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Hello all, I used this forum quite a bit years ago when purchasing my HT setup, and have a new issue I thought the experts could help me on. I did searches for similar problems, but haven’t found a solution yet. Hopefully you guys can help.

Here’s the situation. I bought (for practically nothing) two monoblock PA amps. They’re Bogen HTA-250A’s, rated at 250watts rms each. My thought was to use one to power a subwoofer, or maybe party speakers at some date. I wasn’t concerned about super clean power, but that they’d have some decent power. I had heard of a few people doing this online, and they were surprised at how clean they DID sound, so I thought I’d try it.

The issue was inputs, and it has RCA unbalanced Hi-Z (52k ohm), and low-z balanced (600ohm) inputs. I wanted to use the low-z preamp outputs from my receiver. I asked Bogen if they had some sort of module to add to connect these correctly and they said “plug the RCA from your receiver to the Hi-z inputs". That’s it.

Now here’s the problem; plugging into the hi-z only creates a loud ground loop hum, and very little “music”. Just to test to see if it was the input creating the noise, I disconnected the preamp and plugged an ipod directly into the RCA, figuring there’s no ground issue with a battery powered source, and the hum/buzz is completely gone, replaced by music. However, even at its max (the source output and the amps input knob. I was able to turn it up that loud, if that gives you any idea how NOT loud it was), it certainly wasn’t delivering full power.

What can I do? Convert the RCA unbalanced to a balanced input? I’ve read online that a low-z output to high-z input is common, and it’s usually on the magnitude of a 1/10 ratio of impedance. I’m not sure what a typical rca preout is rated at, but this imbalance in impedance seems to be too great and then there’s the issue of the ground loop. Any advice is appreciated

The Review at a Glance: (max score: 5 )

Film:

Extras:

Audio/Video total rating:

( Max score: 100 )

84

Studio and Year: Lionsgate - 2009
MPAA Rating: R
Feature running time: 109 minutes
Genre: Drama

Disc Format: BD-50
Encoding: AVC (MPEG-4)
Video Aspect: 1.85:1
Resolution: 1080p/24

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Spanish
Starring: Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Gabourey Sidibe, Sherri Shepard, Lenny Kravitz
Directed by: Lee Daniels
Music by: Mario Grigorov
Written by: Geoffrey Fletcher based upon the novel “Push” by Sapphire
Region Code: A

Blu-ray Disc release Date: March 9, 2010

“For precious girls everywhere”

Film Synopsis:

Precious Jones, an inner-city high school girl, is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant… again. Naïve and abused, she responds to a glimmer of hope when a door is opened by an alternative-school teacher. She is faced with the choice to follow opportunity and test her own boundaries.

My Take:

Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire and set in Harlem in 1987, Precious is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain, Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.

Wow. This is a gripping and powerful film that exposes the underbelly of the life led by some inner city teen girls. In this case it focuses on parental abuse and hits the worst as Precious endures sexual, physical, and mental abuse. I think that for many of us we could never imagine or understand the cyclical lifestyle that befall people like this or the strength required to break it. The film depicts some of the problems inherent in urban ghetto environments, some urban city schools and the welfare system but it also conveys that there is hope and how one caring act can make a difference. I was blown away by the performances of Mo’Nique and new comer Gabourey Sidibe. Mo’nique’s portrayal of Mary, Precious’ mother was nothing short of amazing. I understand that she pulled from her own life experiences and I found the outcome to be riveting, passionate, and evocative. Gabourey Sidibe in the title role needed to sell this character in order to legitimize her plight. I thought that her performance nearly rivaled that of Mo’Nique as I believed every word, every emotion, and every gesture. These two actors enlivened these women by drawing us into the difficult, painful and seemingly inescapable world they inhabit with performances that resonate well after the credits have rolled. Once again all I can say is..Wow.

Parental Guide:

The rating is for scenes of child abuse including sexual assault, and pervasive language.

