[Thomasphoenix98]

Thanks. Side note, the Lw and Rw from your PRIR is pretty much perfect to my ears. Went through all that had been uploaded as well as the two factory defaults, and yours were the only ones that sounded right positionally (for me of course), plus despite being different speakers (I'm using Klipsch), they sounded closer in timbre than the rest too.

edit: I was hoping there was going to be some videos like the old Dolby 7.1 channel test, but I couldn't find any on my own. These are very helpful.

You can check out John’s website or mail him
info@3dsoundshop..com, He has Dolby Atmos channel tests.

 

[makan]

Having all three (Roku Ultra 2020, ATV4K 2019, and NVidia Shield Tub 2019), if you are going to go with just one it would be the ATV4K.

Many (including me) will say that unfortunately not one of these is 100% perfect for all sources and that that is why a "triple-based device solution" is the only way to truly get optimal results for any given source, which is why I bought all three. I really didn't know about an of them, and started with the Roku (which has a simple basic GUI and a nice comfortable and tactile remote). I then decided to see what ATV4K was all about (I own NOTHING from Apple) and really don't like its touch-sensitive remote with hardly any buttons, that I'm always doing the wrong thing with. And then finally, well what-the-* I might as well try the Android-based Shield.This last one seems to have the fewest non-mainstream apps written for it, with Roku and ATV4K being "universal" for both big and small streaming sources.

I have not tried any other devices, such as Amazon products.

So for Netflix and Disney+, these are "biggies" and any device can be used. I don't subscribe to Disney+ so I can't comment on it, but I do have all the other majors (Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Showtime Anytime, ESPN+, Peacock Premium) along with numerous "minors" (only available through Roku and ATV4K).

However my own beef with Netflix on Roku (and also now on Shield with the new Experience 9 software) is that it is framerate-locked at 60hz for video, even if the source movie is 23.976/24.000. Only the ATV4K can be successfully configured to do "automatic framerate/color match for your TV" to the delivered source characteristics. I love how 24fps movies look on my LG OLED C9 presented as 24fps, which is different than how the same movie looks delivered/presented at 60fps. This is important to me (forgetting about audio), which is why I use ATV4K for Netflix (or, the LG Netflix app with audio sent to the A16 via eARC, which works fine for me and again presents 24fps movies at 24fps onscreen).

Netflix and Hulu on Roku are framerate locked to 60hz. Other sources are not, and the "automatic framerate/color match" feature on Roku actually does work properly for those other sources. Unfortunately not for Netflix and Hulu, which is unfortunate. Shield has an Android add-in named "Refresh Rate" that allows you to manually change the output refresh rate for the TV to match whatever the input source content is delivered at. This used to work perfectly before the just pushed-out Experience 9 software, which has now made Refresh Rate non-functional for Netflix. So it, too, is now apparently framerate locked to 60hz on Shield with no way to change it automatically or manually.

==> ATV4K will deliver Netflix at true framerate, and its own "automatic framerate/color match" of TV to source content DOES WORK... for all sources. So while I hate its remote, I now use ATV4K most of the time for precisely this reason. It delivers source untouched and unlocked to the TV just as it should be. And it also supports all of the other major and minor sources I subscribe to. And it plays nice with the A16 as well.

Thanks...seeing if anyone else has experience with disney + and with the cheapest option which is the firestick 4k...I wasn't aware of the fps mismatch issue

 

[Eich1eeF]

edit: I was hoping there was going to be some videos like the old Dolby 7.1 channel test, but I couldn't find any on my own. These are very helpful.

I made a test file to ensure that the channels for async signals are mapped correctly (I messed that up more than once...) http://unimportant-site.com/a16/channel_names_3.mp4

 

[audiohobbit]

Are there no channel tests in the links in my thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smy...requests-tips-and-tricks.915293/post-15213267

 

[Sanctuary]

Are there no channel tests in the links in my thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smy...requests-tips-and-tricks.915293/post-15213267

There are, which is why I said they were useful in my post. I'm not sure if some misread my edit though. I wasn't saying "I wish I had some channel tests because they are useful" rather "I was wondering if any like the previous 7.1 existed...and they do, thanks, they are very helpful".

Also, I'm still having a hell of an issue bass wise. Not only does the sub seem to go up around 30% when I am doing A/B switching with the exact same settings, but when using bass management and APM bass together, they are interacting in an unexpected way.

If I want to use the APM bass setting, should I actually be lowering the sub to compensate if I don't want it to be raised as well? The manual says that the bass setting affects all channels, but why would it still be affecting the LFE with the LFP set to 70hz and the APM bass 80hz or higher? In fact, it doesn't matter what frequency I use, any change in APM bass gain both up or down will also affect the LFE.

