Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 1209

I suggest to just try ARC first and see how it looks. You may have to play around with different sub locations also to see which location gives you the smoothest response and to make sure they are not canceling each other out. This is where Quick Measure (QM) becomes your friend. Once you have done that and your charts are still not to your satisfaction, then I would say you should add the EQ. If you do add the EQ, then use the EQ first and then run ARC after you have EQed the subs.

Yes. But be aware that this also loses on screen display of things like Volume changes. I can think of no good reason to want to use "pass through" except when playing 3D content.
--Bob

You are aware the SVS AS-EQ1 was discontinued ?

Last time I checked (it's been a while) frame lock was not working right

so for 1080p24 (blu-ray movie) I created a 1080p24 video output and a 1080p60 video output for gaming (using PS3). I manually switch between DVD1 (1080p60) and DVD2 (1080p24) depending on the need.

with passthrough, it would not matter. I would see just that as a nice reason to have passthrough for 2D signal

Thanks for checking.

They are set to NORMAL / OFF. They even say so if I check when the mode is shown as LATE NIGHT.

Try this:

In Setup, Save User Settings (so you can easily recover later). Reset Factory Defaults. Exit the Setup menu. Power cycle the D2v.

Now power up and manually re-enter just the bare minimum Setup settings needed to test this problem -- i.e., get video on your display and get access to one Source device.

Power cycle again and see if this problem still exists. IF NOT, then you may have some sort of corruption in your regular set of Setup settings.

Try manually re-entering *ALL* of your Setup settings (a chore to be sure) and see if the problem is still solved. IF SO, then whatever was wrong with your original set of Setup settings may also explain some of the other problems you've been having.

The idea here is that V2.13b may not be playing nice with pre-existing Setup settings. Which would be a bug of course. This could happen, for example, if the settings really are corrupted in some fashion -- perhaps due to a problem that occurred quite some time ago -- and the new V2.13b firmware is sensitive to that corruption whereas V2.11 does not notice it.

NOTE: Don't forget you'll need to re-enter your Video Source Adjust menu settings as well for each Source. If there's not time to do all that now, you can just Reload Saved User Settings for now and do the time consuming process of starting from scratch later.
--Bob

I have a Velodyne SMS 1 and find that if I equallize with it first and get as good as a response as I can get, I then run ARC and my ARC chart looks better and I would imagine ARC has less to do. I have tried the other way around, tweaking with the Velodyne SMS 1 last but running ARC last gives me the best results. Note that the frequency response graph for the Velodyne looks nothing like ARC's in that if I equalize with the Velodyne and have a very good flat responce, when I run ARC, ARC's response looks nothing like the Velodyne's.

Hello
Anybody tried the new 2.13g FW for the D2v?
It is specific for non-3D D2v's.

Thanks

Works with 3D AVM50v and D2v as well.
John

Yes but only beta testers have the 3D board, right?
I was asking for all the guys like me that have a D2v but no 3D.
Do we have any incentive to upgrade to 2.13g?
The release notes don't say much.
And I do not want to try it myself
I've been down this path with 2.13b and back.

I haven't tried it but I'm not sure what it improves yet.
John

^ The recent firmware development has all been in support of the new hardware (the upcoming 3D "pass through" upgrade). The intention is to have one firmware release that also supports the NON-upgraded hardware. Posters here who took it upon themselves to try the test firmware with NON-upgraded hardware reported some problems. Frankly, I'm amazed it worked at all.

This new "test" firmware, V2.13g, is the FIRST one which states it is intended to work with the NON-upgraded hardware. Until folks try it, there's no way to know. I imagine some brave souls will try it soon.

As with all "test" releases, this firmware is not finished yet. So don't even bother to try it unless you are OK with the possibility of unpleasant surprises -- up to and including having to roll back to prior firmware.
--Bob

Bob,
Do you know what this firmware fixes?
John

^ Nope. I just installed it (on a 3D modified D2v), and it does *NOT* fix two pending problems I've been tracking. The install went without problems -- it is the extended length install due to modifying the video board firmware -- and the unit passes all my initial sanity checks after the install. I.e., it works.
--Bob

Thanks.
John

Yep spent a few hours moving both subs using QM a few weeks ago but nothing really worked well or showed huge improvements.


