Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 10

He Guys,
what about european scart rgb input, can the D-2 handle it? Switch from component input to rgb?
I'm suffering a lot from Zone 1 AV delay compared with my Zone 2 on the Lex-MC12. Living room (z1) and citchen are open without door in between, so i have a big delay.
What about a delay settings for the Zone2 / 3 in the D-2?

Best
Armin

Will the 1080i picture quality from my satellite box (HD DirecTivo) AND from my Toshiba HD-DVD player be improved going through the D2's scaler, or will the P.Q. be better sent direct to my HDTV inputs?

I am waiting for my D2 to be shipped, (arrives in 2 weeks) so I can't try it myself yet.

I have not jumped on a Toshiba HD-DVD Player yet, but my HD channnels cerrtainly appear to be sharper with my HD DirecTivo DVR run through the scaler of the D2 than direct to my HD monitor. I would assume that the same should be true for the Toshiba HD-A1. You will have to try both out with your own eyes when your D2 arrives.

While I used to run my video connections separately, I would assume that the reason you have opted for the D2 is to run all video sources through the D2. Hope that yours arrives sooner than 2 weeks.

I have been considering the Arcam AV9 as I felt it was more musical than the D1 (and the D2 is unchanged in this regard). It too supports 1080p HDMI x 5. It does not have the impressive scaler function however I was thinking about a separate outboard scaler.

What I am confused about is the HD-True and HD-DTS. Does the Arcam support these as well? I guess what I am really wondering looking for is someone with more technical savy to explain the pros and cons of the AV9 versus the D2.

The differences I see are the greater price, lack of scaler, and superior sonics. Am I missing something?


I can't post a link to the AV9 as I am new here...

Arcam and there HDMi implementation in all there current products including the AV9 is a waste of time. It does not do any audio at all. It acts as an HDMI Video switcher only. Save your money and frustration, look elsewhere.

I have listened to the Arcam stuff in the past and it does sound nice, but right now the D2 is a unique product that offers everything one needs to be fully HD compliant via HDMI. The D2 sounds incredible.

My display is a Pioneer 643-HD RPTV, and only does 1080i in HD, and only has component inputs for HD, no DVI or HDMI. This set has been calibrated, and I should add that it is known for and still has an excellent HD picture.

* It has a PureCinema mode that "detects movie film recorded at 24 frame/second and converts it to 30 frames/second delivering the picture at the same rate as it was recorded". This can be turned on or off.

* This set also has a "Reference Theater Mode" which can be turned on or off, and the manual says "By cutting video enhancement circuits, the picture becomes more natural and looks filmlike".

I would assume that the PureCinema mode should be turned off, and the Reference Theater mode turned on, to maximize PQ with the D2 video scaler?

This set is only four years old, so I would ideally like to get at least a few more years out of it. However, if the 1080p and HDMI picture quality improvement is significant enough, I may upgrade sooner.

I don't want to beat a dead horse but I just don't get what the advantage of this audio HDMI switching.

Let's assume that system A is composed of a DVD player that puts out HDMI, a D2 and a projector. System B is composed of the same DVD player, an AV-9 and a DVDO VP30.

For system A the audio travels in the HDMI cable on tiny wires to the D2 and then gets switched along with the video stream. For system B the audio passes along coax or optical from the DVDO into the AV9 and is switched via assignable input along with the video stream.


What is the advantage of HDMI audio switching or assignable coax in sytem B? Is audio over HDMI cable that much better than over coax or optical?

It's not that it is that much better but rather that it can do things coax and toslink can't do. Namely DVD-A, and the new DD+, DD TrueHD and DTS-HD when decoded in the new players.

Sweet... The new DD DD+ and THD / DTS HD cannot be carried as bitstreams to the receiver for decoding until 2 things happen:

1, HDMI 1.3
2. Content providers author the discs as basic, which would eleimate commentaries and player sounds, for example.. all of the software that has come out so far is advanced authored, and it probalby won't change...

Current HDMI 1.1 receivers (the D2) can pass 1080p video and HD/BR/DVD player decoded 8 channel 24/96k PCM audio... IMO, HDMI 1.3 offers no advantages, and even if new procs and recievers can decode the new codecs, unless the content providers support it, it won't matter... the players now and in the future will do it for you... don't get too caught up in the promise of this new spec.. gear makers have to find a new way to see you gear

Regarding the AV9, it cannot process video over HDMI at all... it is simply a switcher and does no upconversion from non HDMI sources.. And from reading the lit, it looks to be 1.0, and it looks to only do video over HDMI..

I think that the D2 is a fantastic product that offers a lot of bang for alot of buck The AV9 with a scaler that can match the D2's (and afaik there aren't many) will be more expensive, but if the audio quality of the Arcam is that much better for you, even without HDMI audio, then the choice should be easy for you, but I think you'll be missing out on some cool stuff.. My .02

LEVESQUE- Do you know if Anthem are planning on offering any Room EQ like the audyssey Room Correction?

While I am not Alain, I can tell you that Anthem is working on something along these lines for the future. Just no dates or details as of yet.

Another audio benefit of the D2.

For the first time, with the D2, I am now able to utilize the balanced outs from my Cary CD303/300 in to the D2. I know that there is not supposed to be any great difference in sound ability between RCA and XLR interconnects, but that is not what my ears are telling me. The 2 channel analog direct balanced inputs of the D2 are a nice design touch, which do not get to many comments due to the D2's video abilities. More higher end pre pro's should include this ability.

