Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 536

When I had to send my D2 back to the factory because I was having problems with my OSD, it took about 4 weeks round trip.

Although this LOOKS like it could be valuable, I too am unconvinced. I would expect new processing settings, and if they are there and work well for people, I'll fork over the dough. Until then, the gains for video are unclear to me.


I completely agree! Get rid of that #$^#^%^&* serial port! I imagine there is some key engineer who just loves the thing and sees no need for an Ethernet port. I'd love to administer D2/Arc settings/backups over Ethernet (or USB).

The 8 HDMI inputs is attractive, as is the 7.1 LPCM over HDMI *and* the 192 KHz input ceiling. I don't need these quite yet, but will in the next 6 months.

This time, rather than be an early adopter, I may wait for user reports (good and bad). As you posted later, there's no good time to be without your D2!

Well, adding an ethernet/USB is fine, but you still need serial ports for home-automation control. Many still require serial ports to do this.

I assume the D2 supports Crestron and others over the serial port?

I almost forgot about another of my 2 pet peeves about the D2, the RS232 port. What a relic and the source of a ton of upgrade woes.
I think I'd pay $200 just for a USB 2.0 port ON THE FRONT PANEL.

Another point to ponder:
The announcement of this upgrade signals to me that the D3 is likely much farther out. Like 2010.

In speaking with an Anthem insider at CEDIA, it will be here far sooner than 2010 - but not 2008. Usually, the second gen of an older product means, it's all over with updates.

I'm a little upset with Anthem about this V2 news since I just upgraded my D1 to a D1-HD 2 months ago. I wish they would have told me at the time they were replacing the Video board within a few months and given me the option of waiting for it vs paying over 2K to add a Obsolete one. I know this is how the cookie crumbles in home theater electronics, but I don't have to like it (:. thanks Anthem!

You could have purchased a Denon and had no option of doing a hardware upgrade.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all...

YOU BET IT DOES - Says a D2 and Crestron Owner.

Then that's a big reason to keep the serial port. They could add an ethernet port, but not remove the serial port.

Hey - just curious, how deep into Crestron are you? Do you have everything centralized, or you have Crestron's spread around your house? What, roughly, are you using it for?

Thanks!
-Mark

I have three theaters and three Crestron Systems for each
with two touch panels per theater.

9 Crestrons total? Why so many?

And are the Crestrons wired together, or do you have them operating independently?

I don't view it as 9 Crestrons

There are THREE Control Processors - 1 per theater.

Two Touch Panels per Theater.

Okay - and are they wired together, or do you use them independent of each other? So can you control one theater from another theater, for example?

Bland:
Thanks for the heads up but in all reality the way things are heading I'm pretty sure the Anthem will be my last expensive pre/pro.
IMO, by the time I need to upgrade there will be more all-digital sources and pre\\pros at performance\\price points and I won't be able to justify spending anywhere near $8k+ on a new pre\\pro.


Crestron needs to check out of Flintstonesville as well.

As long as I'm ranting...
I think rkphelps has a legitimate bitch and I do think he got screwed.
I'd be pissed as hell and on the phone to them as soon as I read the V2announcement.
They could've easily given him a bs story about a new board rev or something if they were concerned about a leak.
I would've have forgiven them a white lie and the wait for the latest and greatest.

Jeff,

I don't think that is correct with Anthem. I have a D1 (unmodified except ARC) and Anthem has continued to support it through software upgrades despite new poroducts and I think they will do so for the D2 owners who will decide not to upgrade, even should a D3 come along at some time.

I did not upgrade my D1 because I did not have a TV which supported HDMI or any components that had it for a long time (coax, optical and component was fine for me). Now I have a new Pioneer TV and a number of components that have HDMI as outputs (Apple TV, Denon 3800BDCI and DirecTV) and so it is probably time for me to upgrade to a D1-HDv2, but if it wasn't I would still have confidence that Anthem would support my good old D1.

