Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 340

I'm not Obie, but I also have the player in question. You don't need to do anything. That LPCM rate setting only comes into play under certain circumstances that I can't recall right now (I'm not at home) but don't apply to the modes in which ANYONE here with a D2/AVM50 uses the player. ESPECIALLY using HDMI... I seem to remember that the rate has no bearing on anything in typical HDMI usage.

Thanks, I'm not sure if you saw my previous posts on this, but just to confirm, I am referring to the LPCM rate on an Oppo 970 HD. Does your response apply to this unit?

I thought this was addressed a couple of times earlier bluemark... I believe those settings only apply to S/PDIF and can not even be changed if HDMI is active. Am I thinking of the wrong thing?

Hi.

Could someone please email me the latest firmware version. I had anthem emial it to my work address...but a filter deleted the .exe file. I took the day off to work around my theater....and this was the first thing I was going to do. I created a yahoo address that should be fine:

vedderm35@yahoo.com

Also, is there a later version of the settings editor? I want to save my settings before updating the firmware. The version on anthem's site, can't find my D2. The Live video settings editor that I downloaded can find it, though...

Thanks - Andrew

Yes.

According to Amrit at Anthem, there is not a current version of the settings editor available that is compatible with rev 1.21d

Just upgraded firmware to the latest. Anyone else seeing this issue....about 1/2 the time I enter setup via the OSD, instead of the blue screen and large white text, I get black and white, and a somwhat distorted picture for the menu (like bad analog tv reception with lots of ghosting). I had this issue before upgrading, and figured that since I was with the original firmware, the upgrade would probably take care of this issue. It almost seems if I hold the setup button too long on the remote, i get the distoreted screen. Not sure if anyone else is seeing it?

Picked up a Toshiba HD-A3 last night, and for fun, decided to connect it to my D2 via HDMI.

My display is 1080i connected to the D2 via component. Will this config (HDMI from source, component to display) even work? My D2 is hand shaking with the A3, no problem, I can change its output resolution and the D2's display shows the change accordingly, however, my display shows a black screen with no video. I thought it might work since I'm not trying to output 1080p via component and only 1080i, but alas, no joy thus far.

Also, I can't seem to get the scaler video menu up when I have the HD-A3 video input selected. I can on my regular 480i connected players input, just not the new one.

Any ideas?

Worse case I'll go pick up another component cable...

There are known issues with the s-video character generator board (its clock). This is what generates the setup menu (OSD) on the display. My D2 doesn't display any text and stays blue. When I talked to Nick he asked me what color screen was when it happened. Maybe your issue is different. Call support.

larry

larry,

Thanks. Are you just living with the lack of OSD, or did they have some sort of fix? Now that It's set up, I rarely go through the OSD....so it's not that big of a deal..and it only happens some of the time.

You're source is HDCP protected and expecting an HDCP (over HDMI/DVI) display at the other end. Component is not an HDCP supported connection. Try setting the "HDMI Repeater" setting to No under the source setup. This will trick your HD-DVD player into thinking that the D2 is a display and not a Repeater (receiver).

Or go Component from your HD-DVD player.

Thanks, gblack.

I've tried the no repeat option and it didn't work either. I'll pick up a cheap component cable to tide me over until I have a new display!

There was a post earlier from lalarsons about hooking up an SA HD DVR with video over HDMI and audio over digital out (with the SA DVR audio out set to "Dolby Digital" and not "HDMI" and the D1-HD configured to have audio from the digital audio in and not HDMI).

Well I was having all sorts of hand shake problems with my SA DVR and my D1-HD when hooked up purely with HDMI. Switching from HD to SD would cause audio to drop. Switch from SD to HD would cause full connection loss (blue screen only), etc.

I tried the "lalarsons" method (which I don't think lalarsons know's I've named after him yet! ), and since doing that (3 days now) I haven't had one hand shake problem with my DVR. Audio and video are great. Still get the second or two pause when switch resoution, but I don't have the same failed connections. So far this has been very reliable.

Anyone else try this?

It might imply a bug in either the SA's or D2's HDCP handling that isn't there when no audio is coming from HDMI.

I also tried this with my AppleTV, but no joy there. Still can't get it to sync with my D1-HD over HDMI.

I get nothing on my plasma when I enter setup mode. Since all my settings (speakers, inputs, etc) are all done it's just a minor annoyance to have to use the LEDs. But, I will be getting the unit replaced. Once I start using the new EQ stuff I'm sure a screen display will come in handy.

larry

These are the first two posts I have seen that show others are having this problem as well.

I posted about my unit doing the same thing shortly after receiving my D2. It still does it too, but I am living with it for now. I agree with barhoram, it happens about 50% of the time. In fact, it did it last night. Definitely can be annoying when you are trying to change some settings or do a calibration.

Larry, when I spoke to Nick about this issue several months ago, my complaint was the first that they had. Apparently they have had more, if they are now acknowledging this as a "known issue"?

I'm using an AVM50 to send 1080p out to a plasma on my main system. I'm interested in using Zone 2 to send 1080i out to a second TV (which can only take 1080i and 480i/p) via component.

