[Thomasphoenix98]

I agree, I'll wait for the manual. I'd like James to officially announce the availability of Auro-3D, pricing, and requirements for enabling Auro-3D, and update the manual. I did purchase DTS-X license, and I don't have any complaints other than lack of communication.

I already paid and got the Auro upgrade. I had DTS-X already upgraded. Yes the manual would help.

 

[jpks]

I already paid and got the Auro upgrade. I had DTS-X already upgraded. Yes the manual would help.

I will also purchase Auro-3D license, been waiting it for long time. I just hope that James (or any other Smyth Research person) could make "official" announcement of availability (and update the manual).

 

[esimms86]

While you're waiting for a new manual and/or an Auro 3D instructions file, you can do the following:

Settings-->System-->Misc settings-->Auro 3D-->ADj+/- to activate (or deactivate) Auro 3D

This will make the upmixer active for all audio(i.e., it will upmix every audio file played until you specifically deactivate Auro 3D).

Next, go to "Auro preset small" and use Adj+/- to select the amount of desired upmixing (options are: small/medium/large/movie/speech; I have no direct or intuitive sense of how the "movie" or "speech" settings are supposed to function).

Lastly, go to "Auro strength 13" and use Adj+/- to further select the amount of desired upmixing (the range being from 1 to 16).

Until further guidance is provided by Smyth Research, we ourselves will have to experiment with the various settings to see what we as individuals and also file by file find to be pleasing.

No, I do not have any professional links to Smyth Research. In fact, I have yet to formally purchase and receive my own copy of the Auro 3D decoder. Nonetheless, I hope that people find this information to be helpful in getting started.

P.S.
- If you happen to have material specifically sold as Auro 3D then you just have to locate and play the DTS HD MA file with Auro 3D activated in your A16 in order to experience said file in Auro 3D. Of course, you are not limited to files sold as Auro 3D(i.e., the upmixer also works for files in stereo through Dolby Atmos).

 

[Thomasphoenix98]

While you're waiting for a new manual and/or an Auro 3D instructions file, you can do the following:

Settings-->System-->Misc settings-->Auro 3D-->ADj+/- to activate (or deactivate) Auro 3D

This will make the upmixer active for all audio(i.e., it will upmix every audio file played until you specifically deactivate Auro 3D).

Next, go to "Auro preset small" and use Adj+/- to select the amount of desired upmixing (options are: small/medium/large/movie/speech; I have no direct or intuitive sense of how the "movie" or "speech" settings are supposed to function).

Lastly, go to "Auro strength 13" and use Adj+/- to further select the amount of desired upmixing (the range being from 1 to 16).

Until further guidance is provided by Smyth Research, we ourselves will have to experiment with the various settings to see what we as individuals and also file by file find to be pleasing.

No, I do not have any professional links to Smyth Research. In fact, I have yet to formally purchase and receive my own copy of the Auro 3D decoder. Nonetheless, I hope that people find this information to be helpful in getting started.

P.S.
- If you happen to have material specifically sold as Auro 3D then you just have to locate and play the DTS HD MA file with Auro 3D activated in your A16 in order to experience said file in Auro 3D. Of course, you are not limited to files sold as Auro 3D(i.e., the upmixer also works for files in stereo through Dolby Atmos).

Yes sir , found the settings exactly where you pointed out.

 

[GeorgeA]

There’s more useful information on Auro 3D setup at the French forum. The post is in French but can be easily understood via Google translate.

 

[Litlgi74]

Just as a reminder... Before sending James your log file to purchase Auro-3D permissions...

You must have DTS-X and the latest firmware installed to create the log file.

Hope this helps.

 

[shmau]

Just as a reminder... Before sending James your log file to purchase Auro-3D permissions...

You must have DTS-X and the latest firmware installed to create the log file.

Hope this helps.

Thought I could get away with having a log file from an older version with DTS:X activated but no, I can confirm that they require the latest firmware.

 

[Sanctuary]

Has anyone tried connecting the A16 to Windows via USB and had issues getting it to function? If so, were you able to solve the issue?

Across two different PCs, and with a factory restore of the A16, the closest I've gotten Windows to recognize it as an audio device is having it list it as "speakers" a single time. Even then, it did not actually seem to be receiving any audio signal when audio was being played. The A16 was set to USB as well.

The majority of the time Windows is just listing it as a "USB Controller" and giving a "Device Descriptor Request Failed" error, and even when it's not giving that error, it shows up in the hardware manager as either an Unknown, or as the Realiser A16, but the icon that displays it just looks like a modem or PC case. The rest of the time, when it's actually showing up as an audio device, it will get a speaker icon, yet is missing from the sound options menu entirely.

There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason as to which hardware type Windows will randomly assign it either. To even get it to recognize it as "speakers" the one time I had to kill my antivirus and all its processes, but repeating that method yielded no positive results when trying it again. I've also gone through four different USB cables, one of which was specifically for my DAC, and nothing. Have also installed, uninstalled, reinstalled the Smyth USB drivers (required anyway) and that doesn't help either.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Has anyone tried connecting the A16 to Windows via USB and had issues getting it to function? If so, were you able to solve the issue?

