AHA HT #005: Our Own Minions

November 11th, 2026 Comments off

What a week. Tom’s distracted. Apps for Apple TV 4K that offered lossless Atmos & Dolby Vision FEL suffered setbacks, especially Rivulet. 2027 97″ OLED will get the best panels. Big changes at DC Studios. And Allen takes us through Tablo vs. ZapperBox.

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjDb9ny

00:00:00 – Intro

Yes, we mention the election results in the USA. We keep it light. Tom also explains why he’s a bit distracted throughout this episode.

00:09:26 – AHA Movie Club

We’ll be discussing Buddy (2026) at the end of November.

00:10:09 – Tom’s Headphones

He’s still rocking a pair of Oppo PM-2.

00:11:14 – What We Watched

Rob watched The Rivals of Amziah King.

00:25:00 – Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Anthony for his PayPal donation, plus our 116 Patreon Patrons, including Scott, as well as Adam for whipping up a little AHA HT animation. Stay tuned to the very end to see that!

Thanks also to Brad for giving permission to use his photos on https://avgadgets.com/

And we appreciate the notes of gratitude from: Jonathan, Brad, Karl, Jorge, and Scott. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

In the news:

00:28:20 – News: Lossless Atmos Setbacks

Via Nathan and confinoj – Native Player and Rivulet aimed to provide lossless Atmos and Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL support on Apple TV 4K, as we talked about last week. But AVS Forum members discovered performance issues. And Rivulet had a major setback.

– About Native Player: https://tinyurl.com/5y9z8uu4

– Rivulet: https://gurleystudios.com/rivulet

00:30:31 – News: 97″ Tandem OLEDs

Next year’s LG G7 and W7 97-inch OLED TVs will finally use the best OLED panels: https://tinyurl.com/55ts2yu9

00:32:18 – News: New DC Studios Chief at Skydance

James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as the co-CEOs of DC Studios. Now that Skydance owns Warner Bros, they are installing Jeremy Latcham as the head of DC Studios: https://tinyurl.com/mpp83v4p

Comments:

00:39:34 – Comment: Dazz – Boom Mics & Atmos

Following on from some of the things we’ve said in recent What We Watched segments, Dazz weighs in on film grain, dialogue sounding like it’s ADR, and sound engineers still getting used to object-based audio.

00:44:02 – Feature: Tablo vs. ZapperBox

Allen extensively compared Tablo vs. ZapperBox for how well they perform as OTA DVRs. We read out his whole write-up, including his thoughts on ATSC 3.0.

– https://www.tablotv.com/

– https://zapperbox.com/

– https://zapperbox.com/blogs/blog/roadmap-to-a-real-gateway

QUESTIONS:

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AHA HT #004: Pure Honest Podcast

November 4th, 2026 Comments off

Our condolences to the friends and families of Patrick Stewart, Walter Koenig, and Eric Bauza. Everyone who loves Star Trek will miss all of them dearly.

Our 1st AHA Movie Club episode was posted last week. And an entirely new AHA Podcast is in the works!

111-inch OLED TVs are coming, along with expected price drops for 97-inch OLEDs…but not for a few years yet. And a pair of apps – Native Player, and Rivulet – can handle lossless immersive audio and Dolby Vision Profile 7 on the Apple TV 4K.

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjDan8b

00:00:00 – Intro

Rest in peace, Patrick Stewart, Walter Koenig, and Eric Bauza.

00:08:08 – Our 1st AHA Movie Club Episode

If you’d like, you can hear our discussion of “The Last House”: https://youtu.be/n6dUOSM1XGU ; https://actuallyhonestadvice.com/2026/10/31/aha-mc-001-the-last-house/

And find out which movie we’ll be discussing at the end of November!

00:12:58 – Personal Updates

Happy Halloween!

00:19:12 – What We Watched

Rob watched The End of Oak Street. Tom watched VisionQuest Ep.3

00:39:31 – Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Brandon and Dazz for their combined PayPal donation, plus our 115 Patreon Patrons.

We also appreciate the notes of gratitude from: Dazz, David, and Kevin. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

In the news:

00:42:31 – News: 25-Hours of Home Theater  & NEW AHA Cycling Podcast

Tom, Rob, Lee, and Joe all appeared on DJ’s Bright Side Home Theater 25 Hours of Home Theater Live Stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/MHewwwrqrZk

Tom and DJ decided they’ll start a new AHA Cycling Podcast in the near future!

00:52:04 – News: Cheaper 97″ & NEW 111″ OLED TVs Coming

LG Display and Guangkai Holdings are investing about $150 million to update and expand their joint OLED panel factory so it can manufacture larger OLED motherglass: https://tinyurl.com/yc79snzk

00:55:46 – News: Native Player and Rivulet on Apple TV 4K

Two different Player Apps bring lossless immersive audio and Dolby Vision Profile 7 support to Apple TV 4K, since Apple didn’t do it themselves.