I know it is probably very frustrating for those that have just upgraded a D1 or bought a D2 or any of the AVMs as is evident by the coments on this board, but that is always going to be the case, there is no good time to make the plunge with the changing products in HT land.

Absolutely. My D2 is controlled flawlessly via RS-232 and my AMX system. And since I built that kewl DB-9 A/B switch with a front panel connector for my laptop so that I can do firmware upgrades without removing the rack, no way I want to eliminate the serial port.

The Control Processors are on my LAN so that
I can UPLOAD the control program to them.

Why would I want to control one theater from another?

Changing something in one while I'm in another makes
no sense to me.

Like all the people in this forum, I really like all the information that I get out of this thread, unlike most of you, I am not as knowledgeable in all aspect of HF audio or video arena, therefore most of this questions I ask is probably elementary to most of you.
I am building an HTCP system and will like to hook it up to my Anthem D2, I am hoping to build a nice high-end system with Blue Ray and true P24 uncompress audio using the Asus Xonar HDAV.

If I do this, will I still need to get a dedicated DVD audio player? I am hoping this HTPC will be for playing video at resolutions 1920 x 1080@60Hz as well high end audio, using HTMI to HTMI to send audio and video to my Anthem D2. I know I can do this, but will I be getting the same quality as if I would by using dedicated components?

The next questionsince I just got my Anthem D2 I am learning a lot, but there are things I do not know or totally understand about HF equipment, is there a video that can help a novice like me to get the most of the systems, I am really confuse and need help with my configuration and is driving me crazy, I line in Raleigh\\Durham NC if there is anyone that has an Anthem D2 and can help me get started I will be grateful

My current setup:
Dali speakers
Euphonia MS4, euphonia CS4, euphonia AS2, euphonia phantom
Anthem D2
Cary Audio Model 7.125
Pioneer 50" 1080p Flat Panel Plasma HDTV - PDP5010FD


Thank you in advance

Fred

Fred,
There's a whole forum here devoted to Home Theater Personal Computer enthusiasts. I can tell you that some folks building those have gone quite far indeed -- perhaps into the "exotic" realm. Those folks certainly don't need a separate DVD-Audio player. However, as with all such projects, it depends on how much you are willing to spend on purchasing the pieces that make it work, and how much time you are willing to spend tweaking the way those pieces work together. HTPC setups are for people you ENJOY fiddling with such stuff. If you want a turn-key solution that has all the decisions already made for you, you will probably be better off getting a commercially produced stand-alone player.

I can't give you any advice on how to select parts for, or configure, an HTPC setup. I haven't been through that myself. I can tell you that a number of HTPC posters here have had HDMI handshake problems with the D2 apparently resulting from their computer graphics card changing resolution to frequently as it boots up. There is a gadget sold by Geffen called the "DVI Detective" which you can put in line between the HTPC and the D2. It allows you to force certain configuration parameters to get around such issues.

--------------------------------------

Congrats on getting your new D2! You've made a good choice.

The first thing you should do is look through the collection of posts linked in the first post of this thread. I call them "The Good Parts Version" of this thread.

In particular, for the basics of video setup, look for the "Video Calibration for non-ISF Techs" post in that list.

After looking through those, your best bet is to scan BACKWARDS through this thread from the end looking for stuff you find interesting. Feel free to post newbie questions here. It's not a problem. But do check those link in the first post here as many of the frequently asked questions are answered in those posts.
--Bob

If the new D2V.2 is going to retail for around $7,900, is there any spectulation of what the AVM50 with these upgrade will retail for?

Based on past practice, about $2000 to $2500 less. Of course none of the new pricing is official yet. Even that $7900 figure from the press release is only an "estimate".
--Bob

I'm going to be moving soon (new house) and building a new theater. I thought I'd update to v 1.33 even though I don't have ARC. After updating I put the D2 back to the factory presets since I'll eventually be changing everything. Just thought I'd check with the experts and make sure this is the way to go.
I should also add that I didn't use the Video Editor, I just used the menu on the D2 to go back to factory presets.
TIA

Sure, that's fine. That resets everything in the Setup menu, the Video Source Adjust menu, and the "temporary" audio adjustments available via the remote control.