Across two different PCs, and with a factory restore of the A16, the closest I've gotten Windows to recognize it as an audio device is having it list it as "speakers" a single time. Even then, it did not actually seem to be receiving any audio signal when audio was being played. The A16 was set to USB as well.

The majority of the time Windows is just listing it as a "USB Controller" and giving a "Device Descriptor Request Failed" error, and even when it's not giving that error, it shows up in the hardware manager as either an Unknown, or as the Realiser A16, but the icon that displays it just looks like a modem or PC case. The rest of the time, when it's actually showing up as an audio device, it will get a speaker icon, yet is missing from the sound options menu entirely.

There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason as to which hardware type Windows will randomly assign it either. To even get it to recognize it as "speakers" the one time I had to kill my antivirus and all its processes, but repeating that method yielded no positive results when trying it again. I've also gone through four different USB cables, one of which was specifically for my DAC, and nothing. Have also installed, uninstalled, reinstalled the Smyth USB drivers (required anyway) and that doesn't help either.

I don't think Smyth has signed drivers. Maybe that's causing the problem for you.

 

[Sanctuary]

I don't think Smyth has signed drivers. Maybe that's causing the problem for you.

Well, for some it just seems to be installing the drivers and it works just fine for them. I really don't understand what the problem is. I haven't had an issue getting hardware to work on any of my systems for at least fifteen years. This however is acting like the kind of nightmare scenarios that people complain about with "PCs being too complicated", and it's infuriating. I even went as far as to completely uninstall my antivirus. Maybe at the end of next year when I do another build with a fresh Windows install I can try again. For now though, I'm done.

Unless I can convince a friend to let me do a fresh install on the PC he rarely uses.

 

[Got the Shakes]

Has anyone tried connecting the A16 to Windows via USB and had issues getting it to function? If so, were you able to solve the issue?

Across two different PCs, and with a factory restore of the A16, the closest I've gotten Windows to recognize it as an audio device is having it list it as "speakers" a single time. Even then, it did not actually seem to be receiving any audio signal when audio was being played. The A16 was set to USB as well.

The majority of the time Windows is just listing it as a "USB Controller" and giving a "Device Descriptor Request Failed" error, and even when it's not giving that error, it shows up in the hardware manager as either an Unknown, or as the Realiser A16, but the icon that displays it just looks like a modem or PC case. The rest of the time, when it's actually showing up as an audio device, it will get a speaker icon, yet is missing from the sound options menu entirely.

There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason as to which hardware type Windows will randomly assign it either. To even get it to recognize it as "speakers" the one time I had to kill my antivirus and all its processes, but repeating that method yielded no positive results when trying it again. I've also gone through four different USB cables, one of which was specifically for my DAC, and nothing. Have also installed, uninstalled, reinstalled the Smyth USB drivers (required anyway) and that doesn't help either.

Apologies if I missed you mentioning it somewhere, but I assume you've tried manually installing the A16 Windows USB driver that is available from the A16 downloads page? I don't have mine connected via USB so I'm not sure how buggy they are and they don't appear to have been updated since 9/2020. Figured I mentioned it on the off chance that people weren't aware that they exist.

 

[Sanctuary]

Apologies if I missed you mentioning it somewhere, but I assume you've tried manually installing the A16 Windows USB driver that is available from the A16 downloads page? I don't have mine connected via USB so I'm not sure how buggy they are and they don't appear to have been updated since 9/2020. Figured I mentioned it on the off chance that people weren't aware that they exist.

I mentioned doing that with the last sentence.

Unless there's a magical USB cable that I don't have, that I need to get, I'm fairly certain now that the issue is my A16. This isn't the only problem it has either though.
A>B listening works around 10% of the time, I never actually get any sound at all from any custom presets ever without first switching to a default preset, and I also get screeching chirp/video game sounds if trying to change any PCM listening room after content had previously started, even if it's paused and the issue persists until the Realiser gets reset.

I tried using my two PCs, and almost got it to work a single time, and I just now tried it again with a brand new Windows install on a third PC, and still nothing. It just keeps coming back with this, either with the error, or it simply says "Realiser".

 

[esimms86]

I have never gotten USB to work with my A16, however, I am perfectly satisfied using HDMI. I have a USB-C to HDMI cable that I use to connect my Lenovo Yoga laptop to my A16 as my laptop doesn't have an HDMI slot.

 

[GeorgeA]

I think I’m not a computer illiterate. However, it’s a bit difficult for me to understand why it’s better to use a computer as a source in conjunction with a Realiser A16 unit when either a Blu-ray device or other media player might be considered for audio and video playback. Quite a lot issues caused by various incompatibilities can be avoided in this way.

 

[Thomasphoenix98]

I use hdmi from my computer. Reason I use the computer is I’m on the computer most of the time, allows me to use the realiser more compared to the dedicated ht setup, which requires advance planning for a viewing.