Awesome, thanks for seeding! I'll start the torrent tonight or tomorrow.

Has anyone tried this disc with the Onkyo 805. I have used the Audyessy EQ already. Should I start from that point or just start over and do it all manually with a SLM?

Has anyone tried this disc with the Onkyo 805. I have used the Audyessy EQ already. Should I start from that point or just start over and do it all manually with a SLM?


I don't think it would hurt to try it with the EQ on if you can test with an SPL meter just to see if your EQ did the channel levels right. If they're not, just start over.

I tried downloading the ISO via torrent (one of the methods listed in the OP). What I got may not be intact, because Nero is having issues burning it.

I PM'd squidboy for the ftp password a week ago, but no reply yet (and I see it's been more than 3 months since he's logged on).

Would someone please post an MD5 checksum so I can tell whether I got a good file? And if it is bad, are there any other places I can find it?

Also, I think it would help to ZIP or RAR the file. The size may not shrink much, but at least it would add a level of verification.

I tried downloading the ISO via torrent (one of the methods listed in the OP). What I got may not be intact, because Nero is having issues burning it.

I PM'd squidboy for the ftp password a week ago, but no reply yet (and I see it's been more than 3 months since he's logged on).

Would someone please post an MD5 checksum so I can tell whether I got a good file? And if it is bad, are there any other places I can find it?

Also, I think it would help to ZIP or RAR the file. The size may not shrink much, but at least it would add a level of verification.

Sorry, I'm working at an internet startup now, so my free time is non-existent.

My ISP won't let me serve the DVDs anymore, but I can tell you that the MD5 for the audio test disc is "3a803da5f86ec1ce6602334b783a517c".

Also, if someone can take my name off the first post, I'd appreciate it.

Looking forward to it.

If its ok, i would not mind hosting it. My hosting package should give me enough monthly bandwidth to deal with it.
If thats ok, give the go ahead soho and i'll upload the file.

Edit: Wow, i figured compression wouldn't help an iso file much... But i just compressed the dvd iso using winrar and its now 202 MiB. In that case, my site can very easily handle the hosting.

Soho should be adding the url to the first page later. But until then here is the link:
http://jarrodchristman.com/AudioTestDVDv2.exe

Its a self-extracting rar, just double click the file after its done downloading and it will extract. Because its compressed the file download is only 202 MB
Please be nice to my site's web hosting ;) If you don't mind using the torrent download, please do. However, for those who don't want to or can't, this is here as another option.
Enjoy!

Ahhh, you rock jarrod, thanks for that. Took just about 5 minutes to download it. Extracting now to test my new sub out. :D

Thanks for the audio test program jarrod..much appreciated!

So there's no need to put it up as a torrent?

Since the piratebay is acting strangely these days because of the court trial - here is the edonkey link to download the same:

ed2k://|file|AudioTestDVDv2.exe|207033661|0F272A61D34DDE82BE68443D6 7710FEF|

Excellent! You guys rock!
Many, many thanks.

Excellent, thanks!

Great job, you rock! Thank you so much!:)

Great DVD, thanks!

I have the Buttkicker LFE element (which fried the original amp some months ago, and I recently bought Crest Audio Vs900 to drive it), and at 10Hz, the couch shook pretty nice. I didn't dare to go below 10Hz, as the warning said it might damage the system. I'd be tempted to try how the 1Hz feels, but maybe I'll skip.

I like the DVD, but is there a reason that the test tones only go to 120Hz for the center channel, for example? I'm wanting to adjust the whole range. Thanks.

After first calibrating the levels of my system with the noise generator in my Lexicon MC4 processor, the disc has me set the rear spkrs +6.5 higher at the same reference point (80db). Why the discrepancy?
Oppo DVD player, Dolby Digital playback.

By the way, the phase check caught a wiring error between my center and left front. The phase test alone is worth the disc.

After first calibrating the levels of my system with the noise generator in my Lexicon MC4 processor, the disc has me set the rear spkrs +6.5 higher at the same reference point (80db). Why the discrepancy?
Oppo DVD player, Dolby Digital playback.

