Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 493

UH-OH! Sounds like the same issues I had a week ago. I'd call Anthem; Nick or Pierro. They will probably tell you to deinstall then reinstall the driver for your serial to usb adapter(hopefully you have "their" recommended Key-Span adapter). Then remove the current v1.33 from your computer then re-download from their site v1.33, try to upload to your D2. If that does'nt work, they may recommend running the Flash Eraser program from their password protected tech site. I would run this program several times(5-6) then try to reload the current v1.33. This should work, if not, you'll probably have to return your unit to Anthem. The above worked for me and I hope it'll work for you as well. The guys at Anthem know what they are doing and they will do their best to help you in your time of need. Good-Luck and let us know how it turns out.

Eric
P.S. Also, make sure any powered HDMI sources/cables are disconnected, not just turned off.

Hello..


My buddy has a D2, and is using a cd player with Balanced outputs feed into the D2..

He chose the 2-ch input for these connections..

If you used the Analogue direct, the sound is fine, but, if you uses the Analogue DSP (to use dsp functions of D2), the sound is distorted..

Any suggestions???


I will be going over tomorrow to see what I can do, and think maybe the INPUT GAINS adjustments might be the solution?

Thanx..

Where are you seeing 48KHz? If the input is analog there should not be a sampling rate displayed. Sampling rate is a characteristic of a digital audio signal.

Are you sure you don't have Setup / Source Setup / Auto Dig = ON set, which would cause that Source setting to use its digital input if there is audio present on that digital input.
--Bob

Yes that sounds likely.

There is, normally, a 6dB volume (voltage) difference between RCA and XLR connections. He might need to make a setting change on his player's outputs to get the XLR outputs into that normal range. The input adjustment in the D2 would be the next best place to make that adjustment.
--Bob

WOW!! Thanx for very quick responce Bob!!

Thanks.. Will check to player, then at last resort do the change in D2..


So from what you are saying, this sounds normal them for balanced connections??

Thanks

Hello,

I just ran the ARC for the 6th time in my 15 days of ownership.
The more I learn, the more I improve, the more I love it.
Here is one screenshot of my 2 front speakers measurements.
See how the right is largely corrected whereas the left corrected curve is mostly following the measured curve (at 1.5K up).
Is it ok?

Thanks

Yes, I did remove power and disconnect all HDMI sources. I was thinking the flash eraser might be my next step, and I hope that works, cause I don't want to have to ship it in. Oh well, my D2 has been rock solid from day one (two years), so I guess it's my turn for a bug, though it's ironic that I have an audio bug and my video still works great. What really sucks is that I'm heading off for a week long trip this early A.M., and won't be able to work on it until next Saturday evening, but I get to think about it all week! Maybe Anthem tech support can send me the file and info needed so I can get it going next weekend? Thanks for all the help Bob, I will let you know how things go when I get back.

After running ARC and downloading to the D2, is there a way for ARC to graph the acutual "corrected' sound instead of calculated?

You could send your ARC file to Anthem tech support and ask them that. My guess would be that ARC decided its correction resources were better spent on some other problem in your measurements. It looks like you may be running your LF and RF speakers "large". Do you have a decent subwoofer? If so, try running the LF and RF speakers "small" even though they are capable of reproducing full range. ARC won't have to correct them as far down into the bass frequencies and that may free up more correction resource for the range up towards 5KHz.

I don't actually know how ARC allocates its correction resources, so this is just a guess.
--Bob

The Flash Eraser is on the password protected download site. So they just have to point you at that.

But as usual, I recommend people do NOT use Flash Eraser until instructed to do so by Anthem tech support because it may wipe out important clues they can use to figure out what happened -- i.e., to keep it from happening again.
--Bob

No there is not. Anthem deliberately left that out as they feared they'd get too many tech support calls from people who didn't realize that some variation will naturally remain according to the precise re-positioning of the mic when you do that. Also the curves they show represent "averages" across the set of mic positions whereas a re-measure probably wouldn't do that.

