AVForums Podcast: Episode 217 - 16th April 2018

Phil Hinton

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This week:

00:01:20 – Accents, car seats, Skatt Bros, crowded cinemas and TV stands
00:08:25 – Current competitions
00:11:40 – Sony announces pricing for their AF8 OLED TV
00:27:00 – Ed’s thoughts on the Dynaudio Special Forty speakers
00:33:10 – Steve reviews the Arendal 1723 S THX speakers
00:39:55 – Steve impressions of the SVS PB-4000 subwoofer
00:48:15 – Phil and Steve review Rampage at the cinema?
00:55:22 – Phil accidentally orders Star Wars The Last Jedi on 4K disc
01:01:44 – Films opening this week – Wildling and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
01:03:14 – Disc releases – Ferdinand, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay and Carrie
01:04:27 – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc news
01:05:20 – What did we think of the latest Solo: A Star Wars Story trailer?
01:09:35 – How can Stranger Things be accused of plagiarism?
01:11:04 – Are Amazon mad spending $1 billion on a Lord of the Rings TV series?
01:25:44 – Goodbyes

Presented by Phil Hinton with Steve Withers, Ed Selley and Mark Botwright

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Time: 01:26:22 | File Size: 124mb | Direct Link
 
Cheers lads, good listen this morning.

I agree with comments regarding Amazon,
I was considering not renewing this year as Netflix and Now tv are more than meeting my needs. I did then come across The Looming Tower which is a great 10 parter (last ep this Thursday), so for those with Amazon, try it out.
Story of the lead up to 9/11 and how the CIA and FBI let’s say didn’t work very well together - great cast and available in UHD.

The LotR may be interesting, loved the original trilogy and watched the extended cuts many times, The Hobbit ... I bought the Blu and have still to watch, says it all...

What’s the story with the multiple TVs over the year ? Is this for comparison with new TVs throughout the year or is it some sort of burn in test with regards to gaming/news tickers or a bit of both?
Will be interesting to see calibration graphs many months on to see how things shift around.
 
nice podcast, glad there is going to be a longer time living with tvs reviews...and the first things i want you to look at is burn in/retention and gaming on oleds, as well as anomalies like pulldown issues and processing!!! look forward to it.
 
Great podcast guys. The comments on the size of SVS Sub had me in stitches. :laugh:
I can just see my other halfs face if a sub the size of a small car arrived on the doorstep...:mad::eek:
Don't worry darling I'm sure I can get it to blend in with the decor....:rotfl:
 
Cheers fellas :clap: podcast

The trouble with the 10 parters when you get them all at once it's tempting to jump to the end or skim episodes..which I sometimes do, especially during a slow episode or when the story is getting a bit obvious
 
Thanks chaps, the podcast makes my Monday morning drive into work a joy. I did like the Amazon Netflix part interesting, I have just subscribed to Prime in the last month so the jury is still out for me if I will keep it alongside Netflix.
 
Long term testing sounds very good, do let us know if you run into any annoying problems like TV operating system slowing down over time (*cough*Sony Android*cough*) and things like that - not just picture quality related stuff.
 
Great podcast again guys. Good to hear about the long term term testing. There cant be many sites that do this, so should be a good feather in your caps when it comes to truthful reviews and comparisons.

Ive had many discs where I have forgotten about an unwanted pre-order. Some have not exactly been cheap either. I keep meaning to cancel my Endoarm T2 pre-order, not done it yet! I bet that will arrive before I actually cancel it.

As for NF and Prime streaming, yes the prices they throw at series seems very high. But unlike a film where its a cost of a cinema ticket and the income then goes, they have millions of people paying each and every month. So long as the revenue stays high and profit match their forecasts, how they calculate the risk of a show is not quite the same as a studio. Sure a studio can take a hit, but they have to make a loss up on the next few films. As long as Netflix does not haemorrhage subscriptions in a year or two, they are more happy to run the risk.

Amazon just generates billions and billions and are more than happy to sacrifice profits for market share and mind share.

