Smyth Research Realiser A16

[Litlgi74]

It's been a minute...I thoroughly enjoy my set up! The tactile bass has really made such a difference to the viewing experience. Been super busy and I'm just now setting up the headtracking. Those clip on cable holder leave much to be desired though..was a real pain getting the HT cable slotted in (had to use quite a bit of force. As for the HT reciver; how high up can one place the receiver? My 77 inch TV is tilted downward, as is the reciver for direct line of sight from where I sit/lie on the bed. Is that OK or should I attach to the underside of the screen (slightly lower than my viewing position)?

Vertical headtracking is not a thing yet... So any vertical position on your TV should be fine...

But if you're OCD like the rest of us on the forum... You may want to lock the position of the tracker so that all four green LEDs are positioned around the center of the set top box.

To set the offset angle, place the set-top in the required offset position, point the head tracker 0degree azimuth while sitting in the listening position, ensuring there is clear line-of-sight between the set-top and the head tracker, and pressand-hold the switch atop the head tracker for 3 seconds (one short blink followed by a long blink on the led). Offset angle values are stored in flash memory within the head tracker and restored automatically on future power-ups. To disable the offset angle mode of operation pressand-hold the switch atop the head tracker for 0.5 seconds (one short blink on the led).

 

[castleofargh]

It's been a minute...I thoroughly enjoy my set up! The tactile bass has really made such a difference to the viewing experience. Been super busy and I'm just now setting up the headtracking. Those clip on cable holder leave much to be desired though..was a real pain getting the HT cable slotted in (had to use quite a bit of force. As for the HT reciver; how high up can one place the receiver? My 77 inch TV is tilted downward, as is the reciver for direct line of sight from where I sit/lie on the bed. Is that OK or should I attach to the underside of the screen (slightly lower than my viewing position)?

Very low means your head might get in the path at some point, depending on how you wear the headphone. So for equivalent vertical angles, I'm guessing having the emitter above you allows a higher max angle.

 

[yogibeezwax]

Vertical headtracking is not a thing yet... So any vertical position on your TV should be fine...

But if you're OCD like the rest of us on the forum... You may want to lock the position of the tracker so that all four green LEDs are positioned around the center of the set top box.

To set the offset angle, place the set-top in the required offset position, point the head tracker 0degree azimuth while sitting in the listening position, ensuring there is clear line-of-sight between the set-top and the head tracker, and pressand-hold the switch atop the head tracker for 3 seconds (one short blink followed by a long blink on the led). Offset angle values are stored in flash memory within the head tracker and restored automatically on future power-ups. To disable the offset angle mode of operation pressand-hold the switch atop the head tracker for 0.5 seconds (one short blink on the led).

As always, thanks for you feedback! Managed to set it up. Thought is was going to be more complicated. Was pretty straightforward process.

Very low means your head might get in the path at some point, depending on how you wear the headphone. So for equivalent vertical angles, I'm guessing having the emitter above you allows a higher max angle.

Ended up just having the receiver tilted downward at an angle for clear line of sight. Thanks for your comment!

 

[jacobacci]

I am struggling with streaming from my PC to the Smyth A16. My setup is as follows:

I want to do the following:

• Use my PC usually through the Display Port to the Monitor
• Occasionally stream audio from the PC to the Smyth (incl. Atmos and DTS bitstreams)

I have tried the following:

• Extend the display in Windows to both connections. This allows me to stream to the Smyth, but the PC only sees a 640x480 monitor and streaming is limited to 48kHz. I am aware that the available sample rate depends on the resolution of the display. I am suspecting the PC sees a wrong EDID for the monitor, when seeing the monitor through the Smyth.
• Set Windows to only use display 2. Even after a reboot the PC only sees a 640x480 monitor through the Smyth.

I have connected an android streaming box, an Apple TV and a Sony X800M2 UHD player to the other three ports of the Smyth and they all work correctly, displaying a 4k image on the monitor. Dolby Audio, Dolby Vision all work. So the Smyth is giving the correct EDID to these devices.

Does anyone have an idea how I could solve this issue?

