Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 745

Do firmware upgrades and ARC require a Microsoft operating system? I have a few Linux boxes, and a Macbook, but no Microsoft PCs in my house.

I don't see a USB port. It is 2009, and they still expect you to have RS232?

All of my video sources are already HD. I don't need any scaling or timing adjustments. How invasive is the video processing? I assume it will detect if the HDMI input is 1080p24 or 1080p60 and can just pass that through?

Sorry if these questions have been asked/answered before. I did not see them in the first post, and 22319 posts are too many to read!

Thanks,

John

P.S. I am currently using a AVM 20v2

It is probably applying the setting you have in Setup > Mode Presets for that input.

The Setup menu is another source (internally generated S-video, and whatever audio feed you were using when you entered it). So when you exit Setup that's a source selection back to the source you were on before. That means your Mode Presets get applied according to whatever audio format is active on that input when you go back to it. Apparently you have AL-Cinema set up as the default in Mode Presets for that source. If you don't want that to happen, use "Last Used" in Mode Presets -- or use Stereo if that's the default you want applied.
--Bob

You need Windows XP or later to use the ARC application to set up ARC. You need Windows 2000 or later to do firmware installs.

I happen to do this on a MacBook using the BootCamp environment to boot up a retail copy of Windows XP Pro.

Most of the folks here are using USB to serial adapters. The Keyspan USA-19HS adapter is the one folks have had the best luck with. That's what I'm using.

Other folks have reported success using Windows in the latest VMWare Fusion environment on their Macs, and using a Belkin USB/Serial adapter.

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There is no "pass through" of HDMI. All video is converted to 1080p internally (if it isn't already there) prior to any other processing you ask the Anthem to do. Even if you don't ask the Anthem to do any adjustments to the video, the video is still regenerated for output to your display.

We have a ton of people on here using 1080p displays with the Anthem processors and the comments on video quality when using 1080p/24 and 1080p/60 sources are uniformly positive, so apparently Anthem is doing something right.
--Bob

Using VMWare Fusion would be acceptable. I would really rather not have to use BootCamp.

I have some USB/serial adaptors laying around. Is there any danger in trying them, or is it strongly recommended to track down a Keyspan USA-19HS?


1080p120 internally? If it is 1080p60, I would think that would cause some jitter and defeat the whole purpose of Blu-ray outputting 1080p24.

Thanks for the quick response! I can't afford to upgrade real soon, but I am hoping to this fall.

John

1080/24 input stays as /24 internally unless it has to be frame rate converted for output -- i.e., you tell the Anthem to send it to the display as /60 for whatever reason. So no problem.

The danger with adapters is the usual Windows nonsense. I.e., if you have one installed and it doesn't work you should uninstall the drivers for that one before installing a different one. (It's always a wonder to me when ANYTHING works in Windows.)

We have 2 reports here that the Keyspan adapter I mentioned does not work with Fusion (nobody knows why). These same people report the Belkin USB Serial Port Adapter F5U409-CU does work with ARC under Fusion 2 and Windows XP.

Personally I wouldn't try using anything but one of those two adapters. Why tempt fate?

We've also had a variety of reports of people having other things set up in their Windows environment which get in the way. Firewall software for example (again, nobody quite knows why). The Anthem software uses a standard COM port and a standard microphone audio capture framework that's part of Windows XP (and later), so it isn't asking for much, but there's enough crufty stuff floating around in the Windows world that sometimes we hear about a Windows computer that just can't be made to work with the Anthems. I.e., you have to try a different computer.
--Bob

Bob I really hope you are on Anthem's payroll. You're the best tech support any company could ever have. I think you just fixed a lot of my problems. I'm going to have to go back over it all but it looks like a number of the items on the list I sent Nick have been resolved by this. Maybe I'm typing too soon and with further investigation discover I'm wrong but I don't think so.

For example, the bass boost in anlgDSP (room correction off) appears to have been resolved. The issue of the "CD" input differing from other inputs appears to have been resolved. The issue of ARC corrections being treated differently by single ended inputs and balanced (2-ch) inputs seems to have been resolved.

I'll go through it in more detail later tonight but it looks like we might be left only with the source dependent HF control impacting the LF and the problem of why the ARC turns the bass down 15 dB in stereo mode. The HF impact on LF is not important because I don't use tone controls so I think the only remaining real issue is the ARC issue.

Thanks Bob you're a life saver. I was ready to get on a plane and fly from Texas to Canada to sit down with those guys to figure this out. Now I don't have to.

Monte

I did type too soon, it fixed the HF effect on LF too. Now the only remaining issue is the -15 dB at LF when using ARC. This problem however has spread to all analog inputs. This is a good thing though because at least it's consistent. This is the only remaining issue and I plan to run ARC again to see if something just went wrong the first time.

thanks,
Monte

Well that certainly seems to be a breakthrough! I suspect the ARC issue will, in the end, also turn out to be a case of setup confusion, but I agree it is a good idea to redo your ARC stuff now that you have a better understanding of how things work in the processor.

