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Austin - next HTF meet planning (1 Viewer)

Hank Frankenberg

Senior HTF Member
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2,573
Permit me to test the waters for interest in a January "Meet":

Shall we schedule a "Meet" for January? How about the 22nd? I still would like to do either a "construction" of acoustic treatments, or the installation of same at Colin's HT. Maybe a Mini-Meet the week before for constructing, and the main meet on the 22nd for:
1. Listen before installation.
2. Installation.
3. Listen/measure after installation.
Colin: you had Mirus take measurements already, correct?
Whaddya say, pilgrims?

I realize everyone is very busy right now, but please post your replies, and suggest other Meet topics if you want - we can vote later if necessary.
Thanks!
 

Colin Dunn

Supporting Actor
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Oct 10, 1998
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741
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Indianapolis, IN
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Hank -

January weekends are looking pretty busy for me so far, but my schedule will become clearer after the first of the year. I think we should tentatively plan on a meet for February 19, 2005.

I am willing to be the "guinea pig" for the acoustic measurements / treatments. Mirus has taken the measurements of my room, so we can proceed from there.

The format I suggest is:

Begin with a presentation of the findings, and proposal of a design for the acoustic treatments - including placement, budget, and integration with the look of the room. Everyone can see/hear the system in its "before" state.

Then follow up about 4-8 weeks later with another meet in which the acoustic treatments are in place, so everyone can see the room and system in the "after" state.
 

Hank Frankenberg

Senior HTF Member
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Oct 13, 1998
Messages
2,573
Given that it unfortunately takes a long time for us Austinites to plan for and commit to a "meet", I agree with your suggested date. Four weeks later for the installation and enjoyment of the treatments would be great also.
 

Jonathan DA

Screenwriter
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Jan 11, 2002
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I have a slightly modified suggestion that I think will work better for Colin's room than the acoustics simulations we've done in the past. I also think this will be more interesting to everyone participating. Rather than a presentation of the results of a simulation, what if we did a real-time room analysis of the bass response using an ETF system and a parametric eq? The full on simulations take me weeks to finish and I can't justify doing that much work for a meet. So the series of events would be a mini-meet to plan out basic absoption placement (this just involves a mirror and a couple of people) and a listening session so everyone could see and hear the before state. Then Colin, Hank, and whoever else is interested get together an build the absorbers. Then we meet again, install the absorbers and the eq, run the ETF curves, and adjust the eq. Everyone sees and listens to the after state and we all have snacks and a drink. Sound ok?

Disclaimer: Normally for us to do measurements like this it costs a few hundred dollars. I made an agreement with Colin a while back to do it this time so I could create a case study out of it for a white paper and he could get the benefits; along with the group getting to have a fun meet.
 

Frederick_Falk

Second Unit
Joined
May 17, 2000
Messages
288
Darn, I already have plans for February 19th. I am good for the following weekend, the 26th, though. Hopefully we can get this one off the ground. I would really like to look (and hear) everything Colin has done to his room as it has been quite some time since the last visit I was able to attend.
 

Scott Oliver

Screenwriter
Joined
Aug 30, 2000
Messages
1,159
Come on Hank don't be so gloom.

Aw crap, I was going to mention the Bottlehead meet coming up as a good outlet, but it has now been pushed back to February as well. Well there is that other thing going on in January that I emailed you about.

BTW, I owe you for all the soldering fumes you have been smelling on my behalf, do you want some good beer, tequila, or gin?
 

Hank Frankenberg

Senior HTF Member
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Oct 13, 1998
Messages
2,573
Tubes: Glad to help. It was quite a puzzle figuring out the real problem with your BPT unit after installing the new breaker/switch. Imagine a miswired high-end power cord!:eek:

Nest time I host a get-together, either movie or poker, you can contribute some of the fixin's. Let's do something soon. I can't wait until the whole crowd agrees on some February date that's already being pushed out. If nothing more than a get-together to listen to everyone's latest music acquisitions, I'll be happy to host and for something different, how about we do a variety of hors d'oeuvres?

