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Pimp My Garage - Page 27

post #781 of 940
11/20/11 at 2:01pm
I've got "earth" but haven't seen Mink, Moleskin and light moss.
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post #782 of 940
11/20/11 at 2:59pm
I considered black and tan ..well cuz I drink too much...the palettes I've seen also include grey accents
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post #783 of 940
11/24/11 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 
I never got around to posting pictures of the second THT LP after I added it, so here it is - I experimented with a a few alternative positions (but still behind the screen), but none were significantly better than my original thought of firing into opposing corners - so that's what I did.





Hmm, someone needs to get around to painting the furring strips black methinks.



I made a grill for the first one I built, but decided not to bother on the second, since its behind the false wall.



Also, after thinking and thinking about different ways to prop the screen up when I need access behind the screen, starting with linear actuators, I decided to get off the pot and just do something fairly simple, which you see here - a couple pieces of 3/8" rectanglar steel tube, bolted to the back of the screen frame on one end, and drops into a hole drilled into false wall blocking on the other end.



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post #784 of 940
11/24/11 at 3:59pm
Wow,

Very nice they certainly fill up that space behind the screen for sure. So how is it with those two badboys rocking?

Regards,

RTROSE
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post #785 of 940
11/24/11 at 4:05pm
Thread Starter 
Working great so far - after I got them dialed in with EQ, I had that big smile on my face as I was running through various LFE heavy clips testing them out - Tron Legacy, Know1ng plane crash, Transformers 3 intro, I, Robot in the tunnel, THX flower thing - fun!

I ran some sweeps with REW, will post them when I drag the laptop in from the HT.

Happy Thanksgiving RT! And thanks for stopping by.
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post #786 of 940
11/25/11 at 7:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte View Post

Working great so far - after I got them dialed in with EQ, I had that big smile on my face as I was running through various LFE heavy clips testing them out - Tron Legacy, Know1ng plane crash, Transformers 3 intro, I, Robot in the tunnel, THX flower thing - fun!

I ran some sweeps with REW, will post them when I drag the laptop in from the HT.

Happy Thanksgiving RT! And thanks for stopping by.

Brad,

Hope your T-day was a good one!
Nice post showing your dual THTs. Will be looking forward to the graphs!
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post #787 of 940
11/25/11 at 2:50pm
[/quote]Also, after thinking and thinking about different ways to prop the screen up when I need access behind the screen, starting with linear actuators, I decided to get off the pot and just do something fairly simple, which you see here - a couple pieces of 3/8" rectanglar steel tube, bolted to the back of the screen frame on one end, and drops into a hole drilled into false wall blocking on the other end.



[/quote]

Good application of the KISS principle. Much better than where it was headed in the beginning. It was getting waaaayyyy over engineered.
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post #788 of 940
11/25/11 at 8:33pm
Thread Starter 
Here are some measurements of the subs.

I had a measurement of one of the THT LPs mic'ed close to take out (most of) the room influence, but I can't find it atm - basically it showed that the lumps I needed to address were a result of room interactions for the most part, not the sub.

Here are the subs before EQ - L alone, R alone, and both together - and the both together after application of a heaping helping of EQ. As you can see, at the front center seat LP, I had quite a bit of work to do to tame the response.



Ran sweeps again, raising the level a bit at a time, to see how they held up:



I was curious what, if anything, I was getting below 15 Hz - wasn't expecting much, but there is some there - although the graph itself looks very suspicious, perhaps I managed to get a mic that didn't line up to the generic calibration very well (or maybe the ECM8000 can't be relied on at all below 10?).



To verify, I ran the RTA function of REW while sending sine waves from 10 to 20 - even down to 15, it was still managing to incite some lovely buzzes and rattles from the entry door and soffit bits (fortunately, that's not a regular occurrence during movies - and if it does once in a while, well, its supposed to sound like the place is falling apart).
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post #789 of 940
11/26/11 at 10:41am
Brad,

Those graphs are very telling. Adding the 2nd sub helped with the 30Hz null, but then the EQ treatment really did the job! What are using for your EQ correction?

