Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 5

Hi Blaine

Congrats on your new D2. I enjoyed chatting with you when you picked it up yesterday. Good think that the A2 and A5 were not yet in as your car would need some new shocks.

Why don't you ask Gary if he can get you a good deal on a Pioneer DV-79AI. More than you want to spend, but you really should think about which 480i player will balance with your system.

Let us know what your system synergy is when your Statement amps come in.

Are you saying an HDMI 1.0 player, like the 59avi, won't work with the D2 using the HDMI connection?

I have to agree with Levesque, the Pioneer DV-79avi is worth the extra money if you can swing it. Not only is it 480i over HDMI compatible, and HDMI 1.1 compatible, but the SACD and DVD-Audio sound quality are really impressive. The HDMI 1.1 will pass multichannel DVD-Audio, and it works great with the D2. Of course, for SACD, you still need the 6-channel outputs from the Pio and inputs on the D2.

I have found myself seeking out some old musical gems that are now available on SACD and/or DVD-Audio, and have been revisiting some old jazz stuff in particular, but also great recordings like the Who's "Tommy", Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Dire Straits, etc. If anybody out there is a jazz fan at any level, do yourself a favor - pick up the limited edition SACD version of Jazz at the Pawnshop, and play the 5.1-channel mix through the D2, and this thing leaps out of your living room, and will fill your head for days. Every note is so real, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up....insanely high quality audio.

Damn I love my D2 and Pio 79avi...major prop's go to Levesque for talking me out of a super high end DVD player, and going instead with this flagship Pio box, which does everything very well, and nothing lousy.

Hey Stan - great meeting you too. I will ask Gary.

One of the things that was keeping me back from getting the 79AVi as a video source for the D2 is some of the noted problems (specific for using it as a transport) noted in the Secrets Benchmark review.

"Some of the key things to look for when shopping for a digital transport are pixel cropping, CUE performance, and usability (speed of navigation and layer change). You also want to be sure the player doesn't have any Y/C delay issues. Unfortunately the 79AVi has issues in almost all of these categories." Kris Deering DVD Benchmark 2006

I understand that the D2 scaler is good but it can't fix these problems - correct?

Maybe I should stick with my Oppo for now and wait a couple months. The downside is that I'll have to put off my ISF calibration until I figure out which player.

Picked up my D2 on the 1st of this month and have a few questions from fellow owners.Firstly do you guys find that you are doing much tweeking on the scaler end from the factory defaults or does making an adjustment to better one thing create another issue with PQ.I have found this scenario for me from my HD satellite receiver and also from my STD sat receiver.However my Sim Audio Stellar DVD player has definately benefited from some adjustments.Also my STD receiver has only an s video output, by purchasing one with component outs , will it achieve better picture quality even if it is the same receiver.
Also is anyone having problems with there video in regards to after making some scaling adjustments that you may get lines across the screen .I have had to power down the unit to get rid of it and also on switching of sources i have had an issue where it will not switch [shows a blank screen]without powering down the D2 and restarting it.

Take a look (it will take you a while to read the whole thing) at the Pioneer DV-79AI thread in the Standard Def DVD section: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=578758

It appears to me that while the described issues do appear to show up in the Secrets DVD Benchmark test, that many of these so-called issues are not really an issue in real life useage. And that some of these may be related to faulty discs. Many DV79AI users seem to concur with this in the thread. Maybe Levesque can shed some thoughts on this player.

And thanks for reference to your ISF Calibration expert. I will take advantage of this in the fall when I upgrade my monitor.

I have a Panasonic 42" plasma, and I am planning to get a new blade for the Anthem scaler. I am concerned that the Panasonic HDMI blades do not support the native resolution of my display. The DVI blades, however, do seem to support the native resolution. Does anyone have any thoughts on using a DVI blade in conjunction with an HDMI-DVI cable from the Anthem?

OK Stan and Alain - picked up a DV-79AVi. One solid DVD player to be sure. I still need another HDMI cable to show up until I put it through its paces with the D2.

Oh this evil hobby.... :-)

I thought there were hoards of people waiting for the D2 to be released.

I'm a little surprised there aren't more people chiming in to share experiences with the D2.

Either this means;

1) We don't have a lot of D2 owners here on AVS.

2) People are waiting for more reviews before buying.

3) The people who bought the D2 upon its release are too busy enjoying it to post.

Blaine, yeah, the Pioneer is pretty darn solid. Now you can really put the D2 through its' paces. Give us a report when you come up for air.

I thought there were hoards of people waiting for the D2 to be released.

I'm a little surprised there aren't more people chiming in to share experiences with the D2.

Either this means;


Or they are awaiting delivery of their D2's, as I am.


Or they have a decent pre-pro and are waiting for hdmi 1.3 instead of hdmi 1.1 connections before upgrading again. There still is much confusion about this out there.


Without doubt!

From Levesque (re: the D2 quirk on color mapping):

What version of the software do you have? I had this problem (green or orange tint across the screen after getting out of the video ouput set-up menu... I think it was after getting out of the main menu item number 8) with the beta firmware, but with 1.00, the problem is gone for me. It doesn't happen anymore.

Reply: So as one of the first non-Beta units shipped, mine has v1.00 as well. I haven't seen the problem in awhile so I won't stress over it. If it crops up a bunch more, I'll drop Nick a line.

Blaine:
Nice system assembled for sure. re: your DVD issue, I'm with ManWithAPlan re: getting the benefit of SACD/DVD-A from a couple of the 480i capable players. Granted, I am an audiophile first but the high res. formats would be a nice addition that your vons would resolve very well.