You might as well use the new ARC V2.2 when doing this, although there are no significant changes in it.
--Bob

Thanks, Bob.


John

I haven't been following this thread religiously but I'm starting to be depressed reading how all you D2v/ARC owners are having a ball tweaking your setups and whatnot.

My D2 was in storage for a little while during some minor renovations when ARC became available. When I finally put it back in it's rightful place, the D2v was annouced. I figured I'd just wait for the upgrade program to start and I'll send in my D2 in to get ARC and the v2 stuff -- more tweaking makes me happy!

So here we are... halfway thru the year and no D2v upgrade yet. I'd like to avoid going thru the sell the D2 and wait 2 months to get a D2v not to mention it probably costs more to go this route. I waited over 3 months to get my D2 originally because I wanted the rackmount version.

So any word yet when I can send my unit in to be upgraded? If I missed an annoucement, my apologies but I haven't seen anything mentioned on the first page of this thread nor on Anthem's website.

The current word is that Anthem has told their dealers the upgrades will actually start in September, and that pricing and other details should be available "real soon now".
--Bob

Yes thanks again for all your help. This has been a real nightmare for me compounded by being away from home unable to deal with it. I believe you are correct that the current ARC issue will turn out to be a setting issue. I have just sent Nick the latest ARC measurement. The "target" low frequency roll off of this measurement rolls of lower and the transfer function measurement follows the same new lower curve. This makes me think I have something set wrong in the target settings.

I would also like to apologize here on the forum to Nick because I had made negative comments about him here. I had misinturpreted his initial responses as being very dismissive and thus had become very dismayed by the support I felt I was receiving from him. Unfortunately this then became a nightmare for him too. So, I'm sorry for that. It's like I told Nick, I'm an old school analog guy in a digital world and with all these "preset modes" etc and I'm lost!

Anyway, it seems it's almost over. If I can just resolve this final issue of the response apparently following the roll off in the target curves it should all be solved.

thanks,
Monte

I am thinking about getting a Pioneer Signature 141FD Monitor. I have a Anthem D2. I noticed in one review of the Pioneer 141FD the reviewer said he had trouble getting the HDMI to work with the cable box but he had not had a problem with the regular Pioneer not the elite Pioneer. Do any of you have the Pioneer 141FD and are using it with the Anthem D2 with HDMI successfully?
Thanks!

Well now we are back in more familiar ground.

Do you know how to do window image captures of the ARC charts and target windows? If so, post those images here so we can take a look.

In addition answer 4 questions:

1) Do you want the subwoofer to be active in your ARC configuration?

2) Are you trying to run LF/RF as "full range" speakers -- either with or without a sub also configured?

3) Do you have more than one subwoofer wired to the Anthem?

4) Do you wire all your subwoofer(s) and main speakers directly to the Anthem? Or do you have the subwoofer wired off a main speaker -- or alternatively a main speaker wired off a subwoofer (i.e., a "satellite" sub for that specific speaker)?

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To capture the images, look in Windows Help for the key combo to Screen Capture Active Window. It will be something like ALT-PrintScreen. That captures an image of the visible portion of the active window into the Clipboard.

You can then paste that into, for example, Windows Paint which is an accessory bundled with Windows.

Then tell Windows Paint to Save As and select JPEG format to keep the file size reasonable.

Now you can't get all the charts visible at the same time in one window, so what you do is scroll to the top of the charts and capture that and make one JPEG file. Then you scroll to the bottom and capture that and make another JPEG file. Then you bring up the Targets window and capture that into a 3rd file.

If you have a different Music configuration select to see the Music charts in the View menu and capture 2 more images. That's 5 files in all.

Then when you post here, look below the text type in box for "Manage Attachements" which will let you upload your JPEG files from your computer to AVS -- they will show as links in the message you post here. It will let you attach 3 images, and then after it uploads those it will offer to let you attach the other 2 images. When they are all uploaded and attached, click on Preview Post to see that it is looking as you expected and then submit the post. The image files are uploaded and kept on the AVS server so you no longer need to keep them on your computer or have your computer attached to the network for folks here to view them.

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If you have more than one subwoofer, be advised that your Speaker Configuration for use with ARC must, nevertheless, be set to "1 sub".

If you have satellite subs instead of subwoofers and mains independently connected to the Anthem, then the setup actually has *NO* subwoofers. The combo of a main speaker and its attached satellite sub is simply a different way of making a "full range" speaker. [If you specify NO subwoofers, perhaps because you are using satellite subs, then ARC will steer both LFE and redirected bass from Small surround speakers to the LF/RF "full range" speakers.]

