It never stops! 'Dolby Introduces DPL IIx'

[Trevor_J]

Yes, that's right. A new surround format. http://www.dolbylabs.com/press/ce_pr_0309_plIIx.html

Now, if I was a new 1098 owner I'd be fairly annoyed but I'm thinking it should be possible to upgrade with a simple firmware update. What I'd like to know is if it would be possible for those of us with 1055/1066's to upgrade.

[dave]

Boy thats quite a write up on that link you provided Trevor, I,m sure Rotel will jump on board, I hope. Regards




dave

[Andrew Pratt]

The problem is Rotel knows about as much as we do since Dolby doesn't tell too many people what its all about. Obviously some of the bigger players like Sony might have deep enough pockets to loosen dolby's lips a bit and they'll likely have a PLIIx procduct out shortly. I don't know if it will be possible for us to get PLIIx yet but I can assure you Rotel knows about it and if its possible I have no doubt we'll get it.

[Nicholas Renter]

Andrew,

According to the link provided:

Products Coming Soon
The first consumer electronics products to incorporate Dolby Pro Logic IIx signal processing will be announced at the CEDIA 2003 show (September 5-7) in Indianapolis. These include:

Arcam DIVA AVR300 AV Receiver
Fosgate FAP-T1 Plus
Marantz SR7400
Meridian Audio Ltd G68 Surround Processor
Pioneer VSX-59TXi
Yamaha RX-Z9

The following hardware manufacturers will offer upgrades for current models in the marketplace. These include:

Denon AVR5803 A/V receiver
TAG McLaren AVR32
TAG McLaren AV192 R
Marantz SR9300, SR9200, SR8300, SR8200, and SR7300
Meridian Audio Ltd Model 861 Surround Processor

Dolby anticipates further announcements shortly from leading consumer electronics hardware manufacturers, including Harman Kardon, Integra, Kenwood, Onkyo, and Sony.

Any chance that we will get firmware for the RSP-1066 for this? According to Rotel's marketing material (on their website) for the 1066, "To fully protect your investment, this advanced processor benefits from upgradeable software, too." I guess we'll see if this is true or not.

[Andrew Pratt]

Dolby Pro Logic IIx is the first and only technology to process any native stereo or 5.1 signal into a 6.1- or 7.1- channel output, creating a seamless, natural surround soundfield that immerses you in the entertainment experience.

I'll see what I can find out but honestly I don't much care since Rotels XS processing runs on top of PLII or DTS NEO to generate the back two channels so this really isn't anything that new for us....I also take offense to their comment that PLIIx is the first and only 7.1 processing mode...Logic 7 has been doing that for years now :roll:

[Trevor_J]

Yes, we'll truly see if the 'upgrade feature' of our 1066's is anything more than marketing dribble. I'm certainly hoping so....

[Andrew Pratt]

Marketing dribble? I hardly think that's fair given Rotels history of updating the 1055 and 1066 so far for free I might add. I'm sure they'll do what they can but they'll be limited by the processing power in the chip and really PLIIx doesn't give us anything we don't already have with their XS processing.

[Glenn]

Haven't posted in a little while, but wanted to jump in on this "marketing dribble" comment. One of the critical reasons that I have decided to become a Rotel owner, is their timely and continual firmware updates/upgrades.

From the countless hours of research I have done in preparation for my upcoming HT/audio purchase, Rotel is one product/company that has me absolutely impressed. Not only for their actual (great!) products, but also their overall operation.

They listen to their customers (user suggestions/improvements), they respond to their customers (firmware upgrades that address these suggestions when possible), and they facilitate and welcome direct interaction with their customers (individual e-mail replies and recently the Rotel Club Q&A thread)

All in all, I have not seen or heard of any Rotel "marketing dribble". What I HAVE seen is Rotel consistently delivering the goods!

[Andrew Pratt]

It seems the the PLIIx code is very large and so its very doubtful it would run on the 1055 or 1066 so we won't see an update for those models. It could run on the 1098 but its yet to be determined what will happen there. The code won't be available from Dolby for testing for several months so it could be a good wait before we see anything. Given though that we already have XS I don't really care one way or the other ...sure it would be nice to be complete but its not like its going to give us something 'new'

[Trevor_J]

It seems my statement was mistaken as a slam against Rotel when it fact it was not intended to be.

Yes, I am grateful for the firmware 'updates' (which addressed what I would consider minor fixes and operational features) we received for free.
What I would consider a true 'upgrade' or as Rotel put it: 'To fully protect your investment, this advanced processor benefits from upgradeable software, too. ' Would be the ability to add future surround formats, i.e. DPL IIx. From what Andrew has said it seems doubtful that this will be a possibility on the 1066/1055 and a big 'maybe' with the 1098.

To be honest, yes, we've had Rotel XS for a long time now but at the same time it would be great if we could take advantage of the software update feature to do more than ergonomic and operational updates.

To be clear, I am not complaining about what we received in the past, just wishing for a true update to my SSP.

[Kevin D]

Might should remind everybody that the 1065 (and maybe the first run of 1066's) didn't have Dolby EX decoding. That was an upgrade that came later and in the case of some 1065's even went as far as a eeprom upgrade..

So I would say they take care of things when needed.

Kevin D.

[Andrew Pratt]

Good point kevin.

