Simply random stuff

[mandrix]

Agreed. My Mini Cooper S will do 0-60 mph in about 6.8 seconds which I've come close to, and a top speed of 140 mph which I've never approached, never been more than about 80 in this car. There are so many speed cameras in the UK these days that even if following a police card or being flashed to get out of the way of police, it's not worth the risk. Even ignoring that the performance of some cars these days is just ridiculous, there's no way to usefully harness that performance on the roads. My Mini Cooper S is more than quick enough for my needs and is plenty of fun to drive.

I hear you, Bro. We have more roads here and opportunities to crank it up, but truth is I'm not young and dumb anymore. Like I said I was always more into drag racing on the strip (but yeah on backroads too) than I was driving very fast on the highway...though I did sometimes. Lived to tell about it, thankfully. I drive the posted limit these days and if people want to buzz by, I don't care.

 

[barfle]

Record low of minus twelve here last night. Minus six when I took my wife for her cataract surgery this morning. All went well and she is asleep. Around eight degrees now.

My cataract surgery about three years ago was one of the best things I’ve done for myself. 16F outside right now. Staying in as much as I can.

 

[barfle]

I hear you, Bro. We have more roads here and opportunities to crank it up, but truth is I'm not young and dumb anymore. Like I said I was always more into drag racing on the strip (but yeah on backroads too) than I was driving very fast on the highway...though I did sometimes. Lived to tell about it, thankfully. I drive the posted limit these days and if people want to buzz by, I don't care.

I did some dirt track and off-road racing in my younger days. Had a lot of fun, scared the shit out of myself, and spent all my money.

Even before that, I would take my 1959 VW on fire trail roads through the hills between Orange and Riverside counties in SoCal with the car almost never pointed in the direction it was going. They’re all blocked off since probably 1980.

Just got a Nissan pathfinder 4WD, looking for trails this spring. I doubt if I’ll ever drive 100 on public roads again, though.

 

[barfle]

Ahhh, coffee!

There’s a little shop in Boise called Dawson Taylor that roasts and grinds and blends. They have a “backcountry blend” that I’m pretty much in love with.

 

[H.A.L.]

Ahhh, coffee!

There’s a little shop in Boise called Dawson Taylor that roasts and grinds and blends. They have a “backcountry blend” that I’m pretty much in love with.

Skipping the Kahlua in my coffee today, as my ice cage is thawing, and soon my steep ski slope of a driveway will be safe to navigate again! Even though I wrapped it well, my satsuma bush is not looking good, though .

 

[mandrix]

Skipping the Kahlua in my coffee today, as my ice cage is thawing, and soon my steep ski slope of a driveway will be safe to navigate again! Even though I wrapped it well, my satsuma bush is not looking good, though .

I'm worried about my big staghorn ferns. One is completey wrapped in tarps, the biggest one is suspended from a frame I made from 4x4's...all I can do is throw a (big) tarp over it.
I used to move them into the shed every winter but they are way beyond lifting now.

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

Does 7.1 really make a difference over 5.1? Is it substantial enough to care? This seems like a silly question but if you've got good enough rears in a normal 5.1 setup how much of a difference will those extra sides make?

 

[JediJoker]

Does 7.1 really make a difference over 5.1? Is it substantial enough to care? This seems like a silly question but if you've got good enough rears in a normal 5.1 setup how much of a difference will those extra sides make?

Technically, according to Dolby specifications, the surround channels in a 5.1 setup should be placed identically to the side surround channels in a 7.1 setup. So, 7.1 adds rear surrounds, not sides. Theoretically, in a perfectly treated room with optimally placed and equidistant speakers, those added rear channels shouldn't make much of a difference in terms of perceived soundfield.

 

[Owen Smith]

Does 7.1 really make a difference over 5.1? Is it substantial enough to care? This seems like a silly question but if you've got good enough rears in a normal 5.1 setup how much of a difference will those extra sides make?

One of the problems is that rears in a 5.1 setup are not really rears, they're meant to be surrounds or sides. If you play something back on a 5.1 system all rear and surround channel info comes out of those rears. But if you add side surrounds and then play back some 5.1 material on that 7.1 system, the 5.1 rear channels play out of the side surrounds which is rarely what you want. AVRs should have an option to say what to do here, options being: play in the rears only, side surrounds only, or play in both at 50% level. But I'm not aware of any AVR that does.

 

[inspclouseau]

OK, this is absolutely hilarious.

We miss Chris

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

But if you add side surrounds and then play back some 5.1 material on that 7.1 system, the 5.1 rear channels play out of the side surrounds which is rarely what you want.

Even if the said stream is encoded as 5.1(rear) instead of 5.1(side) per Dolby spec? That seems weird to me. Most DVD-A discs are encoded as 5.1(rear) if my memory serves me right, as that was the default for 5.1 until 7.1 got introduced (for Dolby TrueHD specifically).

 

[mandrix]

Does 7.1 really make a difference over 5.1? Is it substantial enough to care? This seems like a silly question but if you've got good enough rears in a normal 5.1 setup how much of a difference will those extra sides make?

Here's where the problem comes in.
When playing back DTS-HD in any flavor, Some AVR's will use all the base speakers for playback. For example 5.1 becomes 7.1.
Usually the way to defeat that is to use a "Pure" or "Direct" Mode, which will playback native format but may defeat any calibrations or loaded filters..

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

So what I'm getting from this is that 7.1 may not necessarily be a substantial improvement, but it allows for correct assignment to locations behind you for systems that have problems with 5.1 playback on a larger-than-5.1 setup, right?

 

[mandrix]

So what I'm getting from this is that 7.1 may not necessarily be a substantial improvement, but it allows for correct assignment to locations behind you for systems that have problems with 5.1 playback on a larger-than-5.1 setup, right?

Ummm. No.
The DTS-HD spec allows for playback up to (I believe) 7.1 from source material with less than 7 channels. All AVR's don't implement this however.
Some people love their 7.1 setups, and of course it's found in 7.1.4 Atmos.

 

[Owen Smith]

Even if the said stream is encoded as 5.1(rear) instead of 5.1(side) per Dolby spec? That seems weird to me. Most DVD-A discs are encoded as 5.1(rear) if my memory serves me right, as that was the default for 5.1 until 7.1 got introduced (for Dolby TrueHD specifically).

I remain skeptical that any discs are encoded specifying rear or sides for 5.1, and also skeptical that any decoders or AVRs would pay any attention to that encoding. I've only encountered this once before on QQ and nobody could produce any evidence.

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

I remain skeptical that any discs are encoded specifying rear or sides for 5.1, and also skeptical that any decoders or AVRs would pay any attention to that encoding. I've only encountered this once before on QQ and nobody could produce any evidence.

I can guarantee that you can specify side or rear when encoding (and you've gotta choose one)...as to whether any AVR cares, I dunno. I'll certainly test mine and see what it does!

 

[Owen Smith]

I can guarantee that you can specify side or rear when encoding...as to whether any AVR cares, I dunno. I'll certainly test mine and see what it does!

When encoding as what? DTS HD MA, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital+, multi channel LPCM? And if you don't specify anything what do you get?

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

When encoding as what? DTS HD MA, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital+, multi channel LPCM? And if you don't specify anything what do you get?

For anything Dolby you've gotta specify side or rear...and depending on the encoder if you don't specify it will default to either side or rear.

I've not used any DTS encoders, so I wouldn't know.

For LPCM, it depends on the format (I think). On Blu-ray if I recall correctly you can set the channel layout...but it's been a while so I have to revisit. DVD not so sure.