What version of windows, are you trying USB or HDMI, if the latter, what kind of graphics card and driver are you using, and what have you been using before when it worked? What kind of playback software are you trying to use to play what kind of media?
Smyth Research Realiser A16
If I were you I’d buy a media player capable of bitstreaming Dolby Atmos metadata to the Realiser A16 via HDMI cable.
Richter Di
1000+ Head-Fier
I understand the general idea, but my living situation is that we will most probably not install the Realiser in the living room. my main place and time to listen to music is bedroom night time, when everything is getting more quiet and all the other family members are pursuing their own interests. Also with the big dog the cable salad wouldn’t work out in the living room. We have a PlayStation 4 there but I’m not sure if this would work with Dolby Atmos?
Watching films on the laptop is just a nice possibility. Not necessary but nice.
phoenixdogfan
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Where do things stand with the Realiser Exchange? I tried to set up an account and it returned the message that memberships are closed. Is it available only to A16 purchsers or can anyone enter?
Videodr0me
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I got this to work. The Realiser is correctly sending its audio capabilities over hdmi. I also had some issues, but they were solely due to nvidia's drivers and the windows dolby app. If you scan the forums you will find that this is a rather common problem and unrelated to the realiser. Something broke with one of the windows 10 updates and/or nvidia driver updates. I had to replace the nvidia audio drivers with the generic microsoft ones and remove/reinstall the dolby app. Now its working and i even get atmos out of the netflix app.
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Richter Di
1000+ Head-Fier
Could you PM me a link for these generic Microsoft drivers?
Thank you for your reply. It’s Windows 10 64 bit on a Asus ROG G752VT-GC032T.
I have connected the A16 wire a high-grade HDMI cable. Same cable as before.
I use CyberLink PowerDVD 18 as Mediaplayer. As a standard convert every thing to PCM but I’ve tried both options. I tried to re-watch Dolby Atmos videos on power DVD which I have downloaded.
Haven’t changed anything in the system. When I wanted to change to Dolby Atmos on the laptop the Dolby Access app came up and said it needed to update. The automatic update failed several times. I then deinstall Dolby Atmos for headphones and the normal Dolby Atmos and reinstalled everything from the Microsoft store.
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audiohobbit
500+ Head-Fier
I don't use the PC for playing "serious" videos with Atmos etc.
But what I read is, that people who do use Media Player Classic and LAV filters:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcbe/
https://github.com/Nevcairiel/LAVFilters/releases
Maybe you try this. But don't ask me about installation and settings as I don't use them. Better look for a thread on hifi-forum on this topic then.
@Phoenixdogfan: The Exchange website is not up and running yet.
The Smyths are a really really small team though...
But what I read is, that people who do use Media Player Classic and LAV filters:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcbe/
https://github.com/Nevcairiel/LAVFilters/releases
Maybe you try this. But don't ask me about installation and settings as I don't use them. Better look for a thread on hifi-forum on this topic then.
@Phoenixdogfan: The Exchange website is not up and running yet.
The Smyths are a really really small team though...
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audiohobbit
500+ Head-Fier
Correct. With 3 speakers in 30 deg. increments I need to rotate me and the set top in 90 deg. increments 4 times to record a whole circle of speakers in 30 deg. increments.
For the top speakers I'll built high stands to get 3 speakers to the ceiling and record this 2 times, 0 deg. and 180 deg. reversed. Here you could leave the set top in place and just rotate the head top on the head band 180 deg. to the rear position. With HT guided procedure and guiding tones you still find your desired look angles.
Very cool. I think it won't work for vertical look angles though, if they will be activated in the future. But when the web based GUI will be available you can watch the look angles on your smartphone/tablet while doing measurements (Stephen told me this).
I would agree on reference volume and a volume display in -xx dB as most AVRs do have. In the prototype they had it like this I think, same with the A8. Don't know why they changed it to this. But to be honest: It's not that important. I set the volume to a level I find acceptable at the beginning of a movie and maybe adjust it once or twice during the movie.
And you can't rely on any reference because movies are mastered with different volume levels. Some are very loud, some not. This should not happen but it's reality unfortunately.
What's also to consider: PRIRs seem to have a different volume, maybe depending on the volume and gain while recording the PRIR. So you had to do the reference calibration for every PRIR. And for every headphone etc.
Digital outs should be switchable to a fixed level, I agree. I put this on my list and propose it to Stephen. I think that's not a big deal to implement.
I made a totally different experience with my "I-Beam". I use the headphone outs and an external DSP and it is cutoff at 150 Hz roughly. In reality you can feel loud deep low male voices and the lower guitar strings for example. Normal guitar starts at 80 Hz afaik. Man can sense vibration to up to about 200 Hz I think.
It maybe that your experience is caused by a lack of equalizing the tactile transducer (wich one do you use?).
