AVForums Podcast: Episode 259 - 1st April 2019

Phil Hinton

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00:01:34 - What has the team done this week?
00:12:28 - Current Competitions
00:13:23 - Phil reviews the Vivitek HK2288 4K DLP Projector
00:24:40 - Steve reviews the Def Tech BP9000 speaker system
00:39:35 - Ed reviews the AudioLab M-DAC Nano
00:43:21 - Ed buys an iPad Pro
00:48:22 - What is coming for review in April
00:51:21 - This week's cinema releases
00:56:12 - This week's Blu-ray and 4K discs
01:00:00 - Best TV of the week
01:04:32 - Cinema game changers in our lifetimes and what's next?
01:22:05 - Goodbyes

Presented by Phil Hinton with Steve Withers and Ed Selley.

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Time: 01:22:54 | File Size: 119mb | Direct Link
 
Great podcast.

You guys and the Apple products does make me chuckle. So glad in my industry (CAD) apple is a total non event and you would be a clown to use them. They still have a foothold in the visualisation software but even that has slipped massively over the last 10 years.

I was beginning to wonder if it would be 2020 before we saw some new TV reviews :laugh:
But..... not long to wait now :thumbsup:
 
Thanks gents, quite a sedate episode by recent standards.
Having said that, £500 for some music software! :facepalm: :mad: And Apple is not involved? How about mentioning some good free software when you talk about it?
 
With reference to Jaws, I believe that defined what a summer blockbuster was but even that is no longer an event in the annual film calendar

Not and funny as last week's but I never tire of listening

Keep up the good work :)

BTW - did we get any response from the winner of the gaming chair?
 
Regarding titles not released in the UK in 4k while being available as such in the USA. Pixar's/Disney's The Incredibles 2 didn't get a 4K disc release here in the UK and neither did the HD Blu-ray include Atmos. The re release of the original film also got a 4K Atmos treatment in the USA, but not here in the UK. This sort of gets you thinking as to what Pixar's and Disney's plans will be for the Toy Story 4? It ain't looking good.
 
Yet another great podcast to listen too

Regarding the Vivitek projector they have always been the lowest of the low, (Benq, Acer & Optoma wipe the floor with them) but if you are desperate I suppose at a £1000 it’s worth a punt.

Regarding the ST and GTI, the GTI will be worth considerably more that the ST after 3 years and this has to be factored in to the lease cost.

Bill
 
Regarding the ST and GTI, the GTI will be worth considerably more that the ST after 3 years and this has to be factored in to the lease cost.

Exactly - the primary driver of car leasing costs is depreciation during the contract period and that's based on the price the lease company pays (big companies obviously negotiate discounts to list prices). By example, your dealer might charge you for metallic paint, whereas this can actually reduce the lease cost because they are easier to sell.

Then it's their cost of finance for that depreciation, plus any other liabilities like repairs, tyres etc depending on what is on them.

MB
 
Thanks for another good listen, chaps

In terms of next big thing, I cant help thinking it will be something interactive rather than something technically impressive. They will soon be able to produce a full CG film that is indistinguishable to real life actors (maybe they can already). Then they may as well go away and only come back when they can do the ST hollodeck thing.

Maybe you'll sit there with your mobile and vote at certain points in the plot to direct the story (like those 1980s adventure books). Just making this up. It sounds awful to me. I'd much rather be at one of @Ed Selley 's Titanic seminars :thumbsup:

MB
 
@Phil Hinton do you use MSO for your 4 subs before running room correction? Or do you just do a basic delay/gain adjustment? Out of nosey interest have you ever shown off pics of your room?

I think I'd struggle to fit 4 subs in my room :confused: (then again, I don't really need to :p)

Also I think Oblivion was the first Dolby Atmos movie
 
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Steve you mention that the UK is getting a 3D Ralph Breaks The Internet but this is in fact their first animated title in years to not have a 3D release either. Just standard Blu-ray and digital.

I’ve been an avid collector of their 3D releases so they won’t be getting any more money from me. I’m not going back to standard Blu-ray now. I was surprised to see Dumbo getting a 3D announcement - don’t know what they’re playing at.

Ralph was very good 3D in the cinema, too frustratingly. Only available as a 4K/3D combo from Japan.
 
@Ed Selley , Ive been using Roon for just over a year now, I run Tidal plus my HD content on a NAS which is acting as the Roon server. Most content is streamed to my Poly/Mojo. What is it you want to know about the App?
 
They will soon be able to produce a full CG film that is indistinguishable to real life actors (maybe they can already).

Agree this will be the next massive step (and, from what I've seen, they definitely can't do it yet: As good as it was, there's a massive difference between the very impressive Peter Cushing in Rogue One and the actual Peter Cushing in Star Wars, for example.) I'm sure there's a yet-to-be-made Marylin Monroe starring film that will blow our socks off in a decade or so.