I've suggested to Nick at Anthem that they add the ability to do an "actual corrected" set of charts for a single mic position anyway, and WITHOUT trying to associated it with the Calculated results -- which represent an average expected result for the set of mic measurement positions.

Then you could do your Measurements and Calculations based on your normal set of mic positions, Upload that, and finally do a test measurement at ANY mic position (without trying to duplicate a measurement position) and see what you get. They would need to clearly explain in the manual that variations from the Calculated curve are normal and expected when you do that.

Even better would be if they could run TWO curves for each speaker at that test mic position -- one with the Room Correction turned on and one with it turned off. That would show the degree to which Room Correction is actually helping at that mic position.

[But as I posted a ways back, this is *NOT* the same as comparing the best ARC can do with the best you might do manually WITHOUT ARC since the Room EQ = OFF curve in such a measurement should probably still be done with things like the Room Resonance Filter disabled -- since any prior settings you made for that are probably incorrect after ARC adjusts your cross overs.]
--Bob

Bob,
when I go into Setup / Source Setup for CD, there is no Auto Dig choice. The other question is does it make a diff whether I use the digial in instead of the analog?
John

Urh, it's SUPPOSED to be in there! You sure you are in Setup menu "6a"? It's line "h" in that menu (D2 V1.33 software).

The data coming off the CD is 2 channel PCM (digital audio). Personally I recommend you use digital audio to the D2 for CD listening.

Some folks with exotic CD players like the way their player converts the digital audio off the CD to analog. If you are in that boat, then you should try using analog audio to the D2 with ANALOG-DIRECT set so that the D2 just passes that through without digitizing it. However that means you will get no processing in the D2 including bass steering or ARC while doing that.

If you want processing in the D2 (ANALOG-DSP) then the D2 has to digitize the analog audio input, process it, and then convert it back to analog again. This pretty much negates any advantage you might feel the CD player has in the way IT converts the digital audio off the disc to analog.
--Bob

Bob,

I have the AVM 50 with 1.33 so I will check again. I have the CD set to analog/dir.

John

One of the nice things about ARC is that the improvement in audio for Comcast movies (particularly DD 5.1 movies) helps make up for the damage they are doing to the video -- which is now pretty much across the board on all channels in my market (and made all the more annoying from the fact that Comcast video was of exceptional quality in this market a mere year ago).

[Can't wait for FIOS-TV to bring them some real competition in this market!]

After a few more weeks of use, I've pretty much settled on not using any of the THX post processing for stereo or DD 5.1 Comcast movies, except for the movies that need the THX Equalization portion turned on separately to get the treble level right for the Center channel. And of course I still use Mono-Academy mode when watching older Mono movies (which may actually be broadcast as stereo with the same content on both sides).

If ARC for the AVM-40 and AVM-50 works this well, you AVM owners are in for a nice treat!
--Bob

I suppose the new firmware may have blanked out that line when you set ANLG-DIR, since you can't use it with that mode (AUTO DIG switches between your specified digital audio input source jacks and ANLG-DSP mode on the stereo input jacks depending on whether there is any audio actually present on the digital input at the moment).

But back to the original question: Where are you seeing 48KHz sampling rate displayed for the analog input? An analog input doesn't have a sampling rate until it is digitized. That's what makes me think you might ACTUALLY be listening to a digital input without intending to.
--Bob

Bob,
there is no line h in the menu. Still says 48 kHz in while in CD mode even though it is a 96/24 recording. Digital playback says the correct stats but still unsure where the menu went and why outputting in analog still gives me readings.
John

Will look to see if I set anything in other menus to affect this. When I press select on the remote it comes up on the front display.
John

Bob,

Auto Dig is in the menu but Not Available with Analog Direct. Now on CD it says analog in but 44.1 out when I press Select on the remote. Have gone back an forth with the digital and analog and frankly I would be lying if I said I could tell the diff. So at this point it seems I will stay with CD just for confusions sake.

thanks,
John

OK that makes more sense.

When you use a stereo analog input for any source the default sampling rate for digitizing that (i.e., getting it ready for processing) is 44.1KHz. See Section 3.9 of the Manual.