No I didn't but I can still purchase the unit locally here in Australia without issue from a guy that sells SVS subs/speakers here.


This is what I'm thinking so any improvement is a good one . Thanks for all the responses guys.

I just installed it on my non-modified 50V. Works better, looks like all the HDCP/handshaking issues are gone and switching is a bit faster. I had lots of handshake issues with previous firmwares.

Finally, maybe a stable beta ...

I run one with a pair of JL Fathom f113's. It didn't do much for my ARC measurements as the subs were pretty good to start, but what it did do was make it a snap to get both subs playing nicely together and getting the phase right. Any of that can be done manually with a bit of work. I had one before I purchased my AVM so I used it. Had I had ARC first, I wouldn't own an ASEQ-1.

Running my SVS sub EQ first did help ARC give me the flattest response for my room.

Hmmm, Anthem tech support hasn't replied to me about any of my 6 or 7 non-3D issues lately so I wasn't expecting this, but that hasn't stopped them quietly fixing bugs in the past

Thanks guys. I contacted the place that sells SVS subs locally and he didn't have any ASEQ-1's left.

I just reset the AVM to factory defaults and the LATE NIGHT mode problem is still there. I also tried 2.11 and 2.13g. They all behave the same. Can someone with a 50v try this? All you have to do is set one of the MODE PRESETS (eg: 6.0 or DTS) to "LAST USED" and play something with that format. When the display reads the expected format (eg: 5.1) press the MODE button and you will see LATE NIGHT.

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However loading factory defaults fixes another problem I was having with a hissing noise on SACD (Sony BDP @ 176kHz PCM). I am now worried that there could be other corruptions causing degradation of performance - the hissing just happens to be an obvious one - so I will have to reload all my settings manually!

EDIT: as soon as I turn off ARC the hissing is back, even with factory defaults. So that was the magic setting, I guess with the latest beta firmware. With the previous firmware I am sure I tried SACD with ARC on and off (so did Anthem) to no effect. I don't know what's going on, unless they half fixed something...

I'm trying to figure out why I am haveing switching problems.
Let's say I use my Harmony one remote to turn on my D2v, (D2v turns on the McIntosh MC205) TV and Oppo player. Sometimes everything comes on and works as it should. Sometimes I may have a picture, no sound, eventhough the MC205 got turned on. Sometimes sound no picture. Let's say I started with DVD, get picture no sound. I'll try and select another sorce like TV, wait for it to cycle thru, then back to DVD and find sometime it corrects it and it works, sometimes not. I find I have to turn the D2v off and on, to fix the problem. Do you think one or more of my circuit boards are going bad?

So I was looking into my setting and now I have a question about the 12v trigger. What is Baud Rate, Flow Control and RS-232 TX Status?

Baud rate, which setting... 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200.

Flow control options... none and RTS/CTS.

RS-232 TX Status...off or on?

I don't think one of those setting will help me with the switching problems, but I should confirm I have those set correctly.

The funny thing is that i bought the ASEQ1 more than a year ago and never got around to open up the box. It's still in the same box the UPS man brought it in, tape and all. Keep thinking that i would use it one day?

Leave those at the factory default settings unless you NEED to change one of them because you are using a type of remote control that connects to the serial port on the D2v.

You can see the default settings in a picture in the Manual. Or you can go into Setup and Save User Settings, Reload Factory Defaults, note down the default settings, and then Load User Settings to get back where you were. Adjust those back to the defaults.

That said, I seriously doubt any setting in there has any bearing on the problem you are trying to fix with your power up sequence.

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The usual advice for power up problems is to power things up in reverse order of the HDMI connections. I.e., TV on first, then wait, then D2v on, then wait, then Source device on.

In the configuration for your Harmony, you can control the power-on order for devices for each Activity. You can also specify a power on delay for each device -- how much the Harmony waits before going to the next step when it turns something on.

The usual problem in power up order is the displays. They are slow to get their act together on power up and thus don't respond properly when the HDMI handshakes start. The reason why audio is sometimes affected is that HDMI is an end to end protocol. So the establishment of the correct connection between the Source and the D2v also depends on things going right between the D2v and the TV.

Before fiddling with the Harmony setup. TEST THIS by getting the original remotes for each device and MANUALLY powering them up in the suggested order and with a significant delay after each device powers up and before you power up the next device. If you find this ordering works well with the original remotes THEN is the time to start fiddling with your Harmony setup.

