Slow and steady... But it looks like I've run into what is likely an insurmountable problem. I will not be able to proceed until a firmware fix is produced.
I finally have gotten started trying to migrate my relevant A8 PRIR/HPEQ files over to the A16. First thing to know is that the microSD card folders are definitely PRIRS and HPEQS (not PRIR and HPEQ), and they must be sub-folders within the parent REALISER folder (in the root of the card). And of course the file names of the PRIR and HPEQ files inside the sub-folders must be in the same 8.3 form as they were with the SD card for the A8 (formatted FAT), even though the microSD card is formatted FAT32 and can support long file names.
The problem is that my PRIR files from AIX will not convert to A16 format. It gets started, and the fuel gauge gets a bit of green, as if it's running fine. And then it just stops and goes back to the previous screen, with no error message or indication of failure. However failure is indeed what apparently happened because there is no PRIR file stored into "permanent storage", and the count of files there remains at 0.
NOTE: these AIX files are all "old format", from the analog-only days before the later firmware change supporting HDMI. So these AIX PRIR files are of the 8.3 file name format PRIR0xxx. And it appears this is the definition of the issue, that NONE of the old-format A8 PRIR0xxx file names will convert to A16 form.
In contrast, both of my A8 HPEQ files convert perfectly and end up in "permanent storage" with a file count of non-zero. One is again "old format" HPEQ0xxx, taken back in 2009 on my analog A8, and the second is "new format" HPEQ2xxx. Both convert successfully.
Now coincidentally the four PRIR (AIX) files I actually was trying to convert (and all four of them failed to convert) were all manually "corrected" by Stephen Smyth many years ago a few days after Lorr had taken my PRIR measurements at AIX. When Lorr was reviewing the settings at home later that night he noticed that he had made an error in setting the angles in the A8 corresponding to the actual speaker locations in all four of these PRIR files.
Turns out the PRIR can be "corrected" (by Stephen, anyway) after-the-fact, to manually adjust things in the hex data with the adjusted proper mathematical values based on the corrected speaker angles. So I sent him the four PRIR's as originally produced, and Stephen "corrected" them and returned them to me. These four "corrected" PRIR files are what I've been using for 10 years on m A8 without a problem, and are the four PRIR files I'm now trying to bring over to the A16 and which are apparently causing a problem.
I wouldn't think it is the "corrections" which are responsible for the A16 conversion failure. But just to be sure I tried converting a fifth old-format PRIR file from Mi Casa (another LA sound room which Lorr arranged a PRIR measurement in back in 2009), which is "pure" and untouched exactly as it came out of the original A8 measurements. And it, too, failed to convert. Again, it is another old-format PRIR0xxx file.
Just to see if it really was old-format vs. new-format which was at the heart of the problem, I tried converting a sixth PRIR this one being a new-format PRIR2xxx file. And sure enough, it converted perfectly. Ended up in "permanent storage" so that my PRIR count is now 1.
So, has anybody else successfully converted old-format PRIR0xxx A8 PRIR's? I would think not.
I will have to report this MAJOR DEFECT to Smyth, sending them one or two of the files for them to play with for themselves to see if they can quickly determine what's going on and devise a firmware patch. But for now, looks like I'm dead in the water. Looks like the old analog #0001 A8 is coming back out of its carton!