But as Steve said, its simply down to writing. You can get away with a pants script when your just entertaining people for 2 hours. You cant have that for 10-100 hours. As you guys said, you can see the desperation to create the next GoT. But along with The Wire, The Sopranos, The Shield, Breaking Bad, these are lightning in a bottle shows. You cannot make then happen. It's a magic set of circumstances of ideas, commitment and love for the show that made them. You only have to listen to the official podcast for Breaking Bad to find out it's success had nothing to do with money. It was a undying passion for what was being created and some very clever people. Vince had a beginning and an end, that was it. $100m's would have made little difference (probably made it worse), but how many time will we see that happen and a show not live up to it's budget?
 
Yes, @Mark Botwright Gaming on Sony via Android TV streaming apps - PS NOW and probably Gamefly

You'll be able to use DualShock 4 via Bluetooth plus many other controllers.
 
Sony OLED Pricing

For Sony TV pricing you can add a further £1000 on top of Retailers Price.

Calculation:
Assume watching 3hours per day. Add £3 per day due to £1 per hour of mental pain due to rubbish slow Android TV implementation + poor performance 2015 MediaTek chips = even on 2018models.

Muliply £3 x 364 days per year = £1092.
If 2 people watch TV for 3 hours a day = £6 a day = £2184, but lets be generous and kind to Sony so keep it at £1000 of pain.

The £1000 is for every year so over 5 years = £5,000.

So a £3000 model has a true total cost of ownership of £8000 = being generous.

My experience is based on owning Sony ZD9 and SONY XE9305 last year.

To make matters worse the current Dolby Vision update over 1 year late, is an older version where blacks are elevated on so many Netflix Dolby Vision titles. Wait another year for the newer version.
 
Phil accidentally orders Star Wars The Last Jedi on 4K disc

I too accidentally ordered it on iTunes. It was like a strange scary disconnect between my brain and physical motor neurone control.

Could be Sith Lord Ghost in play here.
 
Accents

These are very difficult to do unless you are a trained Actor.
Although I have Indian origins, my failed attempt at Indian accents makes me sound more like I am from the West Country.
 
@Phil Hinton Mr Hinton, any chance of a photograph of the scaffolding structure that will hold four televisions at once please (unless I've misunderstood, which I do all the time!)? I'm intrigued about how the structure might look!
 
@Phil Hinton Mr Hinton, any chance of a photograph of the scaffolding structure that will hold four televisions at once please (unless I've misunderstood, which I do all the time!)? I'm intrigued about how the structure might look!
Still in experimental mode and probably not going to be seen until next month, so stay tuned!
 
Jolly good, Sir!
 
Good work again gentlemen and looking forward to the long-term reviews. Will be interested to hear if the screens need recalibrating after extended use.
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
On the subject of Screen size briefly remarked upon in the Podcast, may I ask what is the ideal screen size to viewing distance for 55inch and 65inch, putting price aside?

Often it is said that 65inch is better, but my experience based on 65 and 55inch suggests there are benefits with the smaller size of 55inch:
REASON 1. Streaming services lend them selves to poor colour graduation, which can be much more noticeable on a larger Screen, especially if the TV does not have a processing feature to help address poor content source graduation (BBC iPlayer).
REASON 2. If you are motion sensitive, then judder becomes harder to tolerate on a larger screen.

I sit 6.5feet from 55inch (LG OLED) and previously had 3 x 65inch TV’s (LG OLED, SONY ZD9 & SONY XE9305).

The LG OLED 65INCH - @6.5feet was difficult for the above 2 reasons.
SONY ZD9 65INCH - @6.5feet could deliver excellent motion and smooth graduation, but I could not live with Android TV OS.
SONY XE9305 65INCH - @6.5feet like the ZD9 had smooth graduation, but motion was difficult to my eyes. Also I could not live with Android TV OS.

Any chance this subject of viewing distance to screen size be picked up in a future Podcast? I think it would be great to hear from experts and could help us consumers with future buying decisions.
 
Last edited:
If you like Blade Runner you have to see Altered Carbon.
 

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