AV Rant Listener Rohan G. —

spotted the release announcement for the Diamond Luxe Edition of Gravity on Blu-ray for Feb. 10, 2015.

“Didn’t Gravity already come out on Blu-ray?” you ask?

Why, yes, it did. But this Diamond Luxe Edition now has Dolby Atmos sound along with a “Silent Space Version” where they’ve removed the (Oscar winning) score.

So is this the ultimate Blu-ray version of Gravity? Nope. For some inexplicable reason, there’s no 3D video. So I guess Warner Bros. is looking forward to making this a triple-dip release.

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Warner-Bros-to-Release-Gravity-Diamond-Luxe-Blu-ray-with-Dolby-Atmos.shtml

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AV Rant Listener Jay A. —

recalled reading some reviews of certain Super Audio Cds (SACDs) that included 3.0 channel versions of music that was recorded and mixed that way in the 50’s and 60’s – Nat King Cole, in particular. Despite being recorded and mixed in 3.0 originally, these recordings have rarely been heard in more than 2-channel until a multi-channel music format became available.

http://www.sa-cd.net/showreviews/7267

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AV Rant Listener Efrain M. —

shared a great thread from the Computer Audiophile Forum for JRiver Media Center users who would like to optimize the organization of their media libraries.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/j-river-tips-and-techniques-user-experiences-repository-13684/

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AV Rant Listener Robert G. —

noticed we’ve been talking quite a bit lately about different ways to turn off the annoyingly bright LEDs found on many of our electronics. Robert suggested checking out LightDims. They’re stickers that look a little more professional than a piece of electrical tape, and they’re easier to install than unscrewing the back of your gear and clipping or unhooking a wire inside:

http://www.amazon.com/LightDims-793573834232-Original-Strength%C2%AE/dp/B009WSJNCW/

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AV Rant Listener Cameron —

wanted to know how many Scatter Plates he should add when he orders his GIK Acoustics absorption panels.

The Scatter Plates are an optional layer of diffusion that GIK can build into any of their absorption panels to give a mixture of absorption for lower frequencies and diffusion for higher frequencies. It’s all about getting the decay times even across all audible frequencies, so a mix of absorption and diffusion is typically necessary. Adding Scatter Plates to absorption panels is a cost effective and space efficient way to have both kinds of acoustic treatment all in one panel:

http://www.gikacoustics.com/product/gik-acoustics-scatter-plate/

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AV Rant Listener Ian E. —

wanted a recommendation for a battery backup UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to protect his new front projector and other equipment.

While it isn’t the cheapest UPS solution, we do tend to recommend using units that are specifically designed to work with Audio/Video gear as opposed to PC-centric units that sometimes have a coarser square wave electrical output from their batteries that doesn’t play so nicely with A/V components.

The J25B from APC is the ideal balance of affordability, great protection, and pretty darn long battery life, all in a nice form factor that will look right at home next to your A/V setup. There are less expensive battery backup units out there, but this is the one we recommend most highly for home theater and audio:

http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=J25B

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AV Rant Listener Jared M. —

has been taking our advice over the past several months and has really transformed his home theater! You have to check out his pictures. You won’t believe the difference.

He’s certainly blown far past his original $500 budget that allowed him to put together an already impressive setup by scoring deals on used gear. He’s now:

upgraded to a pair of Mirage FRX-S12 subwoofers placed in diagonally opposite corners
upgraded to an Epson 8350 projector
upgraded to a 120” Elite Screens fixed frame screen
upgraded to a Denon AVR-X4000 AV Receiver

We might be even more impressed by his paint and DIY acoustic panel installations, though!

It really looks amazing. And it’s proof positive that if you put in a little elbow grease and keep your eyes peeled for sales and used gear, you can build an extremely impressive home theater for far less money than you might expect.

Excellent, excellent job, Jared!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.908338259183604.1073741841.522979641052803&type=3

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AV Rant Listener Monty N. —

wanted to snag a 32” TV for about $200. Since Monty made it clear that he still cares a lot about picture quality, and he’s used to plasma and CRT images, he still wanted the best image possible at this size and price.

We’re just going to forward The Wirecutter’s recommendation of the Vizio E320i-B2. While the 720p resolution and 60Hz refresh rate might scare away some buyers who only look at specs and don’t really understand what factors create a great looking image, it’s the full-array LED backlight, accurate colors, and high contrast that make this Vizio the top pick for a small, inexpensive TV.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-small-tv/

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AV Rant Listener Hermant N. —

is looking for a way to be able to watch any of his sources in any of his 3 viewing rooms. He’d also like to be able to have the same source playing in 2 or 3 rooms simultaneously.

The solution here is a matrix HDMI switch. To cover all 3 rooms, Hermant could use one of Monoprice’s 4×4 matrix switches. Four sources can be connected to the inputs, and up to four displays or AV Receivers can be connected to the outputs. Then, any source can be sent to any display, including the option to send one source to multiple displays simultaneously.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=5704&seq=1&format=2

And if you only need to connect 2 displays (or you just want a lower price point), Monoprice also has 4×2 matrix switchers:

http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002

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AV Rant Listener Dennis K. —

needs to replace the lamp in his Epson 8350, but he doesn’t want to pay the full $300 MSRP.

Our good friend, Ray Coronado ( http://socalht.com ) recommends Projector Lamp Genie. Their Diamond Range use the original bulbs, but are offered at a discounted price. You can also opt to just get the OEM bulbs or their “budget solution” Genie Range.

http://www.projectorlampgenie.com/us/home.php

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AV Rant Listener Gaylen H. —

is looking for a solution to connect as many as 14 speakers for a whole home audio setup.

The folks over at Accessories4Less sell and interesting option from Sherbourn (owned by the same parent company as Emotiva, by the way). It’s a 2-channel amplifier, but it has four pairs of binding posts and push buttons on the front so you can select which pairs you want to make active. It will automatically adjust the connections to have the correct series/parallel setup to balance the impedance load.

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/shrbnpa4z75/sherbourn-4z-75-4-zone-amplifier-w/speaker-selector/1.html#!more

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Recommendation.

Rob screwed up the name when he said it on the podcast.

WhereToWatch.com is the website where the MPAA studios got together and decided to make a website so you can look up where you can stream, download or rent content legally. It seems to do a pretty good job, so it’s a nice resource.

http://wheretowatch.com/