First off, Josh Z's review: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=27556

Anyhoo, I got my copy via Amazon midday yesterday and finally got to use it today. The test patterns were a breeze to use and the results were quite nice on my 52D62U. I'm thinking of getting a Spyder to use some of the other patters on the disc so I can do some fine tuning on my set.

For those that might be interested, the DVD side is simply a port of the original commercial release of DVE. I dunno why I was bothered that nothing new was added on that side but for some reason I was expecting a revised version of the DVD side.

I wasn't able to check if the sound tests had the same problem in the LFE tracks as the previous release of DVE (nor was I able to check if the DVD side finally had the LFE problem fixed) because I accidentally broke my SPL meter. So if anyone knows if we once again have to compensate by 6dB when setting the subwoofer relative to the other speakers, I'd love to know.

I just got my shipping confirmation from DDD for this. I ordered it back in Nov. I'm glad to see it turned out well.

You actually got yours from Amazon? They keep changing the ship date on mine.

Found a copy yesterday at Fry's. Much to my relief, it loaded and played fine on my A20.

Hey, NOW there's a reason to get HDDVD. Hmm....

They would do the same to me (I had ordered it back in October) and I was surprised when they told me it shipped. I was even more surprised when it actually showed up.

Anyhoo, the support documentation for the disc is here: http://www.videoessentials.com/dvehd/index.html

I find it interesting that that the LFE 40 to 80 Hz noise is at -33 dBSF whereas the pink noise for the other channels is at -30 dBSF. Are we supposed to take the difference in level for granted (set everything to +75 dB) or are we supposed to compensate for the difference (set the LFE to +78 dB and the other channels to +75 dB)?

do you remember how much it was at frys>?

It's always tricky. If you are going to be very precise, you should search around and find specs on whatever SPL meter you have. Those are always off from one frequency to another, too. Usually, the LFE is off from other ranges by 10db to compensate for Dolby's oddities and receivers, 3db seems odd to me. I wonder if that is supposed to match up to the new Dolby schemes, gotta remember to look that up.

The Menu system is 100x better. I'm not seeing much new material compared to the old dvd release so far.

Ordered this today from Buy.com for 6 bucks and change thanks to GCO after seeing the thread over at AVS.

Mine actually shipped today! I was a bit shocked, as the estimated shipping date was June.

I received a final retail copy and amended my review to confirm that the DVD side of the disc is a straight replication of the old DVE DVD with no updates. The helpful video tutorials that are sorely missed on the HD side can be accessed on the SD side.

Well, if you can find them in those confusing menus, anyway.

Hey Josh (or anyone else who might know), I was wondering, how much of a difference would it make between setting up based on the SD side rather than the HD side? I made a purchase of this today because the Combo was cheaper than I've ever seen either this or Avia on SD, so it made sense, but I'm guessing that I would certainly need the step-by-step instructions of the SD side... is there much of a difference in final quality between the two? (i.e. could I set my TV up step-by-step with the SD side and then make a minor tweak or two using the HD side and be good to go?) Or, for that matter, is the HD side still pretty easy to follow anyway?

Also, and this is probably a very dumb question, adjustments are made via the TV's service menu, right?

Thanks in advance for the info. As much as I am a stickler for image quality (I just use the TV's sound, so doubt I'll even use any of the sound setup... for now ), I really don't have much of an idea of what I'm doing when it comes to calibration.

You want the proper color space and resolution of the HD side to set up an HDTV. People have been limping along with the SD version for years now (unless you had a pro come out for several hundred bucks). Nice to finally have the proper tools (well, closer to the proper tools) to use at home.

And adjustments are made in the video section of the menu. Probably in the regular menu, not the service menu. But it depends on your TV. The service menu should have more detailed controls, if you know how to use them, that may be a superior way to do it.

I would advise watching the SD side for the intructions, then going to the HD side for the test patterns themselves.

I snagged this last week from buy.com when they had the price at $14.99....then, I used the google checkout $10 off.....it made it about $7 after shipping.

Cant wait to try it out.

I wrote the helpdesk at the Video Essentials website (http://videoessentials.com/cgi-bin/pdesk.cgi) to see what they have to say about the whole deal with the LFE 40 to 80 Hz noise being at -33 dBSF and the pink noise for the other channels being at -30 dBSF. Basically I did copy/paste of my earlier post on this subject.

Got mine in the mail today....the XA2 DOES pass BTB via HDMI.

I didnt have to adjust contrast/brightness at all, but I did have to go -3 on both color and tint (XA2 picture settings).

SD DVD looked exactly the same as the HD DVD as far as contrast, brightness and color.

Cool. To set the black level with the HDV5000 at work I had to switch to component and jot down where the bacl level had to be set and then copy that when setting up the HDMI input on the set.

I played all my discs with my HD-A2 when it had its default firmware (1.0 I believe) and all played flawlessly. Just for the sake of it, I updated to 2.0 and all play fine. However I did notice something that I wonder if it's a disc rather than player issue. When using my HD DVD copy of DVE I play the channel calibration tones and notice that the LFE tone (though the subwoofer icon is highlighted on the screen) is completely silent. I though perhaps this is due to my using the optical out rather than the HDMI for audio (I don't have an HDMI capable receiver so I simply have the HDMI hooked up directly to my TV) but I notice that the tones during the Subwoofer Phase test earlier in the disc works just fine. Any ideas?

If you had any specific settings in your A2, they are reset to default after updating firmware. SO, you have to go back and resetup everything. That might be your issue?

No, my setting are all fine. I never got around to testing the audio tones until now because I'd yet to purchase a new SPL meter to replace the one I accidentally broke (don't ask *l*).

Do you get the LFE tone during the limited bandwidth pink noise test on you disk, RockStrongo?

I havent tried, but I will tonite. I watched 300 last night and the bass was very good. I have the XA2 and firmware 2.1 though.

The bass I get while watching movies is great. But for some reason the bass tone doesn't make a peep on that disk (although it does work on the LFE phase test). That's why I suppose it's a problem with the disk itself.

Well I e-mailed JKP again about the LFE issue

and I finally got a response.

I found the reply all too brief so I wrote back.

Anyone have any idea what the problem might be? Is it my setup (a Toshiba HD-A2 hooked up via optical to a JVC RX-DV3) or is the disc at fault?