By the way, the phase check caught a wiring error between my center and left front. The phase test alone is worth the disc.


Internal test tones on most processors and AVR's are rarely if ever correct. My HK 745's internal tones are off as well. It's always best to set your levels with a test disk.

I like the DVD, but is there a reason that the test tones only go to 120Hz for the center channel, for example? I'm wanting to adjust the whole range. Thanks.

Sorry, I don't check in much lately. The reason was that this was done in my spare time, and was only for the LFE channel to begin with. I kept adding more and more things. I have another disk version after this one with DD and DTS level comparisons. :rolleyes: I had to stop a some point. 120Hz was it.

After first calibrating the levels of my system with the noise generator in my Lexicon MC4 processor, the disc has me set the rear spkrs +6.5 higher at the same reference point (80db). Why the discrepancy?kemitchell, has it right. Internal processor test tones do not go through the same signal processing paths as the input audio does. With my disk you can set DD or ProLogic levels using your full signal path. This will give you a different result about half the time. With surrounds it is mostly 3, 4, or 6db, and LFE 4 or 10db.

Thank You Gentlemen:cool:

Soho should be adding the url to the first page later. But until then here is the link:
http://jarrodchristman.com/AudioTestDVDv2.exe

Its a self-extracting rar, just double click the file after its done downloading and it will extract. Because its compressed the file download is only 202 MB
Please be nice to my site's web hosting ;) If you don't mind using the torrent download, please do. However, for those who don't want to or can't, this is here as another option.
Enjoy!

Thanks, used "CrossOver" on the Mac to expand the ".exe" file to the ISO DVD, going to burn in Toast now. Thanks for hosting!

Ideally, the file should be made available in a format that is friendly to those on platforms other than Windows.

But there is a workaround for Mac users who don't want to torrent the unzipped version of this ISO disc.

Download the excellent utility "The Unarchiver" and you will be able to decompress the exe file without a problem.

http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

If I copy the iso file to a DVD should this play in a blu ray player? It isn't recognizing anything.

Thanks

Paul (not very technical):D

No, no player will recognize the content if you copy the ISO to a disc.

An ISO file is an "image" of a disc (think of it as a virtual disk). It contains multiple files and folders that represent an entire disc's contents. Burning the ISO file itself to a disc achieves nothing.

You have create a disc FROM the ISO file. You use a disc burning app like Nero and have it OPEN the ISO file. It will then burn the contents of the ISO to a DVD.

If anyone is having problems burning this file here's a tip. After you extract the file use a program like Daemon Tools to 'Mount' the image on a virtual drive. It's a simple process. Once it's mounted your computer will see the 'image' like it's a DVD in a virtual drive bay. Now simply use your burning software to burn the image. Done.

Thanks for the program, it's very useful.

If anyone is having problems burning this file here's a tip. After you extract the file use a program like Daemon Tools to 'Mount' the image on a virtual drive. It's a simple process. Once it's mounted your computer will see the 'image' like it's a DVD in a virtual drive bay. Now simply use your burning software to burn the image...

Yes, this is a good suggestion.

It's important to make sure that the disc you create in your DVD recorder software is UDF format (not ISO9660 or anything else).

DVD players need UDF.

You can go to http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download to download the free ImgBurn program to burn the iso for you.

Once you are ready to burn the .iso, start the ImgBurn program
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m69/soho54/ImgBurn.gif
(the program is now at v2.5.0.0 ;))
It is pretty straight forward, and you should have no problems. In the Source box, click the folder icon with the magnifying glass and navigate to the .iso you want to burn. Now just place a DVD in your burner, and click the big disk picture that lights up. That's it, you're done. No need to fool with the settings as it gets them from the iso. :D

Thanks for the disk. Going to using it shortly.
+10000

Well, I'm feeling pretty stupid now. I went through 5 blank DVDs trying to burn this without any success. I'm familiar with burning DVD ISO's (I burn Linux ISO's all the time), extracting DVD content, burning DVD-Video from VOBs, etc., but nothing I've tried worked with this.