Colin: Why don't you go ahead and finalize a date for the "Meet", since it will be at your house? What's your pleasure?
 

Frederick_Falk

Second Unit
Joined
May 17, 2000
Messages
288
I would be more than happy to provide my Mac-mini for a HTPC shootout or demo.

Jonathan,

I have two meetings tonight that I cannot get out of so I will be unable to make it to your party tonight. Bummer. Hopefully I will be able to catch the next movie night at your place.

Ya'll have fun tonight! Don't forget your rubber-bands.
 

Jonathan DA

Screenwriter
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Jan 11, 2002
Messages
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Thanks Frederick, can you post your Mac's specifications? I'll start hunting up the necessary software, unless you've already done so.

We're also going to need a location to host the event if we decide to do this (we can still do the acoustics meet too, they're not mutually exclusive). The locale will need to be somewhere we can set up both systems at least a day ahead of time and configure everything in advance.

I'll of course volunteer my place, but then we'll be using my CRT projector which isn't what most HTPCers use, and we'd also need someone to supply a DD/DTS receiver for the Mac since my setup uses analog out from the PC. Anyone want to volunteer to host that has a receiver with 5.1 inputs and a HD capable digital projector?
 

Humphrey

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
234
I was talking to my Sony guy (I bought a 70" XBR950 RPTV from Jeff and we've stayed in touch) and he'd volunteer his 'in-process' showroom for a Friday evening. he said he's been interested in seeing the AE700 himself so he'd be glad to host.

He has a ceiling mounted Sony HS51 and a 100" Stewart Firehawk in a dedicated 16x26, 10' ceiling large viewing room. The rooms' about 90% complete, total light control (no windows at all) and some of the other details are in place. He's done several football games already for friends. Seating for 8 or so and lots of room, plenty of parking for everyone. The rack of equipment is close enough to where the HTPCs and projectors can tie in pretty easily. Let me know and I'll arrange it with Jeff if enough people are interested.
 

mike_frontier

Supporting Actor
Joined
Nov 18, 2002
Messages
670
Hey just read this. If Frederick will provide his Mac Mini, I can provide my M-Audio Transit. Plus I have yet to use it and still in it's package. I would love to see if this hardware can do what it promises. But let me know??
 

Jonathan DA

Screenwriter
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Jan 11, 2002
Messages
1,032
Humphrey,

Where is this showroom located? It sounds like a good venue to me if we could get access the evening before the event to set everything up and make sure that the computers are pixel mapped to the HS51 and AE700.


I'd like to do this in a semi efficient manner, so I was thinking I could create a compilation dvd of reference scenes from various movies. That way we could quickly test things like bad flagging, deinterlacing, CUE, etc. easily without having to do a lot of disc switching. In order to be compliant with fair use doctrine, we'll need to select the dvds from a single person's dvd collection and they will own the disc. I think Nils has the largest dvd collection of the group. If people want to throw out scene suggestions, we can check to see if Nils has the disc and go from there.
 

Greg Risley

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 21, 1998
Messages
288
I would be willing to bring along my Onkyo DV-SP1000 upconverting DVD player. It has hdmi output. If you would like to compare it to the mix.

Greg
 

Colin Dunn

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 10, 1998
Messages
741
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Real Name
Colin Dunn
The date for the HTF meet at my house will be: Saturday, March 5, 2005. The meet will start around 12:00 noon. We can begin with a lunch out, or all of us bring food/drink to the meet.

Tentative plans for the meet (may be subject to change based on Jonathan Atkins's schedule):

Start with lunch, and then progress to my theater room.

Jonathan Atkins will run an acoustic model before the meet, and present a summary of his findings at the meet. As a group, we will then go through a range of ideas for how to acoustically treat the room in affordable and aesthetically pleasing ways.

Then after that, we can watch movies, listen to music, etc.

It will then take me a few months to get the acoustic treatments and put them in. We will then have a follow-up meet about 2-3 months later to evaluate the results of the project...
 

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