Living With A UK BV 7-40....

6 replies
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simongdavies (archived)
Bronze
Posted December 15, 2010 at 19:16 GMT
#1921958

Hi All,

I'm interested to hear how other people have managed the limited HD connectivity of the Beovision 7 Mk II.

We've had our BeoVision 7-40 Mk II, on the beautiful motorised floor stand, for about 3 years now.  We have Sky+ HD and a Samsung BDP-1600 BluRay player, and also an AppleTV.  I am, however, increasingly frustrated at the poor connectivity of my television.  We must have bought one of the last Mk II sets prior to the launch of the Mk III.  Looking back, it was pretty ridiculous paying £8,000 for a TV with only one component and one DVI input, and only limited digital audio inputs.  No 2-channel digital audio?  Come on!

I've been quoted a whopping £3,000 by my local B&O dealer to upgrade to a Mk III set with the all-important HDMI inputs, but this is a little too much for my tastes.  How have other people managed to connect multiple HD devices to their TVs?  Component switches?  HDMI Switches?

I'm aware that there was a software update that enabled control of a Gefen 4x1 HDMI switch (I think they retail for around £250 these days).  Would this be a good option?  I think there was also a hardware update that enabled the use of 2-channel Dolby Digital input, but can't find much written about this.

I'd be grateful to hear about the experiences of other BV-7 Mk II users

Thanks,

Simon.

 

Boston, England.

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agenten007 (archived)
Bronze
Posted December 16, 2010 at 03:39 GMT
#1921959

I know exactemént what you're talking about. Bought the MkII 2 months prior to the MkIII launch.

 

However I am still pleased with the TV. You're right, as HD input it has only 1 DVI and 1 component (link)

I have a B&O compatible excellent DVB-t MPEG4 decoder from  - (google translated page) This is connected to the DVI via a HDMI to DVI-cable - The sound via a analogue phono cable, since I cannot get the digital sockets to work - however the sound is very good.

link

I also have a PC (Media Center) with a smart video card. The old-school SVHS output on this card has a built in component (HD) output, and in the package there was a link = Excellent picture quality.

For the moment I have no need for any other HD input, but Gefen could be a solution later on.

The Gefen HDMI switch luckily works on MKii but the TV software needs to be 7.7 or newer and STB 3.8 or newer, according to (Google Translated)

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simongdavies (archived)
Bronze
Posted December 17, 2010 at 12:49 GMT
#1921960

I'm glad you're getting on OK with your BV 7-40 MkII - unfortunately, I already have 3 HD sources that I'd like to use, and I think Santa might be bringing me a Wii sometime soon (although that's 480p component at best, and  I'll probably use RGB SCART).

I think I'm leaning towards the Gefen HDMI switch option at the moment.  Does anyone have any experience with it?  I'm not sure how much the required software update would cost, though, and I don't know how the switch handles audio.  Do you have to just connect each device directly?

 

Regards,

Simon.

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agenten007 (archived)
Bronze
Posted December 18, 2010 at 02:43 GMT
#1921961

In Denmark, a software upgrade is about £60-70.

However, now I'm doubt if the Gefen works on MkII, look at this  :  (MkII is not mentioned)

 

 

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Tonker (archived)
Bronze
Posted December 18, 2010 at 14:46 GMT
#1921962

Just slightly off topic.

 If you had £4,000(ish) to spend, would you buy a new 8-40(or the new one coming soon) or the 7-40 mk 2. I love watching TV in HD but love the whole presence of the 7 series aswell. Has anyone an opinion on 720 HD compared to 1080p, as this will be the main obvious technical difference between the 2. This is not only a financial decision but almost an emotional one as i love the 7's look but want the HD aswell!!!

drdimitris
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drdimitris
GoldFounder
Posted December 18, 2010 at 15:23 GMT
#1921963

According to this

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