I see you still have a pesky dip at 120Hz - any ideas? Curious because I also have a dip around 120Hz.
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post #790 of 940
11/26/11 at 12:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by cuzed2 View Post

Brad,

Those graphs are very telling. Adding the 2nd sub helped with the 30Hz null, but then the EQ treatment really did the job! What are using for your EQ correction?

I see you still have a pesky dip at 120Hz - any ideas? Curious because I also have a dip around 120Hz.

Thanks for the feedback cuz. I'm using a Behringer FBQ2496 for EQ. Re: 120 Hz - I hadn't really focused on it since this is just a sweep of the subs alone, so will watch out for it if it shows up on the full range sweeps - will see what the cross of the LCR with the subs shows in that area.
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post #791 of 940
11/26/11 at 12:30pm
Thread Starter 
Relocated my desktop PC based HTPC into the theater last night. Made a little progress, but now need to troubleshoot a couple problems:

- I can get XBMC to show its UI on the projector (monitor 1 via SVGA cable; monitor via HDMI cable to AVR to projector) - but when I try to play one of the movies, 90% of them just make the screen go blank until I hit the stop button.
- no audio through Hdmi - hmm I wonder if I ever added the SPDIF jumper cable from the audio card to the video card, must check that - thought I did, but I was routing the audio output separately when I had the PC in my home office
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post #792 of 940
11/26/11 at 12:46pm
are you able to get the movies to show on other media player?
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post #793 of 940
11/26/11 at 1:06pm
I could pull all my settings if you want. Using XBMC on Windows 7 64 bit...hdmi from htpc to avr to projector.
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post #794 of 940
11/26/11 at 1:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte View Post

...when I try to play one of the movies, 90% of them just make the screen go blank until I hit the stop button.

I don't know anything about audio over HDMI problems, but the video problem sounds like a frame rate (or maybe resolution) problem. Try setting the software to force a particular frame rate.
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post #795 of 940
11/26/11 at 5:38pm
Ok,

Interesting issue. Did you eliminate the HDMI cable as the source of the problem? If you have not done this, that would be first on the to do list. Sounds like if you are having audio issues then something is wrong with the SPDIF cable or you forgot to hook it up.

Unfortunately that is where my pearls of wisdom end as I have ZERO experience with HTPC's.

Good luck.

Regards,

RTROSE
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post #796 of 940
11/26/11 at 9:38pm
Brad - just got thru all 27 pages...great thread and most excellent theater. Great lines/look to it....unless I missed it, but did you ever treat the walls behind your fabric...2" OC?
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post #797 of 940
11/27/11 at 11:19am
I've got extensive troubleshooting knowledge regarding the HDMI issues and graphics cards. First thing I need to know is what card. If you're using the boards jumper cable there's various little annoying issues with that. As for XBMC, I'm not sure. I know HuskerOmaha uses a good setup with it. Hopefully he posts something about that part of the setup soon.

BTW, those dual subs look awesome. I can't wait to build my THTLP.
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post #798 of 940
11/27/11 at 12:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pokekevin View Post

are you able to get the movies to show on other media player?

Yes, I can bring up the same movies using VLC - works crappy though, because VLC is software only, can't use video card decoding, so stutters like mad.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HuskerOmaha View Post

I could pull all my settings if you want. Using XBMC on Windows 7 64 bit...hdmi from htpc to avr to projector.

Oh yeah that would be cool, thanks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HopefulFred View Post

I don't know anything about audio over HDMI problems, but the video problem sounds like a frame rate (or maybe resolution) problem. Try setting the software to force a particular frame rate.

Actually I've gotten a little further (see below)...

Quote:
Originally Posted by RTROSE View Post

Ok,

Interesting issue. Did you eliminate the HDMI cable as the source of the problem? If you have not done this, that would be first on the to do list. Sounds like if you are having audio issues then something is wrong with the SPDIF cable or you forgot to hook it up.

Unfortunately that is where my pearls of wisdom end as I have ZERO experience with HTPC's.

Good luck.

