Technology (merged)

[John Mactavish]

How to calibrate buttkicker

This is my 3rd buttkicker...had to replace it 2 times.

with the first 2 buttkicker advance transducers i received, after a few days of use when i pick up the transducer and shake it, i could hear a loose part inside the transducer. You could also hear the transducer producing a crackling sound when the audio of the movie/music is turned down which is very annoying.

I previously used an spl meter to calibrate my buttkicker advance but it didn't seem to work with the first 2. I would still hear the buttkickers bottoming out a certain points of a movie/game/music track.

with my 3rd buttkicker advance i tried a different method which has been working so far.

i guess you can call it the "touch method." Using this method I haven't once bottomed-out the buttkicker.

1. turn off or unplug your subwoofer
2. play the subwoofer test tone on your receiver.
3. place hand on buttkicker transducer.
4. Feel the vibrations

• If you feel the buttkicker transducer vibrating, lower the buttkicker amp level, one step at a time, until the vibrations disappear. transducer should feel like its turned off.
• If you don't feel any vibrations, increase the buttkicker amp level until the buttkicker transducer starts vibrating, then lower the buttkicker amp level, one step at a time, until the vibrations disappear and the transducer feels like its turned off.

5. turn subwoofer back on.

It's been 2 weeks and i have not had any loose parts, or noise coming from my 3rd buttkicker advance. The power from the transducer is just right...powerful and never bottoms out...

its an easy way to calibrate and you don't have to worry about changing the level during a movie anymore.

When you lower the volume of your receiver, for example at night, but you still want the low frequency vibrations just repeat steps 1 to 5.

don't forget to lower the buttkickers amp level when you increase your receiver's volume.

 

[Sebastien Bortoli]

new graphic card,need feedback.

hey guys,my old 8500gt is not enough to have good graphics,i don't wanna spend to much money on a new card,i've find a 9500gt for 49.50 euros
http://www.rueducommerce.fr/Composa...Force-9500GT-1024-Mo-DDR2-PCI-Express-2-0.htm
i don't really know about this perfs,and i want to know if it's a good card for the price.thanks in advance,Seb.

 

[Carter Irvin]

Good idea -- question though: aren't there any recommendations from the manufacturer on how to set the buttkicker properly? your method sounds like it works great but if you want to turn up the volume you need to readjust the amp prior??

 

[John Mactavish]

Good idea -- question though: aren't there any recommendations from the manufacturer on how to set the buttkicker properly? your method sounds like it works great but if you want to turn up the volume you need to readjust the amp prior??

unfortunately, the manufacturer says nothing about how to calibrate. broke 2 buttkickers before i thought of a way to calibrate them. good thing amazon has a good replacement policy.

if you want to increase the volume of your movie/game...turn up the volume of our receiver and do steps 1 to 5 before you start playing your movie/game.

if your increasing the volume of your receiver it would be best to decrease the level of the transducer at first to prevent the buttkicker from vibrating too much when you start the test tone.

 

[Damian Henderson]

It's a pretty good card yes.

However if you can, I would spend just a little more money and get something like a 9600GT / HD4670.

http://www.rueducommerce.fr/Composa...eon-HD-4670-512-Mo-GDDR3-PCI-Expresss-2-0.htm

http://www.rueducommerce.fr/Composa...eForce-9600GT-512-Mo-DDR3-PCI-Express-2-0.htm


9600GT if you can but HD4670 is faster then the 9500GT, should play evo on max, will play rFactor on max no problem.

All of them are allot faster then your old 8500GT though

 

[Kalen Johnson]

It's better, but I don't think it's a BIG jump that you're probably looking for. I would go with either of Damian's suggestions. Damn, those are expensives cards though... at least compared to Newegg prices

If your tops is the 9500 price range though, I would say probably go for it, because now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure the 9500 is basically a rebadged 8600, so it'll be a noticeable improvement over the 8500 for sure.

 

[Sebastien Bortoli]

the 2 cards on your links Damian are not much expensive so i think i'll take one ,but don't know yet wich one,i'll say the nvidia cause i know their products to be good,don't know the reputation of radeon.

 

[Kalen Johnson]

Hahah, you're going to hate me, but for not that much more money, since it seems a little flexible, this one should last you a while, it's another decent step above a 9600:

http://www.rueducommerce.fr/Composa...eForce-9800GT-512-Mo-DDR3-PCI-Express-2-0.htm

You'll have to make sure your power supply is good enough to handle it though. But that is a great card.

 

[Sebastien Bortoli]

my goal is to be under 100 euros so this one is also good

 

[Kalen Johnson]

haha good. Well like I said, you'll have to make sure your power supply can handle it. EVGA's website says this is the minimum requirement:

Minimum of a 400 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 26 Amps.)

The more important part is the 12V and how many amps it has available. All that info is on the side of the power supply. I only mention this because a 9800 GT is going to need a good amount more power than a 8500 GT :wink2:

 

[Damian Henderson]

Ye get the 9800GT!!!

But as said make sure you check your powersupply!

 

[Chris Buchanan]

Image Tag Resize

If an admin here can tell me what mod they are using or if there is some setting that I could use to enable this. I'm wanting to do the same thing on a clan forum that I manage.

