[Audio Addict]

  Glenn Poor's Audio Video in Champaign, Illinois will be hosting a Realiser demo open house on Monday, May 5, from 5 pm to 8 pm. Lorr Kramer of Smyth Research will be conducting personalized demonstrations in the 7.1 theater and in the two-channel reference room. Snacks and drinks will be served.
www.glennpoors.com

Thanks.  That is almost 1 year from the last event.  Good to see them promote the product.

 

[John_M]

I think this may have been answered already - but is there a PC or Mac media player which can decode Dolby/DTS tracks so that 7.1 LPCM is outputted via HDMI?

 

[darinf]

  I think this may have been answered already - but is there a PC or Mac media player which can decode Dolby/DTS tracks so that 7.1 LPCM is outputted via HDMI?

First you have to make sure that your PC or Mac hardware can output 7.1 audio via the HDMI output. Older machines may only output 2.0 from the HDMI output.
 
On newer computers, most of them support 7.1 output via HDMI.
 
I have used VLC and JRiver Media Center on Windows to output to the Realiser via HDMI. It works well. I have not tested it on my Macbook.

 

[John_M]

The hardware (MacBook Pro) definitely supports 7.1 over HDMI. I'll give VLC media player a try - a slight possible difficulty is that I'm running Windows via Boot Camp.

 

[John_M]

Having a few issues with this.
 
I'm setting my PS4 to output LPCM over HDMI. The PS4 is supposed to be able to detect how many channels the recipient system can accept and adjust the output accordingly. So when I plug it into my 7.1 AVR, the AVR shows that it is receiving 7.1 channels.
 
When I send LPCM over HDMI to the Realiser, and try using each speaker in solo mode, it appears to be playing in 4.1: only left, left surround, right, right surround and subwoofer actually do anything. The others are all dead silent.
 
Where am I going wrong?

 

[darinf]

  Having a few issues with this.
 
I'm setting my PS4 to output LPCM over HDMI. The PS4 is supposed to be able to detect how many channels the recipient system can accept and adjust the output accordingly. So when I plug it into my 7.1 AVR, the AVR shows that it is receiving 7.1 channels.
 
When I send LPCM over HDMI to the Realiser, and try using each speaker in solo mode, it appears to be playing in 4.1: only left, left surround, right, right surround and subwoofer actually do anything. The others are all dead silent.
 
Where am I going wrong?

Not sure what is wrong exactly. I have never tried using a PS4 with a Realiser.
 
One thing that can sometimes help the HDMI "handshake" is to connect something to the Realiser output. This way the PS4 will "see" the final output device, like your AVR from the loop-through of the Realiser.
 
So:
 
PS-4 --> HDMI --> Realiser --> HDMI out --> AVR HDMI in
 
Generally this will "help" the realiser and the PS4 figure out how many channels to output. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how many HDMI loops you can make, so you may not get an HDMI signal out of your AVR. BUt sometimes just connecting the AVR on the Realiser HDMI out is enough to get all the channels working.
 
Other times, I have found that simply power cycling the Realiser can fix channel problems.
 
-Darin 

 

[John_M]

Not to worry - I've sorted this now.

 

[John_M]

Another interesting thing is that I don't need to set the PS4 to output LPCM for the Realiser to work. It works even if I set the PS4 to output an encoded DTS or Dolby signal. Maybe the PS4 is somehow figuring out that the recipient device can't decode the signal and is deciding on its own to output LPCM (even though it says it's outputting DTS).

 

[The French]

That is strange behavior to me.
I know latest hardware are more and more "automatic", but THAT behavior would leave you no choice at all.
 
Are you sure you are getting multichannel in that setup ?
 
 
 
 

 

[songmic]

Guys, has anyone here faced this problem?
 
It's not the problem with the Smyth Realiser per se, but with the computer connected to it. In my case, I use an Apple iMac, using an adapter to connect it to the Realiser's HDMI input. Everything works fine in this case. However, if I turn off the screen of the Mac, the computer automatically disconnects the HDMI signal, both video AND audio. I understand why this happens; HDMI is originally meant to be a video format, and since the screen is off, the connection is cut off. However, it is a bit frustrating that the audio signal is also cut off.
 
The reason I'm asking this is because I like to have my iMac's screen turned off when listening to music. With other interfaces such as USB (and USB DAC), this doesn't happen obviously, but with HDMI and Smyth Realiser, I cannot turn off the screen and maintain audio over HDMI at the same time.
 
Is there a way to continue enjoying music via HDMI with the screen turned off? Either by keeping the music signal alive and disconnecting the video signal only, or by maintaining both video and audio even though the screen is off?

 

[John_M]

OK, a couple more questions....
 
I have one PRIR from a *very* expensive high-end listening room. However, it was only taken with 3 second sweeps rather than 12 seconds. How much difference is this thought to make? I don't think I can persuade the dealer to let me use their listening room again (apparently, however, multiple sweeps are no longer recommended).
 
Secondly, how accurate is the virtualisation thought to be where you adjust the position of a virtual speaker? My recording was taken with the head tracking system engaged to capture the exact angle of my head during the sampling process. I won't have been at the optimum angle (or even close), but the Realiser will then have 'moved' the virtual speaker into the correct position. Can the Realiser do this without a loss of quality, or is it worth taking the time to get a PRIR recorded with the speakers in exactly the right place?
 
I have another high-end dealer I think I can persuade to allow me to use their kit and would like to make the 'perfect' PRIR this time.

 

[blubliss]

Lorr told me 3 seconds is fine and all that is necessary....

 

[John_M]

  Guys, has anyone here faced this problem?
 
It's not the problem with the Smyth Realiser per se, but with the computer connected to it. In my case, I use an Apple iMac, using an adapter to connect it to the Realiser's HDMI input. Everything works fine in this case. However, if I turn off the screen of the Mac, the computer automatically disconnects the HDMI signal, both video AND audio. I understand why this happens; HDMI is originally meant to be a video format, and since the screen is off, the connection is cut off. However, it is a bit frustrating that the audio signal is also cut off.
 
The reason I'm asking this is because I like to have my iMac's screen turned off when listening to music. With other interfaces such as USB (and USB DAC), this doesn't happen obviously, but with HDMI and Smyth Realiser, I cannot turn off the screen and maintain audio over HDMI at the same time.
 
Is there a way to continue enjoying music via HDMI with the screen turned off? Either by keeping the music signal alive and disconnecting the video signal only, or by maintaining both video and audio even though the screen is off?

Thinking outside the box - why not just lower the brightness to pitch black using the F1 key? (Assuming this works on an iMac - it works on a Macbook Pro).

 

[John_M]

  Lorr told me 3 seconds is fine and all that is necessary....

 
This is helpful for my peace of mind.
 
FYI, Mike told me recently that the 12s sweep was better than the 3s sweep on the basis that the signal-to-noise is better and that it's more accurate overall. Didn't want to pester the poor guy with annoying questions like 'but how much better is the 12s' - better to ask on this thread!
 

 

[hekeli]

It's a lot harder to keep head still for 12 seconds than 3 seconds... so it's possible to mess something a bit with it..
 
If you are short on time, I've always said you should just shoot as many PRIRs as you can. Don't bother verifying etc (maybe only the first one so you know it works). Shoot, adjust mics, maybe try slightly different look angle, shoot, adjust mics, angles etc.... just listen at home which sounds the best to you. There's always slight differences.