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AV Rant #720: Sony Good, Samsung Bad

October 9th, 2020 Comments off

Our Listeners of the Week are Marty for his donation, and our 123 Patreon Patrons, including Bastian, Will, and Richard who shared a humorous video poking fun at AMC Theaters on Facebook: https://is.gd/q2CXr3We also thank Ken S. for talking us up to Parts-Express when he bought a Dayton APA102BT stereo amp. And we greatly appreciate the notes of gratitude for keeping the podcast going from: Bob, Tom, Gary, Nathan, Mike, and Andrew. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

Pictures shown in this episode:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmRg6zwP

In the news:

– 0:17:47 Samsung’s The Premiere Ultra Short Throw LSP 7T & 9T aren’t nearly as expensive as we feared: https://is.gd/NQu5P9

– 0:20:32 Google Chromecast with Google TV (by Google, in case you couldn’t tell) adds a remote, Dolby Vision & Atmos for $50. Is it the inexpensive “does everything” dongle?: https://is.gd/qly7tl

– via Ilango – Roku adds Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit: https://is.gd/InSoiv

– Disney-owned movies are finally available in 4K HDR with Atmos via iTunes: https://is.gd/fmtdXX

– Apple TV 4K finally has YouTube in 4K, but no HDR or 4K/60: https://is.gd/boPfZw

Comments:

– Jefferson seconds the RetroTink recommendation for getting older video outputs working with HDMI: https://www.retrotink.com/

– Jeff G. updates us on his house’s grounding, using Pronto Remote codes to get his Receiver working with both a projector and a flat panel, and we discuss his situation with Active and Fiber Optic HDMI cables.

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AV Rant #719: Speakers ABOUT Speakers

October 2nd, 2020 Comments off

Our Listeners of the Week are our 125 Patreon Patrons, including Paul. We also want to thank Kris, Terry, Ilango, Michael, Mark, Carl, Vince, Jay, and Aras for their notes of gratitude to us for keeping the podcast going. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

Pictures shown in this episode:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmR6Gv35

In the news:

– Amazon’s product event included spherical Echo devices, and cameras to follow you everywhere: https://is.gd/Rha10Z

– Amazon Luna is their streaming game service: https://is.gd/SiuSP5

– 0:18:08 KEF LS50 Meta & LS50 Wireless II use metamaterial for sound absorption: https://is.gd/VRfixn

– New Roku Ultra supports Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and AV1: https://is.gd/Q4FhwX

– JCE receives the first Ultra High Speed HDMI cable certification: https://is.gd/EYri6n

Comments:

– Carl reports that Peacock works best on Roku.

– 0:29:21 Eddy shares his Q Acoustics & SVS updates. And his girlfriend, Mercedes, can help you design your home office with her superb rendering and expertise: https://www.femhomes.com/special-launch-offer-femoffices

– Fred R. got his bonded grounding situation sorted out by Spectrum.

– Mark H. has some additional good advice about getting the right size of Mitsubishi mini-split A/C to cool your room quietly.

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AV Rant #718: Move Seats Two Feets

September 25th, 2020 Comments off

Check our Rob’s guest appearance on the Week 38 of 2020 episode of the Bright Side Home Theater Podcast to chat about home theater, and The Martian: https://www.brightsidehometheater.com/episodes

Our Listeners of the Week are Timothy for his donation, plus our 125 Patreon Patrons, as well as DJ for letting us know he’s sending ullls some Bright Side Home Theater Podcast swag: https://is.gd/jqY04i . We also want to thank Eric, Matt B., Chad, Tom, Terry, and Matt G. for sending us notes of gratitude for keeping the podcast going. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

Pictures shown in this episode:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmQVUV8p

In the news:

– Apple One bundles Apple’s various subscription services for a discount: https://is.gd/oa4iBb

– 4K YouTube still doesn’t work on the Apple TV 4K: https://is.gd/63zWmj

– Pre-orders for Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series consoles were both a mess: https://is.gd/LaJcNe

– Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda, id Software, and a few other game studios: https://is.gd/6bk2i3

– Oculus Quest 2 is cheaper than expected, but pretty much needs some add-ons: https://is.gd/LaJcNe