There's a whole Forum here devoted to programmable remotes where you can get advice on how to find the correct adjustments in your Harmony configuration.

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When switching between Sources, the power up delay in the Harmony also comes into play as, by default, the Harmony turns devices off and back on again as it thinks you are using them.

In addition, there's ANOTHER delay setting -- a pause after Source Selection, which says how long the Harmony waits after given the new Source Selection command to the D2v before it sends subsequent commands.

To see if your problem is power on/off related for the Sources, you can temporarily set the Harmony to LEAVE EACH DEVICE ON all the time -- even when it is not used in the current Activity. If you find your Source switching works better that way, then, again adjusting the power on delay in the Harmony configuration for each device may do the trick.

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If you find you are still having problems even when using the original device remote controls -- so you can do commands manually with any arbitrary amount of delay -- then that suggests what's really going on here is an HDMI cabling problem.

Test this by temporarily setting each Source, AND ALSO the output of the D2v to 480p. 480p (not 480i) is the "simplest" signal for HDMI. See if Source switching now works. Then try 1080i. Then back to 1080p. If you find things work OK when using 480p and 1080i, but not when using 1080p, then that is strong evidence that your HDMI cabling is marginal. This could be as simple as a plug having shifted a bit in its socket. They are only friction fit, and even the weight of the cable can cause them to shift.
--Bob

I had not noticed you were using LAST USED as the Mode Preset to get this failure. It may be your unit is having trouble recording the Audio Surround Mode status when it powers off, so it is getting a bad value the first time it tries after power up. Alternatively, it could be the Mode *IS* being set correctly, but it is just the formatting of the text display which is getting confused.

The way to test that is to establish some easy to spot mode and then power cycle and see if that mode is in fact in use when it starts up, despite the display showing the wrong message. For example, if you could get the problem to show using Stereo source content, then you could set, say Stereo ALL or Mono ALL, which would be easy to spot if it really gets used after the power cycle.

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On the SACD hiss problem, note that there are some settings which are disabled when ARC is ON. Things like Center EQ get superseded by ARC's processing. But when you turn ARC OFF those settings come back into play. So check your audio settings to see if there's anything strange left in these legacy settings.

Next, try with a different SACD player. The DSD format used to encode data on SACD discs is inherently subject to significant quantization noise. A technique called "noise shaping" is used with SACD to push that noise up above 20KHz at the expense of making it more severe above that. It could be your SACD player is letting too much noise through in its conversion of DSD to LPCM to send to the D2v.

By the way, in conversion of SACD to analog, a filter is supposed to be included to kill off frequencies above 50KHz. This trims that format related noise (which has nothing to do with the content or how it was produced) and keeps it from causing problems. The equivalent for LPCM output is to use 88.2KHz instead of 176.4 KHz LPCM. The math is such that 88.2 KHz automatically prevents frequencies above 44.1KHz from getting into the output signal. Thus that format related quantization noise is squelched.

Another thing to try is a NON-SACD source. For example, the 2L brand Blu-ray music discs include 192KHz 24-bit multi-channel LPCM tracks. See if you have the problem there as well. Again, it would be wise to also try another Blu-ray player if you are using the same player as before for this Blu-ray test.

Finally, hiss is often due to radio frequency interference getting into your electronics. Why it would only show up for these 176.4KHz tracks would be a puzzle, but you should think about possible sources of interference. The usual culprit when it comes to hiss is room light dimmer switches -- perhaps in an adjacent room. Those switches usually have a full cutoff mechanical switch on them (used when changing bulbs). Use that to power off the dimmer, rather than just turning it down all the way, and see if your hiss goes away.
--Bob

Bob Pariseau,
Thank you for taking the time to elaborate with such detail. I will try everything you suggested and post my results. Others may have or down the road run into this situation also.
The forum is lucky to have people like Bob helping us.
Cheers,
bekindrewind.

Where can I get the beta software for my D2v? Di I have to register with Anthem to get access? On there home page there's only the2.10 firmware. My unit was delivered with 2.11...

You have to request the username and password from tech support for the link to the beta directory. I think they usually give it out pretty freely but they do want to keep track of users.