Question For any D2 & Toshiba HD-A1 owners. Have you compared the DD+ v. DD or DTS audio from the initial HD movie releases? And, if so, do the DD+ soundtracks sound better or different than the standard DD or DTS soundtracks? I am curious as initial reports call for the Blu-ray players to offer none of the advanced HD audio streams.

The best way I can describe it is it sounds more transparent, rich and full. I compared the SD version of Phantom of the Opera and the HD version; despite the HD version being mastered -10db to low, the HD DVD version sounds better. The bass it tighter and more defined.

Last night we watched the HD version of Doom, I did not see the SD version, but the sound was incredible, very immersive. Bad movie, but great sound. Next up is Apollo 13. I'll compare that to the SD DTS version when I get a chance and report.

Stan - You may already know this but I'd like to point out that the HD-DVDs do not have a standard DD or DTS track. The Toshiba can re-encode the DD+ as a standard DTS stream though. I have also read that the Blu-ray discs may not have the new formats but will have raw PCM tracks that the D2 should be able to handle.

I don't have my D2 yet, but I do have the HD-A1, and I second the opinion of MUCH better sound quality from the DD+ track from the analog outputs. The audio sounds much more detailed and real. The lower volume sounds, such as birds and crickets chirping, wind blowing, whispers, etc. are much clearer. It seems to add a greater dimension of realism to the films.

However, the LFE bass output is also lower on the DD+ tracks from the analog outs, requiring an increase in your receivers sub db settings. I found that about +3 to +5 db got it back to where it needed to be. The DTS track from the digital outs seem to have normal LFE levels, and not as good S.Q., but still sounds better than the audio from SD DVD's.

Filmixer, just to summarize then:

The advantage of HDMI 1.1 (currently what the D2 has) over coax and toslink is that you can pass HD/BR/DVD player decoded 8 channel 24/96k PCM audio and DVD-A only with the HDMI.

The DD+, HD-DTS, and HD-True will have to wait until 1.3?

No... the players will decode DD+, DTS-MA And DD THD to PCM and pass it out over HDMI 1.1 or 1.3.. .if the formats are mastered in advanced format, this will be the only way to get it out of the player..... As far as HD DVD is concerned, there will be no great advantage to wait for 1.3... The only missing link right now are decoder chips that do MC THD and DTS-MA.

So, just to drrive it home, you can get DD+ digitally right now with the D2, and get 2 ch THD along with core decoded MC DTS.

Hey Stan,

How does the Anthem D2 sound as just a 2 channel transport, while using your Cary Audio 303/300 as just a transport?

Or does the Cary sound better as a cd player, and using the D2 as a preamp only?

Thanks, BK

Analog sounds better than what? Coax and Optical or HDMI? The HDMI should
sound at least as good as the analog...

BK,
I have not yet really had the time to utilize the internal D2 dacs for 2 channel, but I will definitely do so when I get a moment.

Since I don't have my D2 yet and my current processor (Sunfire TGIV) doesn't support HDMI, I can't listen to the DD+ through HDMI. So with my current setup, DD+ sounds better from the analog outs, as it's the only way I can get true DD+ into my processor.

Got my D2 and A5 today.. all hooked up.. I had very little time, but I have one problem, and spent most of the set up trying to fix it...

Display is Ruby Projector... on the projector, all the video is shifted to the left with a black bar on the left side, and a small black bar across the bottom.. Ruby patterns are still dead center, and this happens on all output resolutions.... Alain, Kris, somebody? Help Me!!!!!!

Thanks.. the sync fix didn't work, but I did repo the input. It was weird when I first got the D2 menus up.. they were so fuzzy and bad.. but once the pix came on I was floored.. The Gennum easily outpaces the Ruby's internal scaler....

The HD-A1 looks fantastic... the only problem so far is that this machine suffers from an HDMI error unless you change inputs back and forth after starting to play the disc.. It's a Toshiba problem I guess..

Hello Everyone
Just an update
Just picked my DV-79AVi, and here is my impression of D2(BTW I paid less than for DV-47Ai SRP)
Picture quality is amazing D2 does a wonderful job with DVD's and HD cable box
Audio is better than my Rotel RSP1098(clean and crisp well balanced over B&W speakers) CD QUALITY is amazing.
D2 was great out of the box already outperform 1098, required min calibration(your usual adjustments for distance, speaker type, room ETC)
picture quality is the best I ever seen coming out of my projector I have tried both setting on PJ 720P and 1080i both are really good( i think 1080i has a small edge in sharpness). Monster INC looks really good on my inexpensive PJ
My next upgrade will be the projector to 1080P because this is a week link right now.
Still playing with all the settings(try this for a day than this for a day and it goes on)
Thank you all for your help

I know I forgot something
NO MORE CABLES ALL OVER THE PLACE
ONLY ONE CABLE FROM EACH COMPONENT
HDMI ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!

So - finally figured out that I had to disable Faroudja DCDI and other processing on my projector side - to be able to have the D2 put out 720p on it. (Had to do DVD player -480i -- output from D2 to 480i (720x480i) - then I could 'unlock' the projector's film/auto modes and turn off processing there - then switch the D2 back to 1280x720p/60)

Found the D2 to 'brighten' the picture - and as such had to re-calibrate the projector input

Watched GhostBusters 2 (ok it was laying right there from my nephews watching it) - in 720p .. absolutely gorgeous.

... now I'm wondering as to why I should jump on the early HD-DVD bandwagon?...