– Native Player: https://tinyurl.com/5y9z8uu4

– Rivulet: https://tinyurl.com/mup9f936

Comments:

01:01:14 – Comment: Matt – Monitor Audio Radius

Another suggestion for capable speakers that are under 8-inches tall: https://tinyurl.com/mps8repc

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AHA MC #001: The Last House

October 31st, 2026 Comments off

Welcome to Actually Honest Advice Movie Club! It’s our 1st episode. We’re kind of winging it. Full Spoilers! Let’s discuss “The Last House”.

00:00:00 – Intro

00:01:53 – Contact Info

00:03:09 – Listeners of the Month

00:04:32 – The Last House – Preamble

00:06:18 – Our Immediate Take

00:06:34 – No Spoiler Description

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AHA HT #003: Apple TV 4K Audio Fixes

October 28th, 2026 Comments off

Warning! Rob vents about some local politics right at the top, so skip ahead if you hate hearing that stuff. In happier news, watch for the 1st AHA Movie Club episode later this week!

83-inch QD-OLED TVs are probably coming next year. And Sony appears to have discontinued the last of their Ultra HD Blu-ray player models, so it’s a good thing a slew of Chinese brands have started selling UHD BD Players now.

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD8Dsy

00:00:00 – Intro

Warning! Politics are discussed.

00:06:07 – Tom’s Updates

A big family vacation is coming up.

00:08:32 – What We Watched

Tom didn’t watch anything (besides our AHA Movie Club movie!), but he’s still reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. Rob watched Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.

00:23:55 – AHA Movie Club

We watched The Last House for our first Actually Honest Advice Movie Club (AHA MC) episode that we’ll post later this week. A full spoiler discussion.

00:25:04 – Contact Info

00:27:00 – Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Jonathan for his PayPal donation, plus our 118 Patreon Patrons, including Nathan, as well as Aaron for sending a Canadian movie code for Rob to test.

We also appreciate the notes of gratitude from: Nelson, Brandon, Aaron, Stan, and Nathan. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

In the news:

00:30:29 – News: Why AV Rant was in Podcast Archives

Apple Podcasts had AV Rant titled and listed as “Podcast Archives – AV Rant”. We couldn’t figure out why for years. But Tom finally found the answer!

00:35:31 – News: 83″ QD-OLED TVs in 2027?

HDTV Test spotted Samsung Display’s submission to UL Solutions, providing strong evidence that Quantum Dot OLED TVs at the 83-inch size will be coming next year: https://youtu.be/Vj-Qazc-W8w

00:38:03 – News: No More Sony Ultra HD Blu-ray Players

Sony Japan has discontinued the UBP-X700: https://tinyurl.com/384astew

Comments:

00:39:51 – Comment: Ilango – Bought a 3rd NVidia Shield Pro

The price is high now, but they’re only going to go up, and stock is low, so he pounced.

00:41:29 – CORRECTION: confinoj – CoreELEC on Ugoos Players

Rob used the incorrect term of “side-loading” when describing how to use CoreELEC on Ugoos boxes for optimum local media playback. It’s actually a dual-boot situation.

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AHA HT #002: Joe at Value Electronics

October 21st, 2026 Comments off

What’s with the old intro & outro music? Growing pains. Apple has a new, expensive Apple TV 4K. And Joe Klusnick makes his first AHA HT appearance to share his slideshow from his in-person visit to Value Electronics.

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD8iWw

00:00:00 – Intro

Where’s that new, placeholder music Rob mentioned?

00:03:41 – Stay Tuned After the Questions!

Joe Klusnick visited Value Electronics in New York in person, and he makes his first AHA HT appearance to share the photos he took.

– contact Joe on AVS Forum: https://www.avsforum.com/members/jskmdwk.7537874/

00:05:14 – Personal Updates

A busy week for Rob. Not too much to be said by Tom.

00:13:52 – AHA Movie Club!

We’re going to watch “The Last House”, which is available on Netflix. And next week, we’ll record a full spoiler discussion. Join us!

– Too Many Cooks: https://youtu.be/QrGrOK8oZG8

00:16:44 – What We Watched

Rob watched Coyote vs. Acme. Tom watched the first two episodes of VisionQuest.

00:30:25 – Contact Info

Our new email is: Question at ActuallyHonestAdvice dot com

Our new YouTube is: https://www.youtube.com/@ActuallyHonestAdvice

00:31:38 – Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Dan for his PayPal donation, plus our 117 Patreon Patrons, as well as Csaba for sending some AHA HT logo artwork for us to consider.

We also appreciate the notes of gratitude from: Rob S, Infinite Gary, Michael, Ilango, and Fred. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

In the news:

00:40:02 – News: Apple TV 4K 4th Gen

It’s new. It’s barely any different. It’s much more expensive: https://tinyurl.com/mrxhs37m

QUESTIONS:

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