The iso plays fine in both VLC and as a virtual mounted drive. I've tried double-clicking on the ISO and letting Nero take care of everything. I've tried to copy out all the files in the VIDEO_TS folder once the ISO is virtual-mounted and burning a DVD-Video, I've DVD-to-DVD copy... nothing but coasters. Thinking it may be my drive, I burned another DVD-Video from an extracted DVD and everything burned perfectly.

Perhaps it's Nero screwing things up, but I give up. I appreciate the DVD, even though I couldn't get it to work.

ghostie, all you have to do is use ImgBurn and click "Write image file to disk". Don't open the image file with Nero.

If you use Nero you have to manually adjust a few of its formatting parameters. It has been a really long time now, so I don't remember the correct inputs off hand anymore.

As kemitchell said, if you use the small ImgBurn program instead of Nero it will pull the correct settings out of the ISO for burning.

UltraISO is also very good and can directly interface with Nero for this sort of thing, but it isn't freeware.

I have an old Version of Nero ( 7 actually ) WOuld that work for burning the iso?

Also, just downloaded winrar for a few other things , but I noticed that ISO and JAR are not checked In the " Associate files with" setup page.. I can always enable it later , but do I need to ?

If you use Nero you have to manually adjust a few of its formatting parameters. It has been a really long time now, so I don't remember the correct inputs off hand anymore.

As kemitchell said, if you use the small ImgBurn program instead of Nero it will pull the correct settings out of the ISO for burning.

UltraISO is also very good and can directly interface with Nero for this sort of thing, but it isn't freeware.

Missed this one.. I suppose just DL Imgburn is gonna be the quickest way to get it done then

Missed this one.. I suppose just DL Imgburn is gonna be the quickest way to get it done then

yes.

yes.

Another smart move by me was trying to burn it to a cd/.. :rolleyes:

These will not play through the DVD player/computer's 5.1 analog or RCA outs. This is all I was getting at. I checked it out later on last night.


Willd-OK, go to 5.1-calibration. All Pink Noise is recorded at -20dB, so FL,FR,C,RR, and RL should be 85dB at your seat. The LFE is also -20dB, but the DD decoder adds 10dB so the LFE channel should play back at 95dB at your seat. I thought I added that to the disk?

You will need to use the 80 and 90 setting on the RS meter, or put your Master Volume at -10 and use 70-80. (this is what I normally do ;) )

soho, I run analog outs to my power amp and plate amp. Since I don't have a receiver I run just off the % output that windows outputs. I have been able to get the pink noise playback. At about 50% volume level is all my ears can pretty much take. I believe at 1m I had a 85 db output when running the noise simulations from most of my speakers but I will check it again this weekend.

Would the 85db at the seat be considered reference level then or do I have to increase it another 20db?

stgdz, sorry I missed this post above.

I take it you are using the analog outs on your computer sound card to go straight into amps for your speakers. This can make things tricky but it is doable. The only trick is remembering where the sliders are to make sure you don't bump them up to high later on.

You want 85dB at your primary seat from the speakers using the -20dBFS pink noise calibration tones, and 95dB for the LFE channel.

As you are using a computer you can not turn the volume down to lower the inroom SPL, but 85-95dB isn't bad for you, so no damage will be done. :D

You also asked this in another thread: Thanks for this info, I use the dvd at the top of the DIY page to calibrate my speakers. I believe it's 95db but it says -20 down. I then calibrated my system to 85db one meter from the system, my question is though did I calibrate to 85db or 95db? Since the speakers are outputting 85db I would gather I did it to that.


I am kinda confused on the whole thing though because
1)isn't reference 105db
2)does the 105db would be for effects and 85db pink noise that is 20db down simulate dialog?

Yes, the highest SPL at your seat should be 105dB from each speaker, and 115dB from just the LFE. This would take a signal that was encoded/recorded at 0dBFS, and is really loud, and hard on the ears.

We take a signal recorded at -20dBFS to lower the volume during calibration. This means 105dB - 20dBFS = 85dB. With the LFE it's 115dB - 20dBFS = 95dB.

Does that make sense? :)

OK, I keep getting asked so here it goes.

