Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Hearing Things Avia II Blu-ray DVD

Hello,

Does anyone know the release date for the new Avia II Guide to home theater DVD for Blu-ray?

Here is the link to avia's site maybe you could email them

Just found DVE in Blu Ray

Tks, I have been looking into reviews of the DVE Blu-Ray and want to see what Avia II Blu-Ray will be like.

I should try those someday but I find that the calibration program provided with Sony Blu Rays to be more than sufficient

I didn't know Sony had something like that? They should include it with the PS3.

I think the advantage of the other discs is the audio calibrations. Just guessing, though. Don't know what's on the Sony discs.

Thanks for the info.

Very nice! Thanks for that, Luc. I'll have to give it a try later tonight. . .err, assuming I have a Sony disc, that is.

Quick question guys...from reading these posts and others it seems to me that you have to calibrate each piece of equipment. I have a Pioneer Elite SC-07; Sharp Aquos 52" LCD HDTV; 2 HD PVR receivers and a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-Ray. Do I have to calibrate all of these pieces of equipment with my TV. Not sure what to do about this as a new comer to all this. I was under the impression that I just get a DVE or Avia II and do the one calibration for everything. I am starting to get confused on all this home theater stuff. My Epic6-500 should be delivered in the next 2 days also. All help and explaination is greatly appreciated on this matter. Tks a bunch!!

John, it depends on what you already have set up. I wouldn't worry about the DVE or Avia right now if you are happy with your picture quality. Once you get your speakers and sub if you have any questions about the setup you will get plenty of help from the forum. I'm not familiar with what your receiver can do, but if it has an auto setup mode, that will get you going in the right direction once your speakers and sub are connected.

Hey guys almost forgot about this site

http://www.tweaktv.com/tweak-my-tv/calibration-guide/samsung-hl-s6189.html

You can see if your tv is listed and they provide some optimum settings - now seeing as all tv's somewhat different you may still need to make some adjustments - I use this as a starting point when calibrating my set which is the one in the linky

Hi HomeDad...Yes my receiver has a auto setup mode, but JC (Axiom's specialist) told me not to use it. I am very new to this type of stuff and that was the reason why I picked this receiver as it had this option. Here is the link to my receiver: http://www.pioneerelectronics.ca/POCEN/P...s/ci.SC-07.Kuro
I do know that my picture quality on the TV needs to be adjusted as it's not right with the colour features on faces etc. Not bad, but noticeable to the girlfriend and I. Tweaking it will definitely help, but don't understand a lot of the technical language on these new LCD HDTV settings. Call Sharp electronics up and got a person which didn't know much about it either. I think they can only answer little questions or problems as didn't know much more then I did. I was looking into calibration DVD's for this, but from the reviews I have read mostly these DVD's don't include the technical terms which the new type of LCD or Plasma's have out. As a newbie to this stuff I just want something to help me out that is easy to navigate and understand. Not much to ask I think. I currently don't have anything setup with the receiver as it's still in the box and awaiting on the speaker system which I should get in the next couple of days. Any help is greatly appreciated.

John, I'm not sure why JC would tell you not to use the auto setup, unless there is a problem that Axiom has found with the Pioneer receivers and the auto setup mode. What many folks do, myself included is run the auto setup and then perform additional tweeks on the receiver if the sound is not to your exact liking. With my Denon I used the auto setup, then ran some sound checks with an SPL meter and found the Denon did exactly what it was supposed to do and everything sounded great, so I left it alone.

With the new LCD's and Plasma's even with the Avia DVD's they are still hard to get everything dialed in. I finally did what Lucv13 suggested and found online what the professional calibration numbers were for my set and went from there. I would suggest you try his link, put your model# in and try what they suggest, you may end up liking the picture, and not have to go to the trouble of using a calibration DVD.

I told JC that I was going to invest in a SPL meter...this was JC's e-mail to me:
Hi John,
It is JC again.
You are better off doing a manual set-up; avoid auto-EQ set-up at all costs.

The Digital Video Essentials which is also available in a Blu-ray version is really good to help you calibrate your display and it also has an audio section as well. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url...tials&x=10&y=10

If you buy a sound pressure level meter, you will be able to perfectly dial in your system. It is not complicated. It is part of the fun of owning a surround system. http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.j...el%20meter&sr=1

I will try what Lucv13 said and give it a try. Tks for all the help. Trying to cover all my bases as much as possible. Tks a bunch for all the insight. So greatly appreciated.

Interesting... I wonder if that's a Pioneer-specific response or their general advice. I used my auto-setup too (Denon 3808), though JC is right, it's not that hard to do it manually either once you have an SPL meter. You'll also need to measure speaker distances separately and input those into your receiver (assuming it has that functionality), but again, that is not hard.

Jason

I wonder if Axiom is responding this was due to the couple of issues people have had with the A1400 and Auto setups.

I think there's just a general mistrust of auto setup at Axiom. I know that Alan doesn't like it at all.

I think Alan mostly doesn't like the auto-EQing. The auto distance and level matching are pretty accurate these days.

I got my Epic60-500 in today...HOA!! and WOW it's spectacular. The EP500 is a lot bigger then I thought, by twice the size. Going to very slowly put things together. The 52" LCD HDTV goes on the wall tomorrow night to start from the stand it's on. My only issue so far is all the boxes were heavily damaged in shipping, but Axiom packaging saved the day. One box was even fully opened in the middle. I was very very disappointed to see this with the cost of this type of equipment so call Axiom and they have no problem in sending more if I have any issues with anything. Very good customer service. I will probably have questions on setup/hookup as this is my first system like this ever. Again tks to all who have helped me out so far. Greatly appreciated.

