Information, Instructions, and Discussion on Feb 2005 Major Halo Software Upgrade

[Chris D]

*bump* in case people are still doing the update

[rocasi]

I finally have my HT back up and running. My question is: Is this upgrade worthwhile? Nothing like risking a catastrophe for not much to be gained.

[Chris D]

Yes, yes, YES! A year after the update came out, I can say that I'm VERY pleased with the update. While I found it useful for the discrete 2nd zone commands, above all I love it for DPLIIx. See my comments above and in other threads--I engage DPLIIx now for ALL my material, audio or video, and have found it to be VERY useful.

Update highly recommended, if you haven't performed it already.

[AVspec]

Any other firmware updates planned for the future?

[slayer]

Chris, how are you doing that with DVD's? Are you selecting the DD 2.0 stereo option on the DVD and letting the Halo go with the PLIIx? You like it better than DD and DTS?

[Chris D]

Randy, what I'm doing is always leaving my C1 in DPLIIx mode for each source. For audio sources, I leave it in DPLIIx Music, for video sources I use DPLIIx Movie. When I put a DVD in my player, (currently a Denon DVD-3910, still waiting for a D3, HINT HINT) I always select the highest-fidelity multichannel soundtrack I can find. If the DVD has DTS or DTS ES, I'll typically select that. If not, I'll go with Dolby Digital or DD EX, which will commonly be the default audio track anyway.

DPLIIx will take any sound format, including mono, stereo, DPL, DD, DTS, or even DD EX and DTS ES, and matrix it into a 7.1 sound format where you have individual sounds coming out of EACH of your 7.1 system. Chris like. Much better sound field, enveloping you in the primary listening location.

I've only found a couple DVD's where the C1 came out of DPLIIx mode, and I think they were all DTS ES Discrete, if I remember right, which is rarely found on DVD's. Other than that, my C1 just takes whatever sound format I throw at it, and gives me a 7.1 soundfield.

So to expound on your question, I think the better sound you feed INTO the DPLIIx, the better soundfield you'll get out. If you just feed it 2.0 stereo, DPLIIx will make it 7.1, but you'll get a lot of sounds repeated in mutliple channels. It will be good, but not nearly as clean and discrete as if you feed DD5.1 into the DPLIIx.

[Chris D]

AVSpec, to answer your question, nothing has been officially planned and announced. Personally, I would not be overly surprised if we see an official HARDWARE upgrade planned and possibly announced in the next few months, which will, of course, require a firmware upgrade as well.

[slayer]

My bad, I was thinking you meant regular PLII, not the 7 channel PLIIx. That's why I asked. I thought you were passing up discrete DD & DTS to listen to PLII.
My question now would be this. Are your main 5 still discrete with just the surround back channels being processed from other channels while listening to DD & DTS? I know the HK receivers I've sold use this type of setup if you have a 7.1 system. There is a 7.1 button that will add sound to the surround back speakers when listening to a 5.1 program. I'm only running a 5.2 setup so it will not effect me, but I would like to know how the Halo handles this. Thanks for the info Chris.

[Chris D]

I'm pretty sure it's not specific to Parasound, it would be standard in the way that DPLIIx does the processing. If your feeding DD 5.1 to DPLIIx for a 7.1 system, yes, I would imagine the front 5.1 channels would remain discrete while extracting and matrixing the rear 2 channels. I think it goes beyond, that, though, where the front 5.1 channels are even more enhanced. All this is a guess, but I'd venture that they remain discrete.

[AVspec]

Thanks for the response Chris. I will keep an eye out for that announcement.

Also I think I will give your DPLIIx tip a try in my 8.1 setup (two front speakers) and see if it sounds better as I have not been overly impressed with the sound in plain 6.1/7.1 from disc's with DTS-EX or DD-ES.

-Mark

[slayer]

My guess would be that it only processes the two extra rear surrounds.
I wonder if an email to Parasound could answer this. Don't you have an open line with someone there Chris? I would love to know this.
Maybe even going back and forth between the 2 (DD without rears vs PLIIx with the rears) to see if you can hear a difference in the main 5.1 with the same scenes being compared. I would try it but only have a 5.1 and my room won't allow me to throw up extra speakers. Well, anything is possible;>)