To me, the it would make the most sense to tie video out configs to specific zones. I'm already using my different source settings quite nicely to have a number of preset different zoom and detail enhancement settings I can select from on the fly. I'd love to be able to pick my source, already optimally set, and have it sent out to the appropriate output setting for whichever zone I've selected.

Instead, it looks like the out configs are tied to the sources exclusively, so I'd have to duplicate all of my source settings for each zone (and essentially lose half my pre-set options).

It also looks like the only HD video out is the second set of component outs.

Am I correct here, or have I missed something that will make my life easier?

-Ravi

They've had problems with the clock with the s-video circuitry. S-video is used to generate the OSD characters. The fix is to replace the top video board in the unit. The "status" display and Anthem logo are generated via the main video engine - I can still see that/them. The problem could be the same, s-video is dead on mine and dying on yours. One sure way to tell is to connect an s-video output from a source and see if it works.

larry

I'll have to try that Larry (if I can find an S video source).

I just went down and plugged in my Oppo via S-video. To my surprise the video worked great at first but still no OSD when entering setup - the DVD video kept playing. And when I would exit setup I lost video until I hit "enter" (status) or went back into setup! However, with Main OS: set to HD only, I get no video displayed via s-video from the Oppo unless in setup mode. And after about 5 minutes of playing around the s-video from the player deteriorated - almost black and white and bands of noise. Bottom line: something is broken.

larry

There any particular reason my questions have been completely ignored? Are they too dumb? I've looked through the links in the first post but they don't really help, they're all two specific to special conditions and I'm trying to fill in the gaps between what the AVM50 manual has and how the thing actually works. So here are some different questions:

1) What do the 16:9 and 4:3 crops actually do? Do they actually crop the image (and if so how?) or do they just tell the VXP to interpret the input as 16:9 or 4:3?
2) What settings are available for custom Custom Crop (I can't believe the manual doesn't say)?
3) Can the scaler correct improperly flagged/stretched content, eg the 4:3 stretched to 16:9 so many HD networks are fond of?

I was disappointed to learn that the latest Panasonic Blu-ray player won't internally decode the advanced audio codecs. Just read a review of the Samsung BDP5000 and the LG 200 dual players, and neither of them seem to either (at least they do some of them, but not DTS HD Master). The Samsung "might" be firmware upgradeable to do it though. Bob P had mentioned that the next gen players will decode the advanced codecs internally, hope these players weren't what he was referring to! I'll be ready to buy in about a month's time when the room is done, hopefully there will be suitable players then.

I was amazed at the specs of the new integra ssp. It has balanced connectors, decodes all the advanced codecs via hdmi 1.3, and costs less than what it cost me just to upgrade from D1 to D2 status! Still love my Anthem though!

You may not have got answers, possibly, because nobody uses cropping for SD DVDs (or maybe anything else). For SD DVDs I send 480i to the D2 and it sends 480p to my plasma. Depending on the DVD type (anamorphic or not) I use the appropriate viewing mode to preserve OAR.

larry

Thanks for the response, to be clear, I'm not talking about disturbing OAR or anything of the sort (I'm quite the staunch OAR advocate). What I'm having trouble with is understanding what everything does, the manual barely touches on any of the controls and completely ignores a good number of them.

For example, I have no idea what settings "the appropriate viewing mode" would be for a 4:3 DVD (or a 16:9 one). Is it simply (assuming auto doesn't work) picking 4:3 from the Crop menu? In which case 4:3 doesn't actually crop anything, it just tells the VXP that the input is 4:3 aspect ratio so it's scaled appropriately to the output.

Likewise for 16:9 content, do you simply pick the 16:9 "crop"?

What about 4:3 in 16:9 frame? Do you pick 4:3 crop, or do you have to use a custom crop to trim the pillars? What happens if you pick 4:3 crop on 4:3 in 16:9 frame content, are the pillars cropped or is the picture squished?

That's what I find so frustrating, it's these basic things that nobody seems to touch on. Not that I really blame anyone, if you've got an AVM50 or D2 I'm sure it's perfectly obvious what each of these controls does, but it's near impossible for someone without either of the above to figure it out, especially if the "Crop Input" menu selections don't really crop things (if they just specify the input AR).

And how does the Custom Crop menu work? If you perform a custom crop, how does the VXP handle the aspect ratio of the cropped image?

Actually, a lot of this stuff HAS been discussed at one time or another. I believe Bob Pariseau posted the clearest explanations of each of these - and why some of them you don't even need to touch.

(If you are looking for explanations of each item, I'm not the person. Somewhere in all of these pages just about every setting has been covered.)

To answer your DVD question - you want to set the Crop to 4:3 and the Scale out to Anamorphic. If your DVD is anamorphic, then it will be properly expanded to a 16:9 ratio. If it is 4:3/non-anamorphic, then it will be displayed that way. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a 16:9 DVD - it only becomes 16:9 after decoding IF it was encoded as anamorphic.