Regards,

RTROSE

I can get the desktop up, and watch videos in other players, its just XBMC itself that isn't working right - so pretty sure the cable can't be the culprit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by misugrad View Post

Brad - just got thru all 27 pages...great thread and most excellent theater. Great lines/look to it....unless I missed it, but did you ever treat the walls behind your fabric...2" OC?

Haha, no, not yet - I've been enjoying the theater as is for a few months, I do need to get off my butt and measure to see what I need to do.
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post #799 of 940
11/27/11 at 12:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ImmortalJman View Post

I've got extensive troubleshooting knowledge regarding the HDMI issues and graphics cards. First thing I need to know is what card. If you're using the boards jumper cable there's various little annoying issues with that. As for XBMC, I'm not sure. I know HuskerOmaha uses a good setup with it. Hopefully he posts something about that part of the setup soon.

BTW, those dual subs look awesome. I can't wait to build my THTLP.

Its a GeForce 9600GT - not the latest, but should work, at least up to 5.1.

As mentioned about, I got a little further, here's where I am right now (ignoring the audio part until I get the video sorted):

- I found that the video wasn't going blank - it just wasn't starting - when I send Play, it sits at 0:00:00 until I hit pause and then play again. And still won't show video, but the frame advances. If I press FF and then Play again, the video shows up, but after 1-5 seconds, the video freezes, while the counter is still advancing. If I press FF and Play again, I'll get another couple seconds of video, and then the video freeze frames again. Its not stuttering / buffering, its completely frozen - I can wait indefinitely, and it won't unstick (although the counter still keeps moving).
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post #800 of 940
11/27/11 at 6:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte View Post


- I found that the video wasn't going blank - it just wasn't starting - when I send Play, it sits at 0:00:00 until I hit pause and then play again. And still won't show video, but the frame advances. If I press FF and then Play again, the video shows up, but after 1-5 seconds, the video freezes, while the counter is still advancing. If I press FF and Play again, I'll get another couple seconds of video, and then the video freeze frames again. Its not stuttering / buffering, its completely frozen - I can wait indefinitely, and it won't unstick (although the counter still keeps moving).

Sadly this reminds me of an issue I had with an older card trying to play HD material too. It just didn't have the chops. Once I upgrade it had no problems. Has it worked on a regular desktop sized screen? If so then the video card age may not be the first culprit.

And yes for 5.1 audio. I had issues using a GTX295 to do audio on certain AVRs and decided to buy a graphics card that came with an on board HD audio chip. Works like a charm and I can even play HD audio formats right over HDMI.
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post #801 of 940
11/27/11 at 7:08pm
Thread Starter 
I can play back videos using vlc, just not xbmc. I saw a similar report on the xbmc forums, indicating that it might be related to not having the audio device / pass through working. So I spent some time researching whether the integrated audio on the Mobo has a SPDIF connector, but doesn't look like it. Plus I have no idea where I saved the SPDIF jumper that came with the card. I'm going to Fry's tomorrow to see if they have a cheap 5450 card, if not I'll order the ASUS one from newegg.
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post #802 of 940
11/27/11 at 9:21pm
I would jump on Newegg and grab one of the 6000 series. They have a lot less bugs for the on board audio. The difference in price isn't that bad and its worth not having the hassle. If you need a suggestion post what you will need to do on this system and I can give a good run down of options within a pretty cheap price range.

Just right off the bat I would say a 6670 would be an excellent option for an HTPC video card. It doesn't need an extra power connector and it has a great imaging score on HQV benchmarks; the highest at a very low price.
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post #803 of 940
11/27/11 at 10:32pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks Jman, definitely looking for HTPC specific recommendations. I figure if I need to upgrade, I'll want onboard 7.1 HD audio support, so I can bypass my mobo audio and not have to upgrade the sound card and deal with jumpers. That and dual monitor support like I have now, 1 SVGA and 1 HDMI. That's really it, maybe a little casual gaming but not much - no higher expectations than with what I have now, the 9600 GT. And definitely want to avoid component upgrade 1 leads to upgrade 2 which leads to...been down that road before, tweaking my PCs and honestly hate it.
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post #804 of 940
11/28/11 at 10:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte View Post

Here are some measurements of the subs.