– FlatpanelsHD’s TV Database is an awesome resource: https://is.gd/QS10dl

– CBS All Access will be rebranded as Paramount+: https://is.gd/a2SwmL

– Peacock is on Roku now: https://is.gd/oT1r4D

– LG says a firmware update will fix 120Hz input from NVidia RTX 30-Series GPUs on its OLEDs, even though we think the lack of Ultra High Speed HDMI cables might be mostly to blame: https://is.gd/PnZxlf

Comments:

– Infinite Gary further confirms that Mitsubishi mini-split A/C units are quiet, and he recommends an S-Video to HDMI converter from Cables.com for Karl: https://is.gd/N0Lhjw

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AV Rant #717: All Your Amps are Belong to Us

September 18th, 2020 Comments off

Thank you to DJ from https://www.brightsidehometheater.com/ for being our guest co-host last week!

Our Listeners of the Week are Ian and Eric for their donations, and our 125 Patreon Patrons, including Enrique. We also want to thank Adam, Shawn, Matt, Nathan, Shannon, John, Mike, and Brandon for their notes of gratitude to us for keeping the podcast going. We really appreciate the encouragement. And thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

Pictures shown in this episode:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmQMoRH5

In the news:

– Xbox Series X & Series S launch details were revealed: https://is.gd/pEjhSy

– Via Abhue – Xbox Series consoles will support Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision for games: https://is.gd/3KflkV

– Xbox is getting DTS:X bitstream output: https://is.gd/4BmHDo

– NVidia is buying Arm for $40 billion: https://is.gd/EvneRz

– Apple changes their app store rules for game streaming: https://is.gd/7e7Fo5

– Oculus Quest 2 info was leaked: https://is.gd/jkxwOI

Comments:

– Gurinder is facing challenges with his in-ceiling speaker installation in his drop tile ceiling,
0:27:44 prompting Rob to mention his new go-to on-ceiling option.
– Monoprice HT-35 Satellites: https://is.gd/6XMZhm
– VideoSecu ceiling speaker mounts: https://is.gd/muKzkh

– Jim B. thinks a styrofoam cooler might make a super cheap backer box solution, but we worry about fire safety code.

– Marc “The Wood Whisperer” (https://thewoodwhisperer.com/) shares his positive experience with his quiet Mitsubishi mini-split air conditioner.

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AV Rant #716: DJ from Bright Side Home Theater

September 11th, 2020 Comments off

We have a special guest co-host this week! DJ from the Bright Side Home Theater Podcast was kind enough to step in on short notice. Tom (https://nerdylegion.com/episodes/brightsideht-34) and Rob (https://nerdylegion.com/episodes/brightsideht-39) have both been guests on DJ’s podcast, so it was a pleasure to have him on AVRant! You can find DJ on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrightSideHT and at his website: https://www.brightsidehometheater.com/

Our Listeners of the Week are Jefferson for his donation, and our 123 Patreon Patrons. We also want to thank Jefferson, Joe, Bob, Casey, and Daniel for their notes of gratitude to us for keeping the podcast going. Thank you all for continuing to listen!

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

In the news:

– Via Karl – JVC released their ExoField XP-EXT1 wireless headphone with full Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding: https://is.gd/Efbigd

– Emotiva finally delivered Dirac via a Raspberry Pi-powered Interface Kit: https://youtu.be/cwwSrcTHnMg?t=271

– JVC detailed the firmware update for their 4K projectors: https://is.gd/JNuvPz

– Optoma announced the CinemaX P2 UST projector: https://is.gd/8dyrbp

– Samsung announced The Premiere UST projectors: https://is.gd/0xvJPt

– LG’s CineBeam HU810P brings dynamic tone mapping: https://is.gd/wLOIm0

– Sony’s VW715ES & VE915ES are their first projectors with Dynamic HDR Enhancer: https://is.gd/wTvoFb

Comments:

– David B. explains why it makes sense to keep the same AC house wiring we already have.

– Nelson W. explains why pro amps often aren’t a suitable match for consumer pre-outs, and has a bone to pick with the “pulled, not pushed” phrase regarding amps and speakers.

– Fred R. now has a working Denon X4500H from Accessories4Less, and listening to Mario’s advice from Ep #713 (https://is.gd/4otmUW) led him to find grounding code violations at his house.

– Daniel W. encourages everyone to call companies if they have issues, as he got great results from LG and Logitech.

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