If you are trying to set up LF/RF as "full range" be advised that ARC will apply a low-end "cut off" to their Room Correction solutions *ANYWAY*. There are two separate things going on here. There are crossovers which control base steering (e.g., from LF/RF to a subwoofer) and there are cutoffs which control the limits of the Room Correction solution. For each pair of main speakers, ARC normally uses the same value for these, but if you check the "full range" box for a pair of speakers in the ARC setup, ARC will turn off bass steering from those speakers but will STILL apply a low end roll off to the Room Correction solution to keep from stressing those speakers (and their amps) too much.

So if you REALLY want ARC to drive and correct those speakers "all the way down" then you need to do TWO things. In the Targets window, check the "full range" box and ALSO change the cutoff value to its lowest setting (25Hz). ARC will now treat those speakers as TRULY full range -- all the way down to 5Hz.

Make any other changes you need to make in Targets (e.g., raising the Max EQ Frequency target value), accept that set of Targets (which will also dismiss the Targets window) and do a Calculation. If you like how the charts now look, do an Upload and give it a listen.

If you also have a subwoofer configured, it will get all of the LFE content as well as any bass steered from other speakers which are not set to "full range". It will get no bass from the speakers you have set to "full range".
--Bob

Thanks Bob for this amazingly detailed response.

My system might best be described as having satellite subs. It's all integrated together, a three way active crossover with the low band from 80 Hz down (a recent change from 50 Hz) routed to a separate box and the two higher bands routed to another box. The left and right crossover are just driven by the D2 main outputs set to large speaker mode. So I always set sub to "none".

I believe that I did have the frequency set to 25 Hz for the measurement and I definitely had it set to full range. I'll do it again to be certain but I'm already sure.

Nick also stated that setting to 25 Hz should cause it to treat the speakers as full range...

"By setting to 25 it's in essence the same as not rolling off, because ARC doesn't correct below 25 Hz (the output is the same as the measured response because measurements that these low frequencies are usually mostly noise, if not entirely)."

Let me make sure I understand his statement. Setting to 25 Hz should leave the response below 25 Hz alone much like setting the upper limit to 5 KHz cause it to disregard any correction to those frequencies.

This portion of his statement is somewhat confusing... "the output is the same as the measured response...". I assume he must mean the total output from the D2 to the room speaker combination because if he means the output of the D2 will be the same as the measured response then that would possibly be my problem. I don't want it to attenuate below 25 Hz, I want the D2 output to be just an uncorrected flat line below 25 Hz the same as it is with room correction off.

I've also attached the measured output of the D2 where you can see the 15 dB high pass shelf. The dotted yellow line in this plot is what I need the output of the D2 to do.

Thanks again Bob. I'll run ARC one more time and double check that I have it set to 25 Hz along with full range.

Oh, one other observation here, I notice the green calculated curve on the left speaker tracks very close to the target curve but on the right speaker it tracks more closely with the measured curve than the target. Is this normal?

Edit: Just setting up here all of a sudden I'm not so sure. The default setting was at 80 Hz when I opened ARC, maybe something wasn't saved. This may all be over in a few more minutes after I complete a new measurement.

thanks,

Monte

Hey all,
New guy here.. Pulled the trigger on a D2 w/ARC from an authorized Anthem dealer who had it as a demo unit. According to the UPS tracking website, it will be delivered tomorrow (June 18)! Can't wait!!

Anyway, I guess I should start reading thru these 700+ posts in this thread to get up to speed!

Regards,
TomDac
MartinLogan Club
Click HERE to see my current system.

your D2 will be delivered way before you finish reading

Welcome TomDac, you have made a wise purchase!

Back to my issue. It still didn't work. Interestingly however the -15 dB shelf is now a -10 dB shelf. I also note in the ARC curve that it is on an upward trend near 20 Hz. I wonder if when ARC stops correcting it reverts to a flat response or if it continues the slope it was on when it stopped correcting? If that's the case, it could be the problem. Maybe I can fake it out with adjustments to the crossover and force it to end corrections while flat so it will continue flat. I'll try that next but not now, I'm already late to meet friends.

mk

Monte,
You need to capture the Targets window you are using to make these Calculations and post it here. It looks to me like ARC is assigning a "cutoff" of around 40Hz to LF/RF which is the typical thing it does for "full range" speakers. So you are apparently not making the Targets changes correctly.

Remember that after you make the changes in the Targets window and accept those changes, you have to do a new Calculation to get them to take effect, and then a new Upload to get the results in to the Anthem. You should see an immediate effect in the charts when the new Calculation completes. [There's no need to re-Measure. ARC retains your original, raw Measurements and just applies the new Targets to them.]

In addition, after you are comfortable the Upload has done the right thing, you should Save User and/or Installer Settings to capture the Setup menu changes ARC has just made so that you don't accidentally overwrite them later by Loading Saved User or Installer Settings from those memories.