 

[zdjh22]

I am struggling with streaming from my PC to the Smyth A16. My setup is as follows:



I want to do the following:

• Use my PC usually through the Display Port to the Monitor
• Occasionally stream audio from the PC to the Smyth (incl. Atmos and DTS bitstreams)

I have tried the following:

• Extend the display in Windows to both connections. This allows me to stream to the Smyth, but the PC only sees a 640x480 monitor and streaming is limited to 48kHz. I am aware that the available sample rate depends on the resolution of the display. I am suspecting the PC sees a wrong EDID for the monitor, when seeing the monitor through the Smyth.
• Set Windows to only use display 2. Even after a reboot the PC only sees a 640x480 monitor through the Smyth.

I have connected an android streaming box, an Apple TV and a Sony X800M2 UHD player to the other three ports of the Smyth and they all work correctly, displaying a 4k image on the monitor. Dolby Audio, Dolby Vision all work. So the Smyth is giving the correct EDID to these devices.

Does anyone have an idea how I could solve this issue?

In Windows you can edit the .inf file for your monitor to configure the EDID as you like (that is, override what Windows gets from asking the monitor for its EDID).

That’s a significant pain, but back when I was debugging why LPCM and MLP 4.0 weren’t being handled correctly by my A16, I found a nice professional tool called Moninfo that lets you see what the EDID Windows is reading/using for your monitor, as well helping you to modify the .inf file. See https://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm. It is free for non-commercial users.

There are hardware solutions as well, Dr HDMI and the other various HDFury tools, but it might not be an EDID issue. At least Moninfo will let you eliminate that possibility.

I’m curious, the pixel clock of 640x480 at 72 Hz refresh is more than 20 MHz, which is way in excess of the maximum audio rate spec for HDMI 2.0+ (1536 KHz), so unless there’s some unfortunate clock division limitation that resolution should not effect maximum audio sample rates?

 

[jacobacci]

Thanks Don, happy to have an expert beside me,
It seems to be an EDID issue, albeit not a consistent one. I have now tried the same thing with my ThinkPad P16s AMD G2, which has an AMD 780m graphics card. Again I have switched to display 2 only and in this case I am getting a display resolution of 1024x768 (still looks weird on the 4k monitor, but at least I can now do things. Strangely, in Windows Settings / Display the option to change display resolution is greyed out.

6 channel 96kHz PCM plays ok from jRiver and so does Abbey Road Atmos bitstreaming.
I have attached the information on the display that Moninfo displays when connected to the Smyth and also when connected directly to the ASUS PA32UCX-PK.
So now I need to get to work with Moninfo, which I have on my machine, but I couldn't get to it with the abysmal 640x480 resolution. I would be grateful for a few pointers how to fix the issue using Moninfo.

I just saw that the nVidia driver software also seems to offer an EDID export / import functionality. EDIT: Arrrgh that functionality is only available for Quadro cards, not for GeForce. So its back to Moninfo. I tried saving the info of the ASUS monitor to an inf and then importing for the Smyth, but got a 'no digital signature' error.

 

[castleofargh]

I am struggling with streaming from my PC to the Smyth A16. My setup is as follows:



I want to do the following:

• Use my PC usually through the Display Port to the Monitor
• Occasionally stream audio from the PC to the Smyth (incl. Atmos and DTS bitstreams)

I have tried the following:

• Extend the display in Windows to both connections. This allows me to stream to the Smyth, but the PC only sees a 640x480 monitor and streaming is limited to 48kHz. I am aware that the available sample rate depends on the resolution of the display. I am suspecting the PC sees a wrong EDID for the monitor, when seeing the monitor through the Smyth.
• Set Windows to only use display 2. Even after a reboot the PC only sees a 640x480 monitor through the Smyth.

I have connected an android streaming box, an Apple TV and a Sony X800M2 UHD player to the other three ports of the Smyth and they all work correctly, displaying a 4k image on the monitor. Dolby Audio, Dolby Vision all work. So the Smyth is giving the correct EDID to these devices.

Does anyone have an idea how I could solve this issue?

Can't it work if you send video to your monitor normally(directly from PC), and only set the audio output of whatever audio or video player you use, to the A16(with some exclusive or pass through option)? That way, you shouldn't have to care what video resolution the A16 accepts. In my case, I had weird audio artifacts when I touched the "screen" resolution of the A16 in my NVIDIA settings and the native resolution was some silly tiny resolution. IDK what changed that, or when that changed, but now the A16 shows the same resolution as my monitors as the native one??? Anyway, at the time I didn't know what to do, so I ended up setting my computer like I just suggested you try, and it's worked fine ever since regardless of what NVIDIA or the A16 drivers are smoking.
But I have no connection from the A16 to any screen, so I have no idea if it actually works for you with the extra connection from the A16 to your monitor that you do need for all your other stuff connected to the A16?
Let's say I'm more sharing than helping, just in case my dumb way works for you.