If I use my I-Beam without any EQing it would have a massive peak at around 50 Hz and would play as a so called "one note bass" which is very annoying. And depending on your chair/sofa etc. and where the transduce is mounted there will be more resonances introduced. An equalizing of thos resonances is mandatory, otherwise a tactile transducer is only annoying.
Smyth should just expand the range of cutoff frequencies in both directions and add a few bands of parametric EQ. I already told them back in 2016 or 17 when they were open for suggestions.
To be honest, I still don't understand the whole tactile implementation considering the diagram(s) in the appendix of the manual.
You could use 2 presets, one with upmixer and the other w.o. upmixer. This is basically what I do, but somewhat differnt. I have basically 2 presets (from the Surrey room): 9.1.6 with upmixer and a 5.1.
For 7.1 and Atmos I use the 9.1.6 with upmixer. A 7.1 signal is upmixed to 7.1.6. Front wides are never used. So no change in the horizontal plane compared to the original. And the top speakers are used very little, only for a bit music, so no big distraction either. So I don't need a specific 7.1 setup.
With 5.1 I can decide to use the specific 5.1 setup or let it upmix to 7.1.6.
Basically that's all you need. I doubled this because I need 2 different lipsync settings depending of the material being 24 Hz or 60 Hz.
I think you got this wrong. The remote and HT slave outputs are there to connect two A16s and use them with one headtracker and one remote control. See manual p. 23.
There is no trigger output.
4.0 should be possible I think. It is in the list of Atmos etc. formats. So just try it.
6.1 is only really possible with PCM. I agree that real 6.1 setups should be there. My Panasonic UB424 seems to double the back center and put it to the two backs when converting a DTS 6.1 track to PCM. Still have to test a DD ES with 6.1 soundtrack and see what happens then. I hop that the upmixer in the A16 can handle this correctly.
Good to hear.
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audiohobbit
500+ Head-Fier
James is back from holiday... 
(-> just a joke. I don't know anything about James...)
(-> just a joke. I don't know anything about James...)
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Got the Shakes
500+ Head-Fier
I have my gaming PC hooked up to the A16 and Atmos has functioned fine since day 1. It does seem to detect that the A16 is Atmos capable on the Windows side of things. I’m using the stock the bundled audio drivers from my Nvidia card. When you right click on the speaker icon in the system tray when connected to the A16, there should be an option to quick switch to you desired speaker format there, the options should be stereo, 5.1, 7.1, and Atmos for Home Theater. What happens if you switch on Atmos there? Also have you tried the built in Movies and TV app to play your movie? It should be able to handle Atmos and HDR (if you have a screen that supports it).
Richter Di
1000+ Head-Fier
This is the base of my problem. It shows after right click on the speaker signal "loudspeaker setup" (I am translating from German, the original is (Lautsprechereinrichtung 7.1) If I try to switch to "Dolby Atmos for Home Theater" it will not stick.
If I use the Dolby access app it tells me that setup is not completed. It opens the settings, if I choose there Dolby Atmos it will say failure setting up 3D Sound (again the German is Raumklang).
It also worked for me on day one, but now no more.
How do I deinstall NVIDIA High Definition driver and replace it with the Microsoft generic one?
Fox1977
500+ Head-Fier
I'm not mistaken, you are supposed to simply select Bitstream in the output settings of the software on Windows. Then Windows doesn't care if you are playing Atmos, Dolby Digital or DTS, it just sends it raw to the A16 and the A16 plays it as it is (Dolby content)... or not yet (DTS soundtracks).
Richter Di
1000+ Head-Fier
Yes, but that does not work. If I do so and watch and listen to the "dolby_horizon_lossless-DWEU.m2ts" with not decoded Dolby Digital signal in the settings of (now) PowerDVD 19, it says in the audio:
"You are listening to the Dolby Digital companion track not the Dolby Atmos track this disc is intended to demonstrate. To listen to the Dolby Atmos soundtrack please set your Blueray Player to bitstream out and connect your player to your Dolby Atmos enabled receiver via HDMI."
The logo on the A16 is showing Dolby Audio. Only if I change to PCM decode I get all channels but the display of the A16 shows "HDMIT PCM Discrete 8-ch". I remember that the A16 showed something like True Dolby when it worked and I could change the settings to Dolby Home Theater.
Richter Di
1000+ Head-Fier
I also switched from NVIDIA High Definition Audio to Realtek Digital Out (High Definition). Now the Dolby Access does not show any 3D Sound option (Raumklang) besides Windows Sonic for Headphones.
Richter Di
1000+ Head-Fier
Everything back to normal. I uninstalled the NVIDIA drivers, rebooted and connected the A16 again. To my surprise, it still shows Realiser A16-C (NVIDIA High Definition Audio) driver, but now putting the PowerDVD 19 to PCM out it shows Dobly Audio in the A16 display and works fine. So no idea. But anyhow, thank you all for your support.
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