[zeppelin]

I dont really care about Dolby technology at all I dont really care that the fact they going to come out with still analog processing that only enhance the Stereo sound up to 7.1 channel. Dolby by comparison to DTS or SDDS is way to low end sounding, it's like comparing mp3 to CD. They received a lot of support due to Dolby already establish name in the Theater Sound business.
If Sony would annouce that SDDS is going to the home theater market than that kind of news is definitely going to make me uneasy.
Like Andrew mentioned previously ,Logic 7 and Rotel XS already done that, so whats the fuss of not having it. If Rotel cant give me an upgrade due to limitation of the 1066 so be it ,I'm still happy and would support Rotel in the coming future.

[pbarata]

I would be much more happy if RSP-1066 would support both DTS 96/24 and 2 channel 192KHz/24 bit streams in the future. But I doubt that these type of upgrades would be possible with simple firmware updates?

Personally I think that correctly positioning a 5.1 system is already a difficult task for most of us, as we have to coexist our dinning room with our home cinema room. With all the speakers necessary for 6.1 and 7.1 systems, it will be rather complex to do and an expensive investment.

[Andrew Pratt]

I would be much more happy if RSP-1066 would support both DTS 96/24 and 2 channel 192KHz/24 bit streams in the future. But I doubt that these type of upgrades would be possible with simple firmware updates?

Not without a hardware upgrade.

[Trevor_J]

would be much more happy if RSP-1066 would support both DTS 96/24 and 2 channel 192KHz/24 bit streams in the future

[rant on] I don't understand this logic.

How many DTS 96/24 discs are out there that you will enjoy if Rotel offered the upgrade tomorrow? Better yet, how many DTS-ES Discrete discs are out there (compared to DD 5.1)?

DPL IIx is not a new encoding format but the benefit is that you will be able to take advantage of THOUSANDS of existing and yet to be released software, not to mention regular television.

You know, I was really hoping some of you would want to rally for an update for our processors but I must admit I'm rather disapointed at the 'well, we got some fixes for free so be happy' response that I'm seeing here. With an attitude like that why would Rotel want to provide an update for a product that's more than 1 year into it's life cycle? Yes, it's an analogue format but at the same time, we have a piece of equipment that we know can be updated with a simple software download and a $10 cable. Even if some don't care for another processing format, wouldn't it be nice to have a CHOICE as well as to know that the equipment that you bought which was advertised as 'upgradeable' truly was so?

Well, the only thread of hope I can hang on to is that the 1066 is still in production and is being sold on the retail market. Hopefully the demand from consumers and dealers to add this feature to the pre pro will make it happen and allow long time users like myself to enjoy the privilege of choice.

[rant off]

[AlvaroD]

Cirrus Logic has annonced the support of DPL-IIx for the CS49300 DSP chip (the one inside Rotel's 1066/1055/1065) so there's real hope for an easy upgrade path :

http://www.cirrus.com/en/press/releases/P371.html

[Andrew Pratt]

Trevor I'd feel more strongly about the issue if we didn't already have the XS processing that does the same thing. Given that the processor can decode it though we'll have to see if its something Rotel wants or can incorporate into the 1055 and 1066. Given the other processing modes that are in there just because the chip can decode it doesn't mean there's enought space to store the code (I hear its quite a lot of code)

[Mats]

If the processor has the abilty to do that I hope Rotel will provide an upgrade! Perhaps they could change an eprom to get more storage an include dts 96/24 that time, too.

I would pay for that. But if it is possible to do it for free...




Left forum because sold Rotel gear

[sikoniko]

My thought on that is memory is cheap. If they are truely that low on memory, it wouldnt be much for rotel to put a bigger chip in during production.

To me, it wouldnt make sense to advertise it as future proof and be shipping new models out that have little or no available space left when the company can just put a bigger chip in for a dollar or two.

My 1055 should be in any day now. Im very excited but the upgrade-ability is probably the heaviest factor in me going w/ rotel. Im about 95% movies and 5% music. I know that might change, but it wont be drastic.

[Trevor_J]

It's good to hear that the Cirrus chip onboard can support the algorithm. I'm still hoping that there's enough room to delete the 'dated' DPL II code and update it with the DPL IIx code. If not, I would hope Rotel would consider replacing their XS with DPL IIx. I for one would like to compare the two and keep whichever sounds best to my ears. Judging from the features (customization, game mode etc.) that IIx offers it already sounds like an improvement.

[Claude D D]

I would just be happy if Rotel could do a firmware update to fix the brutally slow lock on time for some HDCD's on the RSP-1066.I just did the 2.26 firmware update and still no such luck.Does the RSP-1098 have the same problem?

[suyver]

Is there already any news if us poor 1066-owners can get a DPL IIx software upgrade from the friendly folks at Rotel?





Check out my home theater!

[Andrew Pratt]

no new news and honestly I doubt we'll ever see if offered on the 1055, 1066 or 1065.

[eulogytool]

Andrew,

I have heard strong rumors PLIIx will be an upgrade to the RSP-1098. Is this confirmed and is there any new info as of when yet?

I really hope it is an upgrade. I know Rotel XS already produces 7.1 from 5.1 but it doesn't do 7.1 from 2.0 and I listen to alot of regular 2 channel CD's and having a 7.1 option would be awesome.

[suyver]

no new news and honestly I doubt we'll ever see if offered on the 1055, 1066 or 1065.

Can't you pull some strings for us? You seem to know most everybody at Rotel...
I'd like to have this in my 1066 and since Cirrus Logic has annonced the support of DPL-IIx for the CS49300 DSP chip, I see no reason why we can't get a software upgrade.





Check out my home theater!