Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 08:32:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Curt Swinehart Subject: CDM-600 Review (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 27 Mar 1995 01:11:13 +0000 From: David Hawkins To: Multiple recipients of list TVROSAT Subject: Standards Converter CDM600 THE CDM-600 DIGITAL STANDARDS CONVERTER. Much interest has been shown over the years in "standards converters," this used to a very expensive operation with digital standards converters costing $30,000 and more. Then with the birth of LSI chip construction came the possibility of cheap (sorry , inexpensive !) converters. We saw these LSI chip sets incorparated into AIWA and Panasonic multi standard/multi system vcr's. Still not cheap, the new AIWA MX1 for about $530 (USA Market) and the much overated Panasonic AGW1 for $1500 (Grey Market). Enter "stage left" Global Communications and Mike with news of a digital standards converter that he could sell for $375 !!!! Could this be true ? I telephoned him to find out. YES it's true...He had hooked this box up to a PAL signal of golf from Eu rope and viewed it in NTSC color. he was able to record on a NTSC VHS vcr, with very little or no loss of quality....I had to have one. Here is my report on this very inexpensive CDM-600 digital standards converter. I am almost certain that these "boxes" are made by Cypress Technologies, off- shore in the Far East, there is no clue on the unit, but CDM-600 is a Cypress Technologies model number, they also make a model CDM-800 and CDN100P and these same unitis are so ld under the "LEKTROPAKS" name in Europe. The CDM-600 is housed in a small plastic case (W) 236mm x (D) 130mm x (H) 45mm. (sorry about the metrics, but thats all the Spec sheet showed !). There are no controls on the front panel just indicator LEDS :- 1) NTSC 4.43 2) NTSC 3.58 3) SECAM 4) PAL 5) AUTO These light as per signal type coming in and if you are in the P.Sauto mode of operation. The rear panel has the following:- 1) DC power supply in (15v from supplied AC adaptor) 2) Video In (RCA phono jack) 3) Input signal detecting mode switch:- "AUTO" represents automatic detecting mode "M" represents manual detecting mode 4) Input system select switch When in the "M" mode, set this switch to match the actual input signal type (PAL,SECAM, NTSC 3.58, NTSC 4.43) 5) Video Out (RCA phone jack) 6) Output system select switch Set this switch to the type of signal you wish to output. "P" stands for PAL and "N" for NTSC There are no other controls. Here are some features of the CDM-600 * Input auto detecting ( I only use this setting it's great !) * Digital line 525 to 625 & 625 to 525 conversion and digital field 50 to 60 and 60 to 50 conversion * 2M bit of field memory (more about this later) * Built in time base correction (T.B.C) for full signal synchronization. ( The TBC function is bypassed when you are in the NTSC to NTSC or PAL to PAL mode of dubs. * Built in automatic gain control (AGC), this function ensures 1 volt peak to peak output signal. (input can range from .5 volts p-p to 2 volts p-p). To be fair in this report I must make note of the 3MB of field memory. I would have bought the CDM-800 if it had been available, because it has 4MB of field memory. This extra memory would have made the very slight jitter on fast action or movement les s intrusive. But having said that, in actual use the CDM-600 is outstanding and offers quality that is more than acceptable to all but the most ardent enthusiast. The conversion from one standard to another results in a slight loss of sharpness, but the overall result is much better than VHS quality. INPUT TV SYSTEMS: NTSC 3.58, NTSC 4.43, PAL, SECAM. OUTPUT TV SYSTEMS: NTSC 3.58 and PAL (B,D,G,I) SAMPLING FREQ. Y. : 14.318Mhz R-Y : 7.159Mhz B-R : 7.159Mhz DIGITAL CORD BIT Y : 8 bits R-Y : 8 bits B-Y : 8 bits There have been reports of trouble recording the NTSC ouput of this "box", with tearing and lack of snyc. I HAVE NOT HAD ANY TROUBLE IN THIS REGARD. I use a DRAKE 1824 satellite rcvr ( It will pass PAL, as most do). I have viewed and recorded PAL signals from many satellites, using the CDM-600 NTSC output to feed sports and news to the following vcr's:- SONY SLV920HF VHS SANYO VHR9411HF VHS SONY SLHF840D BETA All the dubs made on these vcr's were oustanding. I have made NTSC copies from PAL on these vvr's feeding them NTSC from the CDM-600 which is getting PAL from my JVC P29 PAL deck. Again outstanding results. Yes, I took the cover off (name me an engineer who would not !!), the construction is very good multi-layer PC boards, neat and tight. Two minor negative points...NO on/off switch the unit is on all the time. (I unplug the 15v power supply) and I would like the 4MB of memory but I can live without it. For the money this unit is OUTSTANDING...I am very pleased with it, it does all I ask and more. Now all I have to do is find those PAL feeds ! Happy converting. David Hawkins WB2KTM/G4IGP Chief Engineer (semi-retired) Radio Television Department Onondaga Community College Syracuse New York Email address:- hawkinsd@goliath.sunyocc.edu