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:

01:03:48 – Jonathan: Time to Replace the Lamp?

He’s questioning his own perception. Should he buy equipment to test if his projector’s lamp has actually dimmed? Or just go ahead and replace the lamp a bit earlier than usual?

01:08:12 – Brad: Corner Speaker Wall-Mount

He wants to wall-mount some ELAC Debut 2.0 OW4.2 speakers at an angle in the corners of his room. But he left behind their original wall-mount hardware. We discuss what he can do. And also how to easily secure speaker wires.

– Acoustimac Corner Z-Clips: https://tinyurl.com/3hckkdjv

– QuakeHOLD Putty: https://tinyurl.com/yc26wzkj

01:17:41 – Jorge: Thanksgiving & Agatha

Will there be a Thanksgiving podcast crossover this year? And did Tom watch Agatha All Along before starting VisionQuest?

01:21:32 – Scott: Water Damage Replacements

We both sympathize with having to deal with water damage! No fun. We discuss Center speaker options, whether to mount Front Heights, and which subwoofers he should get.

– https://avgadgets.com/can-i-use-my-soundbar-as-a-center-channel/

– RSL SpeedWoofer 10S MKII: https://tinyurl.com/y3p3pc2s

01:40:42 – Lior: Still Y-Split Subs?

Now that he can ideally position dual subs, does the “old” advice of feeding them a mono signal still hold true? Or have more recent developments, like Dirac Live Bass Control, rendered the old method obsolete?

01:47:15 – Mohsen: Time to Stop Tweaking?

We dig into why he might have a legitimate reason to adjust his projector’s settings on a movie-by-movie basis, how we would simplify that, and what it might take to settle and just be happy with his image and sound quality.

Thanks for listening. Now, don't forget to:

• Check out the AV Rant YouTube channel to watch our show videos.
• Download Tom’s FREE superhero-themed ebook Bob Moore: No Hero.
• If you like it, you can purchase the two full-length follow-ups -  Bob Moore: Desperate Times and Bob Moore: Hostile Territory.
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