[Once you have Uploaded ARC results there's one other step necessary if you want to to completely restore the Anthem to initial, just from the factory, state. And that's to do an Erase using the ARC Windows PC application. That's the only way to remove the ARC room correction parameters from the Anthem's memory. But you don't really have to do this since a Reload Factory Defaults will turn Room EQ = OFF for all sources, which means any uploaded ARC stuff simply isn't being used -- and down the road you can always just load new ARC results on top of whatever happens to still be in there.]
--Bob

I made that statement at least 3 times to my own CFO.

Bob figure are quite dead on. This sound like expensive but the reality is that they will change most of the expensive electronic boards.

The addition of inputs is also welcomed I just added a HTPC and I am running out of HDMI inputs.

Any speculation as to when we could expect to see the AVM-50v2 available for purchase as a new unit(non-upgrade) and what the expected price may be?

Probably 4th quarter.

glennQ

Thanks again Bob,

I'm still having the issues I described in post # 14186. Everything worked fine with v1.21 so I'm hoping going to v 1.33 will help. I haven't had the chance to see what the new version did. Everything is ready for the move but I thought before boxing the D2 up I would do the update, since I have to use a desktop. I doubt if the Video Editor has anything to do with it either. I have the D2 boxed up and ready for the move and it might be awhile before it comes back out of the box. I'm wondering if I should talk to Nick at Anthem about it or just wait and see.

Ken,
I'm quoting your older post (#14186) so folks will know what you are talking about.

Nick won't be able to help much if you don't have the D2 set up so he can have you try things.

The new firmware install may fix your problem, but there's no way to be sure until you hook things back up again down the road.

When you hook stuff up again, if the problem is still there, post again and/or give Anthem tech support a call.

There are several possibilities:

* It could be a software bug that Anthem needs to fix.

* One of your HDMI devices may be confusing the Anthem.

* You could have a corrupted value in your D2 settings.

* There is a hardware problem on your D2. This is the least likely since you can fix the problem just by switching to a different source and back.

It's not to hard to work through the possibilities to isolate what's really going on, but it does require that you have the unit set up so you can try stuff.

One thing that puzzles me is that you say you can't Save or Load settings. Do you mean in the Setup menu? Are you still having that trouble? Remember that you need to "confirm" that you really want to do this by changing the No to Yes (with the arrow keys) and then pressing Select before the operation will actually happen. You will also be blocked if you set a password to protect your settings and didn't give it when asked.

Good luck with the move! And let us know when you've got the D2 hooked up again.
--Bob

I finally had some time to take some measurements and run the ARC software for the first time yesterday.

I have an AVM-50/ARC with a B&K Reference 200.5 amp powering the following:

Mains - Martin Logan Ascents
Center - Martin Logan Stage
Rears - Martin Logan Scripts
Sub - Martin Logan Descent

The actual room is 16' W x 13' D x 9', but the room opens up on the right to the breakfast nook and kitchen. Basically, the theater is not in a closed off room at all as there is an opening to the main entrance and a passageway to the formal dining room in the kitchen.

In looking at the results, I have about a 5db drop off at around 65-70hz that ARC was not able to correct very well. The mains drop off considerably at 12-13khz and the rears drop even more starting around 1-2khz. The performance of the rears probably has a lot to do with their height. I think I could get better result by lowering the speakers or somehow pointing them downward.

Any other ideas that might help with the drop off at 65hz (it effects the speakers in the front of the room, but not at the back of the room)?

By the way....I set the ARC to max at 10khz. The auto detect set the following crossover points:

Mains - 40hz
Center - 95hz
Rears - 85hz
Sub - 120hz

Room gain was about 3.9

The results of this measurement further substantiates my desire to go with a different speaker system (been eying Paradigms for a log time).

As far as results, I can't say for sure yet as I haven't sat down to a movie. I can tell that dialog seems clearer and I have more energy in the surround speakers. I look forward to putting in a movie soon.