[Fox1977]

We believe the specification of the Realiser A16 will be close to that documented on our website BUT IT MAY CHANGE SIGNIFICANTLY UP TO THE TIME OF SHIPPING.

The specifications have now been changed by not including DTS-X as a standard although advertised as being included at the time of order. The above statement allows them to change any specifications to the A16 at any time before shipping.

They could then have turned the A16 into a coffee machine ?

Does it mean that afterwards any new purchaser will have to pay 200$ more if they want DTS-X or the retail price will increase by 200$ ?

 

[JohnEW]

Most users will probably seen this from the website already
https://smyth-research.com/

Immersive Home Theater

... With dual listener modes, independent head tracking, and decoding for the latest immersive Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D cinematic formats built in, ....

NOTICE.: "and decoding for the latest immersive Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D cinematic formats built in"
** DTS and Auro decoding to be available at a later date.
There is no indication of DTS or AURO being an option extra

 

[illram]

@illram Do you have your SXFI amp connected directly to your HD800s for gaming? Or do you have an external amp in the mix
Also is the smyth realiser limited to HDMI 2.0 and so unable to pass 4k@120hz?

They are connected directly to the SXFI. The SXFI dongle is pretty limited as far as I/O.

Haven't looked into the updated HDMI board specs much, as my order is a long ways off.

 

[Litlgi74]

Most users will probably seen this from the website already
https://smyth-research.com/

Immersive Home Theater

... With dual listener modes, independent head tracking, and decoding for the latest immersive Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D cinematic formats built in, ....

NOTICE.: "and decoding for the latest immersive Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D cinematic formats built in"
** DTS and Auro decoding to be available at a later date.
There is no indication of DTS or AURO being an option extra

Exactly!

 

[esimms86]

No Kickstarter, preorder, or full price order should have to pay for DTS decoding. The website lists DTS decoding as an included feature. The decision to now charge for an advertised included feature is unethical. If it's an add-on feature... List it as one... or take it off the website!

The decoding features are even mentioned on the Kickstarter page.






Charging to decode DTS or any other codec originally being sold as an included feature is absurd.

I fully understand and appreciate your point (which I take no argument with)but, speaking as a very fortunate Kickstarter backer who has his A16 in hand, I can recall other Kickstarter and Indiegogo products that never shipped in any form. Ossic X never materialized, and the LH Labs Geek Wave is reportedly still in development (with none shipped) since receiving my money in 2014. I also have a Yarra3D which, though eventually shipped behind schedule, did not come anywhere close to meeting its promise, IMHO. Admittedly, this is a low bar but Kickstarter projects can go the way of vaporware with no legal repercussions. Of course, that does not address the matter of pre-orders, holiday discounted units and units sold at full price.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I fully understand and appreciate your point (which I take no argument with)but, speaking as a very fortunate Kickstarter backer who has his A16 in hand, I can recall other Kickstarter and Indiegogo products that never shipped in any form. Ossic X never materialized, and the LH Labs Geek Wave is reportedly still in development (with none shipped) since receiving my money in 2014. I also have a Yarra3D which, though eventually shipped behind schedule, did not come anywhere close to meeting its promise, IMHO. Admittedly, this is a low bar but Kickstarter projects can go the way of vaporware with no legal repercussions. Of course, that does not address the matter of pre-orders, holiday discounted units and units sold at full price.

It's a rip no doubt about it, but if I have occasion to need DTS-X, I'll probably pay it. Thing is, I do all my movie watching from streaming and I've never even run into anything in other than ATMOS. So it'll probably be a while until I fork over the $200.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Ho ho ho, merry christmas to you all!

Here are some infos from Stephen:

He says the financial situation of the company hasn't changed and they're making enough from normal sales to deliver KS and preorder units, but at a very slow rate.
There's a transition to new hardware, therefore the pause now.

I presented him our proposals (like extended warranty, Exchange site fee etc.) and they think about it.

Next big update will be dts-X and they have to charge a fee for that (around 200$). Otherwise they'd have to pay royalties for all sold units at once to dts.

