owners of both the Onkyo 1000 and Integra 10.5.

"For the sake of brevity, ease of reading and useage, we’d ask you to keep conversation to one of the several other robust Onkyo threads. Please strictly post relevant data in this thread.

"This thread is for information and fact finding. Hard data.

"Hopefully, we wish to assemble objective data that we can submit to Onkyo themselves."

As recently as 2/14/05, rider at AVS posted the following:

"Latest update I got from Onkyo tech support:

"Japan is still working on problem. Tech said the problem is very "widespread," but random: some players have the problem, and others don't. He said the problem appears to be internal to the player, and unrelated to monitor/set-up/or anything external. He said Japan hasn't figured out (or if they have, Onkyo US hasn't been told yet) exactly what is causing it, but they believe it's longer video processing time than audio processing time (SiI504 chip probably (?)).

"He said they have "tons" of the SP1000 units there, and he's personally seen some that have the sync problem. He said Japan will "definitely" issue a fix, but couldn't give me a time frame; the only projected date given so far by Japan, back in Dec, was sometime Apr/May......."

Originally posted by Ears:

"You are also the very first person that EVER said the audio was anything but great...so this should tell everyone that you probably have never even heard or seen a SP1000."

Again, I will respond factually and without any adjectives.

I acquired my unit from Vann's back in December of '04, thanks to the tips from Q and others about the discount pricing they had at that time. Indeed, you will find my posts at AVS, if you care to search for them, confirming my ownership of the unit. To Vann's credit, they accepted the return of my unit and gave me a full refund.

With respect to the audio quality of the Onkyo, perhaps I could have been more clear, but you did not need to paraphrase my words to misconstrue what I posted. I never wrote that audio on the Onkyo was "anything but great". To be clear, I wrote that audio on my DaViD II was superior to audio from the Onkyo. The DaViD II plays only Redbook CD, and on Redbook CD the DaViD II was superior to the Onkyo. In my system, the DaViD II provided better bass, more coherence, and less coloration.

As I posted, I acquired the Onkyo for video, not for audio. I was and still am going to sell my DaViD II, because later this year I plan to acquire either the Theta Compli and GenVIII (once the proprietary link issues are resolved) or Meitner CDSD & DAC6e. I intended to keep the Onkyo until the HD DVD & Blue Ray wars are settled because the video on the Onkyo is at least as good, if not better, than any other DVD player on the market (at least in the under $5K range). But with the A/V sync issue, I could not watch more than 3 DVDs before I packed up the unit and returned it to Vann's. To be clear, had there been no A/V sync issue, I would have kept the Onkyo for sure.

Ears, you need to read both of my posts again. I never wrote the Onkyo sounded terrible. I do not know how many times I have to repeat myself to make you understand. I did write that my DaViD II sounded better. I have heard far better than my DaViD II as well, which is, of course, one of the reasons why I hope to upgrade later this year. That does not mean that my DaViD II sounds terrible either. All of this is, of course, relative.

With respect to an audio based board, whatever that may be, neither AudiogoN nor AVS Forum are solely relegated to audio. Moreover, this thread, started by Rotabel, asked about the Onkyo as a "universal" player which of course includes its video performance.

There is a very well known and documented A/V sync issue with this unit. That is a fact. Anyone considering the purchase of this unit should know about this problem. To purposefully ignore it, to cite to "audio based" boards which apparently do not discuss this well known critical deficiency, and to implicitly discount the AV Science web site and all of the knowledgeable people there who have owned this exact player, is to do a disservice to the public. If someone wants to purchase this unit as an audio only player, and never use it for DVD video, then of course the A/V sync issue would be of no concern and the player would be judged solely on its audio performance. But do not pretend that the problem does not exist. And do not accuse someone of never even owning the player when that someone (me) did - you do not know me from a hole in the wall - because while you do have some fine points to make about this player, you also lose credibility when you stoop to such tactics. Don't shoot the messenger. Deal with the facts.

Posted by Q of BanditZ at AVS Forum today:

"2-21-05

"10 No Lip Synch whatsoever/Never

"13 "Intermiitent/random/unpredictable" synch issues. (May not even be consistent synch on the same disc at the same spots. Most of entrants here have had this problem.)

"3 "All the time synch every time disc is played back." These are two for Milo and RFogg said he has to use his Anthem delay feature on all movies he watches. He specified all the time."

In other words, only 10 out of 26 have had no A/V sync problem. That is 38 percent, any way you slice it.

Compare Q's tally with Ears comment of today:

"There are like 8 people at AVS in a poll that have or had a sync problem with a couple of them trying more than one player adding to the total."

The facts are the facts.

The speculation is as follows (as posted by Ears today): "There are how many thousands of the sp1000's sold around the world with zero sync problems."

How do we know this? Perhaps Ears is tapped into the global pipeline of Onkyo owners.

Is it not equally plausible, if not more so - look at Q's tally - that there are more Onkyo's sold with A/V sync problems that without? As noted before, Onkyo is aware of the problem. Reread rider's 2/14/05 posted at AVScience, which I quoted above and quote again:

"Latest update I got from Onkyo tech support:

"Japan is still working on problem. Tech said the problem is very "widespread".

The facts are that the problem is "widespread".

A DVD player, no matter how good it sounds, and no matter what its price point - it may be the greatest thing since sliced bread - is a nonstarter. When Onkyo comes up with a fix - or should I say "if" Onkyo comes up with a fix - then and only then is this player a player to be reckoned with.