| Hometheaterphile October 2007
 A Conversation
with Nick Platsis of Anthem
A few years ago, before I began reviewing home-theater
equipment, I bit the bullet and dropped some cash on an audio/video processor. In search
of good advice and perhaps a little reassurance, I researched many different models and
read any review I could find. Finally, after a few e-mail exchanges with Home Theater
& Sound editor Jeff Fritz, I settled on the Anthem AVM 20, and drove two
hours to the closest dealer to make my first big electronics purchase.
Once home, I learned that the AVM 20 was much more
complicated to install than the A/V receiver it had replaced. The Anthem’s many more
inputs and setup capabilities left me clueless and confused. I opened the manual, found
Anthem’s technical services number, and made a desperate call for help.
That was the first time I spoke with Nick Platsis, who is
half of the knowledgeable technical support team assembled to help customers enjoy Anthem
products to the fullest of their capabilities. Platsis saved the day, patiently helping me
navigate the AVM 20’s setup menus until everything was up and running.
Since that day, I’ve contacted Nick Platsis any time I
had a question about an Anthem product. Lately, I’ve turned to him whenever I had a
question about anything related to home theater. I’ve come to appreciate just
how extensive is his knowledge of electronics. Last year, I reviewed the Anthem AVM 50. One
of the features new with the AVM 50 was its High-Definition Multimedia Interface
(HDMI), which I was very interested in using in my system -- but I couldn’t get it to
work properly. Once again, Platsis quickly pointed me in the right direction.
As we wound up our conversation, it occurred to me that
Platsis must deal with HDMI problems every day. So I asked him, "Hey, Nick, what do
you think of HDMI?" His voice, usually calm and measured, quickly grew frustrated. I
soon learned that Anthem has come to view HDMI as a distraction.
Months later, I interviewed Joe Lee of HDMI Licensing, who painted a much different picture
of the effect HDMI has had on the home-theater industry. In our conversation, Lee focused
on the benefits of HDMI while sidestepping some of the issues I raised about the
ever-evolving HDMI specification. I sent Nick Platsis the link to the interview, then
asked his opinion of what Lee had said. Again, Platsis’s voice grew tense. I asked if
he’d like to go on the record with his response, and he agreed.
Platsis told me that the main problem with HDMI faced by
companies such as Anthem is how long it takes to resolve the issues created by the
interface. "To give an idea, our room correction [for the D2 A/V processor] would
have been out a year ago, and inverse telecine might have been [out] right about
now."
The essence of the problem is the lack of an HDMI standard.
Platsis: "Standard HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) testing
didn’t exist when it should have, but it has arrived for new products. Reports coming
to us of problems that go away with [the] source connected straight to [the] display are
routine, as is fixing one, then looking at a new one as more source components emerge, and
the usual assumption coming with it is that the problem is the preamp [processor]. Since
two-way communications are involved and problems can either surface or be buried,
depending on the system, that thinking doesn’t apply, especially if [the] source and
display are of the same brand. Only a dongle and data analysis can be used to figure out
which 0 should be a 1 and which 1 should be a 0. Explaining that to someone looking at a
blue screen can be an uphill battle. EDID [Extended Display Identification Data] is
another part of it, and patching one thing without corrupting another is yet another
story."
In short, Anthem fixes one HDMI problem, only to find that
their solution might create other problems with other source components. "We
haven’t stopped adding smaller features, which creates another complication -- when
we send software containing new features and HDMI changes to our beta testers and a
problem is reported, it’s harder to tell which change caused the problem, the new
feature or the HDMI change. Doing it more methodically would have been nice, but
there’s only so much time, and the world can’t stop over HDMI problems; software
is organic too, in a sense."
As maddening as this seems, this isn’t just
Anthem’s problem, but one shared by the manufacturers of the source components. Why
don’t frustrated customers contact those manufacturers? What does Anthem do when the
problem isn’t theirs?
"When a problem is identified, some source-component
manufacturers are very easy to work with and others are impossible, denying that there is
a problem . . . except that one day a software update fixes it. Fixes are more likely to
happen in the upper part of a source-component model lineup than in the lower part, where
the fine print sometimes says ‘limited HDMI support provided.’ Lately,
we’re saying that too, when our code isn’t broken and the problem is
known."
The backside of Anthem's feature-rich Statement D2
As if all this weren’t enough, Anthem is now inundated
with calls asking them for clarification of the new HDMI spec. Currently, Anthem uses HDMI
1.1 in their AVM 50 and D2, but has no plan to add the new HDMI 1.3 spec anytime
soon. Why? The decoder for the newer sound formats is included in the source player. Once
the soundtrack is decoded, it can be sent out in PCM format, which HDMI 1.1 is capable of
transmitting. So what’s the big deal?
"What matters most is what people buy in greatest
number," says Platsis. "On one hand, price decides, so it doesn’t make
sense to have lossless decoding in two places. But on the other, the buyer wants to see
the logos on the faceplate, even if there’s no technical reason for having
them." From the perspective of the video transfer, "if a display can refresh at
120Hz, that’s nifty, but nothing says anything is gained by feeding it 120Hz, because
1080p/24 and 1080p/60 inputs contain all the information it can use and all that is in the
source material. Nothing says it can or has to accept 120Hz, either. Other things, such as
Deep Color, will have meaning if everything from camera to display can support it, but by
the time it happens, who knows what else will develop?" The bottom line: HDMI 1.1 is
capable of transferring everything that is currently available, and that’s why Anthem
uses it in their products.
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Nick Platsis says
there is. "Supporting HDMI was asking for punishment, but things are getting
better." Now that an HDMI standard has been set and is being adhered to, perhaps
Anthem can return their attention to keeping their surround-sound processors pushing the
technical boundaries. My confidence is with the people of Anthem. My home-theater system
has included one of their processors for the last three years, and I see no reason to make
a change.
...Randall Smith
randalls@hometheatersound.com |