The Select info entry saying analog input is correct. I suspect the one saying 44.1KHz output is just picking up the default sampling rate without regard to the fact that you have selected ANALOG-DIRECT mode and thus no digitizing actually happens. I.e., that is probably a bug just in what is displayed -- although not in the way the audio is actually being handled. If you get a chance, email what you are seeing there to Nick at Anthem so they can put it on the list to fix in a future update.
--Bob

Will email him now.
thanks,
John

Wise choice. Yesterday, Jonathan Scull (my weekend guest) and I did a few measurements of ARC on/off with the XTZ Room Analyzer and we found ARC's LF corrections to FR to be significant but the results, while closer to flat, were not entirely flat. However, the LF waterfalls showed a drastic reduction in ringing energy and shorter decays. Not something that every user would see, especially if only FR curves were provided.

Would that mean when I put in a 96/24 dvd and output through the analog outputs, it will display 44.1 or should it display 96 kHz?
John

As far as the Anthem is concerned, it should display Analog for input, and if you are using ANALOG-DIRECT mode it should display Analog for output.

Again, sampling rate and sample size -- e.g., 96KHz of 24 bit samples -- are characteristics of a DIGITAL audio signal. Once the digital audio signal has been converted to analog, as you are having your player do for output to the Anthem, there is no such thing as digitized sample size or sampling rate any longer. Instead you have the characteristics of an analog audio signal such as frequency response, dynamic range, measures of distortion etc. The Anthem has no way of knowing whether any given input analog signal is accurately representing what it is supposed to play, or has been distorted in the content or in the player, so the Anthem can't tell you any of that. Nor is there any way for the Anthem to learn the characteristics of the DIGITAL audio signal that were used, in the player, to produce that analog audio output. Meanwhile the analog section of the Anthem has its own reproduction specifications that apply to all analog signals, so displaying that also wouldn't tell you anything useful.
--Bob

Sounds like fun stuff! Are you going to be able to publish those details?
--Bob

Working on it.

Maybe it's time to hide the equipment and use remote IR cabling. With kids at 14 & 2 months, you have a long way to go to safety and the investment might be worth it.

Is Comcast screwing up my HDTV de-interlacing?

I've been noticing more cases where my D2 incorrectly drops out of film-mode when watching 1080i HDTV movies. The symptom is that there is a second or two of de-interlacing problems and then it corrects. Watching the Film Mode indicator in the Video Source Adjust / Info panel while replaying the scene on my HD-DVR I can actually see the D2 dropping out of film mode when the artifacts appear.

The question is whether something has gotten screwed up in the D2 V1.33 software or whether this is just another consequence of the heavy-handed "re-compression" that Comcast is doing to its channels in my market?

SO: Are others seeing 1080i HDTV de-interlacing issues with the V1.33 software? And if so, is your HDTV feed giving you video that otherwise appears to be undamaged, or is your HDTV provider also screwing up its retransmissions?

How 'bout folks who might be feeding other types of film-based content to the D2 at 1080i such as folks who have decided to use scaling in their SD DVD player instead of sending 480i to the D2? Have you noticed any degradation in 1080i de-interlacing performance with the D2 V1.33 software?

480i de-interlacing performance remains perfect as best I can tell. So if there's an issue here it will be just with 1080i/60 feeds of film-based content into the D2. I'm more than willing to believe it is just Comcast screwing up my HDTV feed, but I thought I'd check with some of the old hands here.

I haven't spotted any issues in 1080i/60 from the PS3 when playing the HQV Blu-Ray test disc. This too would point to Comcast being the source of the problem. But almost all the tests on that disc are video-based, not film based. You have to go into their explanatory section to see clips of film-based scenes.
--Bob

Bob,
Nick said it was a glitch and is now fixed for next firmware update. Should have said for output Analog Direct. Thanks for the suggestion.
John
ps. did you say ARC would not affect this input due to lack of bass management for Aanalog/dir?

Could this have something to do with the increased use of non-standard cadence by video distributors to squeeze in more commercials?

The impact on things like the HQV Reon/Realta are weird judder, as they get confused about the odd cadence coming across.