Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Power supply upgrade

Only problem Ive had with the 1.5tb box is the Optical Out doesn't work but fortunately they've provided Digital Coax Out so it doesn't matter . I tend to try to avoid SD whenever possible these days and 1tb storage certainly helps to do this . Operationally , I find it a dream machine , near silent and very responsive to remote .

~M~

Hi Gizze
I've tried the various Sky boxes into the 5090, 6090 and 600m. As well as into a C3x 1080 onto a Wide Screen

My main focus at all times was on how they looked with 1080i material, as with the larger screens, the higher Res and more importantly, the higher bit rates for colour depth etc., begin to shine thru

I didn't spend a lot of time looking at SD material, but with e.g. BBC SD, I didn't notice any major differences between the boxes. A lot would obviously depend on the Scalers and DeInterlacers in the Display Devices

I always set the boxes to output the native Res of a particular channel, rather than allowing the box to Scale / Deinterlace

The biggest advantage with the newer box, as Manus said above, is that within the 1Tb personal space, as well as the 500Gb Anytime space, there is much more room for HD material. Therefore far less time needing to watch SD stuff

Hi Manus
Something I've mentioned here before as worth trying.........

Use the HDMI Audio out of the Sky box and then compare Meridian's PLIIx or Trifield on the resultant 2ch stream from the Sky, with the DD from the Coax

The Sky DD is typically only 384kbps over six channels, which is only 64kbps per channel. And even then, Sky (with their Multiplexing of multiple channels) can compress this even further, especially at peak viewing times

Most of the stereo outputs are at 192kbps with some (like BBC) at 256kbps. Even at 192kbps, this still results in 96kbps per channel, a worthwhile 50% increase over DD.

Also, when using the Sky HDMI into an HD621, you can Apodize the resultant 2ch Stream to MHR 24/96, before the Processor applies the PLIIx or Trifield preset

Worth a try, as you can easily compare the HDMI 2ch with the DD from Coax. Can also be instructive to compare the Sky version of the audio from a Movie or Concert with even a regular DVD of the same. I find the difference to be VERY pronounced,

Hi Ronnie ,

I will set up Config to do that certainly . I regularly contact Sky to give them a bollicking for their pathetic attitude to sound quality . Supertelly my ar*e !


Best

~M~

As I am running strictly 2-channel I have Sky set to two channel output in Sky setup. Under those conditions, I presume it puts out the higher bit rate over coax/optical?

Totally agree, I put a 1 gig hard drive in my HD box within a couple of months of owning it when it first came out, think it was a 750g actually as 1tb drives were still a ludicrous amount back then.


I guess the problem I had was I had gone from an SDI modded Sky box into a Crystalio II processor and then pixel mapped to display, which made SD look pretty amazing on all but the really low bitrate channels.

One last thing to try with SD is running the box at 1080i for everything, the boxes scaling isn't too bad, but its deinterlacing is terrible, so I always found much sharper results forcing 1080.

Yes, I believe so

As long as the "Optical / Coax Out" setting is set to "Stereo" rather than the more typical DD, then it will output the 2ch stream

There is a problem on most of the movie channels though, in that if you look at the Info text, the "Stereo" stream is actually "DS" or Dolby Stereo, which is akin to Dolby Prologic from legacy VHS Tapes

For a 2ch system, then setting the Optical out to Stereo would be best IMHO. For other users, especially those with HD621's, it's worthwhile comparing the 2ch Audio over HDMI versus the MC Audio Coax/Optical output, to see which they prefer

I'd be very interested in trying a better PSU. I read the 'Circles threads about upgrading PSUs before joining here, and its been on my radar since. Amplifiers are often described as amplitude modulated power supplies, and in general what comes out of a PSU tends to go straight through clocks, DACs and amps.

By coincidence I happen to have an 861V2 and a G68J at the moment, so I whipped to tops off last night. I believe my 861 had the PSU upgraded, and it looked identical to the G68 PSU, but also has a secondary supply board feeds the motherboard. The secondary board is quite large, and full of regs and caps. I assume it improves regulation, ripple and noise over the primary supply. The G68 seems to have some regulation on the motherboard, but it`s much more basic.

This suggests that M have addressed the need for clean power with the 861, as you`d hope with an expensive processor. My first thought was that maybe the 861 could be further improved with a better supply, but that might be wishful thinking. Second, there may be more scope to improve the G68 with a better supply. I`m sure there`s much more to the 861 than the PSU, but I like the thought of a modified G68 that closes the gap on the 861.

Nick

Ouch!!!

The combination of SDI out, Crystallio Processing and Dot for Dot pixel mapping would be a huge step up from the more normal SD straight out over HDMI into the Display. Apples and Oranges come to mind!!!

As regards using the box to force 1080i from 576i material, I've tried both ways on multiple occasions and I prefer to let the Display Device to do the Scaling and DeInterlacing, as I always found them to be better at doing it than the Sky box (in a similar way to your Crystallio above)

Others may prefer forcing 1080i from all channels though

And I've still got it! I'm actually using it as a regular Sky+ box (and scart output) since our last one died.

But the Sky box will only ouput 576p, unless these new ones will send 576i?That is why many also have scart RGB hooked up as well, as this is the best for SD.

Mind you if you don't watch much SD then it probably isn't an issue.

Yeah I know you can force 576i using certain scalers and editing the EDID etc. before anyone pulls me up on that.