 

[jacobacci]

Thanks @castleofargh
I have been able to solve my issue following this thread. I used 12noon display changer with the following command line:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc64.exe" -monitor="\\.\DISPLAY7" -width=1280 -height=1024 -refresh=60 -force

That kicked the Smyth into its maximum listed resolution and I am now able to bitstream atmos.

 

[zdjh22]

As I’ve written before, I have been listening to my Surround Master V3 by plugging its analog outputs into the analog inputs on the A16 (16-channel mode only). This is because I don’t have a working AVR with multichannel analog inputs, and my current AVR only has HDMI and S/PDIF inputs.

For those who might be interested, HiFiBerry has started selling an 8-channel ADC hat (“ADC8X”, 192/24) for the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC. It only attached to their DAC8X, so you have to buy both. I’ve used that combo - RPI5 / DAC8X / ADC8X - to make an 8-channel analog to HDMI bridge for my Surround Master, and it works well. Also, I’ve recorded 8-channel analog audio via Audacity on this setup, so it’s a nice way to record upmixes (for example).

More details are at a couple of posts in this thread at QQ: https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...-solution-for-the-sm.37280/page-2#post-843886. Total cost is modest ($250 or so depending on which memory model RPI5 you buy).

 

[jacobacci]

EDIT: I think the issue resolved istself. It seems that only HDMI 3 input on the ASUS monitor reliably detects and switches to Dolby Vision. After connecting the Smyth to HDMI 3 instead of HDMI 2 everything is back to how it should. HDMI 2 and HDMI 1 seem to be iffy in what they show to the Smyth.
The PC on the extended HDMI display (which is the Smyth) now shows 3840x2160 60Hz, which is what the connected monitor should show.

Thanks @castleofargh
I have been able to solve my issue following this thread. I used 12noon display changer with the following command line:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc64.exe" -monitor="\\.\DISPLAY7" -width=1280 -height=1024 -refresh=60 -force

That kicked the Smyth into its maximum listed resolution and I am now able to bitstream atmos.

Well, I thought I had solved the issue. Actually my action resulted in a whole lot of other issues.

For the sake of clarity here is my complete setup around the Smyth:

The problems started as I wrote before when I was not able to stream Dolby Atmos from the PC to the Smyth, because the PC was not seeing a sufficiently high screen resolution (even though the Smyth is connected via HDMI to the 4k HDR etc. capable ASUS monitor).
I then forced the setup to a 1280x1024 60Hz screen resolution by using the 12noon script as described above. This allowed me to stream lossless Dolby Atmos from the PC.
An unintended side effect of this seems to be that now

• the Sony X800M2 cannot stream 4k HDR Dolby Vision content anymore. It only streams SDR 4k and sets the monitor to adobe RGB colorspace
• the Apple TV only detects 1080 HDR. It does not see a 4k screen anymore (yes, I have enabled auto adapt for dynamic range etc.)
• The Swisscom Android 4k STB (also Dolby Vision capable) only detects a 1024x768 display

I have since done a factory reset of the Smyth, but this has not changed anything.
Am I trying to do something here that the Smyth is not built for? In the past 4k HDR streaming worked from the Swisscom STB, Apple TV and the Sony player. There does not seem to be any setting in the Smyth to influence anything regarding video.

 

[ceryseth]

Anybody heard any updates on the wireless head trackers? Preordered one last summer but haven't heard any updates.

 

[stacksofcans]

Anyone know how the company is doing?

Came across this financial statement and has me wondering if the company is going to make it.

 

[VandyMan]

Anyone know how the company is doing?

Came across this financial statement and has me wondering if the company is going to make it.

Link does not work, fyi.

 

[Eich1eeF]

Link does not work, fyi.

Try the Micro company accounts made up to 31 March 2024.

 

[SpatialJunky]

I wonder what the "new product" is that generated $208,477 (US).