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AV Rant #771: New 2021 JVC Projectors

September 10th, 2021 Comments off

JVC’s 2021 Laser 8K e-shiftX Procision & Reference Series projectors have been announced! We go through the specs & features of the DLA-NZ7 / RS2100, NZ8 / RS3100 & NZ9 / RS4100. And later in the podcast, we compare them to the previous NX Series and discuss whether they’re worth an upgrade.

Pictures shown in this episode:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWzyqL5

00:00:00 – Intro & Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Dave for his PayPal donation, plus our 132 Patreon Patrons, as well as David for sending a Movies Anywhere code for Tom to use.
We also want to thank Neil for giving Tom permission to use his photos on https://avgadgets.com/ .
And we greatly appreciate the notes of gratitude sent to us for keeping the podcast going from Steven, James, Shannon, Gurinder, Mark, and Neil. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

In the news:

00:10:40 – News: 2021 JVC Laser 8K e-shiftX projectors
JVC announced new Procision (NZ) and Reference Series (RS) projector models, and we go through all the details.
– https://avgadgets.com/jvc-8k-e-shift-laser-projectors/
– JVC projector lineup: https://is.gd/wNGaKm
– The Screening Room JVC webinar: https://is.gd/MFilRj

00:23:53 – News: Locast shut down
Via Karl – A District Court judge ruled against Locast’s copyright exemption defense, leading them to halt all operations: https://is.gd/U3HYEw

00:26:19 – Comments:

– Jason wound up purchasing a dual tape deck for his son from a pawn shop.

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AV Rant #770: New Remote Tease

September 3rd, 2021 Comments off

We have high hopes for the new Sofabaton X1 Hub-based remote. We talk all about it, as well as the $50 Sofabaton U1 later in the episode. And since we record on Tuesdays, all the JVC projector news will be discussed next week! Missed it by that much.

Pictures shown in this episode:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWxuZ27

00:00:00 – Intro & Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Marc for his PayPal donation, plus our 133 Patreon Patrons, as well as Andrew for sending us Amazon gift cards, Infinite Gary for helping Jason find a good dual cassette deck ( https://is.gd/EcqThC ), and Terry for talking us up to Seymour AV.
We also want to thank David for giving Tom permission to use his photos on https://avgadgets.com/
And we greatly appreciate the notes of gratitude sent to us for keeping the podcast going from: Jack, Daniel, Nick, Jay, John, David, Matt, Steven, and Kevin.

00:09:58 – Nick shared David Fabrikant’s 5-part explanation of everything that’s been going on over at Ascend Acoustics:
https://is.gd/zr5pnA (scroll down to the last five posts on this page)

In the news:

00:13:10 – News: Sofabaton X1
A new Hub-based universal remote is available to back on Kickstarter from the same company that brought us the $50 Sofabaton U1. We have high hopes that this will be a viable Harmony Remote replacement, but also some reservations.
– Sofabaton X1: https://is.gd/7IXvhW
– Sofabaton U1: https://is.gd/asz8vm

00:20:40 – News: 2020 Yamaha AVR HDMI 2.1 debacle
Even after sending your 2020 Yamaha AVR to a service center to have its HDMI board replaced, you’re still going to be limited to only 24 Gbps of bandwidth: https://is.gd/PvwlWP

00:24:12 – Comments:

– Nathan W. says fuel-burning generators typically use a constant amount of fuel no matter how much electricity you’re using.

– Andrew L. is happy with his Mesh WiFi solution, and shares his experience comparing the new Paradigm Founder Series speakers to the Premier Series just below them in Paradigm’s lineup.

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AV Rant #769 – Morally Questionable Generator

August 27th, 2021 Comments off

Monoprice has some beefy new Monolith subwoofer models, and we read the Onkyo TX-RZ50 AV Receiver manual cover-to-cover so you don’t have to.

00:00:00 – Intro & Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Raf for hid PayPal donation, plus our 131 Patreon Patrons. We also want to thank Andrew for giving Tom permission to use any of his photos on https://avgadgets.com/ . And we greatly appreciate the notes of gratitude sent to us for keeping the podcast going from: Jason, Shannon, Victor, Ian, and Gurrinder. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWtCxP4

Shout out to Aras for correcting our mix up of the movies The Piano and The Pianist. We definitely goofed on that one!