As for technical advances in exhibition, I can't help feeling it will have to be the ditching of front projection in favour of a technology that can display true black (unless there's some way of figuring out how to get a black screen to reflect light...). Cinema screens made of giant OLEDs, or some such, could create an image way better than the best IMAX out there.

Agree about the excellent piece on Grand Tour about the Porsche 917 - I'm not a car nut but was so impressed that I immediately bought the Blu-ray of Le Mans. What an extremely strange film it is: Very little dialogue, even less story and, apart from a couple of slightly silly crashes, not even the (copious) racing footage was particularly exciting. Still, it was great to see some high quality footage of a half-century old race (although, not as impressive as the large format footage of the racing in Grand Prix from a few years earlier).
 
Whilst i haven't seen the film, i can highly recommend the book "The Sisters Brothers" if it floats your boat.

MB
 
Great podcast as always.

I'd like to see cinemas actually have a decent bass response, that'd be a game changer as most tend have zero output below 30hz which is partly the reason I never go to cinemas, as I have a better response at home.. Even more so now we're using Bass EQ which is the ultimate game changer as far as home cinema goes :)
 
@Ed Selley , Ive been using Roon for just over a year now, I run Tidal plus my HD content on a NAS which is acting as the Roon server. Most content is streamed to my Poly/Mojo. What is it you want to know about the App?

Thanks- it's not a question, it's more an abstract interest as to how many forum users already make use of it. At least one!

Agree about the excellent piece on Grand Tour about the Porsche 917 - I'm not a car nut but was so impressed that I immediately bought the Blu-ray of Le Mans. What an extremely strange film it is: Very little dialogue, even less story and, apart from a couple of slightly silly crashes, not even the (copious) racing footage was particularly exciting. Still, it was great to see some high quality footage of a half-century old race (although, not as impressive as the large format footage of the racing in Grand Prix from a few years earlier).

My Dad describes Le Mans as a 45 minute film crammed into two hours which has always seemed about right.
 
On the subject of cinemas. what's the resolution that they run at (I'm assuming digital projectors) and how bright are they typically? I'm guessing most can't do HDR at the moment, although I did see a news item about somewhere looking at dual laser projectors to give HDR required brightness levels.
 
On the subject of cinemas. what's the resolution that they run at (I'm assuming digital projectors) and how bright are they typically? I'm guessing most can't do HDR at the moment, although I did see a news item about somewhere looking at dual laser projectors to give HDR required brightness levels.

I believe most cinemas use 4K projectors, and brightness should be about 48nits (but many run lower than that to extend the life of the bulbs, because they're cheap)

Dolby Cinema uses dual laser projectors to get ~110nits
 
Thanks- it's not a question, it's more an abstract interest as to how many forum users already make use of it. At least one!

Hi @Ed Selley , I am also another user of Roon and I have been for a few years now. I was a Tidal subscriber before that (also tried spotify, google music etc) and I stumbled across Roon. It does a great job of organising your own content (perhaps stored via a NAS or equivalent) and then if you subscribe to Tidal and/or Qobuz you can link your account and add music from there. Then, when you view your music via Roon, it may actually be sourced from those streaming services or from your own content and you wouldn't know the difference in the software, its really good. Its great for finding links to music you may already own, but may not have listened to recently and forgotten about, and it is very good at pointing you to new music which you can get to via your linked streaming account.

I use Roon in my office, lounge and kitchen on lots of different kit (from a Sonos play 1, to my lounge set up with separates). As I took the plunge with Roon I have installed Ethernet across my house and then I control Roon with a selection of phones and tablets. Roon also has DSP functionality so you can adjust the software to help compensate for tricky rooms if you want to, its part of the package so you can always have a play, you can up-sample too if you want to.

Anyway, its a great bit of software that I signed up for on the lifetime after 11 months of use. I initially did the year subscription but I found myself using it every day and thought why not jump in??

It does have a few downsides, like there is no mobile solution currently, although they are working on this. The internet radio functionality could also be better, but again, the developers say they have this in their road-map.

For me, Roon with a streaming service (Qobuz now for me), is an amazing value proposition which means I have never listened to so much music, across my house, that is easy to control and use. Both Tidal and Qobuz have been good on their own but just better with Roon, especially if you have lots of your own stuff stored electronically.
 
Hi @Eddy555

I was already a plex subscriber and have tried tidal and linking to my own files, its not even in the same league as Roon. However, Plex will probably keep working on it and it will be interesting if they can improve on it further. I still use plex for movies stored on my NAS and generally its good.
 
Somewhat later than billed, here is the March Playlist of tracks from the albums that have been doing it for me in March. It's in Spotify but you can use Soundiiz to put it into other services.
 
Great pod as always guys. Whilst not necessarily an evolutionary step, i was blown away by the animation displayed in Spiderman: Into the Spider Verse, demonstrating that the form still has lot to surprise us with. Every frame is a work of art.
 

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