*** Official *** Outlaw 950 questions thread (1 Viewer)

[Vince Maskeeper]

Jed,

I appreciate you taking a shot at my questions. I am specifically intrigued by #2:I wondered if you could point me to the manual pages that refer to this feature. I skimmed the book, and didn't see this ability (the ability to watch the video from one device, while listening to a different device)-- so I wondered if you knew where in the book it was located (or if you could outline where the function is and how to access it).

-Vince

 

[Jed M]

Vince, I just thumbed through the manual and I can't find where it says that either. I can tell you from experience that as long as you are watching a video input and switch it to a non video input, the original video will still be displayed on the screen, instead of going to a blank blue screen like my pioneer. I wish I could refer you to a page number but I just can't find any mention of this feature but I can guarantee that it does in fact work.

 

[Patrick Sun]

My POS Sony DB930 even has the separate Audio and Video source selection feature built in as well (though I have to use the front panel to do the selecting.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I can tell you from experience that as long as you are watching a video input and switch it to a non video input, the original video will still be displayed on the screen, instead of going to a blank blue screen like my pioneer.

Interesting- I just tried this on an Outlaw 1050- and it did the same thing! I never thought to try it that way (always toggled through the modes). Neat, so I guess the major issue is "solved"...

Now to get answers for the rest of them. Anyone?

-Vince

PS: What is the pricetag on this unit? The site said $899, but I saw someone selling it for $950 used [which seems odd if it is $899 new].

 

[RAF]

Vince,
Quickly, by the numbers - at least what I can understand from the wording of your questions:
#1: I don't use the multi-room options at all so everything here is from playing around with the menus. You can set the 2nd room options from the remote but since I think you have to SEE the OSD to do this (unless you memorize the key sequences and menu toggles) you have to be in the room where you can see the set-up menus in order to make any changes. Besides, the 950 remote is a standard IR model so unless you get into a lot of IR repeating you wouldn't be able to control the 950 from another location. But, like I said, I don't use the 2nd option so maybe someone with real world experience can chime in here.
#2: Yes, the 950 acts like the Denons in this regard. I've often watched a ball game while listening to a CD. What I do miss from my Denon 5700 is the need for the 950 to be displaying the source that would be recorded to a VCR. In other words, you can't watch one thing and tape another if you use the 950 for all your video switching. (The Denon allowed you to pass a source through to tape while viewing or listening to something else.)
#3: There isn't an LFE toggle pad, per se, but there is a TRIM control that lets you adjust the SW on the fly while listening to a source. You have to cycle through the options (LF,C,RF,RS,RR,LR,LS,SW) which means 8 quick pushes on the remote's TRIM button, but once there, you can adjust the SW output volume as you wish. Actually easier to do than to explain. Of course, as has been stated, you can't store different volume settings for dfferent sources.
#4: No rack mount as far as I know. The case is a standard width though so I would assume that after market stuff might work here.
#5: This is a tough one to give a simple answer to. As far as I can tell, the 950 detects the source material properly (as long as the proper flags are present) and then you can switch to whatever you desire, within limits. Some sources will only allow certain modes to be chosen and other modes are locked out. There are so many combinations here that it's impossible to list them all but it appears to be tied into what the source is and what the processors are capable of handling. That said, I've never come up with a scenario where the 950 wouldn't do something I wanted it to do. Let me cite one quick example (if I haven't already confused you). If you are listening to a DTS data stream the 950 will sense this. Additionally you can switch to DTS-ES (even if the source is regular DTS) or to STEREO but not DD (any form) or 5STEREO or 7STEREO. That's because there are limitations to what modes you can use based on the input source signal. And for different sources the choices are different. Also, you can lock the 950 to a particular mode with the following caveat: If you lock into a mode that the source won't accommodate you will hear nothing. That's why AUTO detect is the best for most cases. In the above example, if you LOCK onto DD5.1 and play a DTS source you hear nothing because DD5.1 is not a playback option from DTS. Make sense? I know it's more confusing to write about than to use. Also, as I stated before, I haven't come across one single example where the 950 would not do anything I wanted it to do. Asking it to do DD from DTS is not a normal request. Hope some of this very long paragraph makes sense.