AUDIO/VIDEO - By The Numbers:
REFERENCE = 92-100 / EXCELLENT = 83-91 / GOOD = 74-82 / AVERAGE = 65-73 / BELOW AVERAGE = under 65

**My audio/video ratings are based upon a comparative made against other high definition media/blu-ray disc.**

(Each rating is worth 4 points with a max of 5 per category)

Audio: 80

• Dynamics:
• Low frequency extension:
• Surround Sound presentation:
• Clarity/Detail:
• Dialogue Reproduction:
  

Video: 88

(Each rating is worth 4 points with a max of 5 per category)

• Resolution/Clarity:
• Black level/Shadow detail:
• Color reproduction:
• Fleshtones:
• Compression: <img src=”http://pc.wowgoldur.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/24ae7_attachment.php”

Precious comes to Blu-ray from Lionsgate featuring 1080p AVC encoded video that has an average bitrate of 35 mbps and lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio sound that has an average bitrate of 3.4 mbps.

This is a high quality video presentation that boasts deep, stable blacks and bold dynamic contrast. Colors range from vividly saturated to intentionally reserved/muted. Fleshtones are lustrous with appreciable tonal delineation that highlights subtle variations in the complexions of the largely African American cast. Images are exquisitely detailed, three dimensional, and razor sharp regardless of the camera’s perspective. Shadow detail is strong which provides an appreciable sense of depth during the low lit interior sequences. Grain is well preserved with variable texture that becomes prominent at times but never rises to objectionable levels. The DTS-HD MA soundtrack delivered dialogue that was crisp, tonally descriptive and well articulated. The front three channels delivered the bulk of the sound and did so with excellent clarity and imaging. The surround channels and sub saw occasional use and appropriately supported this dialogue driven presentation with ambient effects and the bass reproduction that matched those required by the film’s elements.

Bonus Features:

• Audio commentary by director Lee Daniels
• (HD) From “Push” to Precious – 15 minute featurette with author Sapphire
• (HD) A Precious ensemble – 18 minute featurette on the cast/casting of the film
• (HD) Oprah & Tyler: A project of passion – 9 minute featurette
• (HD) A conversation with author Sapphire and director Lee Daniels – 8 minutes
• (HD) Audition: Gabourey Sidibe – 2 minute screen test footage
• (HD) Deleted scene: The incest survivor meeting
• (HD) Reflections on Precious – featuring Lee Daniels, Paul Patton and Gabourey Sidibe
• (HD) Theatrical trailer

Final Thoughts:

Precious is a powerful, evocative and poignant dramatic film that tackles difficult subject matter. Based upon the novel “Push” by American author Sapphire, it examines the life of an inner city teen girl as she struggles against a system that offers little hope and copes with a mother raised in that system who fails her on every level imaginable. While her life is fraught with unhappiness she learns through the kindness of a few that a glimmer of hope is sometimes all that is needed to realize that “we are all good at something”. The Oscar nominated performances by Mo’Nique and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe are riveting and solidify the films Academy Award nomination for best picture. Precious comes to Blu-ray Disc from Lionsgate featuring a strong audio/video presentation and a decent compliment of bonus supplements. Some may find Precious to be difficult due to the nature of its subject matter and visceral telling. Those who decide to give it a spin are in for a rewarding film experience bolstered by two incredible performances built around a poignant story of survival under deplorable circumstances. Recommended!