To set your system up for the recommended DD theatrical range you just follow the prompts on the DVD. Forget anything you read anywhere else about compensation, 75dBSPL, and anything else.

This will give you a max of 115dB from the LFE at 0dBFS, and 105dB from all the other speakers individually.

DTS is not recorded "HOT," neither are any DVDs. Most DVDs are dropped by -4dB. The ones that seem "Hotter" are just not as limited. ;) There is no limiting on DTS (unless your processor does something funny.) Either way it is not "Hot," it just isn't attenuated by default.

Yes, some AVRs say +2 or -3 for DialNorm. These are setup where 0 on the screen(or no DialNorm screen in some cases) is actually -4dB below 0dBFS. In this case +4 is actually 0dBFS, and full loudness(DNR.) If you notice my DVD will pull up as +4. This is because there is no signal attenuation with my disk.

If you turn on Bass Management of any kind, and set at least one speaker to small you could get peaks above 115dB from your subwoofer. This is where it gets complicated.

If the sounds are not exactly the same this is called incoherent sound. There is a formula to figure it out but lets skip it. Lets assume this are 0dBFS level sounds;
LFE alone=115dBSPL
LFE+1Sp=115.41
LFE+2Sp=115.78
LFE+3Sp=116.12
LFE+4Sp=116.44
LFE+5Sp=116.74
LFE+6Sp=117.02
LFE+7Sp=117.28

If they are exactly the same they are coherent, and are a pain to sum, but here it is.
LFE alone=115dBSPL
LFE+1Sp=117.32
LFE+2Sp=119.25
LFE+3Sp=120.78
LFE+4Sp=122.09
LFE+5Sp=123.23
LFE+6Sp=124.23
LFE+7Sp=125.13

Now before you get too worried this is unlikely to ever happen. Why would you have full signal bass on every channel at the same time? There is also one other hurdle to clear, that never seems to get talked about.

Most people seem to know that the LFE channel is boosted +10dB. This is why 0dBFS is set at 115dBSPL on the LFE channel. What is mostly unknown is that before the crossover section in the process the LFE is digitally lowered -5dBFS, and is then boosted up to +15dB in an analogue output section to the RCA. All Bass Managed sound from the mains/surrounds are added in after the -5dBFS LFE step, and they are lowered by -15dBSF before being summed in with the LFE signal. (It is supposed to be boosted ~+15dB, but it isn't always.)

What this means is that if a sound on the Front Right speaker was supposed to play back at 105dB, it will still be output at 105dB. The thing that is missed is that there is only enough digital headroom left on the LFE channel for +5dB. Anything over that will clip the DSP. This means the max signal from the LFE should be 120dBSPL. Anything else is clipped off. The mastering process should have fixed any gross offenders, so around +5dB plus an extra dB should be it. See below for the extra dB.

There is the problem of Digital to Analogue conversion where the DAC can create a signal higher in dBV than the dBFS. This is known as 0dBFS+. If this perfect storm of chance were to happen you could end up with a peak higher than 120dBSPL. This shouldn't happen with commercially produced products, but it could happen. (Sound guys are human too, and forget the lessons from the analogue world still carry over.) It would be an abnormal situation though.

For more info:
Dolby Section 3.5:http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/zz-_Shared_Assets/English_PDFs/Professional/46_DDEncodingGuidelines.pdf
0dBFS+:http://www.tcelectronic.com/media/Level_paper_AES109.pdf

So I got around to setting up a receiver last night to figure out if my reference value was set correctly. In order to bypass all the stuff on the HTPC I set the volume to 100% and connected via HDMI and then let audyssey do its thing.

The receiver is an onkyo 708 and I noticed that when I went to 82 the THX ref lights went on. So I went about listening to inception and it actually sounded a lot quieter. Messing around with the receiver I figured out how to display absolute volume level and the thx ref was 0.0 db. I loaded up the dvd and checked the outputs and sure enough it was 75db when set to 0.0db.


So my question is why did audyssey set thx ref so low?

You were running the -20dBFS test tones at 0dB on the Master Volume, and measuring from the same position as the Audyssey mic?

Yes I set the master volume to 00 and then checked the DVD using a rat shack mic.