In the news:

00:08:59 – News: Monoprice Monolith 2,000 Watt THX Subwoofers
– https://avgadgets.com/monolith-by-monoprice-13-thx-subwoofer/
– The new 13-inch model is available now for $1,600: https://is.gd/f691RR
– A new 16-inch model for $2,000 is on its way: https://is.gd/plt76N

00:14:57 – News: Onkyo TX-RZ50 AV Receiver details
– The TX-RZ50 product page is up on Onkyo’s website, so we read the manual cover-to-cover and picked out the items of interest: https://avgadgets.com/onkyo-rz50-thx-certified-av-receiver-overview/

 – DTS Play-Fi Home Theater is on its way to compete with WiSA: https://is.gd/9OQFiC

– Via Karl – Ohio State University researchers demonstrated plates with embedded metamaterial resonators that could improve soundproofing: https://is.gd/g1nAi9

00:23:51 – Comments:

– Paul figured out why Dolby Vision from his Apple TV 4K wasn’t making it to his TV, and learned a lesson about testing HDMI cables before putting them inside a wall.

– Gurinder compared a Sony A80J vs. LG CX OLED and was a little surprised by the winner.

QUESTIONS:

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AV Rant #768: I Already Forgot

August 20th, 2021 Comments off

If you find the right serial numbers, you can buy a Denon or Marantz Receiver that already has a working HDMI 2.1 port built-in. And TCL’s new model numbers are definitely Tom’s favorite thing; just look at this episode’s title!

00:00:00 – Intro & Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are our 128 Patreon Patrons, including Daniel and Marc. Check out Marc’s woodworking projects & tutorials: https://thewoodwhisperer.com/ & podcast: https://woodtalkshow.com/
We also appreciate the notes of gratitude for keeping the podcast going from: Ted, Jorge, Jack, Marc, Shannon, Jay, Gurinder & Bertrand.
Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

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

In the news:

00:09:25 – News: Denon & Marantz HDMI 2.1 port fix
– AVRs & Pre-Pros manufactured after May 2021 have a functioning HDMI 2.1 port, no SPK618 adapter needed: https://is.gd/8NHLQw

00:13:40 – News: TCL R546 & R646 4K TVs
– TCL has new 2021 5-Series & 6-Series models: https://is.gd/TZqaUU
– R635 remains HDMI 2.0 only: https://is.gd/o1HBok
– R646 gains two HDMI 2.1 inputs: https://is.gd/YBjftM
– R648 is 8K: https://is.gd/XlJW2L
– R546 switches from Roku to Google TV: https://is.gd/stqqdI

00:20:39 – News via Karl: Criterion’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray releases
Six classic movies arriving on 4K disc: https://is.gd/MJGeOW

00:23:26 – Comments:

– Ted recommends an article from Pro Tools Experts about Apple Spatial Audio and Atmos for Music: https://is.gd/6Q6cyy

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AV Rant #767: Bitstream vs. PCM

August 13th, 2021 Comments off

Tom is back! Our thanks to Lee Overstreet for guest co-hosting last week. And there’s exciting news about new JVC projectors!

00:00:00 – Intro & Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Chad for his PayPal donation, plus our 128 Patreon Patrons, as well as Jason S. for talking us up to SVS.
We also greatly appreciate the notes of gratitude sent to us for keeping the podcast going from: Kevin, Jeremy, and Chad. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

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

In the news:

00:11:01 – News: JVC teased a new 8K laser projector
– https://youtu.be/lHH6uIaCPOE
– Rumors about specs and additional JVC models: https://is.gd/PwdPGT

– Sony bought Crunchyroll from AT&T for $1.175 billion: https://is.gd/3fNha7

00:16:09 – News: Spotify & YouTube trial new subscription tiers
– Spotify Plus: https://is.gd/O8csvG
– YouTube Premium Lite: https://is.gd/Omdc71

00:21:23 – Comment: Kevin took a road trip to buy two used Sony Z9D 3D TVs.

00:22:36 – Comment: Jay A. recommends Steve Yedlin’s videos re: resolution
– https://www.yedlin.net/ResDemo/index.html

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