So this is already one thing were A16 users can financially support the company if they want dts-X. If people are only streaming they won't need dts-X because streaming companies only work with Atmos.
dts-X Pro is also planned, this will cost an extra fee then.

A new wireless headtracker compatible for A16 AND A8 is also in development, with better battery life and easier battery replacement.

So good news for all who hate the 2nd cable, or use wireless headphones.


Actually with my experience with the old wireless A8 headtracker, I was one of those who opted for a wired headtracker instead.
Most people seriously listening to music over headphones use wired headphones and extra amps so I thought a second cable attached to the headphone cable won't bother much. Seems I was wrong.
Anyway some time in the future we may have a choice now.

That's provided you're using their amp. If you're using your own amp (mine's a THX 789), and it's sitting in a different location from your Realiser (the A16's in my equipment rack, and the THX 789 is on an end table beside my chair), then this is a godsend.

 

[VandyMan]

Let's keep in mind that Smyth has made no announcement about DTS; we just have a report from a personal conversation.

 

[VandyMan]

My own thinking is that they should charge a small fee for DTS to keep people who don't need it (like me) from costing them licensing fees. If they have to pay licensing for all units, it adds up to a considerable amount of money for them. Perhaps $50 or $100 would be enough to filter out those who don't really need the feature. What I hope they do not do is fork the firmware between DTS and non-DTS versions, but rather implement a system where users can buy add on features by purchasing license keys from them.

 

[Litlgi74]

My own thinking is that they should charge a small fee for DTS to keep people who don't need it (like me) from costing them licensing fees. If they have to pay licensing for all units, it adds up to a considerable amount of money for them. Perhaps $50 or $100 would be enough to filter out those who don't really need the feature. What I hope they do not do is fork the firmware between DTS and non-DTS versions, but rather implement a system where users can buy add on features by purchasing license keys from them.

What about the people with more than one A16?

 

[Litlgi74]

Let's keep in mind that Smyth has made no announcement about DTS; we just have a report from a personal conversation.

I've emailed the Smyths... still waiting for a response.

 

[Fox1977]

I guess that rather than asking for a fixed fee to cover a feature that was supposed to be included with no additional cost in the product, they should explain officially the situation and propose people to sponsor them, so that anyone could help depending on their means and their will. It could be seen as some kind of crowdfunding collect to finance further development of new A16 features.

 

[GeorgeA]

I don’t think that additional crowdfunding collect to finance further development of new A16 features might be acceptable as Smyth Research didn’t fulfil their initial promise.

“With dual listener modes, independent head tracking, and decoding for the latest immersive Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D cinematic formats built in, the Realiser A16 brings watching movies in the home to a new level.”

Moreover:

“We are licensing audio decoding and processing algorithms directly from Dolby, DTS, Auro Technologies and Illusonics, and each licensing agreement or contract has different requirements that must be fulfilled before we are allowed to include their technology in our product. At the moment we have evaluation licences from Dolby, DTS and Illusonics, and these must be converted or upgraded to the full manufacturer's license before we ship any products. While we do not expect any significant problems, if any of these companies decide not to license their technology to us, we will not be able to include it in the final product. Also, prior to shipping, each of these companies must test our product to confirm that their technology has been implemented correctly, and this evaluation may also cause delays in shipping. Again we do not expect this testing to be problematic since the codec board we purchase from Momentum Data Systems will come with code already pre-certified by Dolby, DTS and Auro Technologies.”

Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1959366850/realiser-a16-real-3d-audio-headphone-processor

 

[m8o]

I may be in the minority but if passing along the $200 license fee is something the Smyths were hit with out of the blue by the org behind DTS:X, I'm okay paying for it to help keep the Smyths liquid and an ongoing concern; assuming they stay that way before they ship mine [weak lol].

 

[illram]

I may be in the minority but if passing along the $200 license fee is something the Smyths were hit with out of the blue by the org behind DTS:X, I'm okay paying for it to help keep the Smyths liquid and an ongoing concern; assuming they stay that way before they ship mine [weak lol].

Yeah I wonder if this was unanticipated. LG for example dropped DTS:X from their entire TV lineup, I wonder if there was some licensing change in the past few years?