ManWithAPlan:
Thanks for the recommendations. Jazz at the Pawnshop was an old 2channel favorite, I will definitely pick up a 5.1ch copy. Do I remember correctly that you are running your SACD/DVD-A all via Analog-Dir mode? I have been busy playing around with the various DSP surround modes as well and seem to gravatate back to the Analog-Dir each time. Just wondering if you found a mode that is worth the tradeoff of the additional ADC/DAC step?

Les 1:
For what it's worth I haven't had to tweak the scaler output's defaults with my set up (but I am no expert in the video realm to be sure). The defaults have been looking great for me once I got the initial settings to match my display's native format.

Ken

Hello all
First post here
My D2 is on the way its an upgrade from rotel rsp1098
I have one question to you all how will this work with my HDPJ52 Hitachi PJ
Any inside on how should I set my first settengs on D2 also HDMI is on the way from blue jeans cable pj is about 25' (cable run)away from my system
Thank you all

K2Evergreen,

For DVD-Audio discs, I use my Pio 79-AVI and the HDMI 1.1 on it, to send the multichannel audio to the D2's HDMI inputs. For SACD's, the Pio uses its 6 channel analog outputs to send to the 6-channel S/E input on the D2. Both DVD'As and SACD's sound amazing.

As for DSP's modes, I am experimenting quite a bit myself with different ones. I like Analog Direct a lot, but for DVD-A's I have been using Dolby ProLogic Music sometimes. I am far from settling on my favorite yet, I'm still such a neophyte with all the options the D2 gives me. By the way, I was pleasantly surprised at how good Anthem Logic-Music is as well. I'd be interested in your take on all this too.

I also have been experimenting with sending some of the low frequencies to the Sub, even for Music Speaker setup. Even though I have very full range speakers with the B&W 703s, I kinda like what I get by sending anything below about 50Hz to the sub using the Super sub setting in the D2. Like I said, I'm still experimenting with the right crossover point, but about 40-50Hz sounds pretty nice.

I have the D2 but my hometheater is not quite finished yet as I had to do a lot of rewiring for the HDMI.I had a proceed PAV before this and so I am looking forward to checking it out.I had my dealer test it in his showroom before I got it and at the default setting it looked great and sounded great.More in about 2 weeks.I am not sure if I can post pictures on this forum yet ( my 3 rd post).

My D2 is on the way! (and also an HP MD6580NAVS bought from TV Authority using their deal for AVS Forum members).

I understand you need 480i HDMI to take full advantage of the internal scaling/deinterlacing. I've run into a dead end trying to find a network media player that supports that. Looking for something similar to the TIVX M-5000 or Pixel Magic HD Mediabox. The application is primarily streaming ripped DVD content from a windows server.

Anyone know of a solution?

Some of the players have 1080i, any idea how good the D2 would do acting as the deinterlacer for that already scaled signal?

Thanks for any help.

I see. So, its just that only a few people managed to get one so early.

I have been awaiting this release and I plan to purchase one, but my D2 will be going into a dedicated theater in a new home that is under construction, so I can wait awhile. Still, I am itching to get my hands on one and start playing!

Hi ManWithAPlan,

So my set up on the audio connections is very similar to yours, DVD-A over HDMI and then a 6-ch SE input for the SACD/CD. I have not yet connected my Theta Data/Pro Prime DAC to the 2-ch input yet but it might be an interesting comparison vs. playing redbook CDs via my Marantz.

Mode Impressions: Like you, I am still experimenting with all the options. With 2-channel input like video/music DVDs I do seem to gravitate to either PLII music or AL-music. Maybe it's the two channel history that we share but I still seem to gravitate back to the D2's Analog-Dir mode any time I have a CD or SACD playing. So far I've even been preferring the high-res 2-channel DVD-A tracks vs. the DVD-A 5.1 mixes. I'm trying to discern if it sounds better to me because that's what I am more accustomed to hearing over the years or if there is an imaging precision and depth difference. That being said, I have been enjoying some of the SACD 5.1 mixes as the soundstage seems to stay true to the original recording's intent. But, I'm making this statement on a very small sample size so far.

Thanks for the tips on the Super Sub setting. I haven't done any tweaking there but will try. My vandys are also pretty flat down to 30Hz. I have been considering adding a pair of 2wq subs paired to each of my 3A Sigs down the road (in addition to the V2W for the LFE stuff) but need to absorb the expense of the D2 for awhile first...

If I have any epiphanys, I'll definitely drop you a line.
Ken

Should I use 720P or 1080I settings?

I would think you would want to feed it what ever the native resolution of your projector is.

Okay.....Just setup my new D2. Maybe someone can help me. My display reads 480i on my d2 in dvd mode. Player is the panasonic Rp91. How do I get 1080i picture with my D2 while playing Dvd's. Picture quailty is much better, but should i not have 1080i displayed on the front of the D2. Anyhelp would be great

HTfool. Go to menu 8 (video output). There you can set the resolution, color space and data format. The front panel will tell what signal the D2 is receiving, but if you open up the scaler (by pressing #7 for 3 sec) you can then select info where it will tell you what the scaler is receiving and what the output that has been selected and is being sent to the video source.

Well, if any D2 owners were waiting for the Toshiba HD-DVD Players to arrive in order to obtain a 480i output over HDMI DVD Player, initial reports are that its' a no go. Initial reports are that 480i is only available over component outputs. Bummer!!

bballer,
I have been to Menu 8. Where in menu 8 can u select for dvd source only? I have set it for tv source.

Has anyone had trouble passing the video from a Sony 9100ES DVD player through the D2's HDMI ports? I can't get a picture at all. I have version 1.00 of the software. Thanks.

Dave

Sold my Denon 5805 and 5910ci and will probably have my D2 next week... I cannot wait!!!!

I was wondering if somebody could post a quick cheat sheet for setting up the 79avi and the D2... vid settings for both, etc... for best upscaling of that setup.. this will be feeding a Sony Ruby......