At first glance it looks to me like the results you are seeing in your test are simply due to not having properly eliminated ARC's roll-off yet.
--Bob

Welcome to the Cool Kids Thread!

You can download the D2 owner's manual (PDF file) from the Anthem web site for some light reading tonight.

In addition, check out the collection of tutorial post links found in the first post of this thread -- what I like to call, "The Good Parts Version".

Then I would suggest you start scanning this thread BACKWARDS from the end for recent news and discussions. It is pointless to spend time reading most of the old posts.
--Bob

Does Apple TV now work via HDMI with the latest D2V software?

It's supposed to, but I don't think we've actually had any posts confirming that yet.
--Bob

Yeah so it seems. The question is why?

Edit: Bob, do you are anyone else here for that matter actually know anyone that is using ARC in a true full range system? Anyone using the satellite subs? I'm just wondering if maybe I'm the first to try to use it this way.

mk

Has anyone observed conditions where the D2V can add pulsating static to playback through an HDMI connection?

Briefly this static is coming through all 5 channels, seems to pulsate up and down at a rate of once per second and it seems to track the volume of the source.

The source is an Oppo BDP-83, and I've heard it on the last few BD's I've played - Chronos and 2001 were two of the latest titles. I'm using LCPM.

It seems to stronger as the movie goes on?

That's not the Targets window that goes with the set of charts you posted. This one has all speakers grayed out except for LF/RF (a 2.0 speaker configuration) and the charts you posted included a Center speaker.

In addition, this Targets window says ARC is going to preserve a Room Gain of over 3dB and there is no hump in the Targets curves for LF/RF or C in your chart that corresponds to that.

Are you confusing your ARC results files?

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Double click on your ARC results file to both start ARC and open that file in Advanced mode. Click on Targets. Now click on Auto Detect in the Targets window. This will cause ARC to reset the values in the Targets window according to the original Measurement data in your results file -- just as if you'd just finished making those Measurements.

Click on OK to accept those changes and dismiss the Targets window. You'll now be back on the charts page with just the dashed Targets curves and the red Measured curves (no green Calculated curves).

Click on Calculate and ARC will produce Calculated curves matching the Targets.

Capture those charts and go back into Targets and capture it as well for posting here. If you've still got a Center speaker in the charts and yet the Center cutoff is grayed out in the Targets window then your ARC data file has become corrupted somehow -- you'll need to redo your ARC Measurements from scratch to make a new file.

While you are at it, select About from the Help menu and confirm you are actually running ARC V2.2.
--Bob

That's new -- never heard of anything like that.

Which firmware are you using on the D2v and on the Oppo?

Does the static persist if you switch the Oppo to HDMI Bitstream output?

Do you get it playing SD-DVD discs or CDs as well?
--Bob

Sorry about that, the desk top was getting pretty cluttered so I probably did grab the wrong one. I was messing with it until 05:30 am last night so who knows.

When I click on auto detect it sets the room gain to zero and locks it.

Actually I'm still running 2.1, you had mentioned there wasn't much difference between it and 2.2 so I'm still using it.

mk

D2v -> 2.04
Oppo -> latest release forgot what the number is.
Bitstream vs. LCPM did not affect it.

I haven't had time to test many other media types.

This weekend I'm going to try resetting to factory defaults and a new HDMI cable.

Funny thing about this is that it did not happen when I first got the D2V making me think I have some sort of setup issue.

Is it static just when you pause or even while it's playing? If playing I'd try a new hdmi cable between the oppo and the anthem and also download v2.07 for the anthem.

Doh sorry, missed the part where you said you were trying a new cable!

I'm confused. Is that supposed to be a Before or an After shot? Did ARC's Auto Detect really come up with 0 for Room Gain and 25Hz for the LF/RF cutoff? And if you changed those yourself, did you OK out of Targets and re-Calculate so that the charts behind the Targets window now actually reflect the new Targets? [Changes you make in Targets don't take effect until you accept the changes and then also re-Calculate.]

I'm trying to see what ARC set up for you itself, and how that changes when you make the adjustments in Targets, accept those, and then re-Calculate.

Since you've already done some adjustments in this file, to see what ARC set up for you I need you to do an Auto Detect, accept the default Targets ARC returns when you do that, and re-Calculate based on those defaults. I need to see those RESULTING charts and also the Targets window, showing the newly restored defaults (from Auto Detect) that produced them.

THEN we can see what affect changing the Targets and re-calculating is really having.

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I suggest you switch to ARC V2.2 before you do your next Measurements pass. Might as well be using the latest software.

ETA: I also don't like that your RF speaker is not showing proper correction. The residual errors in the Calculated curve are bigger than they should be. I think this ARC data file may be corrupted and that you may need to start over with a fresh set of Measurements.