Ralph Potts
AVS Forum Blu-ray Reviews

Reference Review System:

JVC DLA-RS20 1080p High Definition Front Projector (Calibrated by Jeff Meier)
Stewart Filmscreen - Studiotek 130 G3 100” 16×9 Screen
Anthem AVM50v THX Ultra 2 Preamp/Video Processor
Sherbourn Technologies - 7/200 Seven Channel Amplifier
Oppo BDP-83 Universal disc/Blu-ray Player (HDMI Audio/Video)
Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD Player (HDMI Audio/Video)
Sony Playstation 3 Blu-ray disc Player (HDMI Audio/Video)
Oppo 970HD universal disc DVD Player (480i HDMI)
Philips TSU9400 Pro Series Touch Panel Remote Control
Canton “Ergo” Series speakers
Axiom Audio QS8 Quadpolar speakers
SV Sound PB-13 Ultra (Rosenut finish)
APC AV S15BLK Power Conditioner/Surge Protector
Furman SPR-20i Stable Power Regulator
Wireworld, VizionWare, Audioquest, Best Deal Cables - Audio/Video/Speaker Cabling
Cool Components - CP-CP102 cooling package

My goal is to be able to reencode to mkv/m2ts files. The mkv will be using moderate to heavy compression as these will be for TV shows and played back through WMC7. The m2ts files will be using light to moderate compression and will be for Blu-ray backups, keeping HD audio in tact. I would prefer to playback the m2ts files in WMC but dont think it will provide bitstreaming so I would have to us TMT3 Platinum. Finally, I want to be able to strip down and compress some Blu-rays just enough to burn to a BD-25.

Prior to getting into all of this I was using the Shark007 codecs and selected to use the gabest splitter in it’s options to playback in WMC7. Everything worked great but when I started wanting to backup Blu-ray most of the encoder programs out there require ffdshow, matroska splitter and avisynth. I found out that I couldn’t use the Shark007 codec pack in conjunction with these tools or as their replacement, as in Shark007+avisynth.

Because of all the problems, I uninstalled the codec pack and installed haali splitter, ffdshow x86 and avisynth. Playback in WMC was all over the place. My Fringe episodes had audio but it was extremely low while all movies had no audio at all. The only way I could get audio from the movies was to change my default sound device to s/pdif instead of speakers. This isn’t a lasting solution for me because everytime I want to play an actual Blu-ray throught TMT3 Platinum I have to change the sound device back to enable bitstreaming.

After messing with different versions of each program for awhile, I finally found that the official haali splitter v1.9.355.1 used in conjunction with ffdshow v3291 x64 worked as far as playback. All mkv would run through both mkv splitter AND ffdshow audio at the same time. Running through ffdshow automatically increased the volume (without using the volume normalizer or any other tricks) of my Fringe episodes and restored volume on all other mkv files. However, I am now back to square one with these encoder programs as none of them seem to want to work with ffdshow x64 and I am not sure if they like the older version of the haali splitter. I think using the haali splitter over gabest is my first problem but the encoder programs dont like it.

Ripbot does a software check before loading and wont continue loading till I install ffdshow x86. BD Rebuilder will load and extract the a/v stream extremely slow even on normal (only uses 1-15% of my CPU for some reason with random spikes up to 50%) but fails at encoding. If x64 is installed it says none of the codecs are configured properly, if x86 is installed it fails claiming ffdshow version even though I am trying the exact version linked on the forum (3133). If I run BD Rebuilder with the Shark007 codec it is hit and miss with even a/v extracting. If it works at all it’s EXTREMELY fast (using 90%+ of both cores) but at some point it fails with a popup message about the x264 file.

Regardless of what I have installed, MakeMKV files always play in fast forward. I have to remux them to m2ts.

Ontop of all this, TMT3 .170 won’t play mkv files at all and if I try it resets the audio from HDMI passthrough to HDMI PCM. It will play m2ts files but still resets the audio to HDMI PCM.

After all this I am about ready to pull my hair out. Nothing works with each other; you can re encode but cant playback. You can playback but cant re encode.

Guessing the real issue is that I am trying to run on Windows 7 x64. Most of this software has been developed for use with XP x86.

Anyone have a similar setup or ideas that I can try? Is this just were the Blu-ray game is at now and I need to wait for it’s evolution?

Thanks ahead of time even if you just took the time to read all that crap above… lol

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