 

[audiohobbit]

APM Bass and treble are shelving filters. This means that with APM Bass anything BELOW the frequency you set will be lowered or raised, and with APM treble anything ABOVE the frequency you set there will be affected:
https://www.mixinglessons.com/shelving-filter/

 

[Sanctuary]

APM Bass and treble are shelving filters. This means that with APM Bass anything BELOW the frequency you set will be lowered or raised, and with APM treble anything ABOVE the frequency you set there will be affected:
https://www.mixinglessons.com/shelving-filter/

I guess my confusion was due to the way my external amp works. It has a shelf that raises from the frequency you start at, whatever that starting point is. So is it even possible to adjust everything but the sub? If I wanted to adjust 80hz - 400hz, you're saying I would have to set it to 400hz, but it would actually go all the way down to 50hz? So should setting the LFP to 50hz make it so the sub is not affected? Even if that works, there's still a gap in frequency that I don't want the normal speakers to be using.

All I was trying to do was add +3 "bass" to all of the speakers besides the sub. This is something the A8 could do.

 

[audiohobbit]

you're saying I would have to set it to 400hz, but it would actually go all the way down to 50hz?

no it would go from 400 down to 0.

There is no "mid shelving filter", but this can be simulated by "misuse" of the low and high shelving filter. However iirc the lowest frequency of the high shelving filter is 500 Hz. So you can affect the range from lets say 80 Hz to 500 Hz. If you want to raise this mid range by 3 dB you have to lower the APM Bass (set to 80 Hz) by 3 dB and lower APM Treble (set to 500 Hz) by 3 dB. Then the 80-500 Hz range would be raised by 3 dB relatively to the low and high end.
And vice versa.

 

[Sanctuary]

no it would go from 400 down to 0.

There is no "mid shelving filter", but this can be simulated by "misuse" of the low and high shelving filter. However iirc the lowest frequency of the high shelving filter is 500 Hz. So you can affect the range from lets say 80 Hz to 500 Hz. If you want to raise this mid range by 3 dB you have to lower the APM Bass (set to 80 Hz) by 3 dB and lower APM Treble (set to 500 Hz) by 3 dB. Then the 80-500 Hz range would be raised by 3 dB relatively to the low and high end.
And vice versa.

That does the trick, thank you very much. I might have actually figured that out on my own if I even actually understood how the shelf worked in the first place. I didn't, but now I do!

 

[audiohobbit]

Actually I got my own bass problem. Well it's more of a clipping problem:
I use in ear headphones directly connected to the HP out of the A16. Since those are very sensitive the introduce some background nois on the high gain setting, so I set them to mid gain. When listening at higher volume levels (60-70 depending on the source) it led to digital clipping of the output, so the output volume is automatically reduced. I noticed this for a long time that the volume suddenly and inexplainably dropped. Finally in one of the FW update manuals Stephen expleined this to be the clipping protection.
So although a bit noisy I switched to high gain and reduced the digital HP volume. With loud bass heavy scenes I still hear ugly clipping noises but the HP volume is not lowerde, so it is no output clipping. So I watched the input meters and saw that the SW channel clips on the input side already!

Then I rembered Stephen mentioning an attenuation of the decoder output somewhere and i found it in the FW1.98 manual that the 9 dB attenuation of the decoder output is not implemented anymore from FW1.98 upwards.
Plus I'm not anymore sure if the +10 dB LFE boost for my Atmos room is correct or not. If or if not you need the +10 dB LFE boost depends on the system you recorded the PRIR. Mine is made in a studio and I'm not sure what to set. At the beginning I just tested some movies etc. and concluded that I have to set the +10db LFE for Dolby.
For the PCM room I didn't set the +10dB LFE because at the moment I let the Panasonic UDB424 decode DTS to PCM and again by listening to some material I concluded that the Pana already implemented the LFE boost.

Even if turn off the LFE boost in the Atmos room, the SW channel coming from the decoder still clips!
And I forgot to mention: In this PRIR all channels are fullrange, the SW channel only contains the LFE, no bass management needed in the A16 here.

Now I need those channel tests myself (but I have a genuine Dolby Atmos Test Disc at hand) and will measure the outpur via RTA, but I still don't know how the LFE channel in those channel tests should be measuring (1/3rd octave wise) as the other channels. I suppose same level in 1/3 octaves (not the overall SPL, because it's band limited).

 

[Juy777]

Just received email that we can now purchase a software upgrade so our A16 units can decode DTS-X, while it is nice to see that this functionality is now supported,
wasnt the A16 advertised as DTS-x decoding capable, why would we now pay $199 for that? Or am i missing something?

 

[shmau]

Just received email that we can now purchase a software upgrade so our A16 units can decode DTS-X, while it is nice to see that this functionality is now supported,
wasnt the A16 advertised as DTS-x decoding capable, why would we now pay 199€ for that? Or am i missing something?

Your options are to either pay it or not get DTS:X.

 

[Juy777]

Thanks for that enlightning remark, much appreciated.

 

[shmau]

You might not like it but it is the way it is.

 

[audiohobbit]

Well, first of all unfortunately the Smyths underestimated the development costs overall. Then there was the chip factory fire and global chip shortage due to Covid, so they had to redesign the boards which increased costs even more, and especially concerning the DTS-certification they wrote that they needed special hardware for that which was not widely available in the UK (whatever hardware that would exactly be) so the DTS certification (or the preparation for this) was also more expensive than they thought.
So they have to charge the users for this.