For HDTV, which actually DOES arrive in a 16:9 package, you want to set it thus - Crop to HDMI Autodetect and No Scaling.

I don't have a BD or HD-DVD, but I would imagine it would be the same as HDTV.

Custom Crop is primarily for specific problematic display devices. I would think you wouldn't need it.

As far as 4:3 in a 16:9 frame, I have no idea what you're referring to. If you mean a DVD of (for example) a 30s/40s movie - that's merely a 4:3 aspect ratio movie. Crop = 4:3 and Scale = Anamorphic. The D2 will take care of detection and proper display. Throw in a recent 16:9 release and the D2 has your back. No problems.

You could do worse than searching for all Bob Pariseau's posts in this thread and reading through any longer than 10 lines. He's really good at explaining the fundamental concepts we all need to know to use this product. Maybe that's why you haven't got answers - possibly everyone thinks Bob would explain it better anyway, so why bother?

Somewhere in 340 pages is easier said than done, especially with a generic term like "crop" or "aspect ratio".

[QUTOE]To answer your DVD question - you want to set the Crop to 4:3 and the Scale out to Anamorphic. If your DVD is anamorphic, then it will be properly expanded to a 16:9 ratio. If it is 4:3/non-anamorphic, then it will be displayed that way.[/quote]

Those can't both be right. I'm lost. My understanding of Anamorphic out is that whatever's left after the crop is stretched to file the output area. So with Crop 4:3 and Scale out Anamorphic result in everything being stretched to fill the screen?

My real question is what happens if you pick Crop 4:3 (or 16:9) and set Output to Letter/Pillarbox?

I still can't tell if crop actually crops or if it just changes the interpretation of the input.


Strictly speaking DVDs have a Pixel Aspect Ratio of 1.5:1 but that represents either 4:3 or 16:9 image.


Wouldn't no scaling mean that only content with the same resolution as my display would fit? In my case wouldn't 1080i content run past the edges of my 720p display?


Actually I will.


For example upconverted SD channels, which are pillarboxed.


Firstly, 4:3 on a DVD isn't what I'm talking about, second, wouldn't that stretch the 4:3 image to fill the screen?


How, that's my biggest problem, half this thread seems to be handwaving "it works".


I've read through a number of his post, in their entirety, but all of the ones I've read are dealing with very specific questions that don't answer any of my questions. I still haven't found (for example) if the Crop input 4:3 and 16:9 modes actually crop the image or if they just change the scaling.

I would assume whatever is left "un-cropped" would be scaled and output at the set resolution. And, no, it's not perfectly clear to me what these controls do. I haven't had a cause to play with them.

larry

First, thanks again for the response, yes there are some of the answers I was looking for, but about every time I think I get it figured out, I find something that confuses me again.

Bob,

Maybe you can clarify some things...


I'm still thoroughly confused about the usage of "crop" for the input settings, sometimes it seems like it's literal in that it actually removes part of the source image, sometimes it's not literal and seems like it just changes the handling of the input.

For example here you say a 16:9 "crop" tells the Anthem to interpret the input as 16:9 and scale it appropriately. However in another post you said that selecting 16:9 would remove the top/bottom bars of the image.

Second, am I correct is reading that setting output to Letter/Pillar box will squish the output horizontally the input is not 16:9 (ie if flagged wrong or 4:3 crop chosen)?

He is the site with all the information on the Gennum 9351 video processor.
http://www.gennum.com/video/products/GF9351.htm

Bruce

Let's try this. What would want to do with cropping? Maybe some of use could try it and see if it will do what you want to do?

larry

I didn't say it would be easy, did I?



No it does not. But this is based on actual experience, not theory.


I believe I tried that way at one point, and it did not properly switch between 4:3 and 16:9.


I believe it crops BASED on the interpretation of the input.


No, because you set your OVERALL output resolution to the resolution of your output device. The Crop and Scaling settings can be source specific. The Output resolution is singular.


This is why you use a separate setting for HDTV.

NOTE: One possibly important piece of information I didn't mention is that ALL my sources are set to deliver their signal to a widescreen (16:9) display at either 480i (DVD) or native 480i/720p/1080i (OTA tuner and DVR). This keeps the source device from imposing its own pillarbox on the signal. Then the D2 can do the right thing.

You had asked earlier if an SD program ever got stretched out incorrectly. For all my OTA channels, only one subchannel displays wrong. Apparently the broadcaster is embedding incorrect information/flags. Otherwise, I NEVER get pillarboxes where they shouldn't be OR 4:3 programming incorrectly stretched.


Well, this thread is oriented more to "what works" than "how it works." Most posters seem to be motivated not by theory, but by practice.

I can tell you that I've tried ALL KINDS of combinations of settings to arrive at my current D2 nirvana. When I dial things in, I write them down and move on. I suspect many here are just the same.


As I said earlier, I don't believe it's an either/or, but a combination. But there's only one person both knowledgable enough AND interested in explaining the "theory behind" here, and he is currently travelling. I'm sure he'll answer your questions with the level of detail you require when he's back posting here.