#6. Huh? Can you give me specific examples of media that I might own so that could check this out for you? Like I said, the 950 apparently detects the sound source from anything as long as the proper flags are on the media (which they should be or this would be a media flaw.) I need a bit more information to answer this better for you. I did notice that in discs with mixed media (like the DTS audio demo disc we got in LA that if some tracks are DTS and others are DTS-ES it differentiates and adjusts for these track variations. And on those hybrid discs (like the AIX stuff) that offer a variety of formats it will detect whatever format you asked the player to output.
#7. I believe that the answer to this is YES since on my old CD player I only use the digital output and I can still play redbook CDs that indicate "PCM" on the 950's OSD display. Is that what you are asking?
#8. Outlaw has indicated that the answer to this is essentially "Yes"
#9. I gather that it will take about another month for the reserved list to be fully used up and, according to what Outlaw said at the NYC Home Expo they expect you to be able to order a 950 for immediate delivery by mid-summer. Whether or not this fits your "August" time frame is something I can't answer. My gut feeling would be "Yes" but this is out of my control. Remember, I'm just an "unwitting pawn."

Hope this helps a bit, Vince.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

RAF,

Thanks for taking the time to post, I was hoping you would find your way over here...

I believe that the answer to this is YES since on my old CD player I only use the digital output and I can still play redbook CDs that indicate "PCM" on the 950's OSD display. Is that what you are asking?

What I'm asking is this:

LEt's say I was listening to an analog source, say like VHS. The VHS VCR is connected to an analog input on the 950. If I were to monitor the signal coming off the DIGITAL OUTPUT on the 950, what would I get? Would it be silent, or can it actually pass digital converted output of the analog signal I fed it?

Most digital outputs like this one can only pass signal that came in digital. But wondered if this one would give me a digital version of the analog signal.

So my only remaining big question is pricetag. Are these things still selling for $899 new?

-Vince

 

[Russell _T]

They are $899.00 new. Due to initial demand, they may be selling for more used.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Yeah, if you're content to wait, you can get them for the $899 price (but with a 1-2 month wait, it seems). If you want it now, you might have to pay a little bit more. It's like trying to buy a hot car that has high demand and low supply at the start of its roll-out cycle.

 

[BruceD]

Vince,

Since I don't own one I can't say for sure, but I'm sure I've seen comments about the digital out only being available for digital input signals.

The analog input signals that get digitized are not available at the digital outputs.

 

[AVspec]

Vince, the 950 does have IR input jacks for both the main and zone. I currently am using the main IR input and also like the fact that when the jack is plugged into the unit the remote still works from the front IR receiver (which is not the case on my Pioneer 300-disc CD changer).

Now if I move the IR plug from my AMX system from the main to the zone jack and then send it a IR code like CD mode the 950 seems to come on but there is no display on the front of the unit but the "multi" light comes on and the 12 volt trigger becomes active and the video portion also becomes active.

That’s about all I can tell you on the function on that but let me know if you want me to test something out for you.

 

[Ted Kim]

I can tell you from experience that as long as you are watching a video input and switch it to a non video input, the original video will still be displayed on the screen, instead of going to a blank blue screen like my pioneer. I wish I could refer you to a page number but I just can't find any mention of this feature but I can guarantee that it does in fact work.

I tried doing the quoted procedure and my video input has always defaulted to a blue screen when switched to a non-video input. Actually, it is not a blue screen, whenever I switch to an input without a video input I get rainbow colored lines sweeping across the screen. There must be a problem with my video switching circuitry. This is my 2nd 950, the first didn't have that video instability but I can't recall if it did the above quoted procedure either.

 

[Steve Owen]

A couple of 950 questions...

Q1: If I've got a digital audio input assigned to one of the video inputs, if the digital signal isn't there, does it "fall back" to the analog audio inputs? I have a Sony SAT-T60 DirecTiVo receiver and it only outputs digital when its playing a program. It literally shuts off the digital audio output when navigating the menus. I'm wondering if the 950 will detect the lack of digital signal and fall back to the analog inputs.

Q2: Any opinions on the quality of the D/A for standard 2-channel PCM CD? My Adcom CD player sort of bit the dust and I've been using my Pioneer DVD player for standard CD audio. It's OK, but I really liked the quality of the D/A in the Adcom CD player.

Q3: Bass management. Once all of the crossover frequencies and speaker configurations are set up in the "speaker config" menu, does the 950 honor those settings for ALL inputs (digital and analog) except for the 5.1 (6) channel direct input? Why does the 950 give SMALL/LARGE optionss for the Front, Center, and Surround speakers and then give individual cross-over options for each? Don't those settings step on eachother? It would seem to me that you'd just set them all to LARGE and then set an appropriate crossover, or am I missing something?

Thanks,

Steve