September Austin meet? (1 Viewer)

[Colin Dunn]

Any interest in having an Austin home theater meet in September?

Hopefully I will have my new pre-pro (Integra DTC-9.8) by then, for a newly-upgraded theater.

I think the last Austin meet may have been about a year ago when Greg got one of the early HD-DVD players.

Thoughts?

 

[Jonathan DA]

Hey Colin, long time no see. I'd be up for another meet in mid September. A few of the Austin regulars no longer frequent HTF due to a spat a while back with the admins (don't know the details). You might have better luck getting interest via an email distro.

 

[Colin Dunn]

Jonathan -

Do you have current E-mail addresses for anyone who is interested in a meet? If so, send me a PM or E-mail me (my current E-mail address is in my HTF profile).

I'll look around later tonight and see if anyone I remember still is actively using this site (Hank, Frederick, Greg, etc.). Just saw Humphrey post to another thread, so he must still be around...

 

[Colin Dunn]

I sent PMs and/or E-mails to the following people who have been active on the Austin threads over the last year...

Paul Meyer
mike_frontier
Chad Anson
Leroy R
Jonathan DA
Jay.H
Humphrey
Greg Risley
MoG
Scott Oliver
Ian B
Mark Hayenga
Dave Elliott
John Prator
ReneZam

If you are in contact with others in the area who would be interested in a home theater meet, feel free to give them the link to this thread...

Anyone know what happened to Hank Frankenberg? It appears he doesn't receive PMs on this site anymore, and I don't have a current E-mail address for him.

 

[pmeyer]

I'm up for it. My HT is stalled at the mudding/taping stage, so I have plenty of time...

Paul

 

[Greg Risley]

Hey guys. I've been a busy little beaver this summer but a meet in Sep. would be great. Count me in.

 

[Colin Dunn]

Glad to see some of you guys are still around.

Any suggestions of topics / things you'd like to see at the meet?

My idea: We can start with lunch somewhere around town, and then progress to someone's house to see their HT. Perhaps some of us could bring HT equipment for demonstration / comparison.

Here are some topics that I think are interesting:
- The Integra DTC-9.8 pre-pro. Hopefully I'll have mine, and be ready to show it off, by the end of September.
- Digital room correction (Audyssey / Audyssey Pro). Anyone have a receiver or pre-pro with this capability, and can demo their setup with & without it?
- The new Oppo 980H universal player, and its capabilities (multi-region, video codecs, slide shows, audio, etc.)
- Streaming media components (for MP3 / WMA / WAV / Ogg / iTunes playback in a full-blown HT). NetGear, Buffalo, D-Link, etc. make these devices; I hope to have one someday...
- Pros/cons of multi-channel audio (SACD, DVD-A)
- HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, and the new audio formats (DTS-MA, high-bit rate DD and DTS, etc.)
- 1080p projectors - anyone have one yet? (I'm still at 720p, but next year may bring a 1080p upgrade if all goes well with work and the next generation of products )
- New offerings in HT seating / dedicated HT room furnishing

Other suggestions of new HT stuff of interest?

 

[Jonathan DA]

I would be interested in auditioning the effects of the Audyssey chip if anyone has a capable system. Specifically, I'd like to see if it is capable of taming "live" rooms with no acoustical treatment in them, i.e. the typical living room.

 

[Colin Dunn]

Hopefully, I'll be Audyssey capable by the meet. Got word yesterday that the Integra DTC-9.8 I had on order has shipped. Once I get this processor, I'll have Audyssey and a completely digital signal path for audio and video.

 

[Colin Dunn]

Got my Integra DTC-9.8 last weekend. Audyssey MultEQ didn't work with my Magnepan center speaker (it just says "retry" and never detects it). Spent most of Saturday afternoon dealing with HDMI flakiness, and found out my Oppo 980H needs a firmware upgrade...

But I should be ready to have a meet the last weekend in September.

So how does Saturday, September 29 work for everyone?

 

[Greg Risley]

I can swing the 29th. I can bring my PS3 if we need blu-ray.

 

[Humphrey]

Just saw Colin's PM. I'm game. Supposed to have that Saturday off.

I have a PS3 as well. I also have my PowerMac dual booting Windows (PowerDVD and a few other apps) as well as using Apple's OS. Was surprised booting Windows allowed better video output turning on some optional extras that my video card supports in PowerDVD. Chris Lewis showed me that one when we hooked the mac up to his CRT projection setup a few months back and tweaked the video options.

Anyway count me in. Where, what Time, etc...

 

[Jay.H]

I'm up for the 29th.

I'll need directions to Colin's place. My daughter has been there for a movie night with my brother a couple years back, but I've not been there.

 

[Colin Dunn]

We're about a week away from the meet.

I suggest we meet at a central location for lunch, then progress to my place. I'll bring directions to the lunch.

Anyone have a favorite lunch spot? I liked it the time we went to the dim sum place (Tien Hong) on Burnet Rd.

 

[Humphrey]

I don't know about the others but I'm game for lunch then over to yours. My vote is for BBQ or a good steak (don't do seafood or oriental but will attend lunch wherever is decided).

Did a time ever get set? Are you looking for or did I need to bring any of my equipment?

 

[Colin Dunn]

Humphrey -

We could do Texas Land & Cattle (at US-290 and I-35) for lunch. Their lunch prices are reasonable and the steak is pretty good there...

If you have a Blu-Ray player and a couple of discs, I'd like to try out Blu-Ray and see how the picture / audio compare to HD-DVD.

---

Anyone else still reading this thread?

 

[Jay.H]

Colin,
I'm still subscribed and get notification.

TxLC is good for me. There is also a small BBQ place on 183 @ Ohlen called Mann's. Family owned and really good ...my fave. We often take foreign dignitaries (read out-of-towners) there for lunch and it always gets rave reviews.

Wherever we go, what time do we meet?

 

[Colin Dunn]

Let's plan on meeting at Texas Land and Cattle on Saturday the 29th at 12 noon.

Humphrey - can you bring your PS3 and a couple of BDs so we can try out BluRay? We could also compare the sound quality of direct DSD (from an Oppo 980H) vs. 88.2KHz PCM.

Greg, Jonathan, pmeyer - can you guys make it on Saturday?

Jay - I thought about Mann's BBQ as well - go there for lunch all the time.

 

[Humphrey]

I have no problem bringing the PS3, other than that Ballad of Rickie Bobby BD disc I own zero BD movies. Greg I think has a passle of them, maybe we can borrow or someone else will bring with? Or I can go by Blockbuster and pick up a few, just give me some titles to look for. I'll still bring along my PS3 regardless.

 

[Greg Risley]

I should be there. I'll bring a stack of Blurays. Planet Earth is amazing. See you guys there.

Greg