I had a measurement of one of the THT LPs mic'ed close to take out (most of) the room influence, but I can't find it atm - basically it showed that the lumps I needed to address were a result of room interactions for the most part, not the sub.

Here are the subs before EQ - L alone, R alone, and both together - and the both together after application of a heaping helping of EQ. As you can see, at the front center seat LP, I had quite a bit of work to do to tame the response.
Ran sweeps again, raising the level a bit at a time, to see how they held up:

I was curious what, if anything, I was getting below 15 Hz - wasn't expecting much, but there is some there - although the graph itself looks very suspicious, perhaps I managed to get a mic that didn't line up to the generic calibration very well (or maybe the ECM8000 can't be relied on at all below 10?).

To verify, I ran the RTA function of REW while sending sine waves from 10 to 20 - even down to 15, it was still managing to incite some lovely buzzes and rattles from the entry door and soffit bits (fortunately, that's not a regular occurrence during movies - and if it does once in a while, well, its supposed to sound like the place is falling apart).

Awesome job on your theater Brad!

Your sub response looks great as well. I'm curious how much boost you had to do with that 30Hz dip?
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post #805 of 940
11/28/11 at 6:32pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by fotto View Post

Awesome job on your theater Brad!

Your sub response looks great as well. I'm curious how much boost you had to do with that 30Hz dip?

Thanks Floyd. Yeah, as you can tell, a liberal amount of EQ boosts and cuts were needed to bring the LP FR under control - I think some at or near 10. Yes, I know its a bit insane, and its sucking up headroom to do it, but I generally listen only up to -10, and its working well. I probably should hook up the VOM to the sub while running a sweep at -10 just to make sure I'm not throwing too much voltage at the driver at those boosted frequencies.
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post #806 of 940
11/28/11 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 
I went to Fry's to check out video cards, after doing some online research - in the end, I went with Jman's recommendation, an XFX Radeon HD 6670. The price was about $5 more than newegg, but for that item, I'd have to pay shipping so its a wash.

Net result: success! XBMC working properly, audio passing through the HDMI, no stalling / hiccups, so far so good. Haven't tried any lossless material through it yet.
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post #807 of 940
11/28/11 at 8:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte View Post

I went to Fry's to check out video cards, after doing some online research - in the end, I went with Jman's recommendation, an XFX Radeon HD 6670. The price was about $5 more than newegg, but for that item, I'd have to pay shipping so its a wash.

Net result: success! XBMC working properly, audio passing through the HDMI, no stalling / hiccups, so far so good. Haven't tried any lossless material through it yet.

+1

Yep. That on board audio really came as a God send for me too because if you try to pass HD audio through the only two HDMI audio cards available on the market, in the fine print you learned that you could only pass HD audio through the software player that they supported, e.g. TMT or PWRDVD. This means I couldn't rip MKVs with an HD audio track and play them. But with the onboard audio attatched to the graphics card, it didn't care where the audio came from as long as it recognizes the format. Sorry, long rant but I'm happy to hear it fixed your problem.
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post #808 of 940
11/29/11 at 5:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte View Post

Thanks Floyd. Yeah, as you can tell, a liberal amount of EQ boosts and cuts were needed to bring the LP FR under control - I think some at or near 10. Yes, I know its a bit insane, and its sucking up headroom to do it, but I generally listen only up to -10, and its working well. I probably should hook up the VOM to the sub while running a sweep at -10 just to make sure I'm not throwing too much voltage at the driver at those boosted frequencies.

I'm just soaking up what I can in terms of filters etc. as it's a new topic for me. Not sure I need anything additional at this point but still testing....just got some new fronts installed last night (Axiom M22"s) but haven't run any sweeps yet. Subjectively, I am quite happy with them right out of the box.

With those two beasties you have there on the floor, sounds reasonable you don't need to go past -10
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post #809 of 940
12/6/11 at 5:37pm
Wow the theater came outwell! What lcr are those? And how did the subs come out ? They look great!
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post #810 of 940
1/17/12 at 8:24pm
Sorry if it was mentioned, i tried searching. But what are the dimensions of your columns?
thanks
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