PS: Thinking about buying a Extech 407732 Type2 SPL meter. Anyone have any thoughts on SPL meters out there?

I have that SPL meter and it works very well, I haven't checked it against the Radio Shack SPL meter I have, as the Radio Shack meter has compensation files available for it for better accuracy. I know this might be confusing you so don't worry about the differences, the Extech works and that is all that matters right now.

If you do want the Radio Shack meter for these compensated numbers, I linked to one awhile ago that is available from sonicboomaudio.com for those of us in Canada as the radioshack meter isn't available anywhere else up here.

I went ahead and used the settings they had for my model. It's a bit different. I had neutral colors before, and now they're warmer. I like it. I'm not sure how much better it is, but I'm enjoying it.

Yeah, I did the same thing earlier this week. The numbers were slightly different, but, like you, I had neutral colors as well.

So far I've only watched Iron Man and Donnie Darko. Iron Man on Blu-ray looked great.

I'll have to watch Iron Man with the new settings. I watched... You Don't Mess With the Zohan and Sleeping Beauty so far is all.

I should watch something I've seen a bunch of times to see if I notice a difference.

Here's where everyone guesses what they think you've watched countless times.

The suspense should kill everyone. . .

+1 on Iron Man. Great color and even better sound. The scene where he leaves the cave in his first iron suit has some extended deep rumbling bass.

Jason

This one again?

The myriad of pastels really helps me check my color settings. . .


that is, until I get sucked into the epic storyline and drama of the little ponies. . .

They're real!

Sorry to be cordial, but...

The World's Biggest Tea Party

*claps hands in delight*

Did you see me? I was the tall one up in front. . .

Hey all...adjusted my TV to the new TweakTV settings and watched a hockey game last night and seems to be a lot better. The faces are not so red anymore and look natural colour. The changes were off by lots from the factory settings. Not sure if a Blu-ray movie is any different as haven't watched one yet. Do I have to make setting changes in the Blu-ray device also or just the TV?

I'm sure that's why they say it's no replacement for a professional calibration. I'm sure there's some variation depending on the source. Anyway, I wouldn't venture to guess what settings you have in your Blu-ray player, so I'd leave those alone unless someone else can make suggestions for your specific model. As for the TV, hopefully you can have different settings depending on the input. Mine allows that, but I don't know how common that is.

My Blu-ray player is a Samsung BD-P1500 and was just wondering if their are any special settings which I need to perform to make a better picture quality other then the settings I performed on the TV set already. I also have a Pioneer Elite SC-07 AV receiver and using all HDMI cabling along with the Epic60-500 Home Theater speaker system. Still working on the audio side for now as reading and learning. Have a few issues to deal with and if unable to correct will post later. Tks a bunch.

John, Once I dialed in my TV I kept my setting the same for all types of programing from TV to Blu-ray. If you are happy with the picture why change anything. The only thing I would check on your Samsung is to insure that you are matching the resolution your player is sending, 720p, 1080i or 1080p to the native resolution of your TV, and little thing like if you want a full screen, letterbox, ect. if those options are available on your player.

This is not a new tactic on Axiom's behalf.
I'm surprised people are surprised at this advice.

I would surmise, like any other service department, Axiom generally wants to troubleshoot the speakers and their basic setup and not the innumerable number of advanced problems caused directly from peripheral equipment, particularly those issues that continually arise from these "auto [problem free one step]" setup applications designed by other companies.
They only have so many service people to answer questions. The fact that they do often try to walk people through some extra HT setup is admirable.

My guess is that in a checklist of 5 top Q&A that Axiom service folk retain for callers with sound quality issues, at least one asks "Is the auto EQ in your receiver turned off"?

Good point Chess...

On that subject, I turned my Audyssey off this weekend after months of having it engaged and was _amazed_ at how much better I liked the sound with it off.

I haven't downloaded the firmware update for the 3808 yet, so maybe there's something better in the new version, but for what I have now, I'm much happier with it off than on.

On the plus side, I will say that it's quite fun rediscovering the capabilities of the Axioms after this long!

Jason

I found it better off as well.. I'd like to think that for $100 the upgrade will be a major improvement... I just don't think that will happen though.

Jason and Terzaghi, you do not have to get the upgrade to get the better AudysseyEQ, just do the free update. I haven't done the upgrade and the sound is much better with the new update.

Even with a small square room, I prefer the sound untouched by the results from the AudysseyEQ calculations. Turned it a bit flat, for lack of a better term.

Murph, was this with the latest update for the 3808?

Sorry to be misleading. I should have specified that I do not have a 3808.

My comment was on Audyssey in general on my 3608.
I was actually just trying to voice disappointment in that I hoped it would help with my weak bass problems in the listening position but it just made the rest of the frequencies, well....boring.

I would say you described my feelings for Audyssey the first time I ran it, but the latest update appears to have done something to it and it works much better now, at least to me. Now I feel the sound is somewhat dead without Audyssey running, well, at least when I switch it on and off for comparisons.

Great, now that i thought I had everything, you are making me think about upgrading receivers........

Good to know though. Looking forward to the new room, if I ever get out of summer laziness mode and back into construction mode.

Aha... great to know. I'll get it in the next day or two and try again. (somehow I've missed this despite you having said it at least 15 times)

Thanks Jason.

Question for the group - when you are calibrating your speakers do you use one of the discs like DVE or AVIA or do you use the pink noise feature on your receivers?

I've used both. Both seem to work equally well. Well, I might actually prefer the AVR because the tone stays on as long as you want it to. On my Avia DVD, it is a fixed length. Should be more than long enough most times though. Sometimes I need the extra as the Dog is clicking his way across the floor upstairs. Well, that or I need to cut his nails more.