Thank you in advance

Chris

 

[John Mactavish]

Convert DVD to avi with 5.1 audio to stream to 360

I have been streaming avi movie files to my xbox 360 but only get stereo. the xbox 360 can stream avi files with 5.1 audio but it depends on how the movie is converted. I found this free program called Autogk that can convert DVD's (retail or not) into xvid avi with the 5.1 audio.

heres a...

20 second sample video with 5.1 audio (download here 7 mb) - using 100% target quality...

and a...

20 second sample video with 5.1 audio (download here 13mb) - using 75% target quality...

...you can try streaming to your xbox 360 using windows media player 11 (make sure library sharing is enabled in settings and xbox 360 is set to allowed). The 5.1 audio is preserved.

You have to rip DVD, Convert the DVD to avi, and finally stream video to xbox 360.

Ripping DVD

first you have to rip DVD main movie files to your PC's HDD with DVD decrypter (download "SetupDVDDecrypter_3.5.4.0.exe" here). ripping the DVD's main movie files will give you vob files and an IFO file in a Video_TS folder

1. install then run dvd decrypter, insert dvd in PC drive, press the 'I' key (this will bring you to IFO mode). it will look like this:

2. in the pic above you will see a box with cells that are checked. in this pic there are 7 cells. the first 6 cells are 0.15 seconds. the last cell is 4 min. uncheck all the cells that are 0.15 sec. anything lower than a 1 second should be unchecked (this solves the audio out of sync problems).

3. choose your destination or remember the destination folder

4. also change the settings by clicking on tools-->settings-->IFO mode tab and make sure file splitting is set to NONE, check 'include PGC number' and check 'include ANGLE number'

5. Now start the DVD rip by clicking on the DECRYPT button (the dvd and HDD with a green play icon between them). this will take 15-20 minutes. a VTS****.IFO, VTS****.vob and VTS****.txt file will be created in the destination folder.


Converting the DVD

uisng AutoGK ver 2.45 updated: use ver 2.55 (has audio fix) or the latest stable (full package) version (download here) , convert the vob file into avi. (note: there is no need to install K-lite mega pack or any other codecs like the download link says. my videos converted successfully without the mega pack, autogk installs its own needed codecs)

1. uninstall all codec packs, xvid codecs, divx codecs before you install autogk

2. install autogk first.

3. Then install ffdshow-tryouts (go here --> http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/ to download latest stable build...i downloaded beta 6.) You will know if you forgot to install ffdshow if media player classic cant playback the preview.

4. start autogk

step 1 - For Input File, provide the path to the destination folder of the DVD ripped previously, choose the VTS****.IFO file. Now choose the Output File, you can choose the default folder or choose another folder, type the name of the movie and click save.
step 2 - The Audio track dialog box should have the AC3 6ch audio track checked. There may be other tracks for commentary or other languages. Be sure you checked the AC3 stream with language you want. (ac3 6ch is 5.1 audio, ac3 2ch is stereo)

step 3 - Selecting Output size
For streaming to the xbox 360 you want one file.
- or use "target quality (in percentage) = 100%" for best quality

step 4 - click the Advanced settings
choose fixed width, set to auto
for the output audio type choose Original (AC3/DTS/MPA only) for the 5.1 audio track.
codec set to xvid
press ctrl-F11 (hidden advanced audio options), click enable advanced audio options, tick original for all

before step 5 you can press PREVIEW to see if there are any audio sync problems. this takes 5-10 minutes to see what the conversion will look like instead of waiting 2-3 hours for the actual conversion. I always press PREVIEW first to check for sync problems or subtitle problems.

step 5 - click add job, click start. in 2-3 hours avi with 5.1 sound will be ready

Streaming your avi files to xbxox 360 using windows media player 11

make sure you have windows media player 11 installed,

1. configure sharing ( click on tools -> options -> library -> configure sharing -> share my media to -> xbox 360 (console should be on for detection) set to allowed)

2. move your new avi file to My videos folder. Video should be automatically added to you library

3. turn on xbox 360. in the dashboard go to media blade -> video. press x button to change video source. choose your computer. open my videos folder. play your avi file with 5.1 audio

 

[Russell Dent]

Yeah 9800gt Good Card i ave it.

 

[Sebastien Bortoli]

just ordered it ,now i just have to wait ....

 

[Kalen Johnson]

Great! You won't be disappointed. 8500GT to 9800GT is going to be a HUGE jump! Whatever your max resolution is, any race sim can be maxxed I'm sure with probably at least 8x AA.

You did check your power supply, right? hehe.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

What kind of forum software you using Chris?

For vBulletin we use this modification from vbulletin.org:
[ame]http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=176531[/ame]

You need to have a paid license in order to download there

 

[Sebastien Bortoli]

yeah man,everything's fine

 

[Mike Hill]

Can anyone recommend a good capture device for Vista 64?

I recently purchased a Pinnacle PCI700 Movieboard Plus, but have not been able to get the thing to work (constant blue screen crash errors because of the driver), so I need to know of another device that will enable me to capture video directly from my Xbox 360 (via standard def RF cable) and is Vista 64bit capable. any ideas? Preferably within a reasonable budget please!

 

[Neil Gault]

I used to do a lot of converting myself many years ago and here are a couple of the sites that i used to frequent as they hosted both the tools and the guides
http://www.doom9.net/
http://www.videohelp.com/