The difference may have been that I did six positions with audyessey and only did one with the DVD. For the DVD I just place the mic in the center of the listening area play the tones.

I can re-run audyessey at the rat shack mic position and see what I get.

Yes I set the master volume to 00 and then checked the DVD using a rat shack mic.

The difference may have been that I did six positions with audyessey and only did one with the DVD. For the DVD I just place the mic in the center of the listening area play the tones.

I can re-run audyessey at the rat shack mic position and see what I get.

Audyssey sets channel levels and speaker distance based only on the 1st measurement position. The other measumement positions are only used to determine the room's effect on the frequency response.

Both mics need to be as close to the same location as possible to compare SPL readings. Room acoustics can cause large differences even with relatively small location differences. Don't overlook the mic orientations either. The Audyssey mic is pointed straight up so you'll get different readings by pointing the RS meter at the speaker being measured.

What does the 708 say the signal format is that it's receiving from the HTPC? If the 708 is not reporting a DD signal from Soho's test DVD, then the HTPC has applied some sort of decoding which could have thrown off the levels. Do you have a dedicated player you could test with?

-Brent

Thanks for this!

I just downloaded and burned a DVD without any problem. I am totally new to this. is there a manual on how to use this DisK? The first screen reads two menu one is PCM test and the other is 5.1 DDT something like that. Which one do I click? sorry I really have no clue but got excited by all the discussion here and am bumped up now to use this to improve my setting. Please help! :)

I just downloaded and burned a DVD without any problem. I am totally new to this. is there a manual on how to use this DisK? The first screen reads two menu one is PCM test and the other is 5.1 DDT something like that. Which one do I click? sorry I really have no clue but got excited by all the discussion here and am bumped up now to use this to improve my setting. Please help! :)
Use your radio shack microphone to set your levels if you have 5.1, its under calibration.




So I had an additional issue with this DVD tonight. I got a dedicated players(PS3) and I can't get any of the channels to localize with the ps3 and the 708. When the tones get played through through the left channel it goes to the left and the two back channels, same for the center and the right. I also don't get an LFE playback with the DVD, just silence when it switches over to the LFE section. It appears that the PS3 is sending out a DD channel at 48khz and the receiver says PCM but I didn't see DD. I dug around the menus and couldn't find anything as to why this would be causing an issue. I get LFE output out of the sub with movies but not the DVD. I am almost certain that I selected the 5.1 because it was all pink in the back and the 2.0 stuff was blue.


so yeah, I am stuck

Thanks so much for this DVD -- it's a great resource. I tested my surround, and it allowed me to discover my receiver had set the sub "on" when I don't have one. Now that I turned it off, my bass is so much better out the mains. Thanks a ton!!

OK, I keep getting asked so here it goes.

To set your system up for the recommended DD theatrical range you just follow the prompts on the DVD. Forget anything you read anywhere else about compensation, 75dBSPL, and anything else.



Thank you for providing this disc!

Please help - I don't see any prompts, only a menu system pointing to various tones, sweeps etc. Am I missing something?

How do I use the disc?

I'm mostly interested in checking the phase on my rear surrounds on my 5.1 setup. When I run the phase test, I hear sound during 'in phase', and nothing during 'out of phase'.

The speakers work fine when I send any of the individual tones to them.

Fixed!

We recently had some work done in my home theater room. When I reconnected everything I had two devices connected to the same input on my AVR (one optical & one coaxial).

One of the two devices was my BD player (the other being sound out from my TV). We had not watched a Blu-ray disc or DVD until last night. When we stuck the BD version of Blazing Saddles into the BD player last night, all I could get out of it was Pro Logic. That caused me to look at that wiring and see the error.

Until then I had checked the polarity of my wiring for what seemed like a 1000 times, and never looked at that section of my AVR. When trying the two calibration discs I have, I never looked at the display on my AVR either to see what was being decoded. I must have reset my BD player 3 or 4 times to change the sound output settings of it!!

Isn't it always the least likely place you look after you commit a series of stupid errors?

Thank you to all who tried to help! I'm posting this in case someone with a similar issue else finds this thread in the future.